Distribution of the land - Unconquered districts - Tribes east of the Jordan - "The lot" - Tribes west of the

Jordan - The inheritance of Caleb - Dissatisfaction of the sons of Joseph -The Tabernacle at Shiloh - Final

division of the land.

(JOSHUA 13-21)

THE continuance of unsubdued races and districts soon became a source of danger, although in a direction

different from what might have been anticipated. Sufficient had been gained by a series of brilliant victories

to render the general tenure of the land safe to Israel. The Canaanites and other races were driven to their

fastnesses, where for the time they remained on the defensive. On the other hand, a nation like Israel,

accustomed to the nomadic habits of the wilderness, would scarcely feel the need of a fixed tenure of land,

and readily grow weary of a desultory warfare in which each tribe had separately to make good its

boundaries. Thus it came that Joshua had grown old, probably ninety or a hundred years, while the work

intrusted to him was far from completed. In the far south and along the sea-shore the whole district from the

brook of Egypt126 to Ekron was still held, in the south-west and south-east, by the Geshurites and the

Avites, while the territory farther north from Ekron to Gaza was occupied by the five lords of the Philistines

(Joshua 13:2, 3).

According to the Divine direction, all these, though not descended from Canaan (Genesis 10:14), were to be

"counted to the Canaanites," that is, treated as such. Traveling still farther northwards along the s ea-shore,

the whole "land of the Canaanites" or of the Phoenicians far up to the celebrated "cave"  127 near Sidon, and

beyond it to Aphek128 and even "to the borders of the Amorites"  129 was still unconquered. Thence

eastward across Lebanon as far as Baal-gad and "the entering into Hamath,"  130 and again back from Mount

Lebanon, across country, to the "smelting-pits on the waters," was subject to the Sidonians or

Phoenicians.131 Yet all this belonged by Divine gift to Israel. That it was still unoccupied by them, and that

Joshua was now old, constituted the ground for the Divine command to make immediate distribution of the

land among the tribes. It was as if, looking to His promise, God would have bidden Israel consider the whole

land as theirs, and simply go forward, in faith of that promise and in obedience to His command.132

It will be remembered that only nine and a half tribes remained to be provided for, since "unto the tribe of

Levi He gave none inheritance," other than what came from the sanctuary, while Reuben, Gad, and half

Manasseh had had their portions assigned by Moses east of the Jordan.133

That territory was bounded by Moab along the south-eastern shores of the Dead Sea, while the eastern

border of Reuben and Gad was held by Ammon. Both these nations were by Divine command not to be

molested by Israel (Deuteronomy 2:9, 19). The southernmost and smallest portion of the district east of the

Jordan belonged to Reuben. His territory extended from the river Arnon, in the south, to where Jordan

flowed into the Dead Sea, and embraced the original kingdom of Sihon. Northward of it, the Ammonites had

once held possession, but had been driven out by Sihon. That new portion of Sihon's kingdom was given

not to Reuben but to Gad. The territory of that tribe ran along the Jordan as far as the Lake of Gennesaret -

the upper portion (from Mahanaim) narrowing almost into a point. North of this was the possession of the

half tribe of Manasseh, which embraced the whole of Bashan. It occupied by far the largest extent of area.

But from its position it also lay most open to constant nomadic incursions, and possessed comparatively

few settled cities.

The division of the land among the nine and a half tribes  134 was, in strict accordance with Divine direction

(Numbers 26:52-56; 33:54; 34:2-29), made by Eleazar, Joshua, and one representative from each of the ten

tribes. It was decided by the "lot," which probably, however, only determined the situation of each

inheritance, whether north or south, in. land or by the sea-shore, n ot its extent and precise boundaries.

These would depend upon the size of each tribe. In point of fact, the original arrangements had in some

cases to be afterwards modified, not as to tribal localization, which was unalterably fixed by the Divine lot,