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New Defender's Study Bible Notes
15:1 the children of Judah. Caleb had been Judah’s representative among the twelve spies, and Hebron, his inheritance, was in the lot assigned to Judah. The latter was assigned first of all partly because of Caleb, but also because of Judah’s large size (Numbers 26:22) and probably also because of the leadership role originally prophesied for Judah by Jacob (Genesis 49:10).
15:32 twenty and nine. There are evidently listed in Joshua 15:21-32 a total of thirty-six “cities...with their villages.” Apparently Joshua included the names of seven “villages” as well as the twenty-nine “cities” (note also “Hazor” is mentioned three times).
15:36 cities with their villages. The cities were walled, with smaller villages around them, with each such complex comprising a city-state governed by a “king.”
15:63 inhabitants of Jerusalem. Joshua had defeated “the king of Jerusalem” (Joshua 12:7, 10), but apparently did not destroy the Jebusites. The Jebusites later returned to reoccupy their city, and it was not until David’s time that they were finally expelled permanently from Jerusalem (II Samuel 5:5-9).
15:63 drive them out. Jerusalem was actually in the territory assigned to the tribe of Benjamin (Judah was the southernmost tribe, with Benjamin just north of Judah). However, it was close to Judah’s border, and eventually David, of the tribe of Judah, was able to drive out the Jebusites (II Samuel 5:6-9), and then make it his capital.