Monday 2021.07.19
My OT reading for today covers Joshua chapters twelve through nineteen, recording the account of Joshua allocating to each of the twelve tribes (excluding the Levites, with Joseph having two tribes through his descendants Ephraim and Manasseh) a clearly demarcated portion of the Promised Land, with two and a half tribes remaining on the east side of River Jordan, while the majority nine and a half tribes on the west.
By the time we reach the account in Joshua chapter eighteen, we read that only five tribes had successfully conquered and settled in the land alloted to them.
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They were:
- Reuben (east of R.Jordan)
- Gad (east of R.Jordan)
- Half tribe Manasseh (east of R.Jordan)
- The other half of Manasseh (west of R.Jordan)
- Ephraim (west of R.Jordan) and
- Judah (west of R.Jordan)
There remaining seven tribes had not conquered any land on the west side of River Jordan, and Joshua was not happy with the situation.
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These seven tribes were:
- Benjamin
- Simeon
- Zebulun
- Issachar
- Asher
- Naphthali and
- Dan
In Joshua 18:3 - 5, Joshua reproved these seven tribes for their slackness in possessing the land and ordered each tribe to appoint three representatives to survey the unconquered land and to divide it into seven portions.
Joshua 18:3 - 5 ASV
3 And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, How long are ye slack to go in to possess the land, which Jehovah, the God of your fathers, hath given you?
4 Appoint for you three men of each tribe: and I will send them, and they shall arise, and walk through the land, and describe it according to their inheritance; and they shall come unto me.
5 And they shall divide it into seven portions: Judah shall abide in his border on the south, and the house of Joseph shall abide in their border on the north.
6 And ye shall describe the land into seven portions, and bring the description hither to me; and I will cast lots for you here before Jehovah our God.
