Joshua 13
The book of Joshua has been, until now, a book of conquest - crossing the Jordan, the walls of Jericho, the long campaigns that brought much of Canaan under Israel. Chapter 13 stops the story to take stock, and it begins with the plain fact of age: Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed (v. 1). This is not said to shame the old leader. It is realism, and it is grace. No single human life, however faithful, finishes the whole work of God. Much has been won under Joshua's hand; much is still promised and unentered. The chapter holds both truths together and refuses to let the reader rest in either alone.3
The LORD names the land that remains - the borders of the Philistines and the Geshuri, the Canaanite country, the land of the Giblites and all Lebanon up to the entering into Hamath - and then makes a promise that takes the weight off Joshua's aging shoulders: them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites for an inheritance (v. 6). Joshua's task is not to finish; it is to divide what God Himself will finish. The chapter then turns east of the Jordan, recalling the inheritance Moses had already given Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh - the kingdoms of Sihon and Og, traced region by region, town by town. Even the dry-seeming roll of place-names is a quiet sermon: God keeps what He says across generations and leaders. What Moses promised, Joshua records as kept.
Running through the whole chapter, and sounded twice like a bell, is the matter of the one tribe that received no land at all. Only unto the tribe of Levi he gave none inheritance; the sacrifices of the LORD God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance (v. 14), and again at the very close: But unto the tribe of Levi Moses gave not any inheritance: the LORD God of Israel was their inheritance, as he said unto them (v. 33). Set against the careful measuring of everyone else's borders, Levi's portion is startling - no acreage, no city, only God Himself. The chapter that begins with land yet to be possessed ends with the inheritance that is better than any land. And tucked among the records of the slain is one sober line worth pausing over: Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the sword (v. 22).2
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
Joshua 13:1-7There Remaineth Yet Very Much Land
1Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed. 2This is the land that yet remaineth: all the borders of the Philistines, and all Geshuri, 3From Sihor, which is before Egypt, even unto the borders of Ekron northward, which is counted to the Canaanite: five lords of the Philistines; the Gazathites, and the Ashdothites, the Eshkalonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avites: 4From the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that is beside the Sidonians unto Aphek, to the borders of the Amorites: 5And the land of the Giblites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrising, from Baalgad under mount Hermon unto the entering into Hamath. 6All the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon unto Misrephothmaim, and all the Sidonians, them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites for an inheritance, as I have commanded thee. 7Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance unto the nine tribes, and the half tribe of Manasseh,
The chapter opens with a fact stated twice in a single breath, once by the narrator and once by the LORD Himself: Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed (v. 1). The repetition is deliberate. Joshua has lived long enough to see what no other could accomplish - he has brought Israel across the Jordan and into the land sworn to their fathers. Yet at the height of all that, the word that comes is not a medal for what is done but a frank reckoning of what is not. This is not shame laid on an old man; it is the truth that steadies everything else in the chapter. No human leader, however faithful, however mighty, completes the whole work of God in a single lifetime. The conquest under Joshua was real and it was great - and it was unfinished. Scripture is honest about that gap, and it does not let the reader paper it over with the memory of past victories.
Then comes the inventory of what is left: This is the land that yet remaineth (v. 2) - the borders of the Philistines and Geshuri, the Canaanite country from Sihor to Ekron with its five Philistine lords, the land beside the Sidonians, the Giblites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrising, from Baalgad under mount Hermon unto the entering into Hamath (vv. 2-5). The names roll out like the edges of a map not yet filled in. These are not small leftovers; they are whole peoples and regions, the coastlands and the far north. A reader could be forgiven for hearing only discouragement in such a list - so much still in enemy hands after so long a war. But the chapter does not let it land that way. The unentered territory is named precisely so that it can be promised and assigned, not so that it can be mourned. What remains is held out as inheritance waiting to be received, not as failure to be regretted.
The pivot of the whole opening is one short pronoun: them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites for an inheritance, as I have commanded thee (v. 6). The weight of finishing does not rest on Joshua. I will drive them out, the LORD says - the verb is His, the work is His. Joshua's assignment is smaller and different: divide thou it. He is to apportion by lot land that is not yet militarily in hand, parceling out as a sure inheritance regions still held by the enemy. That takes a particular kind of faith - to measure and assign what you cannot yet see secured, trusting the promise of the One who said He would secure it. This is the pattern that runs all through Scripture: human effort and divine completion side by side, the servant doing his appointed part while God does what only God can do. Joshua, old and weak, is not asked to conquer the rest. He is asked to believe the rest is as good as given, and to act on it - to divide the land for those who will one day fully possess it.
Joshua 13:8-23The Inheritance East of Jordan · The LORD Is Levi's Portion
8With whom the Reubenites and the Gadites have received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond Jordan eastward, even as Moses the servant of the LORD gave them; 9From Aroer, that is upon the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that is in the midst of the river, and all the plain of Medeba unto Dibon; 10And all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, which reigned in Heshbon, unto the border of the children of Ammon; 11And Gilead, and the border of the Geshurites and Maachathites, and all mount Hermon, and all Bashan unto Salcah; 12All the kingdom of Og in Bashan, which reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei, who remained of the remnant of the giants: for these did Moses smite, and cast them out. 13Nevertheless the children of Israel expelled not the Geshurites, nor the Maachathites: but the Geshurites and the Maachathites dwell among the Israelites until this day.
The chapter now turns from the land that remains to the land already granted, east of the Jordan. The record is careful and exact: With whom the Reubenites and the Gadites have received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond Jordan eastward, even as Moses the servant of the LORD gave them (v. 8). Twice in one verse the gift is tied to Moses, and Moses is named the servant of the LORD - the point being that what these tribes hold, they hold by the word of God spoken through His servant a generation earlier. The territory is then traced from Aroer on the Arnon northward: the plain of Medeba, the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites who had reigned in Heshbon, Gilead, all Bashan, and all the kingdom of Og in Bashan… who remained of the remnant of the giants (vv. 9-12). These were no small foes. Sihon and Og were kings whose defeat Israel would sing about for centuries. Here their fallen kingdoms are quietly entered into the ledger as inheritance - proof that the God who promised this land had already, under Moses, begun to give it.
One honest note interrupts the record: Nevertheless the children of Israel expelled not the Geshurites, nor the Maachathites: but the Geshurites and the Maachathites dwell among the Israelites until this day (v. 13). The same theme that opened the chapter surfaces again, now in miniature. Even in the eastern territory that Moses had assigned and Israel had taken, pockets remained unconquered. The work was begun and real, yet incomplete - foreign peoples still dwelt in the midst of the inheritance. Scripture does not hide this. It records the gap between what was promised and what was possessed, here as it did in verse 1. The phrase until this day is sobering: what is left undone has a way of staying undone, of settling in and becoming a permanent neighbor. It is a quiet warning that runs ahead into the book of Judges, where the half-finished conquest will cost Israel dearly. Ground not taken does not stay empty; someone else lives there.
14Only unto the tribe of Levi he gave none inheritance; the sacrifices of the LORD God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance, as he said unto them.
Set into the middle of the land records, almost in passing, is the first sounding of the chapter's deepest note: Only unto the tribe of Levi he gave none inheritance; the sacrifices of the LORD God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance, as he said unto them (v. 14). Among all this careful measuring of territory, one tribe is measured out nothing. Levi receives no parcel of ground, no city to call its own - and the text is at pains to say this is not an oversight but a provision, exactly as he said unto them. Their portion is the altar. The offerings made by fire to the LORD are what they live on; the service of God is their inheritance. There is a vulnerability built into this. Levi cannot fall back on land in a hard year; they must trust that the God they serve will sustain them through the worship He commanded. To have the LORD's sacrifices as your inheritance is to have your daily bread bound up with your nearness to Him. The other tribes inherited places; Levi inherited a vocation - and through it, the LORD Himself.
15And Moses gave unto the tribe of the children of Reuben inheritance according to their families. 16And their coast was from Aroer, that is on the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that is in the midst of the river, and all the plain by Medeba; 17Heshbon, and all her cities that are in the plain; Dibon, and Bamothbaal, and Bethbaalmeon, 18And Jahaza, and Kedemoth, and Mephaath, 19And Kirjathaim, and Sibmah, and Zarethshahar in the mount of the valley, 20And Bethpeor, and Ashdothpisgah, and Bethjeshimoth, 21And all the cities of the plain, and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, which reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses smote with the princes of Midian, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, which were dukes of Sihon, dwelling in the country. 22Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the sword among them that were slain by them. 23And the border of the children of Reuben was Jordan, and the border thereof. This was the inheritance of the children of Reuben after their families, the cities and the villages thereof.
Reuben's inheritance is then set down in full detail - the border from Aroer on the Arnon, the plain by Medeba, then a roll of towns: Heshbon and her cities, Dibon, Bamothbaal, Bethbaalmeon, Jahaza, Kedemoth, Mephaath, Kirjathaim, Sibmah, Bethpeor, and the rest (vv. 15-20). It can read, to modern eyes, like a dry deed of property. But the very dryness is part of the point. God deals in particulars. He does not give His people a vague sense of blessing; He gives Reuben this river for a border and these named towns to dwell in. Faith in Scripture is not a haze of good feeling; it touches down in real places with real names. The closing line seals it: This was the inheritance of the children of Reuben after their families, the cities and the villages thereof (v. 23). What Moses had promised this tribe, the record now certifies as theirs - down to the last village. The God who keeps covenant keeps it in the details.
Among the list of Sihon's fallen princes comes a name that does not belong to the geography at all: Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the sword among them that were slain by them (v. 22). The record pauses to mark how this man ended. Balaam was the seer hired to curse Israel, who could not curse where God had blessed and whose mouth was made to speak true blessing instead. Yet the title fixed to him here is not “prophet” but the soothsayer - one who trafficked in divination - and his end is recorded among the enemy slain. Behind that single verse lies the sad arc of a man who heard God plainly and bent his gifts toward gain anyway, who could not curse Israel with his tongue and so counseled the corruption that nearly did what the curse could not. Here, on the far side of the Jordan, the compromised seer falls with the kings he had thrown in his lot with. It is a quiet, sober epitaph: gifts are not the same as faithfulness, and the one who knows the truth of God yet loves the wages of unrighteousness comes to no good end.
Joshua 13:24-33Gad and Half Manasseh · The LORD God of Israel Was Their Inheritance
24And Moses gave inheritance unto the tribe of Gad, even unto the children of Gad according to their families. 25And their coast was Jazer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon, unto Aroer that is before Rabbah; 26And from Heshbon unto Ramathmizpeh, and Betonim; and from Mahanaim unto the border of Debir; 27And in the valley, Betharam, and Bethnimrah, and Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon, Jordan and his border, even unto the edge of the sea of Chinnereth on the other side Jordan eastward. 28This is the inheritance of the children of Gad after their families, the cities, and their villages.
Gad's portion is recorded next, with the same care: Jazer, the cities of Gilead, half the land of the Ammonites, the towns of the valley - Betharam, Bethnimrah, Succoth, Zaphon - reaching even unto the edge of the sea of Chinnereth on the other side Jordan eastward (vv. 24-27). The sea of Chinnereth is the lake later called Galilee; Gad's inheritance ran up its eastern shore. And again the record closes with a seal: This is the inheritance of the children of Gad after their families, the cities, and their villages (v. 28). What is striking, taken together with Reuben and the half tribe to come, is that this whole eastern inheritance lies outside Canaan proper, across the Jordan from the land most think of as the Promised Land. Yet the text grants it the full dignity of inheritance. These tribes are no less part of Israel for living on the far bank. Belonging to the people of God is settled by covenant, not by which side of a river one happens to dwell on.
29And Moses gave inheritance unto the half tribe of Manasseh: and this was the possession of the half tribe of the children of Manasseh by their families. 30And their coast was from Mahanaim, all Bashan, all the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, and all the towns of Jair, which are in Bashan, threescore cities: 31And half Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were pertaining unto the children of Machir the son of Manasseh, even to the one half of the children of Machir by their families. 32These are the countries which Moses did distribute for inheritance in the plains of Moab, on the other side Jordan, by Jericho, eastward.
The half tribe of Manasseh receives the northern stretch of the eastern territory: from Mahanaim through all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, the towns of Jair, half of Gilead, Ashtaroth and Edrei - the threescore cities belonging to the descendants of Machir (vv. 29-31). Then the whole eastern account is closed with a single summarizing line: These are the countries which Moses did distribute for inheritance in the plains of Moab, on the other side Jordan, by Jericho, eastward (v. 32). The setting named there is worth a moment. The plains of Moab were where Israel encamped after the forty years of wandering, where the old generation died and the new prepared to cross, where Moses spoke his last words and laid out the law again before he died. It was from that threshold - on the very edge of the land, looking across - that Moses distributed these eastern inheritances. The God of the promise had already begun handing out the inheritance before a single tribe set foot in Canaan. His word does not wait on perfect circumstances to begin keeping itself.
33But unto the tribe of Levi Moses gave not any inheritance: the LORD God of Israel was their inheritance, as he said unto them.
The chapter ends where it briefly paused before, and the second sounding is plainer and fuller than the first: But unto the tribe of Levi Moses gave not any inheritance: the LORD God of Israel was their inheritance, as he said unto them (v. 33). After page upon page of borders and towns and named villages, the last word is about the tribe that got none of it - and it turns the whole accounting on its head. Levi's lack of land is not their poverty; it is the sign of their wealth. Where verse 14 said the sacrifices were their portion, verse 33 says it most directly of all: the LORD was their inheritance. Not the offerings only, but God Himself. Set beside everyone else's carefully measured acreage, this is the highest thing the chapter can say about any tribe. The others were given places to live; Levi was given God to belong to. And the closing phrase, repeated from verse 14 - as he said unto them - grounds it in the LORD's own promise. This was no consolation prize improvised when the land ran out. It was the arrangement God Himself spoke: that one tribe, set apart for His service, would hold not earth but Him.
Further study
- The Hebrew text of Joshua 13 with classical commentators side by side - useful for the verb yarash (v. 1, “to be possessed,” the land taken into possession) and for nachalah (vv. 6, 14, 33, the “inheritance” assigned by lot, and the LORD Himself as Levi's portion).
- Joshua 13 ↔ Numbers 18 · Psalm 16 · Philippians 3 · 1 Peter 1Intertextual BibleTraces the threads tying Joshua 13 to the rest of Scripture - the LORD as the Levites' inheritance (vv. 14, 33) read beside the LORD is the portion of mine inheritance (Ps. 16:5) and the priests living of the altar (1 Cor. 9:13-14), and the land that remains (v. 1) read beside the call to press toward the mark (Phil. 3:12-14).
- Joshua 13 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Joshua 13 - the geography of the land yet unconquered in verses 2-6, the kingdoms of Sihon and Og east of the Jordan (vv. 8-12), the identification of Balaam in verse 22, and the distinctive provision for Levi in verses 14 and 33.
Where this echoes in Scripture
There Remaineth Yet Very Much Land
- Philippians 3:12-14I follow after... reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.The “already and not yet” of verse 1 - much given, much still to be pressed toward and possessed.
- Hebrews 4:8-11For if Jesus had given them rest... There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God... Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest.Joshua brought Israel in, yet a fuller rest remained - the same not-yet that verse 1 names.
- Deuteronomy 7:22And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little.The LORD’s promise to drive out the land’s peoples (v. 6) - His work, done in His time.
- Philippians 1:6He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.The completing belongs to God - as the LORD, not Joshua, pledges to finish the conquest (v. 6).
- Joshua 11:23So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD said unto Moses... and the land rested from war.The conquest summarized as complete - held in tension with the “land that yet remaineth” of verses 1-6.
The Inheritance East of Jordan · The LORD Is Levi’s Portion
- Numbers 18:20Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land... I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel.The provision named in verse 14 - the LORD Himself given to Levi in place of land.
- Numbers 21:33-35And they went up... to Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan went out against them... So they smote him.The defeat of Og (v. 12), whose kingdom is here entered into the inheritance east of Jordan.
- Numbers 31:8Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword.The same end recorded in verse 22 - the soothsayer who could not curse Israel falling among the slain.
- Revelation 2:14Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel.The deeper failure behind verse 22 - the seer who counseled the corruption his curse could not accomplish.
- 2 Peter 2:15the way of Balaam... who loved the wages of unrighteousness.The sober epitaph of verse 22 - gifts bent toward gain rather than faithfulness.
Gad and Half Manasseh · The LORD God of Israel Was Their Inheritance
- Psalm 16:5-6The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup... yea, I have a goodly heritage.The Psalmist takes up Levi’s portion (vv. 14, 33) as his own - the LORD Himself as inheritance.
- Lamentations 3:24The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.The same confession clung to in grief - God Himself the portion when all else is gone (v. 33).
- 1 Corinthians 9:13-14They which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple... the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.The priestly pattern of verse 14 - those who serve the altar living of the altar.
- 1 Peter 1:4To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.The inheritance better than land that verses 14 and 33 foreshadow - kept in heaven and unfading.
- Romans 8:17And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.The fullest form of Levi’s portion (v. 33) - the believer’s inheritance is God Himself, in Christ.