Joshua 13 Study Notes

13:1-21:45 Although some of the initial descriptions of the allotments consider regions, most of the divisions of the tribal territories in these chapters appear in two forms of literature: boundary descriptions and town lists. The boundary descriptions normally identify themselves by using the term border and verbs such as turn, ascend, descend, curve and other terms linking one town or natural feature with another along the line of the border. In defining the lands, God further extended his relationship into the particulars of the blessing of the land that he had given the Israelites.

Town lists also appear in many tribal allotments as towns that belong to a tribe. Sometimes they are subdivided into regions of the tribe. This is true of the lengthiest town list in the allotment—that of Judah in 15:20-63. Such lists are common in administrative texts in the same period. These similarities suggest that this document had the importance and legal force of a treaty. As new towns were founded, they were added to the document throughout Israel’s history. This procedure would retain the same boundaries but update the population centers in those tribal areas for as long as Israel possessed them. This was the literary embodiment of the physical witness that made up God’s ongoing covenantal gift of the promised land to his people.

13:1 Joshua first appeared in Ex 17:9-13 where he was already the leader of Israel’s armies. The chronology of the Pentateuch entails some forty years of wandering in the wilderness and what Jos 11:18 describes as “a long time” of waging war before Joshua’s death. In 24:29 Joshua died at 110. The expression advanced in age establishes Joshua was at the end of his active life and military leadership. Here he and Israel transitioned from military activity to allotment of the land. Despite the long list of towns and their kings who were defeated in chap. 12, the Lord confirmed that a great deal of the land remained to be possessed.

13:2-7 The regions not yet occupied include areas on the fringes of the promised land. The land of the Philistines is described in v. 3. The five towns of the Philistines appear here for the first time. The Shihor has been described as the Brook of Egypt (15:4). The word for rulers (Hb seren) is a term only applied to Philistines. This may be connected to the Greek tyrannos, with the meaning “tyrant, ruler.” The Avvites appear as a people living south of the region of the Philistines (Dt 2:23). The Geshurites include those inhabiting the region north and east of the Sea of Galilee.

13:4 Arah is not otherwise known, but the region of the Sidonians includes coastal areas at the northern end of the region occupied by the twelve tribes. Aphek appeared earlier (12:18). It lay on the coastal plain between Joppa and Dor where the plain narrowed and the hill country (the border of the Amorites) reached closest to the Mediterranean Sea.

13:5 The land of the Gebalites was Byblos, an important coastal city north of Sidon in modern Lebanon. The entrance of Hamath, sometimes called Lebo-hamath, is the most northern place described. It is identified with modern Lebweh north of the Beqa‘a. For the other place names, see 11:7-8.

13:6 God’s promise to drive . . . out the remaining occupants of the land is followed by a command to distribute the land at this time. The land was not completely conquered, so Israel was still challenged to fulfill the command it had been given.

13:7 The command to divide this land is repeated, emphasizing its importance. The nine tribes and half the tribe of Manasseh exclude Reuben, Gad, and the other half of Manasseh, who received an allotment east of the Jordan River.

13:8-33 The territory described in this section is identical to the combined areas controlled by Sihon and Og as described in 12:1-5.

13:9 The text begins in the south along the Arnon Valley, the border with Moab. The Medeba plateau includes the tableland that rises east of the Dead Sea. Dibon is perhaps not modern Tell Dhiban because the archaeological evidence for habitation from this period is lacking. Nevertheless, contemporary Egyptian scribes writing of campaigns in the area knew and identified the city of Dibon.

13:10 The border of the Ammonites lay to the east and north of Israel’s inheritance and Sihon’s previous kingdom. Its capital was Rabbah, modern day Amman.

13:13 The presence of Geshur and Maacath as independent entities is attested during the time of David. He married the daughter of Geshur’s king and fathered Absalom (2Sm 3:3). The statement that Israel did not drive out the Canaanites becomes a sad refrain in Joshua and Judges (16:10; 17:13; Jdg 1).

13:14 In accord with Dt 18:1, the tribe of Levi received no inheritance of land. See, however, Jos 21.

13:15-23 Reuben’s allotment also began at Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley. It is described through a town list (vv. 17-20).

13:21-22 For the deaths of Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur . . . Reba, and Balaam son of Beor, see Nm 31:8.

13:25 With Rabbah (modern Amman) as the Ammonite capital, this allotment took over half the land of the Ammonites.

13:26 This verse appears to designate towns along the border of Gad located in the higher plateau region inland toward the desert.

13:27 This verse provides a list of towns in the Jordan Valley extending as far north as the Sea of Chinnereth (Galilee). The identification of Succoth with modern Tell Deir ‘Alla is intriguing in light of v. 22 because at this site in 1967 archaeologists discovered fragmentary texts on white plaster that describe purported visions of Balaam son of Beor.

13:30 Jair’s Villages numbered sixty cities (here city is a term that can describe a small hamlet). A judge named Jair (Jdg 10:4) had thirty sons who ruled over half of them.

13:31 In 17:1 Machir son of Manasseh received Gilead and Bashan east of the Jordan. The other sons of Manasseh received inheritances west of that river.

13:33 As with the regional summary of vv. 8-14, so the summary of specific allotments ends with a note about the absence of a portion for the tribe of Levi.