8 With the other half of the tribe of Manasseh1 the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond the Jordan eastward, as Moses the servant of the Lord gave them: 9 from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the tableland of Medeba as far as Dibon; 10 and all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, as far as the boundary of the Ammonites; 11 and Gilead, and the region of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan to Salecah; 12 all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei (he alone was left of the remnant of the Rephaim); these Moses had struck and driven out. 13 Yet the people of Israel did not drive out the Geshurites or the Maacathites, but Geshur and Maacath dwell in the midst of Israel to this day.
14 To the tribe of Levi alone Moses gave no inheritance. The offerings by fire to the Lord God of Israel are their inheritance, as he said to him.
15 And Moses gave an inheritance to the tribe of the people of Reuben according to their clans. 16 So their territory was from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the tableland by Medeba; 17 with Heshbon, and all its cities that are in the tableland; Dibon, and Bamoth-baal, and Beth-baal-meon, 18 and Jahaz, and Kedemoth, and Mephaath, 19 and Kiriathaim, and Sibmah, and Zereth-shahar on the hill of the valley, 20 and Beth-peor, and the slopes of Pisgah, and Beth-jeshimoth, 21 that is, all the cities of the tableland, and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses defeated with the leaders of Midian, Evi and Rekem and Zur and Hur and Reba, the princes of Sihon, who lived in the land. 22 Balaam also, the son of Beor, the one who practiced divination, was killed with the sword by the people of Israel among the rest of their slain. 23 And the border of the people of Reuben was the Jordan as a boundary. This was the inheritance of the people of Reuben, according to their clans with their cities and villages.
24 Moses gave an inheritance also to the tribe of Gad, to the people of Gad, according to their clans. 25 Their territory was Jazer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the Ammonites, to Aroer, which is east of Rabbah, 26 and from Heshbon to Ramath-mizpeh and Betonim, and from Mahanaim to the territory of Debir,2 27 and in the valley Beth-haram, Beth-nimrah, Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon, having the Jordan as a boundary, to the lower end of the Sea of Chinnereth, eastward beyond the Jordan. 28 This is the inheritance of the people of Gad according to their clans, with their cities and villages.
29 And Moses gave an inheritance to the half-tribe of Manasseh. It was allotted to the half-tribe of the people of Manasseh according to their clans. 30 Their region extended from Mahanaim, through all Bashan, the whole kingdom of Og king of Bashan, and all the towns of Jair, which are in Bashan, sixty cities, 31 and half Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, the cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. These were allotted to the people of Machir the son of Manasseh for the half of the people of Machir according to their clans.
32 These are the inheritances that Moses distributed in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan east of Jericho. 33 But to the tribe of Levi Moses gave no inheritance; the Lord God of Israel is their inheritance, just as he said to them.
Section Overview
Before the text goes on to relate the distribution of the “land that yet remains” (Josh. 13:2) to the “nine tribes and half the tribe of Manasseh” (13:7; cf. 14:2), it first rehearses once again the apportioning of the land to the east of the Jordan under Moses. The passage divides neatly: a frame—which combines a regional overview (13:8–13, 32) with a notice about the non-inheritance of Levi (vv. 14, 33)—contains three paragraphs attending to each of the Transjordanian tribal settlements: Reuben, firstborn and first settled, in verses 15–23; Gad’s allotment in verses 24–28; and the half-tribe of Manasseh in verses 29–31. Each of these paragraphs begins with a notice of what lands and holdings “Moses gave” to them and concludes with a brief summation. Within this regularity we find interesting variations.
Section Outline
II.B. Settlement under Moses: A Retrospective (13:8–33)
1. Regional Overview of the Transjordanian Settlement, Excluding Levi (13:8–14)
2. Moses Assigns Reuben’s Settlement (13:15–23)
3. Moses Assigns Gad’s Settlement (13:24–28)
4. Moses Assigns the Half-Tribe of Manasseh’s Settlement (13:29–31)
5. Summary of the Transjordanian Settlement, Excluding Levi (13:32–33)
This is the fourth time the Transjordanian settlement has been reported subsequent to the original account of the defeat of the kings Sihon and Og in Numbers 21 (but cf. Num. 21:25, 35). The four accounts are the following:
(1) Moses’ distribution after arranging for the Transjordan tribes’ continued participation in the conquest of the Promised Land (Num. 32:33–42).
(2) Moses’ rehearsal of the distribution in the sermon on the plains of Moab (Deut. 3:12–17).
(3) The regional summary concluding the first part of Joshua (Josh. 12:1–6).
(4) The preface to the settlement of the nine and a half tribes (Josh. 13:8–33).
On each occasion some association is made with the history of the defeat of the two Amorite kings, Sihon and Og, who take a special place as providing a precedent and template for further royal battles. The level of detail reported from those battles varies markedly, as do the nature and the extent of the geographical particulars provided. The distribution itself appears in summary form in the second and third accounts; more details, especially concerning the naming of cities affected within region, are provided in the first and fourth. No two are the same; each contributes in a way that meets the need of the immediate context. Here the effect of including this preface, which clearly marks an interruption in the main business of getting on to the settlement of the remaining tribes, is to set up a template for Joshua to follow: he must now do as Moses had previously done. It also provides something of a literary template for the reports that follow in chapters 14–19.
Response
It is difficult to know why the narrator chooses to rehearse once more the settlement east of the Jordan that took place under Moses, interrupting as it does the initiation of the settlement under Joshua (cf. Josh. 13:7; 14:2). If authorial purpose is difficult to ascertain, some effects on the reader can still be noted. First, providing this review integrates the Transjordanian settlement into that of the rest of the people under Joshua. As discussed above, the final notice of Sihon and Og also suggests the importance of integrating the settlement of their territories into the full account of Israel’s settlement as a whole. Weaving in this account at this point reinforces the perception of a single settlement by the whole people of Israel.
The second point that emerges is the counterpoint to this assertion of unity. Some sense of anxiety over the unity of God’s people also seems to be harbored. The flashback to the death of Balaam signals this most poignantly. Yet in all the accounts of the arrangements with the two and a half tribes something of this undercurrent is lurking. Thus in Numbers 32:1–32 Moses labors over eliciting commitment from these tribes to accompany their brothers into the land across the Jordan. So too the book of Joshua itself begins with these tribes’ declaring their obedience and parroting God’s encouragement to Joshua (Josh. 1:12–18). There is an element of foreshadowing here, as assertions of unity betray a fear of fragmentation, a fear realized in chapter 22.