(12) And goeth up to Japhia.--Better, and had gone up to Japhia, which lies west of the two places previously named. Daberath is the south-east boundary. El-Mesh-hed lies north of this.

Verse 12. - Chisloth-Tabor. The loins or flanks of Tabor. Tabor (the name signifies either quarry - see note on Shebarim, probably a kindred word, Joshua 7:5 - or navel), is one of the most conspicuous mountains of Palestine. Like Soracte, above the Campagna of Rome, "the cone-shaped figure of Tabor can be seen on all sides," though it rises only 1,750 feet (French) above the level of the sea, 800 above the plain at its northeastern base, and 600 above Nazareth on the north-west (Ritter, 2:311). Chisloth-Tabor was on the northwest side of the base of Tabor. Tabor has been supposed to have been the scene of the Transfiguration. But Ritter points out that from the time of Antiochus the Great, 200 years before Christ, to the destruction of Jerusalem, the summit of Tabor was a fortress. And he notices that while Jerome and Cyril mention this tradition, Eusebius, who lived 100 years earlier, knows nothing of it.

19:10-16 In the division to each tribe of Israel, the prophetic blessings of Jacob were fulfilled. They chose for themselves, or it was divided to them by lot, in the manner and places that he foresaw. So sure a rule to go by is the word of prophecy: we see by it what to believe, and it proves beyond all dispute the things that are of God.And turned from Sarid eastward,.... This describes the southern border, going on from west to east:

towards the sunrising, unto the border of Chislothtabor; this Jerom places in the tribe of Issachar, it bordered on both tribes; and he says (l), that in his time there was a little village called Chaselus, eight miles from Diocaesarea, at the foot of Mount Tabor in the plains:

and then goeth out to Daberath; which also was a city in the tribe of Issachar, given to the Levites, Joshua 21:28. Jerom (m) speaks of a little village of the Jews by Mount Tabor, of the country belonging to Diocaesarea, called Dabira; this place is still in being. Mr. Maundrell says (n), at the bottom of Tabor westward stands Debarah, supposed by some to take its name from Deborah, the famous judge and deliverer of Israel:

and goeth up to Japhia; this Jerom (o) says is the town called Sycamine, as you go from Caesarea to Ptolemais, above the sea, because of Mount Carmel, called Epha, thought by some to be the Jebba of Pliny (p). It seems, however, to be the Japha of Josephus (q), which he speaks of as being a strong fortified place both by nature and art.

(l) De loc. Heb. fol. 88. D. H. (m) lbid. fol. 90. I.((n) Journey from Aleppo, &c. p. 115. (o) De loc. Heb. fol. 92. K. (p) Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 19. (q) De Bello Jud. l. 3. c. 6. sect. 31.