From Ekron even unto the sea, all that lay near Ashdod, with their villages:
Bethlehem appears nowhere in this list, though it would later magnify David and bear the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet even so, a city so little among thousands of Judah finds its true honor not in this enumeration but in the One whose cradle it became.
AI summary
Commenting on Joshua 15:20-63
And Dannah,.... Dannah is not mentioned elsewhere: and Kirjathsannah, which is Debir; Kirjathsannah had three names, this and Debir, and Kirjathsepher; See Gill on Jos 15:15; all which are of much the same signification; for "Sanna" with the Arabs (f), and so with the Phoenicians, signifies law, doctrine, and manner of life; and with the Mahometans the secondary law to the Koran, and answers to...
These cities divide Judah's inheritance into four clear districts: the southern Negev, the lowland plain, the highland hills, and the desert wilderness. Each region held its own towns and its own character.
AI summary
Commenting on Joshua 15:21-63