Twelve cities - Only five have been mentioned, and the names in the verses preceding are apparently not names of Zebulonite cities, but merely of points in or near the boundary line. It would therefore appear that seven names have disappeared from the text, and perhaps also the definition of the western frontier.

Shimron - See on Joshua 12:20 (note).

Beth-lehem - The house of bread; a different place from that in which our Lord was born.

And Kattath, and Nahallal,.... Of the two first of these we read nowhere else, but in Joshua 21:34,

and Shimron was a royal city, the king of which Joshua took and hanged, Joshua 11:1,

and Idalah is a place Bochart conjectures (t) where the goddess Venus was worshipped, Idalia being one of her names:

and Bethlehem is a different place from that which was the birthplace of our Lord, called Bethlehem of Judah, to distinguish it from this:

twelve cities with their villages; more are named, but some of them belonged to other tribes, and only lay on the borders of this; and others might not be properly cities, but small towns.

(t) Canaan, l. 1. c. 3. col. 356.

The towns of Zebulun were the following. Kattath, probably the same as Kitron, which is mentioned in Judges 1:30 in connection with Nahalol, but which is still unknown. Nehalal, or Nahalol (Judges 1:30), is supposed by V. de Velde (Mem. p. 335), who follows Rabbi Schwartz, to be the present village of Maalul, a place with ruins on the south-west of Nazareth (see Seetzen, ii. p. 143; Rob. iii. App.; and Ritter, Erdk. xvi. p. 700). Simron is supposed by Knobel to be the village of Semunieh (see at Joshua 11:1). But neither of these is very probable. Idalah is supposed by V. de Velde to be the village of Jeda or Jeida, on the west of Semunieh, where are a few relics of antiquity, though Robinson (Bibl. Res. p. 113) states the very opposite. Bethlehem (of Zebulun), which many regard as the home of the judge Ibzan (Judges 12:8), has been preserved under the old name in a miserable village on the north of Jeida and Semunieh (see Seetzen, ii. p. 139; Rob. Bibl. Res. p. 113). The number of the towns is given as twelve, though only five are mentioned by name. It is true that some commentators have found the missing names in the border places mentioned in Joshua 19:11-14, as, after deducting Chisloth-tabor and Dabrath, which belonged to Issachar, the names Sarid, Maralah, Dabbasheth, Japhia, Gittah-hepher, Eth-kazin, and Channathon give just seven towns. Nevertheless there is very little probability in this conjecture. For, in the first place, not only would it be a surprising thing to find the places mentioned as boundaries included among the towns of the territory belonging to the tribe, especially as some of the places so mentioned did not belong to Zebulun at all; but the copula vav, with which the enumeration of the towns commences, is equally surprising, since this is introduced in other cases with הארים והיוּ (ויּהיוּ), e.g., Joshua 18:21; Joshua 15:21. And, in the second place, it is not a probable thing in itself, that, with the exception of the five towns mentioned in Joshua 19:15, the other towns of Zebulun should all be situated upon the border. And lastly, the towns of Kartah and Dimnah, which Zebulun gave up to the Levites (Joshua 21:34), are actually wanting. Under these circumstances, it is a natural conclusion that there is a gap in the text here, just as in Joshua 15:59 and Joshua 21:36.

And Kattath, and Nahallal, and Shimron, and Idalah, and {d} Bethlehem: twelve cities with their villages.

(d) There was another Bethlehem in the tribe of Judah.

19:15 Beth - lehem - Not that where Christ was born, which was in Judah, but another. Twelve cities - There are more numbered here, but the rest either were not cities properly so called, or were not within this tribe, but only bordering upon it, and belonging to other tribes.

19:10-16 In the division to each tribe of Israel, the prophetic blessings of Jacob were fulfilled. They chose for themselves, or it was divided to them by lot, in the manner and places that he foresaw. So sure a rule to go by is the word of prophecy: we see by it what to believe, and it proves beyond all dispute the things that are of God.