Week 9 Joshua
Last year I was impressed with the land holdings that went to Judah, Ephraim and Manasseh.
This year I’m not as impressed with how things have developed for Benjamin Simeon Zebulun Issachar Asher Naphtali & Dan.
For one thing their land allotments are sketched out pretty thinly. Benjamin’s is described in eighteen verses but none of the others get more than nine. Which seems short compared to the sixty-three Judah got in chapter fifteen.
Another thing I noticed is that the lands of Zebulun Issachar Asher & Naphtali all have clear borders spelled out. For instance: the boundary of Zebulun’s inheritance started at Sarid. From there it went west, going past Maralah, touching Dabbesheth, and proceeding to the brook east of Jokneam. In the other direction, the boundary line went east from Sarid to the border of Kislothtabor, and from there to Daberath and up to Japhia… (and so on). Pretty specific. But there are no border markings for Simeon or Dan – they’re only given a list of the towns they’ll get. In fact Simeon’s tract wasn’t even an independent territory – the tribe was plunked in the middle of Judah’s land.
Reading Joshua I’ve mostly been getting a feeling of all-for-one-and-one-for-all. But I can also see where fractures might develop; where conflict might come along.
Note: Benjamin is in Joshua 18:11-28; S-Z-I-A-N-D are in 19:1-48. The Zebulun quote is from 19:10-12 (NLT). And my map shows the Z-I-A-N Quartet clustered in the north country.