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

I have never understood why the blurb about Caleb taking possession of his portion is in the middle of the description of the allocation of land to the Tribe of Judah instead of immediately following the part where Caleb asks for his allocation in yesterday’s passage.  For that matter, I am unsure why the bit about Caleb’s daughter asking him for springs in addition to the other land he gave to her and her husband is included.  That being said, it is a good lesson to us that it never hurts to ask for what you would like to have.

In the description of the land allotted to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh the passage tells us that some of the Canaanites living there were too strong for them to drive out.  The passage tells us that some of the Canaanites were still living among the Israelites “to this day”.  In other words, Canaanites were still living among the Israelites when this book was first written down.  This gives us some insight into the population of the land when the kingdom of Israel first formed and provides some context for understanding what was going on during the Book of Judges and 1 and 2 Samuel.  We see that despite God’s instructions otherwise, the Israelites lived alongside those who practiced different religious practices for probably the entire existence of the Ancient Kingdom of Israel.

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