Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
God commands Joshua to distribute to the remaining nine tribes the land of Canaan across the Jordan, both that which had been conquered in war and that which remained to be conquered, just as Moses had distributed the same land on this side of the Jordan to three tribes, namely Reuben, Gad, and the half of Manasseh. Hence, at verse 15, he reviews and repeats the allotment and boundaries given by Moses to the tribe of Reuben, and at verse 24, those given to the tribe of Gad, and at verse 29, those given to the tribe of Manasseh.
Vulgate Text: Joshua 13:1-33
1. Joshua was old and advanced in years, and the Lord said to him: You have grown old and are advanced in age, and a very wide land remains that has not yet been divided by lot: 2. namely all Galilee, Philistia, and all of Geshur. 3. From the turbid river that irrigates Egypt to the borders of Ekron toward the north: the land of Canaan that is divided among the five lords of the Philistines, the Gazites, Ashdodites, Ashkelonites, Gittites, and Ekronites. 4. To the south are the Hivites, all the land of Canaan, and Mearah of the Sidonians, as far as Aphek and the borders of the Amorites and their confines. 5. Also the region of Lebanon toward the east, from Baal-gad below Mount Hermon, until you enter Hamath. 6. All who dwell in the mountain, from Lebanon to the Waters of Misrephoth, and all the Sidonians. I am the one who will destroy them before the children of Israel. Let it therefore come into the portion of the inheritance of Israel, as I have commanded you. 7. And now divide the land as a possession for the nine tribes and the half tribe of Manasseh, 8. with which Reuben and Gad have possessed the land that Moses the servant of the Lord gave them, across the streams of the Jordan toward the east. 9. From Aroer, which is situated on the bank of the torrent Arnon, and in the middle of the valley, and all the plains of Medeba as far as Dibon, 10. and all the cities of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, as far as the borders of the children of Ammon, 11. and Gilead, and the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan as far as Salecah, 12. the whole kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and Edrei — he was of the remnants of the Rephaim — and Moses struck them and destroyed them. 13. But the children of Israel would not destroy the Geshurites and Maacathites; and they have dwelt in the midst of Israel to this day. 14. But to the tribe of Levi he gave no possession; but the sacrifices and victims of the Lord God of Israel are its inheritance, as He spoke to it. 15. Therefore Moses gave a possession to the tribe of the children of Reuben according to their families. 16. And their boundary was from Aroer, which is on the bank of the torrent Arnon, and in the middle of the valley of that same torrent: all the plain that leads to Medeba, 17. and Heshbon and all its villages that are in the plains; Dibon also, and Bamoth-baal, and the town of Baal-meon, 18. and Jahaz, and Kedemoth, and Mephaath; 19. and Kiriathaim, and Sibmah, and Zereth-shahar on the mountain of the valley. 20. Beth-peor and Asedoth-pisgah and Beth-jeshimoth, 21. and all the cities of the plain, and all the kingdoms of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses struck with the princes of Midian: Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, chiefs of Sihon, inhabitants of the land. 22. And the children of Israel killed Balaam the son of Beor, the soothsayer, with the sword among the rest who were slain. 23. And the boundary of the children of Reuben was the Jordan River. This is the possession of the Reubenites by their families, of cities and villages. 24. And Moses gave to the tribe of Gad and its sons by their families a possession, whose division is this: 25. The boundary of Jazer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon, as far as Aroer, which is opposite Rabbah, 26. and from Heshbon as far as Ramath-mizpeh and Betonim; and from Mahanaim as far as the borders of Debir; 27. and in the valley Beth-haram, and Beth-nimrah, and Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon: the Jordan is also its boundary, as far as the farthest part of the Sea of Chinnereth across the Jordan to the east; 28. this is the possession of the children of Gad by their families, the cities and their villages. 29. And he gave to the half tribe of Manasseh and to its sons according to their families a possession, 30. whose beginning is this: from Mahanaim all of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Og king of Bashan, and all the villages of Jair which are in Bashan, sixty towns, 31. and half of Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan: to the sons of Machir, son of Manasseh, to the half of the sons of Machir according to their families. 32. This possession Moses divided in the plains of Moab across the Jordan opposite Jericho toward the east. 33. But to the tribe of Levi he gave no possession, because the Lord God of Israel Himself is its possession, as He spoke to it.
Verse 1: Land Not Yet Divided by Lot
1. WHICH HAS NOT YET BEEN DIVIDED BY LOT. — In Hebrew: there remains land to be possessed, namely through the division of casting lots to be done by you, O Joshua, as our translator clearly expresses, and this whether it has already been occupied by you, as Galilee, or remains to be occupied, as the land of the Philistines.
Verse 2: Namely All Galilee
2. NAMELY ALL GALILEE. — The Chaldean, the Septuagint, and more recent Hebrew scholars take the name Geliloth not as a proper name, but as a common noun, and translate it as "borders" or "coasts of the Philistines," and from this the name Galilee was given, says Masius, either because of the winding recesses of the shores and banks, or because the waves there are driven back and forth by winds or tides and play rolling about (for galal means to roll, to roll back, to roll together), or finally from the heaped and rolled-up sand mounds found everywhere there. For Galilee is twofold, and both adjoin the sea, and therefore in Hebrew it has the plural name Geliloth, as if to say "the Galilees." For one Galilee is the lower one around Tiberias and the lake of Gennesaret, which the tribes of Zebulun and Issachar occupied; the other is the upper one around Capernaum, Tyre, and Ptolemais, which the tribes of Asher and Naphtali occupied: for this was called "of the Nations," because it was frequented by neighboring Gentiles from all around, as I said in chapter 12; both were rich and fertile, watered by springs of perennial water and torrents, and entirely productive of grain, wine, oil, and all fruits, and therefore the whole region was inhabited and cultivated: hence there was in it a great multitude of cities and villages, and very many inhabitants, who were strong and warlike. Josephus, general of the Galileans against the Romans, narrates in his Life that there were two hundred and four cities and villages in Galilee, the smallest of which contained fifteen thousand people.
Finally, Galilee was ennobled both by Joshua and more especially by his antitype Jesus Christ. For He was conceived and raised there: He lived and spent most of His time there: He began to scatter there the first seed of Gospel preaching, and for the sake of proclaiming the Gospel, together with the Apostles who were mostly Galileans, He went around all of Galilee twice and traveled through each of its cities and villages, teaching everywhere in the synagogues, casting out demons, and curing every disease and every infirmity among the people. And because of this upbringing and His time spent in Galilee, Christ was called the Galilean. Beyond this reason, the Apostles too, because most of them were born there, were also called Galileans. For this reason Emperor Julian the Apostate, as Eusebius and others often recall, habitually called Christ the Galilean, and likewise named all Christians Galileans after both Christ and the Apostles. So Adrichomius in his Description of Galilee.
Tropologically, a prince is a Galilean, and with Joshua subjugates Galilee, who by taming the flesh and bravely subduing the passions, despises and as it were treads underfoot the cycles, revolutions, changes, storms, and whirlwinds of kingdoms and kings and states. For Galilee in Hebrew means the same as "turned," "changeable," says Pagninus in Hebrew Names. This is what the Church prays on the Fourth Sunday after Easter: "That amid worldly changes our hearts may be fixed where true joys are." For as Paul says: "Our conversation is in heaven," Philippians 3:20; and therefore we are not "strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone," Ephesians 2:19.
Verse 3: From the Turbid River; the Five Lords of the Philistines
3. FROM THE TURBID RIVER. — This is the Nile; for in Hebrew it is called sichor, that is, "turbid," because its water from the silt it carries is muddy and black. Hence it is surnamed by the Greeks melas, that is, black. From this Egypt is called melambolos, that is, "black-soiled," and therefore rich and fertile. Hence Mantuan:
The silt-bearing Nile irrigates Egypt once in the whole year.
Namely in summer, when the sun is in Cancer: for then the Nile overflowing covers the fields of Egypt with silt, enriches and fertilizes them. Hear Tibullus:
The fertile Nile abounds with summer water.
So Lyra, Vatablus, Arias, and St. Jerome, epistle to Dardanus. See what was said on Jeremiah 2:18.
You will say: The promised land did not extend all the way to Egypt, nor was its southern border the Nile, but a certain branch of the Nile, or a torrent coming from the desert, which enters the sea between Rhinocolura and Pelusium, a city of Egypt. Hence elsewhere in Scripture it is called "the torrent of Egypt," elsewhere "the torrent of the desert." I reply, this is so, as Ribera correctly shows. Here however the Nile is set as the boundary and limit of the promised land, both because that torrent of the desert, which is the land's boundary, is a branch of the Nile, and because between this torrent as far as Rhinocolura and Pelusium is desert and useless, uninhabited land, which therefore is not counted: hence it is rightly said that the Nile, near which the land is cultivated and fertile, is the boundary of the promised land.
Moreover, the Nile by its flooding so fertilizes Egypt that it needs no rain and is the most fertile of all regions. Hear Cicero, Book II of On the Nature of the Gods: "The Nile irrigates Egypt, and after it has covered and flooded it for the whole summer, it then recedes and leaves the softened and silted fields ready for sowing." Hear Claudian:
Egypt, fertile without a cloud, holds serene rains
Alone, safe from the sky, not needing wind,
Rejoices in the waters it itself carries and overflows with the Nile.
Wherefore Pharaoh in his pride considered himself not so much a king as a god of Egypt, and therefore heard from God: "Behold I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, great dragon, who lie in the midst of your rivers and say: The river is mine, and I made myself; and I will put a bridle in your jaws," etc., Ezekiel 29:3.
Scripture therefore mentions the Nile here to indicate that Judea, being adjacent to it and bounded by it, shares in its fertility, so as to be a fruitful land flowing with milk and honey.
THE LAND OF CANAAN, WHICH IS DIVIDED AMONG FIVE LORDS OF THE PHILISTINES, THE GAZITES, ASHDODITES, ASHKELONITES, GITTITES, AND EKRONITES. — For "land of Canaan," in Hebrew it reads: "it shall be reckoned to the Canaanite;" meaning: Although the Philistines now occupy these five cities and satrapies of Palestine, they nevertheless belong to the Canaanites, who first inhabited them and were driven from their homes by the Philistines, that is, the Caphtorim, or Cappadocians, Deuteronomy 2:23; and therefore these cities are contained within the boundaries of the Canaan promised by God to the Hebrews: although the Hebrews through their laziness, sins, and fault never occupied them, or at least only for a short time under David and Solomon. So St. Jerome to Dardanus.
FIVE LORDS. — In Hebrew: five Sarnim. It is a Palestinian word meaning satraps, prefects, princes: it agrees with the Hebrew rozenim, by metathesis of the letter r with s. The Chaldean translates turnaia, from which the name "tyrant," by which kings were once known, seems to be derived, says Arias: for, as Justin says, Book I of History: "Every city and nation from the beginning held the government of their commonwealths in the hands of kings (as it were rulers), whom not popular ambition but proven moderation among good men raised to such heights of majesty, and who were also called tyrants because of their strength." There were therefore five cities of the Philistines, each of which had its own satrapy or prefecture, and its own satrap or prefect, like a petty king, namely Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron, which waged perpetual wars against the Hebrews.
Verse 4: Mearah of the Sidonians
4. TO THE SOUTH ARE THE HIVITES, ALL THE LAND OF CANAAN — that is, Phoenicia, says Masius.
AND MEARAH OF THE SIDONIANS. — More recent scholars take the word Mearah not as a proper name but as a common noun, and translate with Masius: "as far as the meadows or fields of the Sidonians." From this and from verse 6, it is clear that Sidon, as well as Tyre, was included within the borders of Canaan and pertained to the land promised to the Jews, even though the Jews through their laziness never occupied it. Our translator better retained the word Mearah as a proper name. For Mearah in Hebrew means "cave," as the Chaldean, Pagninus, and others translate here, which exists near Sidon and is a remarkable and impregnable stronghold, which was later called the Cave of Tyre, which in the year 1167 after Christ, the Christian garrison soldiers, corrupted by money, surrendered to the Saracens, says William of Tyre, Book XVI of the Holy War, chapter 11, and from him Adrichomius.
Verse 5: The Confines; Until You Enter Hamath
5. AND ITS CONFINES. — In Hebrew vehaarets haggibli, which more recent scholars with Masius and Vatablus take as a proper name, and translate: "and the land of the Gebalites," that is, the Byblians. For Byblos is a city in Phoenicia not far from Sidon. Hence the Septuagint translate: "and all the land of Gabli." But our translator, because of the article, reads with different vowel points haggebuli, that is, "the border land," namely the ends or confines of the land. For the article among the Hebrews is more commonly attached to common nouns than to proper nouns: although both translations come to the same thing. For Byblos was adjacent to Sidon.
UNTIL YOU ENTER HAMATH. — There was a twofold Hamath, says St. Jerome on Amos chapter 6, at the beginning: namely the greater, which was later called Antioch by Antiochus; and the lesser, which is called Epiphania: both are in Syria. The latter in Scripture is placed as the boundary of the Holy Land promised to the Jews toward Syria, but exclusively; hence it adds, "to the entrance of Hamath." For Judea extended almost as far as Epiphania.
Verse 7: Divide the Land for Nine Tribes
7. AND NOW DIVIDE THE LAND AS A POSSESSION FOR NINE TRIBES AND THE HALF TRIBE OF MANASSEH. — For to the other half of the tribe of Manasseh, as well as to the other two tribes of Reuben and Gad, Moses had already given their lot and portion of Canaan on this side of the Jordan. Therefore nine tribes with the half tribe of Manasseh remain, to whom you, O Joshua, are to distribute the land of Canaan across the Jordan.
Verse 8: With Which Reuben and Gad Possessed the Land
8. WITH WHICH REUBEN AND GAD POSSESSED THE LAND THAT MOSES GAVE THEM. — "With which," namely the half tribe of Manasseh, not the one that with the nine tribes will receive its territory across the Jordan through your allotment, but the other half, which is joined to the Reubenites and Gadites on this side of the Jordan. For these words are not God's, but those of the author of the book continuing his history. For here end the words of God commanding that Canaan across the Jordan be distributed by Joshua to the nine tribes and the half of Manasseh, and here begin the words of the author historically narrating how Moses had already previously distributed their portions of land on this side of the Jordan to the other part of the tribe of Manasseh, together with the Reubenites and Gadites. For the Hebrews speak confusedly and wrap many things together that they leave to the reader to unravel, separate, and distinguish from the circumstances, or from what is said elsewhere, or known from other sources. These lots distributed by Moses to the Gadites, Reubenites, and Manassites are reviewed in Numbers 32:32; here however the same things are repeated and explained in more detail.
Verse 13: The Geshurites Were Not Destroyed
13. THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WOULD NOT DESTROY THE GESHURITES. — Not as if Moses and his men, having been commanded by God to destroy them, refused to do so, since he was most obedient to God; but because for settling the first two and a half tribes in the region on this side of the Jordan, there was then enough farmland and towns, and they had to cross with the whole army into the promised land across the Jordan to conquer it. For this reason those two Canaanite nations, namely the Geshurites and Maacathites, were left for their descendants to conquer.
Verse 21: The Princes of Midian; Balaam the Soothsayer
21. AND ALL THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN, AND ALL THE KINGDOMS OF SIHON — meaning: All these plain and highland cities belonged to the kingdoms of Sihon; it therefore does not mean to say that the Reubenites alone occupied all the kingdoms of Sihon.
WHOM MOSES STRUCK WITH THE PRINCES OF MIDIAN: EVI, AND REKEM, AND ZUR, AND HUR, AND REBA, CHIEFS OF SIHON, INHABITANTS OF THE LAND. — Moses first struck Sihon king of the Amorites, Numbers 21:21; then he struck these five princes, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba in the Midianite war, Numbers 31. For they were themselves Midianites; here however they are called chiefs of Sihon, because they were his tributaries or dependents, and therefore brought him aid against the Hebrews, but after he was killed they returned to Midian, where shortly after they too were killed by Moses.
Verse 25: Half the Land of Ammon
25. HALF THE LAND OF THE CHILDREN OF AMMON. — This seems to conflict with Deuteronomy 2:19, where it says: "I will not give you any of the land of the children of Ammon." I reply with Abulensis that Sihon the king had taken a part of their territory from the Ammonites by war, which after Sihon was defeated the Israelites claimed for themselves by right of war along with his other cities, and therefore in Judges 11:13 the king of the Ammonites demanded that Jephthah return it to him, but unjustly; for God had granted and given to the Hebrews all the kingdoms that were subject to the Amorites, among which these also were. For in that passage of Deuteronomy He only excludes those places over which the Ammonites then ruled; for He wills that those be left to them. He only forbids the Hebrews from invading the Ammonites and fighting a war with them, and this out of favor to Lot their ancestor, a just man, who was the nephew of Abraham the patriarch of the Hebrews. So Sihon had subjugated this region of the Ammonites, whose territory the Gadites possessed in one half, while the Reubenites held the other half.
WHICH IS OPPOSITE RABBAH — that is, which is across from or opposite the city of Rabbah, which was later called Philadelphia by Philadelphus.
Verse 30: All the Kingdoms of Og
30. AND ALL THE KINGDOMS OF OG KING OF BASHAN — which were three: Argob, Bashan, and part of Gilead. Yet more often Og is called king of Bashan, and under Bashan the other two are understood. See Deuteronomy 3:13 and following.
Verse 31: Half of Gilead; the Sons of Machir
31. AND HALF OF GILEAD — namely Moses gave to the Manassites; for he gave the other half to the Gadites. Moreover the word "and" is explanatory; for it explains what the kingdoms of Og king of Bashan were, and says that among them the chief ones were the half of Gilead, Ashtaroth, and Edrei.
TO THE HALF OF THE SONS OF MACHIR. — Machir alone, son of Manasseh, survived his father; therefore the tribe of Machir is the same as the tribe of Manasseh: for Machir, as the sole son, was the complete heir of his father Manasseh. To Machir however was added Jair, his grandson through his daughter, although Jair by his father belonged to the tribe of Judah: hence the descendants of Jair lived in Gilead with the descendants of Machir, I Chronicles 2:21 and following.