Verse 48. - The mountains. Compare the expression, "the hill country of Judaea" (τῇὀρεινῇ, the same as here in the LXX.), Luke 1:65. It extends northwards from near Debir to Jerusalem, attaining at Hebron a height of about 2,700 feet. The physical characteristics of the country are vividly described in Deuteronomy 8:7, 8. Dean Stanley ('Sinai and Palestine,' p. 100) descants on the home-like character of the scenery and vegetation to an Englishman, and remarks on the contrast between the life, activity, and industry displayed there, as contrasted with the desolation of the greater part of Palestine. A later traveller, who would not, of course, be so struck with the resemblance to English scenery, speaks of the fertility of the ground as a matter of possibility, rather than of fact. The rocky soil, when broken up by the combined influences of heat, rain, and frost, is, like the soil of other rocky districts, extremely susceptible of cultivation when laid out in terraces. He remarks how the signs of ancient cultivation in this manner are to be seen on all sides, and laments the misrule which has converted the "land flowing with milk and honey" into a wilderness (see Bartlett, 'Egypt and Palestine,' ch. 19, and note on Joshua 10:40). The time has not yet come for the Jews, now asserting their ancient greatness in statesmanship, literature, and art in every country in the civilised world, to return to their own land. Not till then, it is to be feared, will the prophecy in Isaiah 35. be fulfilled, and "the desert rejoice, and the wilderness blossom as the rose, while waters break out in the wilderness and streams in the desert, the parched ground becoming a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water."
15:20-63 Here is a list of the cities of Judah. But we do not here find Bethlehem, afterwards the city of David, and ennobled by the birth of our Lord Jesus in it. That city, which, at the best, was but little among the thousands of Judah, Mic 5:2, except that it was thus honoured, was now so little as not to be accounted one of the cities.
And in the mountains,.... The hill country of Judea, as it is called Luke 1:39, in which were the following cities:
Shamir: the Alexandrian copy of the Greek version reads Sophir as the name, of the first of these cities; and Jerom says (d) there was a village of this name in the mountainous parts, situated between Eleutheropolis, and Ashkelon in the tribe of Judah; see Micah 1:11,
and Jattir the same writer calls Jether, in the tribe of Judah; and says (e) there was in his time a very large village called Jethira, twenty miles from Eleutheropolis, the inhabitants of which were then all Christians: it was situated in interior Daroma, near Malatha:
and Socoh is different from Socoh in Joshua 15:35; that was in the plain, this in the mountain; See Gill on Joshua 15:35.
(d) De loc. Heb. fol. 94. I.((e) Ibid. fol. 92. l.
Shamir: the Alexandrian copy of the Greek version reads Sophir as the name, of the first of these cities; and Jerom says (d) there was a village of this name in the mountainous parts, situated between Eleutheropolis, and Ashkelon in the tribe of Judah; see Micah 1:11,
and Jattir the same writer calls Jether, in the tribe of Judah; and says (e) there was in his time a very large village called Jethira, twenty miles from Eleutheropolis, the inhabitants of which were then all Christians: it was situated in interior Daroma, near Malatha:
and Socoh is different from Socoh in Joshua 15:35; that was in the plain, this in the mountain; See Gill on Joshua 15:35.
(d) De loc. Heb. fol. 94. I.((e) Ibid. fol. 92. l.