Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Joshua 19:16
This [is] the inheritance of the children of Zebulun according to their families, these cities with their villages.
16. This is the inheritance of the children of Zebulun ] It is evidently impossible in the present state of our knowledge exactly to define the limits of this tribe. But it seems to have reached on the one side nearly to the lake of Gennesareth, and on the other to Carmel and the Mediterranean. It enclosed one of the fairest portions of Palestine. Besides the fertile plain near the fisheries of the lake of Gennesareth, and the rich mountain-valleys, the tribe possessed the goings out, the outlet, of the plain of Akka (Deu 33:18), where he could “dwell at the shore,” and “suck of the abundance of the seas” (Gen 49:13; Deu 33:19). But though possessing a district excelling in natural beauty and fertility, Zebulun, like the other northern tribes, occupies quite a subordinate position in Old Testament History. We read of it as emerging from its obscurity only on two occasions; ( a) first, when side by side with Naphtali the men of the tribe “jeoparded their lives unto the death” upon “the high places” of Tabor in the contest with Sisera; and ( b) secondly, when fifty thousand “expert in war,” with “all instruments of war,” came up to the coronation of David at Hebron (1Ch 12:33).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This is the inheritance of the children of Zebulun, according to their families,…. Which was allotted to it and divided, according to the number of its families:
these cities with their villages; before enumerated, excepting such as only bordered on them; though indeed there were other cities which belonged to them, or might be after given them, not here mentioned, as Kartah and Dimnah, Jos 21:34.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
‘ This is the inheritance of the children of Zebulun, according to their families, these cities with their villages.’
Again we have the final seal on the allotment to a tribe in due form. Each received according to their size, ‘according to their families’. No mention has been made of Kartah and Dimnah (Jos 21:34). Thus there may have been a special reason in the minds of the particular surveyors for numbering up to twelve.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Ver. 16. This is the inheritance of the children of Zebulun It is easy to conceive, that twelve cities would not have been sufficient to lodge and support the inhabitants of a tribe which exceeded sixty thousand; Num 26:27. The historian then has named here only the chief cities, those which were upon the borders of the other tribes; or perhaps those which the commissioners, on surveying the country, had set down in the maps and minutes which they presented to Joshua. Two other cities of Zebulun, viz. Kartah and Dimnah, are afterwards spoken of; ch. Jos 21:34-35. According to Jacob’s prophesy, Gen 49:13, the coasts of Zebulun were havens for ships, lying on the Mediterranean sea west, and the sea of Tiberias east. In this tribe lay Nazareth, where Jesus dwelt; Tabor, where he was transfigured; and the coasts of the sea of Galilee, the chief scene of his ministry and miracles, were all in this tribe: it produced also one judge, Tola, and one king of Israel, Baasha.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
the children of Zebulun = the sons of Zebulun. Some codices, with Septuagint and Vulgate, read “the tribe of the sons of Zebulun”.