Joshua13chapter 13

Joshua 13:1-7

Joshua 21:45 says of this same conquest that there failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken, verse 1 says much land is still unpossessed, and both stand in the one book. Adam Clarke reads the remainder against the condition of obedience, noting that the Sidonians of verse 6 were never expelled and were only brought into subjection under David and Solomon, while other readers take Joshua to speak of the land as granted rather than as occupied. Verse 3 counts five lords of the Philistines, which is the first time Scripture gives them that title, and the same five run on through Judges 16 and 1 Samuel 5. Verse 6 puts the order plainly, divide thou it by lot, so the ground is allotted before it is held.

Joshua 13:8-14

The chapter turns back east and enters what Moses had already given as settled title, so the defeat of Sihon and Og in Numbers 21 and the request of Numbers 32 are written into Joshua's record without being reopened. Verse 13 admits the exception, that Geshur and Maachah were never expelled and dwell among Israel until this day, and Geshur later has a king whose daughter Maacah bears Absalom at 2 Samuel 3:3 and shelters him for three years at 2 Samuel 13:37. Matthew Henry lays that on Israel rather than on the grant, writing that those who are not straitened in God's promises are yet straitened in their own faith, and prayers, and endeavours. Verse 14 gives Levi no land because the offerings made by fire are their portion, which is the wording of Numbers 18:20 and Deuteronomy 18:1 carried over.

Joshua 13:15-23

Reuben's towns carry the names of the gods Israel had fallen to a generation before. Bamoth-baal and Beth-baal-meon at verse 17 and Beth-peor at verse 20 are Baal's high places, Numbers 25:1-3 records what Israel did at Baal-peor, and Deuteronomy 34:6 buries Moses in a valley over against Beth-peor. Verse 22 is the only place in Scripture that calls Balaam a soothsayer, and it sets his death among the slain of Midian, which closes Numbers 31:8. Heshbon at the head of the list had been Moab's before Sihon took it at Numbers 21:26, and Isaiah 16:8 and Jeremiah 48 find Moab holding these same towns again long after Reuben is gone.

Joshua 13:24-31

Gad inherits Jacob's ground. Mahanaim at verse 26 is where Jacob met the angels of God at Genesis 32:1-2, and Succoth at verse 27 is where he built booths for his cattle at Genesis 33:17. Adam Clarke identifies the Ramath-mizpeh of verse 26 with Ramoth-gilead, which becomes a city of refuge at Joshua 20:8 and the field where Ahab dies in 1 Kings 22. Manasseh receives the threescore towns of Jair, taken and named by Jair at Numbers 32:41, and a later Jair judges Israel at Judges 10:3-4 with thirty sons in thirty cities that were still called Havoth-jair when that verse was written.

Joshua 13:32-33

The whole east side was distributed in the plains of Moab, on the far bank by Jericho, by a man who never crossed the river. The chapter then ends where verse 14 began and says the same thing in different words: verse 14 gives Levi the offerings made by fire, and verse 33 gives Levi the Lord God of Israel himself. Numbers 18:20 stands behind both, and Deuteronomy 10:9 says it again to the whole nation.