Joshua 13 explained: Dividing Land Not Yet Won

Joshua is old (vv. 1-5)

Joshua is near the end of his life, yet large areas remain outside Israel's control: the Philistine coast in the southwest, and the Phoenician coast and Lebanon mountains in the north. Israel never fully held these regions, though some later came under the power of Kings David and Solomon.

Divide it now (vv. 6-7)

The LORD promises to drive out the remaining peoples but tells Joshua not to wait, and to share out the land among the nine and a half tribes still without territory. Israel's tradition held that the shares were decided by drawing lots, which left the choice to God and headed off quarrels over favoritism.

East of the Jordan (vv. 8-13)

Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh had already received land from Moses: the former kingdoms of Sihon and Og, defeated earlier in the story. The note that Geshur and Maakah still lived among Israel "to this day" shows a writer looking back and admitting the conquest was incomplete.

No land for Levi (vv. 14, 33)

The tribe of Levi, who served as priests and cared for the tent where Israel worshiped, got no region of its own. They lived on a share of the offerings brought to God, and the text puts it this way: the LORD himself is their inheritance.

Reuben's share (vv. 15-23)

Reuben received the southern plateau, from the Arnon gorge up to Heshbon and west to the Jordan. The list bluntly recalls the killing of five Midianite chiefs and of Balaam, the seer from the book of Numbers who had been hired to curse Israel.

Gad and half of Manasseh (vv. 24-32)

Gad took the middle region of Gilead and the Jordan valley up to the Sea of Galilee. Half of Manasseh took the north, the rich land of Bashan that had been Og's kingdom, including sixty towns.

Key verse: Joshua 13:1

Something to think about

Joshua is told to start handing things on while the work is still unfinished and he will not see it completed; how do you think about passing on something you won't live to finish?