Joshua 13:1

Now Joshua was old, [and] stricken in years,.... How old he was cannot be said precisely, but it is very probable he was now about an hundred years of age, for he lived to be an hundred ten; and the

Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed. Now Joshua was old and stricken in years.

JOSHUA CHAPTER 13 God makes known to Joshua the bounds of the land not yet conquered, ; commands it to be divided among the nine tribes and a half, . The inheritance of the two tribes and a half on the other side Jordan, . The Lord and his sacrifices the inheritance of Levi, . The portion of the Reubenites, ; of the Gadites, ; of the half tribe of Manasseh, . Thou art old, therefore delay not to do the work which I have appointed and commanded thee to do. To be possessed; to be conquered, and so possessed by the people.

Joshua 13:1 Now Joshua was old [and] stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old [and] stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.Ver. 1. Thou art old and stricken in years,] q.d., Thou hast not long to do; up therefore and be doing; work while it is yet day; the night of death cometh, when none can work. Divide what thou hast conquered, yea, that which is yet to be conquered, among the tribes; for all is theirs, unless they forget their charter. See the true Christian’ s charter, which he cannot forfeit.

XIII. OF THE TO BE DIVIDED (Joshua 13:1-14). (b) According to its boundaries. (1) Joshua was old and stricken in years.—Rather, he had aged, and was advanced in days. Old is too absolute a word. He did not live beyond a hundred and ten years (Joshua 24:29), and this was not a great age for the time. But in several instances the Hebrew word here employed is used not so much in respect of the number of years men lived, but rather in regard to the weakening of the vital powers. So it is said in Genesis 27, “Isaac was old,” i.e., he had aged, for he lived forty-three years after that. So in regard to David, “the king was very old,” i.e., much aged, in 1 Kings 1:15, for he could not have been more than seventy when he died. The hardships and anxieties of his life had aged him. So it was perhaps with Joshua. Moses was a signal exception; he had not aged at one hundred and twenty. But Jehovah constantly talked with Moses, and knew him face to face; and may we not say that that heavenly intercourse even sustained the vital powers? The work of the Lord, though it be successfully carried on, as it was by Joshua, may wear men out by its very excitement. But personal intercourse with Him is like eating of the tree of life, and “in His presence is the fulness of joy.” In this personal intercourse Moses was more highly favoured than his successor, Joshua. (1, 7) There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed . . . Now therefore divide this land.—The land had still to be inherited—i.e., not overrun, or conquered, as far as it could be said to be conquered by defeating the armies that took the field; all this was done already, but the land had not passed out of the hands of its actual possessors into the hands of Israel. It is remarkable that we have here a distinct order given to Joshua to divide to Israel land which was not yet conquered. In these verses several nations are named—viz., the Philistines, the Geshurites, the Avites, the Giblites, the Sidonians, besides anything more which may be included in the sometimes generic, and sometimes more specific, name of the Canaanites. Of these tribes, the Philistines and “all the Sidonians” (or Phœnicians) were certainly not yet conquered. Can we say that they were ever conquered at any period in the history of the kingdom of all Israel, except in so far as they were reduced to the condition of tributaries?

CHAPTER XIII Joshua being old, the Lord informs him of the land yet remaining to be possessed, 1. Of the unconquered land among the Philistines, 2, 3. Among the Canaanites, Sidonians, and Amorites, 4, 5. The inhabitants of the hill country and the Sidonians to be driven out, 6. The land on the east side of Jordan, that was to be divided among the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, 7-12. The Geshurites and the Maachathites not expelled, 13. The tribe of Levi receive no inheritance, 14. The possessions of REUBEN described, 15-23. The possessions of GAD, 24-28. The possessions of the half tribe of Manasseh, 29-31. Recapitulation of the subjects contained in this chapter, 32, 33. NOTES ON CHAP. XIII Verse 1. Joshua was old] He is generally reputed to have been at this time about a hundred years of age: he had spent about seven years in the conquest of the land, and is supposed to have employed about one year in dividing it; and he died about ten years after, aged one hundred and ten years. It is very likely that he intended to subdue the whole land before he made the division of it among the tribes; but God did not think proper to have this done. So unfaithful were the Israelites that he appears to have purposed that some of the ancient inhabitants should still remain to keep them in check, and that the respective tribes should have some labour to drive out from their allotted borders the remains of the Canaanitish nations. There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.] That is, very much when compared with that on the other side Jordan, which was all that could as yet be said to be in the hands of the Israelites.

Ch. Joshua 13:1-7. The Divine Command to Joshua to distribute the Land 1. Now Joshua] With the thirteenth chapter begins the Second Part of the Book of Joshua. It describes the division of the Land, and rests no doubt on definite records which lay before the writer. “There is one document in the Hebrew Scriptures to which probably no parallel exists in the topographical records of any other ancient nation. In the Book of Joshua we have what may without offence be termed the Domesday Book of the conquest of Canaan. Ten chapters of that Book are devoted to a description of the country, in which not only are its general features and boundaries carefully laid down, but the names and situations of its towns and villages enumerated with a precision of geographical terms which encourages and almost compels a minute investigation.” Stanley’s Sinai and Palestine, p. xiii. Now Joshua was old] The Hebrew leader was now about ninety years of age. Much land still remained to be occupied. Strong fortresses—like Jerusalem, Gezer, and Bethshean—still remained in the hands of the defeated Canaanites. Their reduction by ordinary means would require time and entail difficulty. The command, therefore, is now given to wait no longer, but proceed to the division of the Land. and stricken in years] “Thou hast woxe eld, and art of loong age,” Wyclif. Comp. Genesis 18:11; Genesis 24:1; Joshua 23:1-2.

Joshua is bidden to allot the whole of the promised land among the twelve tribes in faith that God would perfect in due time that expulsion of the Canaanites which Joshua himself could not carry further (see Joshua 11:23).

LIST OF CITIES AND , Joshua 13:1-6. 1. Joshua was old — It was time for Joshua to be placed on the retired lists.