Bible Commentaries
Joshua 12

Verses 1-24

This chapter contains the Hebrew chart of honour, and the faithfulness of God in fulfilling all his promises.

Joshua 12:1 . Arnon, the river which drained the vales of Moab. See the Map.

Joshua 12:3 . Chinneroth, called Genesareth in the gospels, near to which Joshua fought his great and decisive battle, as in the preseding chapter.

Joshua 12:5 . The Geshurites; called in the Septuagint “Gergesenes,” and thought to be the people mentioned in Matthew 8:28.

Joshua 12:7 . The valley of Lebanon; in the north, to mount Halak on the borders of Edom; in the south it included a space of about two hundred miles, which was occupied by those allied kings.

Joshua 12:15 . Adullam, where was a cave that extended three miles under the hill.

Joshua 12:20 . Shimron-meron was the ancient name of Samaria.

Joshua 12:23 . The king of the nations of Gilgal. This is not the Gilgal where Joshua circumcised the Israelites: hence the LXX read, “King of Gei of Galilee,” meaning, no doubt, the Galilee so often mentioned in the gospels. The LXX mention but twenty nine kings, and write their names so differently from the Hebrew, as to embarrass criticism. The fact is, that the ancient as well as the modern nations often had different names for the same place, and each nation followed its own orthography.