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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 15-17.

    I struggle to know what to make of today’s passage. It is primarily a list of the territory given to some of the tribes. This is useful information for later when we read about the Philistines in Ekron and Ashdod, cities which were part of the land given to the tribe of Judah. There is also the story of how Caleb offered his daughter in marriage to the man who led the attack against one of the towns in his territory(the story gives us no idea of her age at the time, but it seems likely that Caleb was no longer young when she was born). The final item of note is that the tribes of Judah, Ephraim, and Manasseh were unable to completely drive the people out of the land they were given. Every time I read this I wonder if perhaps the Israelites should have conquered only the land they could fully control and then pushed the other people out over time as they expanded, rather than conquering as much of the total territory as they could leaving pockets of foreigners (foreign to the Israelites) which were too strong for them to overcome.