Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Joshua 12:24
The king of Tirzah, one: all the kings thirty and one.
24. Tirzah ] Three miles from the city of Samaria, now called Tellzah, of proverbial beauty. Son 6:4, “Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah.” It was to Shechem afterwards “what Windsor is to London,” and became the residence of Jeroboam and his successors (1Ki 14:17). Here Zimri was besieged by Omri, and perished in the flames of his palace (1Ki 16:18).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 24. King of Tirzah] This city appears to have been for a long time the capital of the kingdom of Israel, and the residence of its kings. See 1Kg 14:17; 1Kg 15:21; 1Kg 15:33. Its situation cannot be exactly ascertained; but it is supposed to have been situated on a mountain about three leagues south of Samaria.
All the kings thirty and one.] The Septuagint say , twenty-nine, and yet set down but twenty-eight, as they confound or omit the kings of Beth-el, Lasharon, and Madon.
So many kings in so small a territory, shows that their kingdoms must have been very small indeed. The kings of Beth-el and Ai had but about 12,000 subjects in the whole; but in ancient times all kings had very small territories. Every village or town had its chief; and this chief was independent of his neighbours, and exercised regal power in his own district. In reading all ancient histories, as well as the Bible, this circumstance must be kept constantly in view; for we ought to consider that in those times both kings and kingdoms were but a faint resemblance of those now.
Great Britain, in ancient times, was divided into many kingdoms: in the time of the Saxons it was divided into seven, hence called the Saxon heptarchy. But when Julius Caesar first entered this island, he found four kings in Kent alone; Cingetorix, Carnilius, Taximagulus, and Segonax. Hence we need not wonder at the numbers we read of in the land of Canaan. Ancient Gaul was thus divided; and the great number of sovereign princes, secular bishops, landgraves, dukes, &c., &c., in Germany, are the modern remains of those ancient divisions.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Each being confined to a narrow compass, and being king only of one city, or small province belonging to it, which was by the wise and singular providence of God, that they might be more easily and successively conquered by the Israelites one after another, as they were.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
The king of Tirzah, one,…. To what tribe this place fell is nowhere said: Adrichomius u places it in the tribe of Manasseh; and so does Bunting w, who says of it, that it was a fair and beautiful city, situated on a high and pleasant mountain, in the tribe of Manasseh, twenty four miles from Jerusalem to the north: here Jeroboam had his royal seat, and so his successors unto Omri, 1Ki 14:17; and Dr Lightfoot x seems to suspect as if Shechem in Mount Ephraim and Tirzah were the same; for, he says, if Shechem and Tirzah were not one and the same town, it appears that Jeroboam had removed his court, when his son died, from where it was when he first erected his idols; compare 1Ki 12:25, with
1Ki 14:17; and so it may argue that there was some space between: it was, no doubt, a very pleasant and beautiful city, as not only appears from its name, but from the allusion to it in So 6:4;
all the kings thirty and one: it may seem strange that, in so small a country as Canaan was, there should be so many kings in it, since the length of it from Dan to Beersheba was scarce an hundred sixty miles, as Jerom y says; who further observes, that he was ashamed to give the breadth of it, lest it should give occasion to Heathens to blaspheme; for, adds he, from Joppa to our little village Bethlehem (where they then were) were forty six miles, to which succeeded only a vast desert: but it may be observed, that in ancient times, in other countries, there were a great many kings, as here in Britain, and in France, Spain, and Germany, as Bishop Patrick has observed from several writers; and Strabo z testifies the same of the cities of Phoenicia or Canaan, that they had each of them separate kings, as Joshua here describes them.
u Theatrum Terrae Sanct. p. 74. w Travels, &c. p. 160. x Works, vol. 1. p. 78. y Epist. Dardano, tom. 3. p. 22. I. K. z Geograph. l. 16. p. 519.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
24. Tirzah is chiefly famous for having become at a later period the royal residence of the first kings of Israel. See 1Ki 14:17, note. Robinson identifies it with the modern Telluzah, a large village a few miles north of Shechem, in a sightly and commanding position, and surrounded by immense groves of olive trees.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ver. 24. All the kings thirty and one The LXX reckon and specify but twenty-nine, and of them too they disfigure the names. We must not be surprised at seeing so many kings in so small a country. Each city and its territory had its own. What was the king of Beth-el? He and the king of Ai together had hardly twelve thousand subjects. Such were kingdoms in their first state everywhere. Caesar, in his Commentaries, speaks of four kings in the single county of Kent. How many then must there have been in all Great Britain? Tacitus says, that the Silures and Brigantes had each of them their own king. Caesar tells us, that among the Gauls there were as many kings as princes. Livy says the same thing of Spain; and Vopiscus introduces the emperor Probus writing to the senate, that he had subdued Germany, and saw at his feet nine kings of different nations, &c.
REFLECTIONS.The conquered countries of Canaan are here described, and the cities with their kings, no less than thirty-one: a proof of the vast fertility of the land, which could maintain such a number of populous cities with their villages. But as God’s blessing made it thus fruitful for his people’s sake, their sin has long since brought down a curse of barrenness upon it, so that there is hardly a town of importance left; and the land is so desolate, that it scarcely maintains the few wretched inhabitants which remain.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
HERE stand, my soul, again, and see the salvation of God; here seek for grace, to put thy feet upon the necks of all those kings, for in them behold thy Jesus conquering not only thirty-and-one of thine enemies, but the earnest of all thine enemies being put under thy feet. And, my soul in this view, beg of God the Holy Ghost to engage thee anew, with increasing vigor, under Jesus’s banner, and to arm thee with the whole armour of God: that beholding what thy Joshua hath done for thee, his Holy Spirit may work in thee, both to will and to do, of his good pleasure. Remember, O my soul, that it is a badge of thy holy calling, to endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ: to be separated from the men of Canaan, and distinguished from their customs: to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth: and to count not thy life dear unto thyself, so that thou mayest finish thy course with joy, fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold of eternal life. Blessed Jesus! do thou, for thou alone canst accomplish it, arm me with thy strength, so shall I be more than conqueror through thee, who art the Lord my righteousness.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Tirzah: 1Ki 16:23, 2Ki 15:14
Reciprocal: 1Ki 14:17 – Tirzah Psa 135:11 – and all the Hab 3:12 – didst march
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jos 12:24. All the kings, thirty and one It may seem strange to us that in so small a country there were so many kings; but in those ages kings were only petty princes, or lords of cities, which had a few villages depending on them. This appears by Jos 12:9, where we read of the king of Beth-el; which was so small a place, that he and the king of Ai, joined together, had but twelve thousand subjects, Jos 8:25. However, the conquering of so many cities and places, within so short a space of time, and with so little loss, showed that the Israelites were marvellously protected and assisted, and was an evidence to them, as it is to us all, of the truth of all Gods promises; and that they will certainly be accomplished, what obstacles soever there may be in the way of them. We here see the Israelites put in possession of that very country, and those very places, which God had promised ages before, to their pious ancestors, to give to their posterity, when they had not so much as a foot of land in any of these countries, and wandered about from place to place, having no possessions anywhere. This promise is not only once, but many times repeated, in books which we are certain were written many years before the Israelites came into possession of any part of the land, and when there was little likelihood of their obtaining it. And, therefore, their coming into actual possession of it, and with so little loss, is a very corroborating proof of the truth of those books which record the promises of God on this occasion; as the event so fully justified what they had recorded.