SEV Biblia, Chapter 12:24
el rey de Tirsa, otro; treinta y un reyes en todo.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Joshua 12:24
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 1 Kings xiv. 17; xv. 21, 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 eikosi ennea, 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.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 24. The king of Tirzah, one , etc.] To what tribe this place fell is nowhere said: Adrichomius places it in the tribe of Manasseh; and so does Bunting f268 , 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, ( 1 Kings 14:17 15:33) ( 1 Kings 16:6,8,9,15,17,23); and Dr Lightfoot 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 ( 1 Kings 12:25), with ( 1 Kings 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 ( Song of Solomon 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 f270 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 testifies the same of the cities of Phoenicia or Canaan, that they had each of them separate kings, as Joshua here describes them.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 7-24 - We have here the limits of the country Joshua conquered. A list is given of the kings subdued by Israel: thirty-one in all. This shows ho fruitful Canaan then was, in which so many chose to throng together This was the land God appointed for Israel; yet in our day it is one of the most barren and unprofitable countries in the world. Such is the effect of the curse it lies under, since its possessors rejected Chris and his gospel, as was foretold by Moses, De 29:23. The vengeance of righteous God, inflicted on all these kings and their subjects, for their wickedness, should make us dread and hate sin. The fruitful lan bestowed on his chosen people, should fill our hearts with hope an confidence in his mercy, and with humble gratitude __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
מלך 4428 תרצה 8656 אחד 259 כל 3605 מלכים 4428 שׁלשׁים 7970 ואחד׃ 259
