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Joshua 13

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Joshua 13
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Old Testament Minute: Joshua

Stephen O. Smoot

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Contents

Joshua 1
Joshua 2
Joshua 3
Joshua 4
Joshua 5
Joshua 6
Joshua 7
Joshua 8
Joshua 9
Joshua 10
Joshua 11
Joshua 12
Joshua 13
Joshua 14
Joshua 15
Joshua 16
Joshua 17
Joshua 18
Joshua 19
Joshua 20
Joshua 21
Joshua 22
Joshua 23
Joshua 24
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Contents

Joshua 1
Joshua 2
Joshua 3
Joshua 4
Joshua 5
Joshua 6
1 2 … 4 Next »
Genesis 1
Genesis 2
Genesis 3
Genesis 4
Genesis 5
Genesis 6
Genesis 7
Genesis 8
Genesis 9
Genesis 11
Genesis 12
Genesis 13
Genesis 14
Genesis 15
Genesis 16
Genesis 17
Genesis 18
Genesis 19
Genesis 20
Genesis 21
Genesis 22
Genesis 23
Genesis 24
Genesis 25
Genesis 26
Genesis 27
Genesis 28
Genesis 29
Genesis 30
Genesis 31
Genesis 32
Genesis 33
Genesis 34
Genesis 35
Genesis 36
Genesis 37
Genesis 38
Genesis 39
Genesis 40
Genesis 41
Genesis 42
Genesis 43
Genesis 44
Genesis 45
Genesis 46
Genesis 47
Genesis 48
Genesis 49
Genesis 50

Stephen O. Smoot, “Joshua 13,” in Joshua, Old Testament Minute Commentary Series, ed. Taylor Halverson (Springville, UT: Book of Mormon Central, 2021).

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Joshua 13. The Remaining Land and Tribal Allotments

Joshua 13 begins the second major section of the eponymous book, which extends to the book’s close. This portion of the text describes the allotment of land to the various tribes of Israel, Joshua having conquered Canaan in the first half of the book. Not all of Canaan, however, was successfully captured. The first six verses of the chapter describe how portions of Canaan remained unconquered, mainly the southwest costal territory (the “borders of the Philistines”) and the east side of the Sea of Galilee (“all Geshuri”). These portions of Canaan would reportedly only come under Israelite control during the rule of King David (see 2 Samuel 3:1–3; 8:1–2). That some territory remained under Canaanite control despite Joshua’s rapid succession of campaigns narrated in chapters 1–11 seems to contradict or at least complicate the idealized portrayal of the conquest by the narrator (compare Joshua 13:13).

The allotted territories first described in this chapter are those that pertain to the territory east of the Jordan River and that are included under Moses’s allotments (verses 7–33). This section acts, in effect, as a sort of flashback to the territories conquered by Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness. As part of this list, verse 14 states that the tribe of Levi received no land inheritance but instead was attached to the portable tabernacle as its ritual custodians (compare Leviticus 7:29–36).

Also mentioned by name in this list is Balaam (son of Beor), the seer-for-hire encountered by Israel during the wilderness wanderings (see Numbers 22–24). His fate is death by the sword for unspecified offenses (Joshua 13:22; compare Numbers 31:8). The text refers to him pejoratively as a “soothsayer” (Hebrew qosem, “augur” or “diviner”), suggesting that whatever his moral status in the previous generation, by the time of the conquest he had a more negative reputation.

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