Joshua 13:23

And the border thereof. These words have been omitted in the Vulgate, which does not understand them. The LXX . translates, "And the borders of Reuben were the Jordan-border." This seems to be the meaning of the original. The phrase often occurs, as in Joshua 15:12 and Numbers 34:6 . Knobel's explanation is probably the correct one, that the phrase means to refer to the natural boundary marked out by the river or sea and its banks. "The boundary of the children of Reuben was Jordan and the natural boundary thus formed." As Dean Stanley reminds us in his 'Lectures on the Jewish Church,' Reuben, as predicted by Jacob ( Genesis 49:4 ), sank at once into insignificance. No ruler, no judge arose from this tribe and its territory. Villages . Hebrew חַצְרֵי , LXX . ἐπαύλεις , Vulgate viculi. The original meaning is a piece of ground enclosed by a hedge or wall. Here it would mean,either with Gesenins and Keil, farm hamlets, or perhaps clearings of cultivated ground, which in Palestine would naturally be enclosed in some way, to prevent the ravages of wild beasts. In the primitive villages of Servia, where wild beasts are not entirely extirpated, not only are all the homesteads enclosed, but a fence is placed across the road, and removed when a vehicle has to pass through. Or perhaps the primitive Jewish community was similar to the primitive Teutonic community as described by Marshall in his 'Elementary and Practical Treatise on Landed Property,' published in 1804, who described the early distribution of land in this country as follows: "Round the village lay a few small enclosures for rearing young stock. Further a field the best land for arable purposes was chosen, and divided into three parts, for the necessary, rotation of fallow, wheat or rye, and spring crops. The meadows near the water courses were set aside for the growth of fodder for the cattle or for pasturage for milch cows, etc . The irreclaimable lands were left for what we now call 'common' uses for fuel, and the inferior pasturage." These arrangements are found to exist in India (see Sir H. Maine, 'Village Communities,' sec. 4). But there, as in Palestine, the necessity for water was the cause of important modifications. Since the word is used to denote the court

and as it is used of the enclosure of a nomadic camp ( Genesis 25:16 , where our version has towns; perhaps Deuteronomy 2:23 , where our version has Hazerim, following the LXX .—which, however, alters the word to the more usual Hazeroth— and the Vulgate; Isaiah 42:11 , with which compare the expression tents of Kedar, Psalms 120:5 ), the translation villages can hardly be the correct one here or elsewhere (see also 2 Samuel 17:28 ).