(30) From Beer-sheba unto the valley of Hinnom.--The men of Judah spread from the extreme south to the extreme north of Judah, an extent of some fifty miles.

Verse 30. - Zanoah and Adullam appear in close connection with Jarmuth in Joshua 15:34, 35. Zanoah was not a place of any importance, but Adullam, near which was David's cave, is often mentioned. It had its own king in the time of Joshua (Joshua 12:15), was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:7), and remained a city of some strength under the Maccabees (2 Macc. 12:38). Lachish is a place even more celebrated than Adullam. Its king, Japhia, warred with Joshua (Joshua 12:3-16). It was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:9). Amaziah took refuge there when conspiracy threatened him at Jerusalem (2 Kings 14:19); and Sennacherib "besieged it with all his power" (2 Chronicles 22:9). Azekah is joined with Jarmuth and Adullam in Joshua 15:35. Like Adullam and Lachish, it was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:9). They (i.e. the children of Judah) dwelt from Beer-sheba to the valley of Hinnom. The southernmost and the northernmost parts of Judaea are here mentioned.

11:1-36 The distribution of the people. - In all ages, men have preferred their own ease and advantage to the public good. Even the professors of religion too commonly seek their own, and not the things of Christ. Few have had such attachment to holy things and holy places, as to renounce pleasure for their sake. Yet surely, our souls should delight to dwell where holy persons and opportunities of spiritual improvement most abound. If we have not this love to the city of our God, and to every thing that assists our communion with the Saviour, how shall we be willing to depart hence; to be absent from the body, that we may be present with the Lord? To the carnal-minded, the perfect holiness of the New Jerusalem would be still harder to bear than the holiness of God's church on earth. Let us seek first the favour of God, and his glory; let us study to be patient, contented, and useful in our several stations, and wait, with cheerful hope, for admission into the holy city of God.And for the villages, with their fields,.... The cities and villages in the country, an account of the inhabitants of them next follows:

some of the children of Judah dwelt at Kirjatharba, and in the villages thereof; the same with Hebron, Joshua 15:54

and at Dibon; the same with Dimonah, Joshua 15:22

and at Jekabzeel, and in the villages thereof; the same with Kabzeel, one of the uttermost cities of the tribe of Judah southward, Joshua 15:21, of which city was Benaiah, one of David's worthies, 2 Samuel 23:20, from hence to the end of Nehemiah 11:30 mention is made of various cities and towns, in the tribe of Judah, inhabited by the men of it, which are to be met with in Joshua 15:1 excepting Jeshua and Mekonah, Nehemiah 11:26, of which we nowhere else read.