Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Joshua 19:48
This [is] the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families, these cities with their villages.
48. This is the inheritance of the tribe of Dan ] In length it extends but 14 miles from Joppa to Ekron, but it was one of the most fertile tracts in the land, the cornfield and garden of southern Palestine. The dying Jacob had said of the tribe (Gen 49:16):
“Dan shall judge his people,
As one of the tribes of Israel.
Dan shall be a serpent by the way,
An adder in the path,
That biteth the horse heels,
So that his rider shall fall backward;”
and, as it has been observed, “the privilege of Dan was, that he was to lie in wait for the invader from the south or from the north.” “ A serpent,” an indigenous, home-born “ adder,” to bite the heels of the invading stranger’s horse; “ a lion’s whelp ” (Deu 33:22), small and fierce, to “ leap from the heights of Bashan,” on the armies of Damascus or Nineveh. “ For thy salvation, O Lord, have I waited ” seems to have been his war cry, as if of a warrior in the constant attitude of expectation. Once only in the history of the tribe, so far as we know, was this expectation fully realised in the life of Samson. Stanley’s Lectures, i. p. 269.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This [is] the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Dan,…. Before described by its cities, which were in it. This tribe was bounded by Ephraim on the north, by Judah on the east, by Simeon on the south, and by the Mediterranean sea on the west. Josephus h says, the Danites enjoyed the vale which lies to the setting sun, bounded by Azotus and Doris, and all Jamnia and Getta, from Accaron (or Ekron) to the mountain from whence the tribe of Judah begins:
according to their families; which inheritance was distributed according to the number of their families:
their cities with their villages; before named.
h Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 22.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
‘ This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Dan, according to their families, these cities with their villages.’
Here we have the official seal on the allotment to Dan, as found after the inheritance of each tribe has been delineated. This was their inheritance, and it was a prosperous one, but they failed through weakness and lack of faith to take possession of it.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Ver. 48. This is the inheritance ofDan, &c. The Danites mustered 64,400 men of war in the numbering which was made of the tribes in the plains of Moab; Num 26:43. The tribe of Judah only exceeded them. They found themselves, however, placed in a country which seemed very narrow, in comparison of that which was occupied by less numerous tribes; but, not to mention that the Danites could not take the whole territory which had been given them, Jdg 18:1 and that the Philistines on the one hand, and the Amorites on the other, stood their ground, we are to consider that their country was very fruitful, and so conveniently situated within reach of the sea, as to afford them the advantages of commerce; of which we learn from Jdg 5:7 they failed not to make a proper use. Samson, the scourge of the Philistines, was of this tribe.