Joshua 16:2

2 And [the border] went from Bethel to Luz, and passed to the border of the Archites to Ataroth,

Joshua 16:2 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 16:2

And goeth out from Bethel to Luz
For though these two places in time became one, yet they were originally distinct. Bethel, at which Jacob stopped, and who gave it its name, was a field adjacent to the city of Luz, ( Genesis 38:11 Genesis 38:19 ) ; and therefore with propriety may be, as they here are, distinguished:

and passeth along unto the borders Archi to Ataroth;
or to Archiataroth; these two words being the name of one and the same place, and to be joined as they are, in the Greek version, and others; and is the same with Atarothaddar, ( Joshua 16:5 ) ( 18:13 ) . Ataroth was its proper name, but it had these additional epithets to distinguish it from another Ataroth; see ( Joshua 16:7 ) ; Jerom ^F2 makes mention of Atharoth by Ramma, in the tribe of Joseph, and of another in the tribe of Ephraim, now a village at the north of Sebaste, or Samaria, four miles from it, called Atharus; the former is here meant.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 De loc. Heb. fol. 88. G.

Joshua 16:2 In-Context

1 And the lot came forth for the children of Joseph from the Jordan of Jericho as far as the waters of Jericho eastwards, to the wilderness which goes up from Jericho to the hill-country of Bethel.

2 And [the border] went from Bethel to Luz, and passed to the border of the Archites to Ataroth,

3 and went down westward to the border of the Japhletites, as far as the border of the lower Beth-horon, and to Gezer; and ended at the sea.

4 And the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance.

5 And the border of the children of Ephraim was according to their families; the border of their inheritance eastwards was Ataroth-Addar as far as the upper Beth-horon;