Joshua19chapter 19

Joshua 19:1-9

Simeon draws second and receives no territory of its own, only towns cut out of Judah, and verse 9 gives the reason plainly, that Judah's part was too much for them. Genesis 49:7 said of Simeon and Levi that God would divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel, and both sentences come due in this book: Levi takes cities among all the tribes in chapter 21, and Simeon takes towns inside another tribe here. Moses blesses every tribe by name in Deuteronomy 33 and Simeon is the one name absent from that chapter. Ziklag stands at verse 5 and is already listed to Judah at 15:31, and Achish hands it to David at 1 Samuel 27:6.

Joshua 19:10-16

the third lot came up: Zebulun is drawn before Issachar although Issachar is the elder brother, and Jacob names the two in that same reversed order at Genesis 49:13-14. Gath-hepher at verse 13 is the home town of Jonah the son of Amittai, named as such at 2 Kings 14:25, so a boundary list fixes where a prophet came from. The Bethlehem of verse 15 sits in Galilee and is a different town from the Bethlehem of Judah at Micah 5:2, which is why the older commentators mark it every time. Nahallal in the same verse returns at Judges 1:30 as Nahalol, among the places Zebulun never cleared of Canaanites.

Joshua 19:17-23

the fourth lot came out: Issachar is given by its towns rather than by a traced border, because the tribe sits enclosed between portions already described. Jezreel at verse 18 becomes the second royal city of Israel and the ground of Naboth's vineyard at 1 Kings 21:1. Shunem in the same verse is where the Philistines pitch their camp before Saul's last night at 1 Samuel 28:4, and where the woman who kept a room for Elisha lived at 2 Kings 4:8. Mount Gilboa, where Saul falls, rises on the southern edge of the same plain.

Joshua 19:24-31

the fifth lot came out: Asher's border runs north past Carmel to great Zidon and to the strong city Tyre, ground Israel never held. Judges 1:31 lists Accho, Zidon, Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik and Rehob as places Asher did not drive out, and four of those names stand in this allotment: Zidon at verse 28, Rehob at verses 28 and 30, Achzib at verse 29 and Aphek at verse 30. Both accounts stand as written, and the same book that says at 21:45 that nothing failed says at 13:1 that much land remained to be possessed. Keil and Delitzsch read Joshua as the record of land granted rather than land occupied, and Matthew Henry lays the shortfall on Israel's own slackness rather than on the promise.

Joshua 19:32-39

The sixth lot came out: Hazor at verse 36 was the head of the northern kingdoms and was burned at 11:10-11, and it appears here as an ordinary town of the inheritance, while a king of Hazor is oppressing Israel again by Judges 4:2. Kedesh at verse 37 is set apart as a city of refuge at 20:7 and is where Deborah sends for Barak at Judges 4:6. Judges 1:33 names Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath as towns Naphtali never cleared, and both of them close this list at verse 38. Isaiah 9:1 speaks over the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the two portions given in this chapter, and Matthew 4:15 quotes that verse of Christ settling in Capernaum.

Joshua 19:40-46

the seventh lot came out: Dan draws last and is set down on the Philistine edge, between Judah and the sea, with the smallest ground of the seven. Zorah and Eshtaol open the list at verse 41, and they are where Samson is born at Judges 13:2, where the Spirit of the Lord first moves him at Judges 13:25, and where he is buried at Judges 16:31. Ekron at verse 43 was already written into Judah at 15:45 and remains a Philistine city all through the books of Samuel. Ajalon and Shaalabbin at verse 42 come back at Judges 1:35, where the Amorites are still holding both.

Joshua 19:47-48

Two verses tell a move that Judges 18 tells over thirty-one. Judges 1:34 gives the pressure behind it, that the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain and would not suffer them to come down to the valley, which is the coast too little for them stated here. Judges 18:29 calls the town Laish rather than Leshem and ends on the same clause, that they called the name of the city Dan after the name of Dan their father. What this chapter leaves out is what Judges puts at the centre of the account, the graven image the tribe carried north and the priesthood that served it until the captivity of the land at Judges 18:30-31.

Joshua 19:49-51

Joshua is served last, after every tribe has its portion, and he receives his by the people's gift rather than by taking it. The grant comes according to the word of the Lord, the same ground on which Caleb received Hebron at 14:13, so the two men who brought back the good report at Numbers 14 stand at the head of the allotment and at its close. Timnath-serah is where Joshua is buried at 24:30, and Judges 2:9 records the name as Timnath-heres. The division ends where chapter 18 began it, at Shiloh before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.