2 It went out from Bethel to Luz, and passed along to the border of the Archites to Ataroth;
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Of Archi - (Read "of the Archite," also a designation of David's friend Hushai (2-Samuel 15:32; 2-Samuel 16:16, etc.). The word is derived from Erech Genesis 10:10. But whether there was in the neighborhood of Bethel a place bearing this Babylonian name, or whether a colony from the East had settled in this spot and brought the name with them, is unknown.
Ataroth - Called Joshua 16:5; Joshua 18:13 Ataroth-adar (= "crowns of fame or greatness") perhaps to distinguish it from two other places bearing the same name but, situated on the other side of Jordan, in the territory of Gad Numbers 32:34. It is identified with Atara, near the road from Jerusalem to Nablous.
From Bethel to Luz - From Genesis 28:19 (note) it appears that the place which Jacob called Beth-el was formerly called Luz; see the note there: but here they seem to be two distinct places. It is very likely that the place where Jacob had the vision was not in Luz, but in some place within a small distance of that city or village, (see the note on Genesis 28:12), and that sometimes the whole place was called Beth-el, at other times Luz, and sometimes, as in the case above, the two places were distinguished. As we find the term London comprises, not only London, but also the city of Westminster and the borough of Southwark; though at other times all three are distinctly mentioned.
Archi to Ataroth - Archi was the country of Hushai, the friend of David, 2-Samuel 15:32, who is called Hushai the Archite. Ataroth, called Ataroth-addar, Ataroth the illustrious, Joshua 16:5, and simply Ataroth, Joshua 16:7, is supposed to have been about fifteen miles from Jerusalem.
And goeth out from Bethel to Luz,.... For though these two places in time became one, yet they were originally distinct. Bethel, at which Jacob stopped, and who gave it its name, was a field adjacent to the city of Luz, Genesis 38:11; and therefore with propriety may be, as they here are, distinguished:
and passeth along unto the borders Archi to Ataroth; or to Archiataroth; these two words being the name of one and the same place, and to be joined as they are, in the Greek version, and others; and is the same with Atarothaddar, Joshua 16:5. Ataroth was its proper name, but it had these additional epithets to distinguish it from another Ataroth; see Joshua 16:7; Jerom (b) makes mention of Atharoth by Ramma, in the tribe of Joseph, and of another in the tribe of Ephraim, now a village at the north of Sebaste, or Samaria, four miles from it, called Atharus; the former is here meant.
(b) De loc. Hebrews. fol. 88. G.
"And it went out from Bethel to Luz." Bethel is distinguished from Luz in this passage, because the reference is not to the town of Bethel, which was called Luz by the Canaanites (vid., Genesis 28:19), but to the southern range of mountains belonging to Bethel, from which the boundary ran out to the town of Luz, so that this town, which stood upon the border, was allotted to the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18:22). From this point the boundary went over "to the territory of the Arkite to Ataroth," We know nothing further about the Arkite than that David's friend Hushai belonged to that family (2-Samuel 15:32; 2-Samuel 16:16; 1-Chronicles 27:33). Ataroth, called Ataroth-Adar in Joshua 18:13, was not the present village of Atra, an hour and a half to the south of Jiljilia (Rob. iii. p. 80), as I once supposed, but the ruins of Atra, three-quarters of an hour to the south of Bireh (Beeroth, Rob. ii. p. 314), with which the expression "descended" in Joshua 18:13 perfectly harmonizes. Consequently the boundary was first of all drawn in a south-westerly direction from Beitin to Bireh (Joshua 18:25), and then southwards to Atrah.
*More commentary available at chapter level.