Joshua 13

اقرأ هذا الفصل بقصد

Joshua 13 opens the second half of the book, where conquest gives way to allotment. The LORD tells the aged Joshua that much land remains unconquered, the Philistine coast, the Sidonian hills, and Lebanon, and that God himself will drive out its inhabitants, so Joshua is to divide the whole land by lot among the nine and a half tribes anyway. The rest of the chapter records what Moses had already given east of the Jordan: the kingdoms of Sihon and Og, allotted to Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh, city by city, from the Arnon gorge to Mount Hermon. Two notes break the survey: the Geshurites and Maacathites were never driven out, and Levi received no land, because the LORD and his offerings are Levi's inheritance.

فتح تفسير الإصحاح

Joshua 13 is where the book stops fighting and starts surveying, and it begins with a frank word from God to an old soldier. You are old, the LORD tells Joshua, and there is a great deal of land still to be taken: the whole Philistine coast with its five cities, the Sidonian hills, Lebanon up to the pass of Hamath. Then comes the instruction that shapes the rest of the book. Do not wait. Divide the land now, all of it, conquered and unconquered alike, by lot among the nine and a half tribes, because I will drive out those hill peoples myself. Israel is to receive its inheritance on paper before it holds it in fact. The rest of the chapter looks back across the Jordan to the land Moses had already assigned to Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh, the kingdoms of Sihon and Og, described the way a land registry would describe them, from the Arnon gorge in the south to Mount Hermon in the north, plateau town by plateau town, with the note that Balaam the diviner died there too. Twice the survey pauses for something that is not geography. The Geshurites and Maacathites were never driven out and still live among the Israelites. And the tribe of Levi got nothing, no towns and no borders, because the LORD himself, and the offerings made to him, are Levi's inheritance. The chapter is a list, but it teaches two things a list rarely does: that promises are given before they are possessed, and that some of God's people are meant to own nothing but him.

مقاطع رئيسية

Joshua 13:1-7 Joshua 13:8-14 Joshua 13:15-23 Joshua 13:29-33 Numbers 32:1-5 Numbers 18:20-21

Historical and literary context

The chapter belongs to the land-division section of Joshua, chapters 13 to 21, which reads like an administrative archive of borders and towns. The Transjordan tribes had asked Moses for the conquered land east of the river because it suited their herds, on condition that their fighting men crossed over with the rest, a story told in Numbers 32. Sihon and Og were the Amorite kings defeated in Numbers 21, and Og "the remnant of the Rephaim" belonged to the giant peoples of the region. The Philistine pentapolis of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron would trouble Israel for centuries. The killing of Balaam, mentioned in passing, comes from Numbers 31. Many of the towns listed can be located on the Moabite plateau.

How the chapter unfolds

Verses 1 to 7 are the LORD's speech: Joshua's age, the land that remains, listed region by region, the promise to drive out the Sidonians, and the command to divide the land west of the Jordan. Verses 8 to 14 summarize the eastern inheritance given by Moses, with the notes on the undriven Geshurites and Maacathites and on Levi's inheritance of the offerings. Verses 15 to 23 give Reuben's territory with its towns and the note on Balaam. Verses 24 to 28 give Gad's. Verses 29 to 31 give the half-tribe of Manasseh's in Bashan. Verses 32 and 33 close the eastern survey and repeat that Levi's inheritance is the LORD himself.

Why this chapter matters

The chapter establishes the pattern that the promised land was given before it was fully possessed: Joshua divides territory still held by enemies, on the strength of God's word, which later readers have taken as a picture of living by promise. "Very much of the land remains to be possessed" became a text for Christian growth and for mission. Levi's inheritance, "the LORD, the God of Israel, is their inheritance," is the Old Testament's clearest statement that God himself can be a person's portion, echoed in the Psalms. The unconquered Geshurites and Maacathites, "to this day," are the first admissions in the allotment section that the conquest was incomplete.

Interpretive tension to watch

The chapter's lists sit beside the earlier claim in Joshua 11 that Joshua took the whole land, and the Philistine coast named here as unconquered was never taken in the biblical period; readers must reckon with a book that describes the conquest as both complete and unfinished. The Transjordan settlement, outside the land as promised to Abraham, was accepted by Moses but always uneasy, and the tribes east of the river were the first lost to Assyria. For modern readers, the allotment of towns inhabited by other peoples raises the ethical questions that surround the whole conquest narrative.

أسئلة لهذا الفصل

God tells Joshua to divide land that is still in enemy hands. What does it mean to act on a promise before you can see it fulfilled?
Levi receives no territory because "the LORD is their inheritance." What would it mean to have God as your portion instead of property?
The chapter admits that some peoples were never driven out. How do you live faithfully with work that stays unfinished?

Study with context

Use this as a chapter guide, then press deeper into the text itself. The goal is to slow down observation, notice structure, and ask better questions before jumping to conclusions.

أضف للملاحظات

1 Now Joshua was old [and] stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old [and] stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed. 2 This [is] the land that yet remaineth: all the borders of the Philistines, and all Geshuri, 3 From Sihor, which [is] before Egypt, even unto the borders of Ekron northward, [which] is counted to the Canaanite: five lords of the Philistines; the Gazathites, and the Ashdothites, the Eshkalonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avites: 4 From the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that [is] beside the Sidonians, unto Aphek, to the borders of the Amorites: 5 And the land of the Giblites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrising, from Baal-gad under mount Hermon unto the entering into Hamath. 6 All the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon unto Misrephoth-maim, [and] all the Sidonians, them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites for an inheritance, as I have commanded thee. 7 Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance unto the nine tribes, and the half tribe of Manasseh, 8 With whom the Reubenites and the Gadites have received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond Jordan eastward, [even] as Moses the servant of the LORD gave them; 9 From Aroer, that [is] upon the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that [is] in the midst of the river, and all the plain of Medeba unto Dibon; 10 And all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, which reigned in Heshbon, unto the border of the children of Ammon; 11 And Gilead, and the border of the Geshurites and Maachathites, and all mount Hermon, and all Bashan unto Salcah; 12 All the kingdom of Og in Bashan, which reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei, who remained of the remnant of the giants: for these did Moses smite, and cast them out. 13 Nevertheless the children of Israel expelled not the Geshurites, nor the Maachathites: but the Geshurites and the Maachathites dwell among the Israelites until this day. 14 Only unto the tribe of Levi he gave none inheritance; the sacrifices of the LORD God of Israel made by fire [are] their inheritance, as he said unto them. 15 ¶ And Moses gave unto the tribe of the children of Reuben [inheritance] according to their families. 16 And their coast was from Aroer, that [is] on the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that [is] in the midst of the river, and all the plain by Medeba; 17 Heshbon, and all her cities that [are] in the plain; Dibon, and Bamoth-baal, and Beth-baal-meon, 18 And Jahazah, and Kedemoth, and Mephaath, 19 And Kirjathaim, and Sibmah, and Zareth-shahar in the mount of the valley, 20 And Beth-peor, and Ashdoth-pisgah, and Beth-jeshimoth, 21 And all the cities of the plain, and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, which reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses smote with the princes of Midian, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, [which were] dukes of Sihon, dwelling in the country. 22 ¶ Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the sword among them that were slain by them. 23 And the border of the children of Reuben was Jordan, and the border [thereof]. This [was] the inheritance of the children of Reuben after their families, the cities and the villages thereof. 24 And Moses gave [inheritance] unto the tribe of Gad, [even] unto the children of Gad according to their families. 25 And their coast was Jazer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon, unto Aroer that [is] before Rabbah; 26 And from Heshbon unto Ramath-mizpeh, and Betonim; and from Mahanaim unto the border of Debir; 27 And in the valley, Beth-aram, and Beth-nimrah, and Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon, Jordan and [his] border, [even] unto the edge of the sea of Chinnereth on the other side Jordan eastward. 28 This [is] the inheritance of the children of Gad after their families, the cities, and their villages. 29 ¶ And Moses gave [inheritance] unto the half tribe of Manasseh: and [this] was [the possession] of the half tribe of the children of Manasseh by their families. 30 And their coast was from Mahanaim, all Bashan, all the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, and all the towns of Jair, which [are] in Bashan, threescore cities: 31 And half Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, [were pertaining] unto the children of Machir the son of Manasseh, [even] to the one half of the children of Machir by their families. 32 These [are the countries] which Moses did distribute for inheritance in the plains of Moab, on the other side Jordan, by Jericho, eastward. 33 But unto the tribe of Levi Moses gave not [any] inheritance: the LORD God of Israel [was] their inheritance, as he said unto them.