18:1 Ever since Israel crossed the Jordan River and entered the Promised Land (chs. 3–4), its base of operations has been the camp at Gilgal, near Jericho (4:19). There the people made themselves fit to occupy the land gifted to them by God (5:9, 10). To Gilgal they returned after the main regional military campaigns (10:15, 43), and from Gilgal the first distribution of tribal settlements took place (14:6). But Gilgal was only ever meant to be a temporary staging post as Israel gained a foothold in the land—a border outpost in a marginal zone.

With Israel now well established in the land, even if not fully settled, a new and more geographically central location becomes the place of convocation. Shiloh is a sensible choice: located 11 miles (18 km) south of Shechem, in Ephraim, it is roughly in the middle of the major Judah/Joseph territories already allotted. This relocation is not simply practical, however. The notice that here Israel “set up the tent of meeting” provides the first of only two references to the tabernacle in the book of Joshua; the other reference (19:51) brackets this second phase of settlement. With Jerusalem playing no special role in the book—it is still a Canaanite enclave (15:63)—Shiloh is not only a geographical center but a religious one as well. Later tradition understands Shiloh to be the place of God’s “dwelling” among his people (Ps. 78:60), and as late as the time of Jeremiah it is still remembered as the place “where I made my name dwell at first” (Jer. 7:12).120 Although the reference here is brief and understated, the impact made on the social memory of Israel is deep and lasting.

The last clause of this deceptively simple verse likewise signals something of significance: “The land lay subdued before them.” There will be no further military campaigns in the book. Although the settlements of Judah and Joseph entailed some military activity, such is absent from the account of the settling of the seven remaining tribes. The practice of kherem was last mentioned when the regional campaigns in the north came to a close (11:21), and from the land distribution at Shiloh forward warfare of any kind does not feature in Israelite settlement. Does Israel no longer seek to dispossess the Canaanites? Is there no further resistance? Or is the land now understood to be empty? The book of Joshua does not give an explicit answer to these questions, although Judges provides some further perspective on them and inclines toward the first of these explanations. Here, however, the notice that “the land lay subdued before them” implies its full subjugation. This same language was used by Moses as the condition that would release the Transjordan tribes from military service to return to their own settlements (Num. 32:22, 29). Likewise it forms part of David’s encouragement to Solomon that he will enjoy the prospect of peace in which to construct the temple (1 Chron. 22:18). The verse marks not only geographic and religious transitions but a military transition as well.

18:2 Of the “nine and one-half tribes” (Josh. 14:2) to settle west of the Jordan, only two and a half have received their territorial allotment; seven remain. Both tribal groups of “two and one-half” (14:3), east and west of the Jordan, that have already settled will be mentioned in Joshua’s speech that follows. This provides a further balance, then, in the literary presentation of the tribal settlements.

18:3–7 Joshua’s opening gambit to the seven tribes has been called “more motivational than accusatory,”121 but the chiding tone is difficult to suppress. In “How long will you put off,” the Hebrew has mitrappim; this form of the verb raphah is used elsewhere only in Proverbs 18:9 and 24:10, both to do with the deleterious effects of laziness (some English translations offer “slack” here) and carrying also the sense of a lack of courage. Some sense of rebuke—much as Joshua himself received from the Lord in Joshua 13:1—would be felt in such a charge. Added to this is the way in which Joshua refers to the land as having been gifted by “the Lord, the God of your fathers.” This precise designation of Israel’s covenant God is the one used after the revelation of the divine name in Exodus 3:15–16; it is used eight times in Deuteronomy, typically with reference to God’s promises of land in particular and, of these, twice precisely with the responsibility to take the land (Deut. 1:21; 4:1). It is used only here in Joshua, and once again in Judges 2:12 in conjunction with Israel’s apostasy. Referring to the land as God’s gift in this way emphasizes the lax attitude of the seven remaining tribes.

Joshua’s plan involves tribal representatives’ mapping the remaining territory into seven divisions and submitting the boundary descriptions to Joshua, who will “cast lots . . . before the Lord” (cf. comment on 14:1–5) and so assign them to these tribes. Joshua also confirms the territories of those who have already received land in their two sets—Judah and Joseph to the west of the Jordan in the familiar south/north order and the two and a half tribes to the east—and once again excludes the tribe of Levi from receiving an inheritance.

18:8–10 The survey is undertaken, the representatives return, and Joshua apportions the divisions to the tribes. No time frame is placed on these activities by the narrator. The issue now is not how long they took but that the task is undertaken and completed.