Land Not Yet Taken
13 When Joshua was very old, the Lord said to him, “Joshua you have grown old, but there is still much land for you to take control of. 2 You have not yet taken the land of Geshur or the land of the Philistines. 3 You have not yet taken the area from the Shihor River[a] at Egypt to the border of Ekron and the land further north. That land still belongs to the Canaanites. You must still defeat the five Philistine leaders at Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. You must also defeat the Avvites 4 who live south of the Canaanite land. And you must still go north to take Mearah, which the Sidonians control. From there you must still go as far as Aphek on the Amorite border. 5 You have not yet defeated the area of the Gebalites. And also there is the area of Lebanon east of Baal Gad below Mount Hermon to Lebo Hamath.
6 “The people of Sidon are living in the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth Maim. But I will force them out for the Israelites. Be sure to remember this land when you divide the land among the Israelites. Do this as I told you. 7 Now divide the land among the nine tribes and half the tribe of Manasseh.”
Dividing the Land
8 The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the other half of the tribe of Manasseh had already received all their land. The Lord’s servant, Moses, gave them the land east of the Jordan River. 9 Their land started at Aroer by the Arnon Ravine and continued to the town in the middle of the ravine. And it included the whole plain from Medeba to Dibon. 10 All the towns that King Sihon of the Amorites ruled were in that land. He ruled in the city of Heshbon. The land continued to the area where the Ammonites lived. 11 Also the town of Gilead was in that land. And the area where the people of Geshur and Maacah lived was in that land. All of Mount Hermon and all of Bashan as far as Salecah was in that land. 12 All the kingdom of King Og was in that land. King Og ruled in Bashan. In the past he ruled in Ashtaroth and Edrei. Og was from the Rephaites. In the past Moses had defeated those people and had taken their land. 13 The Israelites did not force out the people of Geshur and Maacah. They still live among the Israelites today.
14 The tribe of Levi is the only tribe that did not get any land. Instead, the Levites were given all the animals offered by fire to the Lord, the God of Israel. That is what the Lord promised them.
15 Moses had given each family group from the tribe of Reuben some land. This is the land they received: 16 It was the land from Aroer near the Arnon Ravine to the town of Medeba. This included the whole plain and the town in the middle of the ravine. 17 The land continued to Heshbon. It included all the towns on the plain. Those towns were Dibon, Bamoth Baal, Beth Baal Meon, 18 Jahaz, Kedemoth, Mephaath, 19 Kiriathaim, Sibmah, Zereth Shahar on the hill in the valley, 20 Beth Peor, the hills of Pisgah, and Beth Jeshimoth. 21 So that land included all the towns on the plain and all the area that King Sihon of the Amorites had ruled. He ruled in the town of Heshbon, but Moses had defeated him and the leaders of the Midianites. Those leaders were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba. (They all fought together with Sihon.) All of them lived in that country. 22 The Israelites defeated Balaam son of Beor. (Balaam tried to use magic to tell the future.) The Israelites killed many people during the fighting. 23 The land that was given to Reuben stopped at the shore of the Jordan River. So the land that was given to the family groups of Reuben included all these towns and their fields that were listed.
24 This is the land Moses gave to the tribe of Gad. He gave this land to each tribe:
25 He gave them the land of Jazer, all the towns of Gilead, and half of the land of the Ammonites that went as far as Aroer near Rabbah. 26 Their land included the area from Heshbon to Ramath Mizpah and Betonim, from Mahanaim to the land of Debir, 27 the valley of Beth Haram, Beth Nimrah, Succoth and Zaphon, including the rest of the kingdom of King Sihon of Heshbon, along the Jordan all the way up to Lake Galilee on the eastern side of the river. 28 All this land is the land Moses gave the family groups of Gad. That land included all the towns that were listed. Moses gave that land to each family group.
29 This is the land Moses gave to half the tribe of Manasseh. Half of all the families in the tribe of Manasseh got this land:
30 The land started at Mahanaim. The land included all of Bashan, all the land ruled by King Og of Bashan, and all the towns of Jair in Bashan. (In all, there were 60 cities.) 31 The land also included half of Gilead, Ashtaroth, and Edrei. (Gilead, Ashtaroth, and Edrei were the cities where King Og had lived.) All this land was given to the family of Makir son of Manasseh. Half of all his sons got this land.
32 Moses gave all this land to these tribes. He did this while the people were camped on the plains of Moab. This was across the Jordan River, east of Jericho. 33 Moses did not give any land to the tribe of Levi. The Lord, God of Israel, promised that he himself would be the gift for the tribe of Levi.
Footnotes
- Joshua 13:3 Shihor River Probably one of the eastern branches of the Nile River.