Welcome to Joshua study number 15. Pick it up with verse 13, where we left off last time. It's a long chapter, so we went ahead and started digging in a little bit. Got a lot of ground to cover. A lot of these verses are just, at the end especially, just information of cities. And we'll read through those, just making quick comments. But we cover those first 12 verses, And part of our previous study, we talked about Caleb and his inheritance. And that's where we're gonna pick up after we open with a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for another opportunity to learn and teach. We thank you for the Holy Spirit again for helping us to understand this book. It's all about you. It's all about us learning your word. Help us all to be humble, teachable, and submit to your word. And when it's not about us, help us to realize it's worthwhile for us to learn every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, as Jesus said in Matthew 4.4. And we thank you for helping us again in Jesus' name, amen. So as I said, we're gonna pick up here in verse 13 with Caleb and his inheritance in the region of the inheritance of the tribe of Judah, of which he was part of. Verse 13 says, and unto Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, he gave a part among the children of Judah, according to the commandment of the Lord to Joshua, even the city of Arba, the father of Anak. which city is Hebron. That's very interesting. Caleb is quite the man as he leads his own personal army of Judahites. into the land and Caleb did battle against the Anakim giants. It's described in 19, I'm sorry, Numbers 1333, that that's who was in Caleb's inheritance. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants. And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. These weren't sickly, wobbly giants like we've seen. The tallest man in the world in Guinness Book of World Records. I can't remember his name off the top of my head, but he wobbled, walked with a cane. A lot of times it's because there's a tumor or something else causing problems with the pituitary gland and they are very sickly and everything. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about Herculean humanoids. They're described in the previous verse in Numbers 13, 32, and they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched under the children of Israel, saying, the land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof, and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. So that's who is in the land 40 years prior to this, and I can guarantee you they were still there, but Caleb had no fear. So picture the strongest, tallest, most athletic man you've ever known. and then double or triple that, and that's who Caleb and his men are gonna go in to battle against. Verse 14, and Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak, Shishai, and Ahimon, and Talmai, the children of Anak. Verse 15, and he went up thence to the inhabitants of Debir, and the name of Debir before was Kurjathsephir. Now that's a pretty amazing place for someone if you're like me. I'm a self-professed bibliophile. Tibir was the place of oracles. You could call it Oracle Town. It was previously called Kerjathsefir, which literally means City of Books. It's believed to have been a place of records, probably nothing like our modern libraries, but places, housing lists and land grants and family records and such. But there were probably accounts of events, including wars and natural disasters and things like that to be found there. That's what Washington, D.C. might be named if it were taken over by an invading force, Kerjath Seifer. You know, there are massive buildings storing all kinds of records and huge data warehouses and they're digitizing most of the records from the past, but they still keep the hard copies. And really our whole country's becoming DeBeer, or Kerjath Seifer. around here in central Ohio, in Newark and other places. Huge, massive data warehouses being built by Amazon and Google and others. So that's just interesting to think of the relationship there. Information, data. But as the battle wages on, Caleb decides he's gonna sweeten the pot by offering his daughter as reward. In verse 16, and Caleb said, he that smiteth Kerjeth Cepher and taketh it, to him will I give Aksa, my daughter, to wife. So I think we can assume that AXA was considered quite a catch for a man to be willing to risk his life to win her hand in marriage. A fella named Othneo, who happens to be her uncle, and Caleb's own brother, decides she's worth the risk. So we read in verse 17, and Othniel, the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it, and he gave him Aksa, his daughter, to wife. And just like that, Caleb's brother became his brother-in-law, or Aksa's uncle became her husband. And that was perfectly acceptable at that time, But due to devolution we're not evolving as they falsely teach you in school Evolution is a lie. We're devolving and Man is suffering the effects of the second law of thermodynamics. Everything's running down Entropy and That includes our DNA. It's constantly more and more errors introduced into the DNA and So laws have had to been passed to outlaw marriages between close families. Just this week, United Kingdom over in Great Britain, they're passing laws to outlaw marriages between first cousins, people who share a set of grandparents. Because of the terrible consequences, and they're bringing in all these Muslims from Pakistan and places like that, where that's a normal thing, but they have health and mental issues as a result. And so, That's why those laws are in effect now. But back in this day, it still wasn't necessary, so don't get too grossed out by what you just read. Verse 18 says, And it came to pass, as she came unto him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field. And she lighted off her ass, and Caleb said unto her, What wouldest thou? Verse 19, who answered, give me a blessing for thou has given me a south land. Give me also springs of water. And he gave her the upper springs and the nether springs. So it's a smart girl. She was getting a south land. It's kind of an arid, dry, almost desert land for the most part. So having springs of water, freshwater springs, it's good business sense on the part of Aksa. So Othniel married up, as they say, just like I did. And a lot of men I know married up. And now we're past the rom-com and war movie segment of this chapter, which is very interesting. We move to what can seem like some dry reading of just names and places. But as we go along in reading through here, we'll mention some interesting tidbits along the way. If you love God's word, Every word as we said in our prayer is important to us as Bible believers. So we just continue as we pick up with verse 20. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their parents. Self-explanatory there. It's sort of like, you know, listening to a business meeting in church or something. which we don't have much of. That's why we don't have very many church fights and church splits. Verse 21, Kabzeel is a name that means gathering of God. So listen to this. And the uttermost cities of the tribe of the children of Judah toward the coast of Edom southward were Kabzeel and Eder and Jagur. Not Jaguar, Jagur. But just as we read through these names, we don't have time to go to every single one of the names, but it's just interesting to see that the name of the city was called which is gathering of God, but it was nothing of the sort until the Hebrews moved in. And for a short time, you could call it that literally, but these towns are all near the border with Edom and Idumea and that whole area approaching Petra in modern Jordan. Verse 22, and Kena, and Demona, and Adada. So if nothing else, it's fun pronouncing all these strange names. Oh, and then, of course, I made a note here that Demona means dunghill. So imagine. Demona was a pile of manure or crap or dung or whatever you want to say. Where do you live? I live in a pile of crap verse 23 and K' and Hazor and if net K' is probably the same as K' Barnea according to the commentators and And that's where the spies had tucked tail and brought the 40 year wilderness wandering to pass. And then later Miriam would die here. So there's some history there. And verse 24, Ziph and Telem and Beoloth. Zipf was a wilderness area where David and his men would hide out from Saul you can read about that in 1st Samuel 23 So again, you always see do a little research you find there's a little bit of history and Connections to me to be made there verses 25 through 28. Now, let's just read a few verses and Hazor had data and Kiriath and Hezron which is Hazor a mom and Shema and Malada, verse 27, and Hazar-gada and Heshmon and Beth-pelat, and verse 28, and Hazar-shuol, or Shuul, and Beersheba and Bizjoth, Biz-joth-jah. Biz-joth-jah, or biz-joth-yah. I'm not gonna try. The J can be a yah sound. But take note of the Beersheba right in the middle, or at the end of there, verse 28. And that was the south point of Israel, always referred to. You'll read references from Dan, which is north, to Beersheba. They're saying from the north to the south. From Mediterranean, or the Great Sea, to the Jordan was the west and eastern borders, and then when they referred to, like Ohio, we refer to Lake Erie and Ohio River, or Cleveland and Cincinnati, or Cleveland and Portsmouth, Ohio, and that's how they would refer to, you'll see it nine times in the Old Testament, from Dan to Beersheba. So then there's verse 29, beala and lem and ezem. Verse 30, and eltolad and kisil or khesil and horma. Verse 31, and ziklag and madmana and sansana. Not Susanna, but sansana. You should recognize Ziklag. If you read through your Bible, you'll see and recognize that it's a border town near Gaza. We'll come back to that in a minute, where the Philistines were located, and where modern day Hamas is at war with Israel, as of the time of this recording. Verse 32, and Lebbeoth, and Shilem, and Ayan, and Rimon. All the cities are twenty and nine with their villages. You can think of the tribes like small colonies as we are breaking up the land and giving this is for Judah. And just like in 1776, there were 13 colonies who had taken chunks of land, some small like Rhode Island, New Jersey, and then others huge like Virginia. But this is Israel, 1776, as they declare independence from Egypt 40 years earlier and came out of the wilderness. and they drive out the native tribes because they're utterly wicked and God calls for their destruction in order to establish a new nation, Israel, just like the United States was a new nation. Because of those similarities, people have come up with some whacked out ideas doctrinally and tried to say America is the new Israel and all that sort of thing. That's nonsense. But it's fun to make the connections or see the similarities. But in addition to these 29 cities and villages, in the valley are now named there, verse 33, and in the valley, Eshto and Zorea and Ashna, verse 34, and Zenoa and Inganim, Tapua and Enam. In Ganim, it sounds like a nice place. It was the village of the Gershonite Levites. Remember, the Levites didn't get a land inheritance, but they were given small villages in order to live in each one of the tribal inheritances. And that in Ganim means fountain of gardens, a garden city, if you will. Verse 35, Jarmuth and Adulam, Soka and Azika. Verse 36, and Sharaim and Adithayim and Gadira and Gadirathayim, 14 cities with their villages. And we mentioned Adulim before, so the list continues. Verse 37, Zinan and Hadashah and Migdal-gad. Verse 38, and Dilean and Mizpah and Jokthiel. Verse 39, Lachish and Baaz-kath and Eglon. Verse 40, and Kaban and Lamam and Kithlish. And verse 41, and Gedaroth, Beth-dagon, and Neoma and Makita, 16 cities with their villages. And that name Beth Dagon is interesting. When you see the word Beth, it means house. And then you add a hyphenated word like El, which means God. Beth El, pronounced Bethel, that's house of God. And here you have Beth Dagon, house of Dagon. And that's a false god and a devil in this case It's just a strange thing though because we'll see this isn't like the central city of Dagon worship We'll come back to that in a minute verse 42 Libna and Ether and Ashan verse 43 and Jifta and Ashna and Nizib Verse 44, and Keilah and Aqzib and Marisha, nine cities with their villages. And of those nine, Aqzib would be the most interesting name there. It means one who is a liar and runs. Basically, a lying coward. Now, I'm getting this information from these sources, Hitchcock's Book of Names, the American Bible Society, Bible Dictionary, and all kinds of sources like that. If you look it up and you find something different, take all these things with a grain of salt, but we know a lot of these words like Beth always meant house, El meant God, so some of them we're very sure of. But that's what they say about Agzib here. Verse 45, Ekron with her towns and her villages. And verse 46, from Ekron even unto the sea, all that lay near Ashdod with their villages. And Ashdod was one of the five main cities of the Philistines and the site of the Temple of Dagon. So you think this would have been called Beth Dagon, House of Dagon, since the house, the Temple of Dagon was here. There's, I'm sure, a good reason that we'll never find out this side of heaven, why that happened. But there it is, again. And by the way, the Greeks called it Azotus. So you see Ashdod, it's the same as Azotus. And fast forward to about 40 AD, and you'll see Philip preaching there, according to Acts chapter 80, verse 40. in Azotus. Verse 47 continues, Ashdod with her towns and her villages, Gaza with her towns and her villages, unto the river of Egypt, and the great sea, and the border thereof. The great sea being the Mediterranean, Gaza. Of course, in the news now. That's where Israel has been at war since October 7th of 2023, having been attacked by Hamas. Horrible things they did to Jewish men, women, and children. And took, I don't know how many originally, I can't remember off the top of my head how many hostages. And as of this time, there's still 100 hostages unaccounted for. And the war continues. So these dates, I mean, I'm sorry, these city names at the date we're reading them were totally different, but it's interesting to see that connection going back, really it's almost 3,500 years ago. So where we're reading here is around 14 to 1500 BC. Verse 48 continues, and in the mountains, Shamir and Jatir and Soka, Verse 49, and Dana and Kirjatsana, which is Dabir. And again, we mentioned Dabir, which was known as Kirjatsi for city of books. De Beer was known as City of Oracles, and then also here it's referred to as Kirjatsana, or City of Literature. And, you know, city names change, and New York, I believe, is originally New Amsterdam. You'll see people call it the Big Apple. Then there's Brooklyn and Manhattan and places like that within New York. city so it's not an unusual thing to have more than one name for a city. We pick up then in verse 50 and Anab and Eshtemoah and Anim. Verse 51 and Goshen and Holon and Gilo, 11 cities with their villages. Verse 52 Arab and Duma and Eshion and 53 and Junam and Beth Tapua and Afika. So Arab, by the way, here is said to mean ambush. That's interesting. Kind of like terrorism. But Beth Tapua, that sounds funny, but it actually means house of apples. And I like the way that sounds, especially if someone can make pie. Verse 54 and Humtah and Kurjath Arba which is Hebron and Zior, nine cities with their villages. And let's read through 57. Maon, Carmel, Ziph and Jutah, verse 56. And Jezreel and Jachdem and Zenoah. And verse 57, Cain. Gibeah and Timna, 10 cities with their villages. You have to wonder about someone who's going to name a city after Cain. But it happened. I understand there's people who still name their kids Cain. And I met a new family years ago. That was their last name, Cain. I don't know. Don't have any information about it and how that happened. Not a pleasant name to get, but there's a lot of other unpleasant names I've seen people have to deal with. That's why I'm glad my name's Miller. Verse 58, Halhul, Beth-zur, and Gidor. Verse 59, and Merath, and Beth-enoth, and Al-tikon, six cities with their villages. And then verse 60, Kerjath Baal, which is Kerjath Jireh, and Rabah, two cities with their villages. Now, this, again, for the sake of showing how interesting it can be, Kerjath Baal, Kerjath is city of Baal, city of Baal. So you named your city after a devil. Of course, they worshiped that devil before the Hebrews moved in. And it became known as Kerjathjerim, which is City of Woods. That's a much nicer name, but explains why it might have been the City of Baal, because they took the woods, they took the trees, and they cut them down and turned those things into idols. And I believe, you know, that would explain the connection there. I want to look something up I don't do that a lot on the fly but if you go to Jeremiah 10 You'll see a passage that the holiday hunters and silly gooses try to pretend that it's a Christmas tree. And if you read that carefully, you'll see that they cut the tree down and then they use the ax to then cut out a piece of wood and carve it, deck it with gold and silver, nail it down, and they've got a little idol in their house and people pretend that's a Christmas tree and it's not. But let's finish out for the sake of time, move on. Verse 61 and 62 says, in the wilderness, Beth-Arabah, Midin, and Sakaka. Sometimes you, I don't know. It's just funny pronouncing some of these names. Forgive me, Sakaka. Verse 62, and Nibshan, in the city of Salt, and in Gedai, Six cities with their villages and as we mentioned God did his part to clear out the area of all the Canaanites but the Hebrews Israelites they failed to do their part and that explains verse 63 as we end the chapter as For the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem the children of Judah could not drive them out But the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day. They couldn't drive them out because it backslid and And so God didn't do what he said he would do because they didn't do what he required in order for him to do what he said he would do. And it'll stay that way for almost 500 years until King David drives them out. And we mentioned that previously, 2 Samuel 5 and 1 Chronicles 11 is where you can read about King David finally driving the Jebusites out of Jebus and giving it the name Jerusalem.