Week 9 Joshua
Twelve is a short chapter. And it’s mostly names. Before I start reading I can see – visually and obviously – that the second half of the chapter is a repetitive list of names. Thirty-one lines formatted in a column, all starting with the words the-king-of.
I page forward. Names, names, names. From chapter twelve to chapter twenty-two. Hundreds of them.
After a bit I go back to twelve and start reading. It’s broken in two by geography. The first six verses name the kings east of the Jordan River; the second half is a list of the kings on the west side.
There were only two kings defeated in the Jordan East sector – Sihon and Og. I remember reading about them a couple of weeks ago. I don’t recall most of the place names so I check my bible map, but even though it’s okay it doesn’t locate all of them for me. I see Heshbon the Arnon River Aroer the Jabbok River Pisgah the Salt Sea and the sea of Chinneroth. The names I can find are all east of the Jordan.
The rest of the chapter swings over to the west. I do a quick map scan. The only pattern I detect is that the place-name list seems to start in the south and work north.
Soon land is going to be doled out to landless nomads.
No matter what I think these people were no doubt very interested in what these chapters said.