John Gill Commentary Joshua 18:14

"And the border extended [thence], and turned about on the west quarter southward, from the mountain that lieth before Beth-horon southward; and the goings out thereof were at Kiriath-baal (the same is Kiriath-jearim), a city of the children of Judah: this was the west quarter." — Joshua 18:14 (ASV)

And the border was drawn [thence]
From Bethhoron:

and compassed the corner of the sea southward ;
it is hard to say what sea is meant, or what by it. Fuller ^F11 conjectures, that as the Hebrews call any confluence of water a sea, as we call such a "mere", the great waters in Gibeon may be meant, (Jeremiah 41:12) ; for it cannot mean the Mediterranean sea, for Dan lay between Benjamin and that; and yet if a sea is meant, no other can be; wherefore it is best to render it the "west quarter", as it is in the latter part of this verse; and so the same word is translated, (Joshua 18:12) ; the "west", and not the "sea", as it sometimes is; for the border of Benjamin did not reach the sea any where; though Josephus ^F12 makes it to extend to it, and says, that the length of it was from the river Jordan to the sea:

the hill that [lieth] before Bethhoron southward ;
the hill that lay to the south of nether Bethhoron, as in (Joshua 18:13) :

and the goings out thereof ,
the end of the western coast,

were at Kirjathbaal, which [is] Kirjathjearim, a city of the children
of Judah ;
of which see (Joshua 15:9Joshua 15:60) ;

this [was] the west quarter ;
as thus described.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F11: Pisgah Sight, B. 2. c. 12. p. 251.
• F12: Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 22.)