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

I mentioned yesterday how the statement that the people of Geshur and Maakah on the east side of the Jordan River lived among the Israelites “to this day” gave us hints about when the Book of Joshua was compiled.  Today, we have a few similar references.  In particular, it says that the tribe of Judah was unable to dislodge the Jebusites from Jerusalem and that they also live there among the Israelites “to this day.”  That means that the Book of Joshua was compiled before the time of King David, since David conquered Jerusalem and made it his capital.  A little later it says that the Ephraimites were unable to dislodge the Canaanites living in Gezer, and that those Canaanites are required to do forced labor.  This tells us that the book was compiled after the time of Joshua, because if they had been able to initially compel the Canaanites to forced labor, they would have been able to force them out of the area.  We get a stronger indication of this a little later when it discusses the inability of the Manassites being unable to occupy some towns because the Canaanites were “determined” to live in that area, but that when the Israelites grew stronger they compelled them to do forced labor.

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