Joshua 16:7

And it went down from Janohah to Ataroth, and to Naarath, and came to Jericho, and went out at Jordan.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

16:20-63 Here is a list of the cities of Judah. But we do not here find Bethlehem, afterwards the city of David, and ennobled by the birth of our Lord Jesus in it. That city, which, at the best, was but little among the thousands of Judah, Mic 5:2, except that it was thus honoured, was now so little as not to be accounted one of the cities.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

From the abrupt manner in which the statements are introduced, as well as from their imperfect character, there is probability in the conjecture that some words have, in these verses, fallen out of the text. Few of the places are known for certain.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6, 7. Michmethah on the north side—The northern boundary is traced from this point eastward to the Jordan.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Not to the city of Jericho, which belonged to Benjamin’s lot, Joshua 18:21, but to its territory.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And it went down from Johanan to Ataroth,.... This is different from Ataroth before mentioned, Joshua 16:2; there were several places of this name, as before observed; this seems to be that which Jerom places four miles from Sebaste or Samaria; see Gill on Joshua 16:2,

and to Naarath; Jerom (g) says, that Naarath was in his time called Naorath, a village of the Jews, five miles from Jericho; and is the village Josephus (h) calls Neara, where was a water, half of which Archelaus turned, and led to the field planted with palm trees, near Jericho; and, according to the Jewish writers (i): there was a place called Noaran near to Jericho, which seems to be this:

and came to Jericho, and went out at Jordan; where it ended this way, which was eastward.

(g) De loc. Heb. fol. 93. I.((h) Antiqu. l. 17. c. 15. sect. 1.((i) Vajikra Rabba, sect. 23. fol. 164. 3. Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 9. 3. Echa Rabbati, fol. 50. 4.

Geneva Study Bible

And it went down from Janohah to Ataroth, and to Naarath, and came to Jericho, {d} and went out at Jordan.

(d) For so far the coasts reach.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. went down] The border “went down” because it descended along the slopes in the direction of the Jordan valley.

to Ataroth] which place, it is thought, is to be sought somewhere in this valley, “at the point where the border makes an angle in turning southward.”

and to Naarath] Eusebius and Jerome mention it as well known to them. It is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 7:28, and was, it is thought, about five miles north of Jericho.

came to Jericho] i.e. to the region in the neighbourhood of Jericho (which belonged to Benjamin), where the eastern border formed an angle with the southern.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - Ataroth. Another Ataroth, on the northern border of Ephraim. The name, which signifies crowns is a common one (see Numbers 32:3, 34, 35; 1 Chronicles 2:54). Came to Jericho. Or perhaps skirted Jericho. The word used (see note on ver. 5) is akin to the Latin pango and our impinge. Joshua 16:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

From Janoah the boundary went down "to Ataroth and Naarath," Ataroth, a different place from the Ataroth or Atroth-addar mentioned in Joshua 16:3 and Joshua 16:5, is apparently to be sought for on the eastern slope of the mountains by the side of the Ghor, judging from the expression "went down;" but it has not yet been discovered. Naarath, probably the same as Naaran, in eastern Ephraim (1 Chronicles 7:28), is described in the Onom. (s. v. Naaratha) as viculus Judaeorum Naorath, five Roman miles (i.e., two hours) from Jericho, probably on the north-east. The boundary line then touched Jericho, i.e., the district of Jericho, namely on the north side of the district, as Jericho was allotted to the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18:21). At this point it also coincided with the southern boundary of the tribe of Joseph (Joshua 16:1) and the northern boundary of Benjamin (Joshua 18:12).