Ver. 18. The king of Aphek— In the country conquered by Joshua, there were at least two cities of this name; one in the tribe of Judah, chap. Judges 15:53 the other in the tribe of Asher, chap. Joshua 19:30. But we cannot venture to determine which of the two is here spoken of.
The king of Lasharon— There is no city of this name now known. Modern interpreters, following the Vulgate, consider the letter ל l, in the Hebrew, as a mark of the genitive, and translate of Sharon, as it stands in the margin of our Bibles. The place now in question, we should apprehend to be that city of Saron which was near Lydda, (Acts 9:35.) and whose delightful and fertile plains are so often celebrated in other parts of Scripture. Isaiah 33:9; Isaiah 35:2. There was also a Sharon to the east of Jordan, in the tribe of Gad, which some think to be mentioned, Isaiah 65:10. Eusebius and St. Jerome say, that the whole country from Cesarea to Joppa went by the name of Joppa, as well as the plains which extended from mount Tabor to the lake of Gennesareth. Perhaps it is this district, not a city, that is here intended by the sacred writer. Reland asserts, that the name of Sharon was given only to the country situated between Joppa and Cesarea, and that there was no city of this name in the tribe of Gad; but that the people of this tribe sent their flocks to the rich pastures of Sharon. Indeed, in 1 Chronicles 5:16 it is only said, that the children of Gad dwelt in all the suburbs of Sharon; but why in the suburbs, and not in the cities, if the country had belonged to them? It was in the suburbs that the beasts were lodged; Numbers 35:3.Joshua 14:4. And the law allowed the sending them from one place to another, in the pastures belonging to the suburbs dependant on cities of a tribe to which they did not belong.