Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 12-14.

Today’s passage begins by listing the kings whose land the Israelites took over and settled after defeating them.  Interestingly, it lists the two whom Moses defeated east of the Jordan River by name, but then only lists the cities of the kings whom Joshua defeated.  There are a couple of interesting things in today’s passage which I do not know why they are mentioned here.  First, I find it interesting that it makes a point that Og, king of Bashan, was one of the last, or possibly, the last, of the Rephaites.  The other places where the Rephaites are mentioned suggests that they were “giants” (for example, elsewhere we are told that Og’s bed was about thirteen feet long).  I mention that because the writers clearly thought it was significant, but I do not understand why.  Second, I find the mention that the Israelites failed to drive out the people of Geshur and Maakah, and that those people lived among the Israelites “to this day” interesting.  `I find it interesting for two reasons.  First, unlike the Gibeonites, no account of how it came about that the Israelites failed to drive these people out from among them is offered .  Second, it clearly indicates that the Book of Joshua was composed at some time before the Babylonian Exile.  Actually, I cannot imagine that reference being included if the book was compiled after the reign of King Solomon.

I want to take a moment and write a little bit about my thoughts about how many of the books of the Old Testament came to be.  I believe that many of the accounts contained in them were passed down for multiple generations as oral histories.  Then at some point someone chose to compile those oral histories into a written account.  My personal opinion is that the Book of Joshua was compiled from oral histories, then edited to give context on several occasions, such as giving (or changing) place names to those used at a later date (this is likely true of other Old Testament books as well.  These edits are similar to the way a historian might add a comment saying, “in modern day Sudan” to a historical document which refers to Cush.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.