Library / Commentary on Joshua, Volume II

Of the Wars: Caput X

Question I. Who were the five Kings that besieged Gabaon?

They are called generally (verses 5 & 6) “Kings of the Amorites.” But it is added (verse 6),

“who dwell in the mountains.” Now that the Amorites are twofold — Transjordanian and Cisjordanian — I said before; and it is agreed that these [Cisjordanian ones] are now being treated. But again, sometimes “Amorites” is taken properly, sometimes more broadly, so as to embrace all the Chananaeans; and the word is here taken in this [broad] way, as Abulensis shows (question 5). For otherwise it will appear a little later that Jerusalem belongs to the Jebusites, [and] Hebron to the Hethites…

(col. 989)

…[that Jerusalem belonged to the Jebusites, and Hebron to the Hethites.] But they are said to have dwelt “in the mountains,” because their chief cities, and a great part of [their] dominions, were set in the mountains; and these are among the “hill-country” [places] of which [Scripture speaks] in Luke 1, verses 39 & 65. But specifically, of these five Kings, the first was Adoni-zedek, King of Jerusalem. [The reading] is old, as is clear from Eusebius and the Greeks; [but] in the Seventy a corruption has stuck, among whom Ἀδωνιβεζέκ (Adonibezek) is read for Ἀδωνισεδέκ (Adonizedek) — the meaning of the words and the position of the places being changed. For Bezec is a city declining from Jerusalem toward the South, concerning which [see] Judges 1, verses 4 & 5. The second King (verse 5) is the King of Hebron, whose name (verse 3) is Oham, or, as the Hebrew says it with aspiration, Hoham; in the Seventy he is called Ἰλάμ. The third, Piram, King of Jarmuth — by the Hebrews today, with a changed manner of pronunciation, called Piram, King of Iarmuth; in the Seventy, Φιδών, King of Jerimuth. The fourth, Japhia, King of Lachish — in the Seventy, by a certain allusion to the name of Jephte (Judges 11), ἰαφιέ; nay, as it were by a contraction from ἰαφθάε, as it is written there. The fifth, Debir, King of Eglon — for the change of the final nun is easy, and its rendering among the Greeks by their rho (ν for ρ); but in the same Seventy the King is called ἀδωλάμ for Eglon, which city, below (chapter 17, verse 12), is called εἰλάμ, and is distinguished from ἀδωλάμ in the same place (verse 15).

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To cite this page

Nicolaus Serarius, S.J., “Question I. Who were the five Kings that besieged Gabaon?,” in Commentary on Joshua, Volume II, English translation, Mind of the Church, https://mindofthechurch.com/works/serarius-joshua-2/172-question-i-who-were-the-five-kings-that-besieged-gabaon/.

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