THE BOUNDS OF EPHRAIM AND WEST MANASSEH

(1Chronicles 7:28-29).

Comp. 1Chronicles 6:54, sqq., where a list of the cities of the Levites is similarly added to their tribal registers.

(28) And their possessions.--Heb., and their domain and their seats were Bethel and her daughters; "their domain," that is, the domain of both divisions of the tribe of Joseph.

Bethel--originally assigned to Benjamin (Joshua 18:22), belonged later to the northern kingdom. The present list appears therefore to be younger than the disruption of Solomon's empire.

Naaran, or Naarah (Naapa) (Joshua 16:7) was a town north-east of Jericho. Gezer lay on the southwest border of Ephraim (Joshua 16:3), Shechem (Nabl-s, ????????) on the north. Gaza: so the LXX? Vulg. (Aza which represents the Hebrew 'Azz?h, i.e., Gaza), and Targum; but a great number of MSS. and seventeen editions read Ayyah, a place not mentioned elsewhere, but doubtless lying on the north-west border of Ephraim.

(29) And by the borders of the children of Manasseh.--Literally, and upon the hands of the sons of Manasseh, a favourite phrase with the chronicler, occurring nine times in Chronicles and once in Ezra. (See Note on 1Chronicles 6:31.) The four cities lay within the territory of Issachar and Asher, but were assigned to Manassen (Joshua 17:11). They mark the northward marches of the two houses of Joseph, as the cities of 1Chronicles 7:28 mark the southward. They long withstood the Israelite occupation (Joshua 17:12-16; see also Judges 5:19. "Then fought the kings of Canaan, in Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo.")

Verse 28. - Naaran. This place is probably the same with the Naarath or Naarah of Joshua 16:7; though here it is said to be an eastward limit, and there its description might rather seem that of a southward limit. Gaza. This name can scarcely designate the well-known Gaza, assigned to Judah (Joshua 15:47; Judges 1:18), but so largely the prey of the Philistines (Judges 3:3; Judges 16:21; 1 Samuel 6:17).

7:1-40 Genealogies. - Here is no account either of Zebulun or Dan. We can assign no reason why they only should be omitted; but it is the disgrace of the tribe of Dan, that idolatry began in that colony which fixed in Laish, and called it Dan, Jud 18 and there one of the golden calves was set up by Jeroboam. Dan is omitted, Re 7. Men become abominable when they forsake the worship of the true God, for any creature object.And their possessions and habitations,.... That is, of the sons of Ephraim, when come into the land of Canaan:

were Bethel, and the towns thereof; the villages belonging to it, which was formerly called Luz, and was the border of Ephraim, Joshua 16:7.

and eastward Naaran: the same with Naarath, Joshua 16:7.

and westward Gezer, with the towns thereof; of which see Joshua 16:3,

and Shechem also, and the towns thereof; which was a city of refuge in Mount Ephraim, Joshua 20:7

unto Gaza, and the towns thereof; not Gaza, a city of the Philistines, for the tribe of Ephraim did not reach so far; the Targum calls it Aiah; it may be read Adaza, as in the margin of our Bibles.