to Ramath-mizpeh, or Ramoth in Gilead (Jos 20:8), probably on the site of the present Szalt (see at Deu 4:43), “and Betonim,” probably the ruin of Batneh, on the mountains which bound the Ghor towards the east between the Wady Shaib and Wady Ajlun, in the same latitude as Szalt (V. de Velde, Mem. p. 298); and then, secondly, the northern boundary is described from west to east, “from Mahanaim to the territory of Lidbir.” Mahanaim (double-camp: Gen 32:2), which was given up by Gad to the Levites (Jos 21:30), in which Ishbosheth was proclaimed king (2Sa 2:8-9), and to which David fled from Absalom (2Sa 17:24, 2Sa 17:27; 1Ki 2:8), is not to be sought for, as Knobel supposes, in the ruins of Meysera, to the south of Jabbok, four hours and a half from Szalt, but was on the north of the Jabbok, since Jacob did not cross the ford of the Jabbok till after the angel had appeared to him at Mahanaim (Gen 32:3, Gen 32:23). It was in or by the valley of the Jordan (according to 2Sa 18:23-24), and has probably been preserved in the ruins of Mahneh, the situation of which, however, has not yet been determined (see at Gen 32:3). Lidbir is quite unknown; the lamed, however, is not to be taken as a prefix, but forms part of the word. J. D. Michaelis and Knobel suppose it to be the same as Lo-debar in 2Sa 9:4-5; 2Sa 17:27, a place from which provisions were brought to David at Mahanaim on his flight from Absalom, and which is to be sought for on the east of Mahanaim.
Verses 27-28
On the north, the territory of Gad seems to have extended to the Jabbok, and only to have stretched beyond the Jabbok at Mahanaim, which formed the boundary of half-Manasseh, according to Jos 13:30. In the valley of the Jordan, on the other hand, the boundary reached to the Sea of Galilee. “The valley” is the valley of the Jordan, or the Arabah from Wady Hesbân above the Dead Sea up to the Sea of Galilee, along the east side of the Jordan, which belonged to the kingdom of Sihon (Jos 12:3; Deu 3:17). The northern boundary of the tribe of Reuben must have touched the Jordan in the neighbourhood of the Wady Hesbân. In the Jordan valley were Beth-haram, the future Libias, and present er Rameh (see at Num 32:36); Beth-nimra, according to the Onom. five Roman miles to the north, the present ruin of Nimrein (see at Num 32:36); Succoth, according to the Onom. trans Jordanem in parte Scythopoleos (see at Gen 33:17); Zaphon (i.e., north), probably not far from the southern extremity of the Sea of Galilee. “The rest of the kingdom of Sihon,” the other part having been given to the Reubenites (Jos 13:21).
