Today, I am reading and commenting on  Joshua 18-20.

Every time I read this passage I feel like I missed something somewhere about how the Israelites divided up the land.  The tribes of Reuben and Gad, along with half of the tribe of Manasseh, had been given land east of the Jordan River.  West of the Jordan, Judah, Ephraim, and the remaining half of Manasseh had been given large sections of land.   At that point, the land had been brought under the control of the Israelites, but seven of the tribes had yet to claim any land for themselves (with the tribe of Levi being explicitly left out of having a specific portion because of their connection with the priesthood).  Yet, these seven tribes had not claimed their land.  So, Joshua had them send out men to survey the land and when the surveyors returned, he cast lots to decide who got what portion of the remaining land.  Yet, previously, in Joshua 14:2, it said that lots had been used to divide up the land among the nine and nine half tribes, which would have been these seven tribes plus Ephraim, Judah, and the half tribe of Manasseh which settled west of the Jordan River.  We see that as a contradiction.  Yet clearly those who composed the Book of Joshua did not.  So, what am I missing?  What happened between the lots being cast for the nine and one half tribes and the lots being cast again for these last seven tribes?  We get some hints from the fact that Simeon’s portion was mixed in with Judah’s.  And that Jerusalem was in Benjamin’s, yet later King David conquers it as part of Judah.

There is value from reading through these passages again and again.  I always gain something from reading them again and writing this blog.  Even when that something is questions.

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