Joshua13chapter 13

Joshua 13:8-14

The east side is land Moses had already given, so Sihon and Og's defeat and the request of Numbers 32 stand without being reopened. Verse 13 admits that Geshur and Maacath "dwell among the Israelites to this day", and Matthew Henry lays that on Israel's faith, prayers and endeavours rather than on God's promise. Verse 14 gives Levi the offerings made by fire, carrying over Deuteronomy 18:1.

The city in the middle of the valley is left unnamed. Albert Barnes, commenting on Joshua 12:2, identifies it with Ar of Moab and cites Deuteronomy 2:36, which uses the same description. The same southern edge of Sihon's kingdom is given again for Reuben at verse 16.

John Gill identifies the Ammonite border with the Jabbok River, following Deuteronomy 3:16. Deuteronomy 2:19 had forbidden Israel any Ammonite land. Adam Clarke reconciles this with verse 25, where Gad receives half the land of the Ammonites, by reading it as land Sihon had already taken from Ammon.

Mount Hermon marks the northern end of the eastern grant. John Gill notes its other names from Deuteronomy 3:9, where the Sidonians call it Sirion and the Amorites call it Senir. John Wesley reads the land of the Geshurites and Maacathites as granted before Israel held it, which verse 13 confirms.

John Gill joins Og's line to the Rephaim defeated at Ashteroth-karnaim in Genesis 14:5. He takes the words struck them down and dispossessed them to cover the people of Og's kingdom as well as the giants. He then notes the exception that verse 13 makes.

The words to this day place the writer at a time when Geshur and Maacath still stood apart inside Israel's borders. John Gill notes that both later had kings of their own. The king of Maacah is hired against David at 2 Samuel 10:6.

John Wesley takes the offerings made by fire to stand for the whole support of the Levites, tithes and firstfruits included. He reads the repetition as a protection for them against the greed of the other tribes. Matthew Henry adds that their towns lay scattered through every tribe.

Joshua 13:15-23

Reuben's towns carry the names of gods Israel had fallen to: Bamoth-baal, Beth-baal-meon and Beth-peor, the Peor of Numbers 25:1-3. Verse 22 is the only verse that calls Balaam a diviner, and it sets his death among the slain of Midian, closing Numbers 31:8. Heshbon had been Moab's before Sihon took it at Numbers 21:26, and Isaiah 16:8 and Jeremiah 48 find Moab holding these towns again.

Reuben's southern line repeats the description of Sihon's kingdom at verse 9, from Aroer on the Arnon. John Gill concludes that Reuben received Sihon's land, though only part of it. The rest goes to Gad at verse 27.

Bamoth-baal is where Balak took Balaam to look down on Israel's camp at Numbers 22:41, as John Gill notes. Gill also observes that the Gadites built up Dibon at Numbers 32:34, though it stands here in Reuben's list. He suggests it lay on the border between them.

Each town carries its own history. Jahaz is where Sihon fought Israel at Numbers 21:23, and from the Wilderness of Kedemoth Moses sent his offer of peace at Deuteronomy 2:26, as John Gill notes. Adam Clarke adds that these towns later went to the Levites, and Joshua 21:36 to 37 lists all three.

Adam Clarke follows Kiriathaim through its owners, from the Emites of Shaveh-kiriathaim in Genesis 14:5 to Moab, the Amorites and then Reuben. Moab held it again by the time of Jeremiah 48:1 and Ezekiel 25:9. Sibmah was known for its vines.

All three lie where Israel waited before crossing. John Gill points to Deuteronomy 3:29, where Israel stayed in the valley opposite Beth-peor. The slopes of Pisgah already bound the Arabah on the east at Deuteronomy 3:17.

The five Midianite chiefs are the kings of Midian named in the same order at Numbers 31:8. Joshua calls them princes of Sihon, which John Wesley explains as rulers subject to Sihon who lived in their own land. Adam Clarke points to Numbers 31 for the war.

John Wesley explains why Balaam's death is told again after Numbers 31:8. His failed curse on Israel was meant to be remembered. Deuteronomy 23:5 says the same, that the LORD turned the curse into a blessing.

John Gill traces Reuben's line from Aroer on the Arnon to the Jordan on the west. Adam Clarke reads the villages as open settlements where herds were fed and penned, much like Bedouin encampments. That suits herdsmen, as Numbers 32:1 describes Reuben and Gad.

Joshua 13:24-31

Gad inherits Jacob's ground, since 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 shelters for his livestock. Adam Clarke identifies Ramath-mizpeh with Ramoth-gilead, a city of refuge at Joshua 20:8 and the field where Ahab dies. Manasseh receives the sixty towns of Jair, named by Jair at Numbers 32:41.

This Aroer lies near Rabbah, the city of the Ammonites named at Deuteronomy 3:11, and differs from the Aroer on the Arnon in verse 16. John Wesley reads all the cities of Gilead as the main towns of Gad's part of Gilead. Half of Gilead goes to Manasseh at verse 31.

Mahanaim appears in both Gad's line and Manasseh's. John Wesley settles it by reading Gad's border as stopping short of the town, which he places in Manasseh beyond the Jabbok. Joshua 21:38, however, lists Mahanaim among the Levite towns taken from Gad.

Gad's share runs up the Jordan valley to the lake, which John Wesley calls the northern part of Sihon's kingdom. Adam Clarke records that Herod later rebuilt Beth-haram and named it Livias. Matthew Henry recalls Succoth from Gideon's story at Judges 8:5.

The closing formula matches verse 23 for Reuben, and John Gill reads the villages as the smaller places attached to each named city. Matthew Henry follows Gad's land into later history. David waited at Mahanaim during Absalom's revolt, recorded at 2 Samuel 17:24.

Numbers 32:1 has only Reuben and Gad asking for land east of the Jordan. Manasseh enters the grant at Numbers 32:33 with no recorded request. John Gill leaves open whether the half-tribe asked, and Adam Clarke thinks Moses assigned it because the tribe was large and had much cattle.

Jair belonged to two tribes. Adam Clarke traces him through 1 Chronicles 2:21 to 22, where Hezron of Judah marries a daughter of Machir and their grandson is Jair. Deuteronomy 3:4 counts the same sixty cities in the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og.

The eastern half of Manasseh is named by Machir, whom John Wesley takes as the most eminent son of Manasseh, citing Numbers 26:29. Numbers 32:39 to 40 records that Machir's clans took Gilead and received it from Moses. The rest of Manasseh is provided for at Joshua 17:2.

Joshua 13:32-33

Moses distributed the whole east side on the plains of Moab, across the Jordan from Jericho, though he never crossed the river himself. The chapter ends where verse 14 began: verse 14 gives Levi the offerings made by fire, and verse 33 gives Levi the LORD, the God of Israel, as its inheritance. Numbers 18:20 stands behind both, and Deuteronomy 10:9 says it again to the whole nation.

The account of the eastern tribes opened with Levi at verse 14 and closes with Levi here. John Gill observes that Levi was Moses's own tribe. Moses gave it no land, which Gill reads as proof that he kept to his instructions without favouring his own family.