Division of the land chapters
13
📚Now Joshua was old 📖 and advanced in years; and the LORD said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and there still remains very much land to be possessed 📖. 2 📚“This is the land that still remains: all the areas of the Philistines, and all Geshuri, 3 📚from Sihor, which is east of Egypt, to the borders of Ekron on the north, which is counted as Canaanite territory; five lords of the Philistines; the Gazaites and the Ashdodites, the Ashkalonites, the Gittites and the Ekronites; also the Avites; 4 📚from the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah which is controlled by the Sidonians, to Aphek, to the borders of the Amorites; 5 📚and the land of the Giblites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal Gad below Mount Hermon to the entrance to Hamath.
6 📚“As for all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth-Maim, and all the Sidonians, I will drive them out from before the children of Israel. Only divide it by lot to the Israelites as an inheritance, as I have commanded you. 7 📚Now therefore divide this land as an inheritance to the nine tribes, and the half tribe of Manasseh”.
13:6-7 Joshua was to divide the land in anticipation of final victory. Each tribe, each individual was responsible to enter into the allotted inheritance. How much of our spiritual inheritance in Christ have we entered into? Oh, what riches of glory are in Him, what spiritual fields and flowing valleys and high mountain peaks! – Eph 1:3.⚜
Allotment of land east of the Jordan
8 📚With Manasseh’s other half, the Reubenites and the Gadites have received their inheritance, which Moses gave them beyond Jordan eastward. Moses, the LORD’s servant, gave them 9 📚from Aroer, that is on the bank of the Arnon river, and the city that is in the middle of the river valley and all the plain of Medeba to Dibon, 10 📚and all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, to the border of the children of Ammon, 11 📚and Gilead and the territory of the Geshurites and Maachathites and all Mount Hermon and all Bashan as far as Salcah, 12 📚all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei, who remained from the survivors of the giants. For Moses attacked these and drove them out. 13 📚However the children of Israel did not drive out the Geshurites or the Maachathites; and the Geshurites and the Maachathites live among the Israelites to this day.
13:13 The land as a whole was conquered, but the individual tribes failed to drive all of their enemies out of their territories. See Jud 1:19-36, and see the result in Jud 2:1-3.⚜
14 📚Only he did not give an inheritance to the tribe of Levi. Their inheritance is the sacrifices by fire to the LORD God of Israel, just as he said to them.
15 And Moses gave to the tribe of the children of Reuben an inheritance according to their families. 16 📚And their boundary was from Aroer, that is on the bank of the Arnon river, and the city that is in the middle of the river valley and all the plain at Medeba; 17 📚Heshbon and all its towns in the plain; Dibon and Bamoth Baal and Beth Baal Meon 18 📚and Jahaza and Kedemoth and Mephaath 19 📚and Kirjathaim and Sibmah and Zareth Shahar on the hill in the valley 20 📚and Beth Peor and Ashdoth Pisgah and Beth Jeshimoth 21 📚and all the cities of the plain and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses struck down with the princes of Midian, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, who were princes with Sihon, living in the country.
22 📚Among those whom the children of Israel slaughtered with the sword they also killed Balaam 📖 the son of Beor, who practiced divination.
23 And the border of the children of Reuben was the Jordan and its border. This was the inheritance of the children of Reuben according to their families, the cities and their villages.
24 📚And Moses gave an inheritance to the tribe of Gad, to the children of Gad according to their families. 25 📚And their territory was Jazer and all the cities of Gilead and half the land of the children of Ammon to Aroer that is before Rabbah, 26 📚and from Heshbon to Ramath-Mizpeh and Betonim, and from Mahanaim to the border of Debir; 27 📚and in the valley, Beth-Aram and Beth-Nimrah and Succoth and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon, Jordan and its border, to the shore of the Sea of Kinnereth 📖 on the other side of the Jordan, eastward. 28 This is the inheritance of the children of Gad according to their families, the cities and their villages.
29 And Moses gave an inheritance to the half tribe of Manasseh. And this was the possession of the half tribe of the children of Manasseh by their families: 30 📚their territory was from Mahanaim, all Bashan, all the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, and all the towns of Jair, which are in Bashan, sixty cities; 31 📚and half Gilead, and Ashtaroth and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were for the children of Machir the son of Manasseh, for half of the children of Machir by their families.
32 These are the regions which Moses allotted as an inheritance on the plains of Moab, on the other side of the Jordan, opposite Jericho, eastward. 33 📚But Moses did not give any inheritance to the tribe of Levi. The LORD God of Israel was their inheritance, as he said to them.