Joshua 19:16

This is the inheritance of the children of Zebulun according to their families, these cities with their villages.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Twelve cities - Only five have been mentioned, and the names in the verses preceding are apparently not names of Zebulonite cities, but merely of points in or near the boundary line. It would therefore appear that seven names have disappeared from the text, and perhaps also the definition of the western frontier.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Jos 19:10-16. Of Zebulun.

10-14. the third lot came up for the children of Zebulun—The boundaries of the possession assigned to them extended from the Lake of Chinnereth (Sea of Galilee) on the east, to the Mediterranean on the west. Although they do not seem at first to have touched on the western shore—a part of Manasseh running north into Asher (Jos 17:10)—they afterwards did, according to the prediction of Moses (De 33:19). The extent from north to south cannot be very exactly traced; the sites of many of the places through which the boundary line is drawn being unknown. Some of the cities were of note.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

This is the inheritance of the children of Zebulun, according to their families,.... Which was allotted to it and divided, according to the number of its families:

these cities with their villages; before enumerated, excepting such as only bordered on them; though indeed there were other cities which belonged to them, or might be after given them, not here mentioned, as Kartah and Dimnah, Joshua 21:34.

Geneva Study Bible

This is the inheritance of the children of Zebulun according to their families, these cities with their villages.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. This is the inheritance of the children of Zebulun] It is evidently impossible in the present state of our knowledge exactly to define the limits of this tribe. But it seems to have reached on the one side nearly to the lake of Gennesareth, and on the other to Carmel and the Mediterranean. It enclosed one of the fairest portions of Palestine. Besides the fertile plain near the fisheries of the lake of Gennesareth, and the rich mountain-valleys, the tribe possessed the goings out, the outlet, of the plain of Akka (Deuteronomy 33:18), where he could “dwell at the shore,” and “suck of the abundance of the seas” (Genesis 49:13; Deuteronomy 33:19). But though possessing a district excelling in natural beauty and fertility, Zebulun, like the other northern tribes, occupies quite a subordinate position in Old Testament History. We read of it as emerging from its obscurity only on two occasions; (a) first, when side by side with Naphtali the men of the tribe “jeoparded their lives unto the death” upon “the high places” of Tabor in the contest with Sisera; and (b) secondly, when fifty thousand “expert in war,” with “all instruments of war,” came up to the coronation of David at Hebron (1 Chronicles 12:33).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - The inheritance of the children of Zebulun. It is strange that the beautiful and fertile land occupied by the tribe of Zebulun does not appear to have brought prosperity with it. Possibly the fact that the "lines" of this tribe had "fallen in pleasant places," had tended to induce sloth. Certain it is that we hear but little of this tribe in the after history of Israel. They were not, like Reuben, absent from the great battle of Tabor, for there we read that, like Issachar, they "jeoparded their lives unto the death" for their homes and liberties. Yet though they seem thenceforth to have slackened in their zeal, theirs was a fair portion. It bordered on the slopes of Tabor, and seems (though the fact is not mentioned here) to have extended to the Sea of Galilee, as we may gather from Isaiah 9:1. Joshua 19:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The towns of Zebulun were the following. Kattath, probably the same as Kitron, which is mentioned in Judges 1:30 in connection with Nahalol, but which is still unknown. Nehalal, or Nahalol (Judges 1:30), is supposed by V. de Velde (Mem. p. 335), who follows Rabbi Schwartz, to be the present village of Maalul, a place with ruins on the south-west of Nazareth (see Seetzen, ii. p. 143; Rob. iii. App.; and Ritter, Erdk. xvi. p. 700). Simron is supposed by Knobel to be the village of Semunieh (see at Joshua 11:1). But neither of these is very probable. Idalah is supposed by V. de Velde to be the village of Jeda or Jeida, on the west of Semunieh, where are a few relics of antiquity, though Robinson (Bibl. Res. p. 113) states the very opposite. Bethlehem (of Zebulun), which many regard as the home of the judge Ibzan (Judges 12:8), has been preserved under the old name in a miserable village on the north of Jeida and Semunieh (see Seetzen, ii. p. 139; Rob. Bibl. Res. p. 113). The number of the towns is given as twelve, though only five are mentioned by name. It is true that some commentators have found the missing names in the border places mentioned in Joshua 19:11-14, as, after deducting Chisloth-tabor and Dabrath, which belonged to Issachar, the names Sarid, Maralah, Dabbasheth, Japhia, Gittah-hepher, Eth-kazin, and Channathon give just seven towns. Nevertheless there is very little probability in this conjecture. For, in the first place, not only would it be a surprising thing to find the places mentioned as boundaries included among the towns of the territory belonging to the tribe, especially as some of the places so mentioned did not belong to Zebulun at all; but the copula vav, with which the enumeration of the towns commences, is equally surprising, since this is introduced in other cases with הארים והיוּ (ויּהיוּ), e.g., Joshua 18:21; Joshua 15:21. And, in the second place, it is not a probable thing in itself, that, with the exception of the five towns mentioned in Joshua 19:15, the other towns of Zebulun should all be situated upon the border. And lastly, the towns of Kartah and Dimnah, which Zebulun gave up to the Levites (Joshua 21:34), are actually wanting. Under these circumstances, it is a natural conclusion that there is a gap in the text here, just as in Joshua 15:59 and Joshua 21:36.