Dividing the Land (2 of 2)

In context

Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, each became a tribe (Joshua 14:4), as Jacob had said: “Ephraim and Manasseh, even as Reuben and Simeon, will be mine” (Genesis 48:5). Joseph’s people, saying they were too many for one share, were told to clear the forest in the hill country (Joshua 17:14–18). Some Canaanites were not driven out but put to forced labor (16:10; 17:12–13).

The Tent of Meeting was set up at Shiloh (18:1), “on the north of Bethel” (Judges 21:19), and Israel still worshiped there in Samuel’s day (1 Samuel 1:3). Seven tribes had no land yet, so three men from each tribe walked through the country and wrote it down in seven parts, and Joshua cast lots for them “before Yahweh” (18:2–10).

The lots came out for Benjamin, Simeon (inside Judah’s land), Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali and Dan (18:11–19:48). The people of Dan also took Leshem, far to the north, with the sword, and called it Dan, a story Judges tells more fully, naming the town Laish (19:47; Judges 18:27–29). Last of all, Israel gave Joshua the town he asked for, Timnathserah (19:49–50).