Judges 2:9

And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) They buried him.—This circumstance is usually added in the case of kings, heroes, &c. (Genesis 23:19; Jeremiah 22:18, &c.), and this care about burial seems to point to at least a dim hope of that immortality which had not as yet been fully “brought to light.”

In the border of his inheritance.—(See Joshua 19:49-50. It was in Mount Ephraim, and in a rugged and barren district—a circumstance which raised the astonishment of Paula at the self-denial of Joshua (Jer., Ep. 108): “She was much astonished that the distributor of possessions had chosen rough mountain districts for himself.”

Timnath-heres.—“The portion of the sun.” This seems to be a mere “slip of the pen” (Ewald)—an accidental transposition of letters for Timnath-serah (“the portion that remains”), which is the reading of Joshua 19:50, and of the best versions, and of some MSS. here. The mistake is, however, ancient, for it originated the Rabbinic story that it is a reference to “the sun standing still upon Gibeah,” and that the image of the sun (temunath ha-cheres) was sculptured on his tomb. The LXX., after Joshua 24:30, add the interesting Hagadah (traditional legend), that the people buried in Joshua’s tomb the flint knives with which they had performed the neglected rite of circumcision, after the passage of the Jordan (Joshua 5:2). The name Timnath has been, perhaps, preserved in the modern Tibneh, about six miles from Shiloh. Its ruins yet contain some richly decorated tombs. There was another Timnath in Dan.

The hill Gaash.—The name means “mount earthquake.” Its torrent beds are mentioned in 2Samuel 23:30. It has not been identified.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:6-23 We have a general idea of the course of things in Israel, during the time of the Judges. The nation made themselves as mean and miserable by forsaking God, as they would have been great and happy if they had continued faithful to him. Their punishment answered to the evil they had done. They served the gods of the nations round about them, even the meanest, and God made them serve the princes of the nations round about them, even the meanest. Those who have found God true to his promises, may be sure that he will be as true to his threatenings. He might in justice have abandoned them, but he could not for pity do it. The Lord was with the judges when he raised them up, and so they became saviours. In the days of the greatest distress of the church, there shall be some whom God will find or make fit to help it. The Israelites were not thoroughly reformed; so mad were they upon their idols, and so obstinately bent to backslide. Thus those who have forsaken the good ways of God, which they have once known and professed, commonly grow most daring and desperate in sin, and have their hearts hardened. Their punishment was, that the Canaanites were spared, and so they were beaten with their own rod. Men cherish and indulge their corrupt appetites and passions; therefore God justly leaves them to themselves, under the power of their sins, which will be their ruin. God has told us how deceitful and desperately wicked our hearts are, but we are not willing to believe it, until by making bold with temptation we find it true by sad experience. We need to examine how matters stand with ourselves, and to pray without ceasing, that we may be rooted and grounded in love, and that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. Let us declare war against every sin, and follow after holiness all our days.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The servant of the Lord - This is a title especially given to Moses Deuteronomy 34:5; Joshua 1:1. In later books, the phrase "the servant of God" is used 1 Chronicles 6:49; Nehemiah 10:29; Daniel 9:11; Revelation 15:3. It is applied to Joshua only here and in Joshua 24:29. It is spoken of David (Psalm 18, title), and generally of the prophets; and, like the analogous phrase, "man of God," is transferred by Paul to the ministers of Christ under the New Testament 2 Timothy 2:24; James 1:1.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6-10. And when Joshua had let the people go—This passage is a repetition of Jos 24:29-31. It was inserted here to give the reader the reasons which called forth so strong and severe a rebuke from the angel of the Lord. During the lifetime of the first occupiers, who retained a vivid recollection of all the miracles and judgments which they had witnessed in Egypt and the desert, the national character stood high for faith and piety. But, in course of time, a new race arose who were strangers to all the hallowed and solemnizing experience of their fathers, and too readily yielded to the corrupting influences of the idolatry that surrounded them.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Timnath-heres, called Timnath-serah, Joshua 19:50 Joshua 24:30.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres,.... In Joshua 24:30; it is called Timnathserah, the letters of "serah" being here inverted, make "heres", which sometimes is used for the sun, Job 9:7; and therefore some observe, that the whole name signifies the figure of the sun, which the Jews say was put on his monument, in commemoration of the miracle of the sun standing still at his request, and had this inscription on it,"this is he that caused the sun to stand still;''but this is not very probable, since it might have had a tendency to idolatry, the sun being what was the first object of idolatrous worship among the Heathens, and had the greatest show of reason for it:

in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash; See Gill on Joshua 24:30.

Geneva Study Bible

And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in {d} Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.

(d) Heres, by turning the letters backward is Sereh, as in Jos 24:30.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. in the border of his inheritance] i.e. within the district allotted to him, Joshua 19:49.

Timnath-heres] An early tradition, mentioned by Eusebius (Onom.Sacr. 261, 33) and Jerome, pointed out the tomb of Joshua at Thamna, a fortified place of some importance in Maccabaean and Roman times (1Ma 9:50; Jos., Ant. xiv. 11, 2, War iv. 8, 1), which, from the topographical notices of Josephus ll. cc., may be identified with the modern Tibneh, about 10 m. N.W. of Beth-el, in the Central Highlands. It is not unlikely that this was Timnath-ḥeres; remarkable tombs are still to be seen on the N. slope of the hill to the S.W. of the town. A later, mediaeval, tradition fixes the site at Hâris, about 9 m. S.W. of Shechem (Nâblus). Timnath-ḥeres, lit. ‘(sacred) territory of the Sun’ (cf. Mount Heres i. 35, Beth-shemesh), is written Timnath-seraḥ in Joshua 19:50; Joshua 24:30, and by Syr.and Vulgate here, perhaps to avoid idolatrous associations; cf. Isaiah 19:18, where ḥeres ‘sun’ has been changed to heres ‘destruction.’

Gaash] has not been identified; 2 Samuel 23:30 = 1 Chronicles 11:32 mention ‘the wadis of G.’

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - Timnath-heres. Probably, though not certainly, the modern Tibneh, six miles from Jifna. It is called in Joshua 19:50 and Joshua 24:30 Timnath-serah, the letters of which are identical, but the order is inverted. Timnath-heres is probably the right form. It means "The portion of the Sun." We have Mount Heres in Judges 1:35, near Ajalon. Ir-shemesh (city of the sun) and Beth-shemesh (house of the sun) are other instances of places called from the sun. Some have supposed some connection between the name Timnath. heres, as Joshua's inheritance, and the miracle of the sun standing still upon Gibeon at the word of Joshua (Joshua 10:12, 13). The neighbourhood of Timnath-heres to Ajalon (Judges 1:35) may give some countenance to this. The hill Gaash is only elsewhere mentioned as the birthplace of Hiddai or Hurai (2 Samuel 23:30; 1 Chronicles 11:32), but the exact site is unknown. Judges 2:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The account of this development of the covenant nation, which commenced after the death of Joshua and his contemporaries, is attached to the book of Joshua by a simple repetition of the closing verses of that book (Joshua 24:28-31) in Judges 2:6-10, with a few unimportant differences, not only to form a link between Josha and Judges 2:11, and to resume the thread of the history which was broken off by the summary just given of the results of the wars between the Israelites and Canaanites (Bertheau), but rather to bring out sharply and clearly the contrast between the age that was past and the period of the Israelitish history that was just about to commence. The vav consec. attached to וישׁלּח expresses the order of thought and not of time. The apostasy of the new generation from the Lord (Judges 2:10.) was a necessary consequence of the attitude of Israel to the Canaanites who were left in the land, as described in Judges 1:1-2:5. This thought is indicated by the vav consec. in וישׁלּח; so that the meaning of Judges 2:6. as expressed in our ordinary phraseology would be as follows: Now when Joshua had dismissed the people, and the children of Israel had gone every one to his own inheritance to take possession of the land, the people served the Lord as long as Joshua and the elders who survived him were alive; but when Joshua was dead, and that generation (which was contemporaneous with him) had been gathered to its fathers, there rose up another generation after them which knew not the Lord, and also (knew not) the work which He had done to Israel. On the death and burial of Joshua, see at Joshua 24:29-30. "Gathered unto their fathers" corresponds to "gathered to his people" in the Pentateuch (Genesis 25:8, Genesis 25:17; Genesis 35:29; Genesis 49:29, Genesis 49:33, etc.: see at Genesis 25:8). They "knew not the Lord," sc., from seeing or experiencing His wonderful deeds, which the contemporaries of Joshua and Moses had seen and experienced.

In the general survey of the times of the judges, commencing at Judges 2:11, the falling away of the Israelites from the Lord is mentioned first of all, and at the same time it is distinctly shown how neither the chastisements inflicted upon them by God at the hands of hostile nations, nor the sending of judges to set them free from the hostile oppression, availed to turn them from their idolatry (Judges 2:11-19). This is followed by the determination of God to tempt and chastise the sinful nation by not driving away the remaining Canaanites (Judges 2:20-23); and lastly, the account concludes with an enumeration of the tribes that still remained, and the attitude of Israel towards them (Judges 3:1-6).