Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And the border was drawn thence,.... From Bethhoron:

and compassed the corner of the sea southward; it is hard to say what sea is meant, or what by it. Fuller^F11Pisgah Sight, B. 2. c. 12. p. 251. conjectures, that as the Hebrews call any confluence of water a sea, as we call such a "mere", the great waters in Gibeon may be meant, Jeremiah 41:12; for it cannot mean the Mediterranean sea, for Dan lay between Benjamin and that; and yet if a sea is meant, no other can be; wherefore it is best to render it the "west quarter", as it is in the latter part of this verse; and so the same word is translated, Joshua 18:12; the "west", and not the "sea", as it sometimes is; for the border of Benjamin did not reach the sea any where; though Josephus^F12Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 22.) makes it to extend to it, and says, that the length of it was from the river Jordan to the sea:

the hill that lieth before Bethhoron southward; the hill that lay to the south of nether Bethhoron, as in Joshua 18:13,

and the goings out thereof, the end of the western coast:

were at Kirjathbaal, which is Kirjathjearim, a city of the children of Judah; of which see Joshua 15:9,

this was the west quarter; as thus described.

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

And the border was drawn thence, and compassed the corner of the sea southward, from the hill that lieth before Bethhoron southward; and the goings out thereof were at Kirjathbaal, which is Kirjathjearim, a city of the children of Judah: this was the west quarter.

Kirjath-jearim — The Israelites changed the name, to blot out the remembrance of Baal.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Kirjath-jearim; the Israelites changed the name, to blot out the remembrance of Baal. Compare Joshua 15:9 Numbers 32:38.

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments

Joshua 18:14. The corner of the sea southward — No account can be given of this border, according to our translation. For it is certain it did not compass any corner of the Mediterranean sea, (and no other sea can be here meant,) nor come near unto it. Therefore, by פאת ים, peath-jam, which we translate corner of the sea, must be meant the side of the sea; or rather the west side. So the Vulgate hath it, and the Seventy to the same purpose.

And the word southward is joined by the Vulgate, not to the sea, or west, but to the next words; southward from the hill, &c. Kirjath-baal, which is Kirjath-jearim — The Israelites changed the name, to blot out the remembrance of Baal.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

And the border was drawn thence, and compassed the corner of the sea southward, from the hill that lieth before Bethhoron southward; and the goings out thereof were at Kirjathbaal, which is Kirjathjearim, a city of the children of Judah: this was the west quarter.

Kirjath-baal

15:9,60; 1 Samuel 7:1,2; 2 Samuel 6:2; 1 Chronicles 13:5,6

Reciprocal: Joshua 9:17 - Kirjathjearim;  Joshua 18:19 - this was the;  Joshua 21:22 - Bethhoron;  1 Samuel 6:21 - Kirjathjearim;  1 Samuel 13:18 - Bethhoron;  Jeremiah 26:20 - Kirjathjearim