NOTES for Jos 16:1-10

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¹And the lot of the children of Joseph fell from Jordan by Jericho, unto the water of Jericho on the east, to the wilderness that goeth up from Jericho throughout mount Bethel,

²And goeth out from Bethel to Luz, and passeth along unto the borders of Archi to Ataroth,

³And goeth down westward to the coast of Japhleti, unto the coast of Beth-horon the nether, and to Gezer: and the goings out thereof are at the sea.

⁴So the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance.

⁵And the border of the children of Ephraim according to their families was thus: even the border of their inheritance on the east side was Ataroth-addar, unto Beth-horon the upper;

⁶And the border went out toward the sea to Michmethah on the north side; and the border went about eastward unto Taanath-shiloh, and passed by it on the east to Janohah;

⁷And it went down from Janohah to Ataroth, and to Naarath, and came to Jericho, and went out at Jordan.

⁸The border went out from Tappuah westward unto the river Kanah; and the goings out thereof were at the sea. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Ephraim by their families.

⁹And the separate cities for the children of Ephraim were among the inheritance of the children of Manasseh, all the cities with their villages.

¹⁰And they drave not out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer: but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites unto this day, and serve under tribute.

In the book of Joshua, when describing the tribal borders and corresponding territories, the fact is often mentioned that the land was not at all cleared of the pagan population, as originally intended. At the same time, it is usually not a question of exterminating the local inhabitants, but of driving them out from the occupied lands, as in this chapter. It is difficult to say what explains such selectivity of the conquerors. Most likely, the reasons in each case were specific, and they could have been different: somewhere it was impossible to drive away the warlike local tribes, and somewhere, quite possibly, the Jews did not even have the desire to drive them away — this could have been the case where the local inhabitants were quite peaceful and did not offer resistance to the newcomers, given that there was enough land for everyone.

Be that as it may, in the land given by God to His people, the Jews often settled side by side with pagan neighbors. Such a neighborhood was very tempting for a people who had only recently arrived from the steppes of Transjordan. Local paganism sometimes came to be perceived by them as the religion of civilized people, in contrast to Yahwism, which some viewed as a religion of nomads, and Yahweh as a god of the steppe or the desert.

God, however, as is evident, does not hinder His people or its individual tribes in the choice they have made; He does not drive out those whom the conquerors themselves did not drive out. This is understandable: after all, the building of the Promised Land is a divine-human process. Of course, it is God Who determines its borders, and it is God Who paves the way to it for the people, but the people will have to take their land themselves, and develop it too. God will certainly participate in this matter, but only insofar as He is invited, called, asked to participate. God has His Own plan for His land, but He wants it to be implemented by Him together with people — and if people make changes to His plans, He accepts their choice. The land can be as God intended it, but only if His people accept His plan completely and without reservations. If not, the land will be what people make of it — and the measure of God's participation will then be determined by people. Just like the measure of God's presence — whether in the life of an individual person or a whole nation.

Other notes

For Jos 16:1-10