Numbers 26:52-56 “Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: (53) "To these the land shall be divided as an inheritance, according to the number of names. (54) To a large tribe you shall give a larger inheritance, and to a small tribe, you shall give a smaller inheritance. Each shall be given its inheritance according to those who were numbered of them. (55) But the land shall be divided by lot; they shall inherit according to the names of the tribes of their fathers. (56) According to the lot their inheritance shall be divided between the larger and the smaller."
Before Israel invaded the Promised Land, God had instructed Moses to divide the land by lot between the twelve tribes of Israel. In the above-quoted passage of scripture we see that God allocated the land according to the size of each tribe, i.e. the larger inheritance went to the larger tribes and the smaller inheritance went to the smaller tribes. The twelve tribes of Israel that received their inheritance via lot were as follows; Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, Manasseh, Simeon, Dan, Rueben, Gad, Issachar, Zebulun, Asher and Naphtali. The tribe of Levi received no inheritance of land because, as the Lord's priests, He was their inheritance; they did however receive various cities to reside in. Joseph's inheritance was divided between his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh, because Jacob had taken them as his sons (Genesis 48:5).
Joshua 11:15-23 As the Lord had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses. (16) Thus Joshua took all this land: the mountain country, all the South, all the land of Goshen, the lowland, and the Jordan plain--the mountains of Israel and its lowlands, (17) from Mount Halak and the ascent to Seir, even as far as Baal Gad in the Valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. He captured all their kings, and struck them down and killed them. (18) Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. (19) There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. All the others they took in battle. (20) For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that He might utterly destroy them, and that they might receive no mercy, but that He might destroy them, as the Lord had commanded Moses. (21) And at that time Joshua came and cut off the Anakim from the mountains: from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel; Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities. (22) None of the Anakim were left in the land of the children of Israel; they remained only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod. (23) So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had said to Moses; and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land rested from war.
In approximately the year 1406 BC, under Joshua’s leadership, Israel began its invasion and occupation of the territories given to them by God[1]. It was in that year that Israel became a sovereign nation for the first time. The above-quoted passage of scripture is a summary of the various territories that Israel conquered under Joshua’s leadership. By the time Joshua ended his military campaign in approximately the year 1375 BC, five of the tribes of Israel had received their inheritance. Under Moses’ leadership, the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and half the tribe of Manasseh had received their inheritance east of the Jordan, and under Joshua’s leadership, the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim had received their inheritance within the original borders of the Promised Land.
Joshua 18:1-10 Now the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of meeting there. And the land was subdued before them. (2) But there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes which had not yet received their inheritance. (3) Then Joshua said to the children of Israel: "How long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you? (4) Pick out from among you three men for each tribe, and I will send them; they shall rise and go through the land, survey it according to their inheritance, and come back to me. (5) And they shall divide it into seven parts. Judah shall remain in their territory on the south and the house of Joseph shall remain in their territory on the north. (6) You shall therefore survey the land in seven parts and bring the survey here to me, that I may cast lots for you here before the Lord our God. (7) But the Levites have no part among you, for the priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance. And Gad, Reuben, and half the tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan on the east, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave them." (8) Then the men arose to go away; and Joshua charged those who went to survey the land, saying, "Go, walk through the land, survey it, and come back to me, that I may cast lots for you here before the Lord in Shiloh." (9) So the men went, passed through the land, and wrote the survey in a book in seven parts by cities; and they came to Joshua at the camp in Shiloh. (10) Then Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord, and there Joshua divided the land to the children of Israel according to their divisions.
We have seen that in approximately the year 1406 BC, Israel began conquering the territories given to them by God. Nevertheless, by approximately the year 1375 BC, Israel had still not conquered all the territory God had given them[2]. By that time Joshua had grown old and was about to depart from this life and so Joshua was forced to divide the remaining unconquered territory based on a survey. The above-quoted passage of scripture is an account of that incident, and below is a map of the territories Joshua allotted to the twelve tribes of Israel. It is important to note that when we compare the two maps, i.e. God’s boundaries given to Moses and the eventual territories allotted to the twelve tribes, we see significant differences. The following differences are listed; the territories occupied by Manasseh, Gad, and Reuben, east of the Jordan, were not part of Israel’s original inheritance. The territory known as Philistia was part of Israel's inheritance, nevertheless, it remained occupied by the Philistines. The territory north of Sidon, known as Phoenicia (AKA Lebanon), was also part of Israel's inheritance; nevertheless, it remained occupied by the Phoenicians.
Michael E.B. Maher
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