Chapter 19 continues with the last allotment of land portions to the tribes. Here again is the map.
Chapter 20 gives the 6 cities of refuge. Someone guilty of manslaughter (not premeditated murder) could go to a city of refute for protection from the blood avenger of the person he/she killed. He/she would have to live in that city until the high priest died and then he could go back to his home city.
Chapter 21 is the 48 Levitical cities. AI: “They were distributed across the nation so Levites could teach God’s laws and assist with worship. Each city included surrounding common land measured out 1,000 cubits from the city wall for livestock and herds. Larger tribes provided more cities and smaller tribes gave fewer, averaging about 4 cities contributed by each of the 12 tribes.”
Chapter 21 ends with a very important statement. 21:43 So the Lord gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they possessed it and lived in it. 44 And the Lord gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hand. 45 Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.” God made the original promise to give Abraham the land while he was in Ur. God repeated the land promise to Abraham while he was in Haran (Genesis 12:1-3). He affirmed that promise to Isaac and Jacob. These verses say that Israel received all the land that God had promised them. AI: “Many biblical scholars and theologians state that ancient Israel never fully occupied or controlled all the territory described in the biblical promises made to Abraham. According to passages like Genesis 15:18, the Promised Land stretched from the “river of Egypt” (often identified as the Wadi of Egypt or Nile region) to the Euphrates River, encompassing vast territories well beyond modern borders. Historians and biblical scholars note that even at the height of the united monarchy under David and Solomon, Israel’s actual political control and military occupation covered a much smaller geographic area. They never ruled the entire expanse from the Nile to the Euphrates, Many evangelical and literalist theologians believe the unfulfilled boundaries mean the promise remains valid and will be completely fulfilled in a future prophetic or millennial reign.” But regardless of those points, 21:43-45 states clearly that Israel got all the land the God promised them. Not one of the. promises failed to come to pass. Period. Case closed. Now the bigger discussion will come later when the prophets predict that Israel will be restored to the land in the Messianic Age. Is that literal or figurative? We will save that discussion for later when we read the prophets. But don’t let anyone tell you Israel never got the promised land.
Chapter 22 is mainly about an altar that the 2 1/2 tribes who settled east of the Jordan built. The 9 1/2 tribes west of the Jordan were so angry that they gathered at Shiloh to attack the 2 1/2 tribes. The 9 1/2 tribes were afraid that the Lord would get angry with all 12 tribes b/c of the altar and punish them at at Peor or as He did with Achan. They accused the 2 1/2 tribes of rebelling against the Lord. The 2 1/2 tribes explained to them that they were not building the altar to offer sacrifices, which would have been a sin since all sacrifices were only to be made at the tabernacle in Shloh. They said they were just building the altar as a “witness” to future generations that they were following Yahweh just like the 9 1/2 tribes, a witness that they were still part of the nation. Phinehas the high priest and the elders of the 9 1/2 tribes were satisfied with that explanation and called off the attack plans. Civil war averted!
Chapter 23 Joshua’s farewell address. It’s too bad we have to break up the two chapters, 23 and 24, that contain Joshua’s farewell address. Joshua is in his upper 80’s at this time. He warns Israel to finish the job of conquering the rest of the land in Canaan that they had not yet conquered. If they did not finish the conquest, “they will be a snare and a trap to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you.” 23:14 “Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the Lord your God spoke concerning you has failed; all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed.” (the same as 21:43-45).
We will finish Joshua’s farewell address tomorrow with chapter 24, the last chapter of Joshua.
