What Does Judges 2:9 Mean?

(9) **They buried him.**—This circumstance is usually added in the case of kings, heroes, &c. (Genesis 23:19; Jeremiah 22:18, &c.), and this care about burial seems to point to at least a dim hope of that immortality which had not as yet been fully “brought to light.” **In the border of his inheritance.**—(See Joshua 19:49-50. It was in Mount Ephraim, and in a rugged and barren district—a circumstance which raised the astonishment of Paula at the self-denial of Joshua (Jer., *Ep. *108): “She was much astonished that the distributor of possessions had chosen rough mountain districts for himself.” **Timnath-heres.**—“The portion of the sun.” This seems to be a mere “slip of the pen” (Ewald)—an accidental transposition of letters for *Timnath-serah *(“the portion that remains”), which is the reading of Joshua 19:50, and of the best versions, and of some MSS. here. The mistake is, however, ancient, for it originated the Rabbinic story that it is a reference to “the sun standing still upon Gibeah,” and that the image of the sun (*temunath ha-cheres*) was sculptured on his tomb. The LXX., after Joshua 24:30, add the interesting *Hagadah *(traditional legend), that the people buried in Joshua’s tomb the flint knives with which they had performed the neglected rite of circumcision, after the passage of the Jordan (Joshua 5:2). The name Timnath has been, perhaps, preserved in the modern *Tibneh, *about six miles from Shiloh. Its ruins yet contain some richly decorated tombs. There was another Timnath in Dan. **The hill Gaash.**—The name means “mount earthquake.” Its torrent beds are mentioned in 2Samuel 23:30. It has not been identified.