This is the land that yet remaineth: all the borders of the Philistines, and all Geshuri,
This is the land that yet remaineth - i:e., to be acquired. This section forms a parenthesis, in which the historian briefly notices the districts yet unsubdued-namely, first, all the borders of the Philistines. Beginning with the southwestern district and proceeding northward, the historian specifies х gªliylowt (H1552), circuits or districts; Septuagint, oria; scil. chooria] the whole country of the Philistines comprising five principalities or provinces of Canaan [Septuagint, satrapeiai], a narrow tract of rich champaign country called the Shephela, stretching about 60 miles along the Mediterranean coast.
And all Geshuri, х wªkaal (H3605) ha-Gªshuwriy (H1651), and all the Geshurite (land)] - the district south of the preceding; not the territory of the people mentioned, Joshua 13:11; Joshua 13:13, but that of a particular tribe, whose habitat was the southern district lying between Palestine and Egypt (see the note at 1 Samuel 27:8). Both together comprehended that portion of the country "from Sihor, which is before Egypt, even unto the borders of Ekron northward." [Hashiychowr, the dark, the turbid, or slimy (see different explanations of this in the parallel passage, Genesis 15:18). The word being used here in a strictly geographical sense cannot denote the Nile. In the great map of Ruppel, it stands for the Raphia, a small insignificant stream in the southwest extremity of Palestine, the southern bank of which is a large field of nitre, marked Sihor. Hence, Septuagint, apo tees aoikeetou tees kata prosoopon Aiguptou, from the uninhabited land before Egypt. The majority of biblical writers are of opinion that it points to the torrent Rhinocolura, the Wady El-Arish, "which is before Egypt" - i:e., not in the east of, but in front of, at the entrance of Egypt (cf. Joshua 15:2-5; Numbers 34:3-5; 1 Kings 8:65; 1 Chronicles 13:5; 2 Chronicles 7:8).]