Joshua 12-17

Joshua 12-17

After several chapters of battles, Joshua 12 is a summary of all that has happened up to this point. It goes back into Numbers and Deuteronomy and quickly recaps the battles that Moses led Israel into. It lists the lands that Israel conquered under his leadership and lists the tribes that gained it as an inheritance. These were the 2 ½ tribes that asked to remain on the eastern side of the Jordan River. They had gone with Israel through the river to help conquer the rest of the land, but this was their inheritance. Next, Joshua 12 recaps the lands that Israel gained under Joshua’s leadership. In all, this section lists 31 different kings that Israel defeated in their conquest on the western side of the Jordan River. That seems like a lot at first, but Joshua 13 shows how the conquest was not over.


God had given Israel a lot of land at this point, but Joshua 13 shows how their job was not over yet. There was still a lot of land to gain, and God promised that He would give them that land as well. However, He knew that Joshua was growing older, so He needed Joshua to do something else first. The 2 ½ tribes already knew their allotments, but God wanted Joshua to outline what land the other 9 ½ tribes would get once the land had been completely conquered.

The next several chapters will outline what lands each tribe gained as an inheritance, and to start this off Joshua 13 looks at the land that Moses gave the 2 ½ tribes. From Joshua 13-19, there is going to be a series of lists of cities. There is no easy way to look at these chapters in written form. The best thing to do is take out a map, like one in the back of your Bible, and see where these boundaries were and see what cities were in each tribe’s allotment. Every tribe of Israel will be listed except Levi, for Levi did not receive an inheritance of land. Instead, they were given the opportunity to live in every tribe for they were the priests for the nation of Israel. Although they did not have land that they could call their own, the rest of the tribes were asked to provide for them since they were carrying out the priestly duties for the nation.

Before listing out each tribe’s inheritance, there was one more matter to be settled. Caleb, who was one of the two spies along with Joshua that gave the good report of the land to Moses more than 40 years prior to this point, requested that he be given the land that had been promised to him. Because of his faithfulness to God on that day, God promised that very land that they had been in to him. Now 45 years later, Caleb reminded Joshua of that promise, and Caleb and his family became the first to receive their inheritance. Their inheritance was in the middle of the land of Judah, and together they drove out many of the inhabitants of that land. Remember that God told Joshua that there was still land to be conquered, so when Judah began moving into their land, they started by destroying the cities that were already there. There was, however, one group of people that they did not drive out, the Jebusites. As a result, they ended up sharing the land with this foreign group of people.

Next, Ephraim and Manasseh received their inheritances. Like Judah, Ephraim moved in and cleared out the land. However, also like Judah, they were unable to get rid of a certain group of people, the Canaanites. As a result, they too ended up sharing their inheritance with a foreign nation. These mishaps are what would later lead to fierce battles and troubling times for Israel, because they did not completely clear out the lands. Manasseh followed suit and also found that they were unable to drive out the Canaanites, who lived in many of the prominent cities of the land. They were able to put the Canaanites into forced labor, and they had the upper hand on the Canaanites. Yet this is not what they were commanded to do. It seems as if they were scared of the Canaanites. Joshua assured both Ephraim and Manasseh at the end of Joshua 17 that if they cleared the forests around them, they would have more land to dwell in. He also assured them that God would be with them and would give them that land. They were unwilling to do this, and instead of trusting God and taking the land, they retreated back in fear and in essence remained disobedient to God’s commands. All had been going so well for Israel up to this point, but these simple acts of disobedience (or partial obedience) were the sparks of some of Israel’s future major problems.

Matt