[270]. In Josh. xi. 3, ‘the land of Mizpeh’ is said to include ‘the Hittite’—so we should probably read instead of ‘Hivite’—‘under Hermon.’
[271]. The main body of the Kenites, however, who, like ‘the children of Judah,’ had settled in the neighbourhood of Jericho after its capture, moved afterwards into the desert south of Arad (Judg. i. 16; 1 Sam. xv. 6), and lived here along with a portion of the tribe of Judah.
[272]. Beth-lehem has been supposed to have been the original headquarters of the tribe, as it is called Beth-lehem-Judah (xix. 1). But this was merely to distinguish it from another Beth-lehem in Zebulon.
[273]. Thus, in a despatch sent to one of the later Assyrian kings, the writer says, ‘I am a dog, a dog of the king his lord’ (Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Letters, iv. p. 460).
[274]. Josh. xv. 49. In one of the Tel el-Amarna tablets Ebed-Tob of Jerusalem, when referring to the Khabiri or ‘Hebronites,’ speaks of Bit-Sâni, which may be the Kirjath-Sannah of the Old Testament. Winckler (Tell el-Amarna Letters, 185) has given a wrong translation of the passage, which is partly based on an incorrect copy of the text. The translation should be, ‘Behold Gath-Carmel has fallen to Tagi and the men of Gath. He is in Bit-Sâni, and we will bring it about that they give Labai and the land of the Sutê (Bedâwin) to the district of the Khabiri.’
[275]. The determinative of ‘writing’ is attached to the word Sopher, showing that the Egyptian scribe was acquainted with its meaning. The name of Beth-Sopher (Baitha-Thupar) was first deciphered on the papyrus by Dr. W. Max Müller, and published in his Asien und Europa.
[276]. Not the pluperfect, as in the Authorised Version.
[278]. The latter reading (Judg. ii. 9) is probably the more correct. The name of Timnath-heres, ‘the portion of the Sun-god,’ may have been changed to Timnath-serah, ‘the portion of abundance,’ on account of its idolatrous associations. Perhaps it is the modern Kafr Hâris, nine miles south of Shechem.
[279]. Judg. iii. 3. The ‘Hivites’ of the Hebrew text should probably be corrected into ‘Hittites.’ The Sidonians are mentioned to the exclusion of the Tyrians, as in Gen. x. 15-18. This takes us back to the period before that of David, when Tyre was still a place of small importance, and Sidon was the leading city on the Phœnician coast. Cp., however, 1 Kings xvi. 31.