13 Now Joshua was old and advanced in years, and the Lord said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to possess. 2 This is the land that yet remains: all the regions of the Philistines, and all those of the Geshurites 3 (from the Shihor, which is east of Egypt, northward to the boundary of Ekron, it is counted as Canaanite; there are five rulers of the Philistines, those of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron), and those of the Avvim, 4 in the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that belongs to the Sidonians, to Aphek, to the boundary of the Amorites, 5 and the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal-gad below Mount Hermon to Lebo-hamath, 6 all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth-maim, even all the Sidonians. I myself will drive them out from before the people of Israel. Only allot the land to Israel for an inheritance, as I have commanded you. 7 Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and half the tribe of Manasseh.”
Section Overview
As the second major section of the book begins, again God speaks directly to Joshua, providing instructions for the new context in which Joshua finds himself. After the brief statement from the narrator in verse 1a, God’s speech continues through to the end of verse 7. The speech first affirms what the narrator has just stated, and then verses 2–6a survey the “land that yet remains” (v. 2). Verse 6b interjects another note of divine promise and repeats the command, with verse 7 bringing this to focus on the tribes yet to settle.
Section Outline
II. Inhabiting the Land (13:1–21:45)
A. The Land That Yet Remains (13:1–7)
1. Joshua’s Advanced Years (13:1a)
2. God’s Renewed Charge to Settle the Land (13:1b–7)
Response
The impulse to spiritualize a passage such as this one is difficult to resist. It should never be forgotten that in this speech God depicts for Joshua a real landscape with real inhabitants. The chapters that follow likewise relentlessly root the life of the people of Israel in the land given to them by the Lord. At the same time, the dynamic that sparks this last direct word of God to Joshua is a familiar one in both the OT and NT. Beginnings may be made, but persistence to the finish is required. Commenting on this dynamic in Joshua, Alice Hodgkin observes,
Though “all things are ours” in Christ, it remains for us to take possession of them experimentally by faith. The promise was that every place that the sole of their foot should tread should be theirs. And in the thirteenth chapter of this book the Lord said unto Joshua, “There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.” There was a slackness on the part of Israel to possess the land which the Lord had given them (xviii. 3).113
Some responsibility for that slackness appears to be attributed to Joshua. The repeated contrast of the alacrity with which Moses allotted the “inheritance” of the Transjordan tribes with the more leisurely pace under Joshua subsequent to the conquest of kings reinforces this perception.
The claim God makes of Joshua, and through him of Israel as well, is not only for perseverance (cf. Heb. 10:32–39; 12:12) but for an unceasing endurance. There is a sense here in which vigilance and perseverance are two sides of the same coin: flagging on one side will lead to failure on the other. We can understand the calls in Revelation for the “endurance of the saints” (Rev. 14:12; cf. 13:10) to have the same sense. Meanwhile, if the theme of persistence, endurance, and perseverance with attendant obedience remains somewhat implicit here, by the time of Joshua’s final speech in chapter 24 it will have grown to startling proportions.
The language of the Hebrew nahalah, which brings with it some sense of “entitlement,” may sit uneasily, especially with the recognition of the populated landscape to which attention has already been drawn. The underlying principle in terms of the rebellion of the “kings of the earth” (Ps. 76:12), discussed in relation to the southern and northern campaigns, may feel too distant to be helpful here. But the notion that all creation is in the gift of the Creator is also a pervasive biblical principle. It was the basis on which Israel’s land regulations were framed: “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine” (Lev. 25:23). The psalmists assert and sing of God’s claim and ownership of all there is: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein” (Ps. 24:1) and, again, “The world and its fullness are mine” (Ps. 50:12). Politically, this extended also to people groups not typically associated with divine action on their behalf, expressed poignantly in Amos 9:7. This will in fullness of time be realized in a gathering together of a people of God from “every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Rev. 7:9; cf. Eph. 2:13–18). In this case, then, God exercises the right to gift the land to his people; they in turn should show it the care its Creator intended.