יהושע ט״ו:כ׳-ל״ב

ויהיו הערים מקצה למטה בני יהודה. בגבול מטה יהודה, הוא שאמרו רבותינו (גיטין ז א): לא מנה יהושע אלא עיירות העומדות על הגבולים:

The most remote cities of the tribe of the descendants of Yehudah. Referring to the border of the tribe of Yehudah. This is what our Sages stated, “Yehoshua only counted the towns that were on the borders.²⁷ Obviously there were many more cities within the borders. These cities are mentioned to show the courage and bravery of the tribe of Yehudah. They were not afraid to live near the border of Edom, even though there was always the danger that the Edomites would attack them.

כל ערים עשרים ותשע. ובפרטן אתה מוצא שלשים ושמונה, אלא אלה היתרות נטלו בני שמעון מחבל בני יהודה, ונזכרות הם בנחלת שמעון באר שבע ומולדה חצר שועל ועצם ואלתולד וחרמה וצקלג ועין ורמון, הרי תשע היתרות המנויות כאן:

Altogether there were twenty nine cities. If you count them however you will find that there were thirty eight. The extra nine cities were taken by the tribe of Shimon, from the portion of the descendants of Yehudah, and they are mentioned in the inheritance of Shimon:²⁸See chapter 19. Beer-sheva, Molodoh, Chatzar-shual, Etzem, Eltodad, Chormoh, Tziklag Ayin and Rimon. These are the extra nine cities counted here.