Joshua 17
Joshua 17 records the lot that fell to the tribe of Manasseh, the firstborn son of Joseph, and it opens by naming his line - Machir, the father of Gilead, who was a man of war, and the families of Abiezer, Helek, Asriel, Shechem, Hepher, and Shemida, the male children of Manasseh (vv. 1-2). It is the ordinary language of an ancient land-grant: a great house dividing its portion among its sons. But the chapter is about to interrupt that orderly list of sons with five women whose father had none.3
For Zelophehad had no sons, but daughters, and the chapter pauses to write all five of their names into the permanent record: Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah (v. 3). They come before Eleazar the priest, Joshua, and the princes with a claim staked entirely on the word of God - The LORD commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brethren (v. 4) - and they are not turned away. They receive their portion among their father's brethren, so that ten portions, not nine, fall to Manasseh west of the Jordan. Then the chapter traces the tribe's borders (vv. 7-11), and admits a shadow: the Canaanites in the strong cities would dwell in that land, and when Israel grew strong it put them to tribute but did not utterly drive them out (vv. 12-13).
The final movement is a complaint and an answer. The children of Joseph come to Joshua grumbling that one lot is too small for so great a people, blessed as they are by the LORD (v. 14). Joshua does not soothe them with more territory. He throws their own greatness back at them as a charge: If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself (v. 15). When they protest that the Canaanites in the valley have chariots of iron, Joshua holds firm, and his last word is both a command and a promise: the mountain is yours, clear it - thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they be strong (v. 18). The inheritance is given; it remains to be possessed.2
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
Joshua 17:1-6An Inheritance Among Our Brethren
1There was also a lot for the tribe of Manasseh; for he was the firstborn of Joseph; to wit, for Machir the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead: because he was a man of war, therefore he had Gilead and Bashan. 2There was also a lot for the rest of the children of Manasseh by their families; for the children of Abiezer, and for the children of Helek, and for the children of Asriel, and for the children of Shechem, and for the children of Hepher, and for the children of Shemida: these were the male children of Manasseh the son of Joseph by their families. 3But Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but daughters: and these are the names of his daughters, Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. 4And they came near before Eleazar the priest, and before Joshua the son of Nun, and before the princes, saying, The LORD commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brethren. Therefore according to the commandment of the LORD he gave them an inheritance among the brethren of their father. 5And there fell ten portions to Manasseh, beside the land of Gilead and Bashan, which were on the other side Jordan; 6Because the daughters of Manasseh had an inheritance among his sons: and the rest of Manasseh's sons had the land of Gilead.
The chapter opens in the settled language of a great house dividing its land: There was also a lot for the tribe of Manasseh; for he was the firstborn of Joseph (v. 1). Manasseh was Joseph's elder son, and Joseph had received the double portion of the firstborn (Gen. 48), so his line now takes its place among the tribes. First named is Machir the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, a man of war, who had already won and held Gilead and Bashan on the east side of the Jordan under Moses. Then the rest of the families are listed by name - Abiezer, Helek, Asriel, Shechem, Hepher, Shemida - the male children of Manasseh (v. 2). Every name in these two verses is a son. The whole grant runs along the expected line of inheritance from father to sons. And that is exactly what makes the next verse land with such force: the orderly column of sons is about to be interrupted by a man who had none.3
The interruption comes with a single word - But. But Zelophehad… had no sons, but daughters (v. 3). In the world of the chapter, that was not a footnote; it was a crisis. Inheritance passed through sons, and a man with no son ordinarily saw his name and his portion absorbed into others' lines. Yet the text does the opposite of erasing this family: it writes all five daughters into the permanent record by name - Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. The very page that lists the sons of Manasseh in a single breath slows down to name each daughter of Zelophehad. Their case had already been heard once, in the wilderness, when they first came to Moses and the LORD ruled in their favour (Num. 27); now, a generation later and across the Jordan, they come to claim what was promised. The chapter is quietly insisting that these five are not a loophole or an exception to be tolerated. They are heirs, and the record means to remember them.
Notice how the daughters make their case: And they came near before Eleazar the priest, and before Joshua the son of Nun, and before the princes, saying, The LORD commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brethren (v. 4). They do not argue from need, or from sentiment, or from their own deserving. They stake everything on one thing - the word of the LORD. The LORD commanded. That is the whole of their appeal, and it is enough. The response is just as carefully worded: Therefore according to the commandment of the LORD he gave them an inheritance among the brethren of their father. Twice in a single verse the ground of the grant is named - what the LORD commanded, what He commanded. The leaders do not invent a generous exception; they obey a standing word. And so there fell ten portions to Manasseh west of the Jordan instead of nine (v. 5), because the daughters of Manasseh had an inheritance among his sons (v. 6). A promise spoken in one generation is kept in the next, and five women who had no claim of their own receive a real and lasting place - not beside their father's brethren as dependents, but among them as heirs.
Joshua 17:7-13The Borders, and the Land Not Yet Cleared
7And the coast of Manasseh was from Asher to Michmethah, that lieth before Shechem; and the border went along on the right hand unto the inhabitants of Entappuah. 8Now Manasseh had the land of Tappuah: but Tappuah on the border of Manasseh belonged to the children of Ephraim; 9And the coast descended unto the river Kanah, southward of the river: these cities of Ephraim are among the cities of Manasseh: the coast of Manasseh also was on the north side of the river, and the outgoings of it were at the sea: 10Southward it was Ephraim's, and northward it was Manasseh's, and the sea is his border; and they met together in Asher on the north, and in Issachar on the east. 11And Manasseh had in Issachar and in Asher Bethshean and her towns, and Ibleam and her towns, and the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, and the inhabitants of Endor and her towns, and the inhabitants of Taanach and her towns, and the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns, even three countries. 12Yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land. 13Yet it came to pass, when the children of Israel were waxen strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, but did not utterly drive them out.
The middle of the chapter reads like a surveyor's record, tracing Manasseh's border from Asher down past Shechem to the brook Kanah and out to the sea (vv. 7-10). The detail is not filler; it is the careful work of a people writing down exactly what God had given them, town by town and ridge by ridge. The borders even interlock with Ephraim's - these cities of Ephraim are among the cities of Manasseh (v. 9) - so that the two sons of Joseph share the country between them. Then the record names the great fortified cities that fell within Manasseh's reach: Bethshean… Ibleam… Dor… Endor… Taanach… Megiddo, each with her surrounding towns (v. 11). These were strongholds in the rich valleys, prizes of the land. On paper they belonged to Manasseh. The map was complete, the deed was clear. The question the next verses raise is whether the people on the ground would match the lines on the map.
Twice the text repeats the same hard word: Yet. Yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land (v. 12). Yet it came to pass, when the children of Israel were waxen strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, but did not utterly drive them out (v. 13). The chapter does not hide the gap between what was given and what was taken. The cities were Manasseh's by allotment; they were not Manasseh's in fact. And the second yet is the more searching of the two, for it removes the easy excuse. When Israel was weak, one might say the task was simply beyond them. But the text says that even when… waxen strong - when they finally had the power to finish the work - they settled for putting the Canaanites to tribute rather than driving them out. Strength came, and with it the chance to obey fully; and they chose the easier arrangement instead. The phrase did not utterly drive them out is not praise for a partial victory. It is an honest record of a calling left unfinished - a portion received, mapped, and then only half-possessed.
Joshua 17:14-18Thou Shalt Drive Out the Canaanites
14And the children of Joseph spake unto Joshua, saying, Why hast thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit, seeing I am a great people, forasmuch as the LORD hath blessed me hitherto? 15And Joshua answered them, If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants, if mount Ephraim be too narrow for thee. 16And the children of Joseph said, The hill is not enough for us: and all the Canaanites that dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both they who are of Bethshean and her towns, and they who are of the valley of Jezreel. 17And Joshua spake unto the house of Joseph, even to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, Thou art a great people, and hast great power: thou shalt not have one lot only: 18But the mountain shall be thine; for it is a wood, and thou shalt cut it down: and the outgoings of it shall be thine: for thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they be strong.
The chapter closes with a complaint that sounds almost reasonable: Why hast thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit, seeing I am a great people, forasmuch as the LORD hath blessed me hitherto? (v. 14). The children of Joseph do not charge injustice; they argue from their own size and from the LORD's past blessing. We are great, they say, and God has blessed us - so why so small a share? It is the kind of grievance that wraps itself in praise. But look at what Joshua does with it. He does not dispute their greatness, and he does not enlarge their portion. He turns their own claim into a charge: If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself (v. 15). In effect: you say you are great - then act it. The forested hills are there; go clear them. Make room by labour, in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants, if the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow. Joshua exposes the quiet contradiction in the complaint - a people loudly sure of their own greatness, yet unwilling to do the work greatness would require.
Pressed to go up and take more, the children of Joseph name what really holds them back: The hill is not enough for us: and all the Canaanites that dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron (v. 16). There it is - the iron chariots. In the warfare of the age these were the most fearsome thing a foot-soldier could face: massed, fast, armoured, the technology that flattened infantry and decided battles. To Joseph they were the final word, the fact that ended the conversation. We cannot - not because the land is not ours, but because the enemy is too strong. And this is the heart of the chapter's honest portrait of faith. The complaint was never truly about acreage; the hill is not enough is a cover for the valley is too frightening. What stops them is not the size of the gift but the size of the obstacle - and the size of the obstacle has become, in their eyes, larger than the promise of the One who gave the land. The iron chariots are real. The question the chapter forces is whether they are larger than God.
Further study
- The Hebrew text of Joshua 17 with Rashi, Radak, and other classical commentators side by side - useful for nachalah (vv. 4, 6, the “inheritance” the daughters rightly claimed), for the verb yarash (v. 18, “drive out,” the dispossessing Joseph was called to finish), and for the case of Zelophehad's daughters carried over from Numbers 27 and 36.
- Joshua 17 ↔ Numbers 27 · Galatians 3 · Romans 8 · 1 Peter 1Intertextual BibleTraces the threads tying Joshua 17 to the rest of Scripture - the daughters' inheritance among their brethren (vv. 3-6) read beside the petition of Numbers 27 and the promise that the faithful are heirs according to the promise (Gal. 3:29), and the call to drive out the iron chariots (v. 18) read alongside if God be for us, who can be against us? (Rom. 8:31).
- Joshua 17 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Joshua 17 - the line of Machir and the families of Manasseh (vv. 1-2), the legal force of the daughters' claim before Eleazar and Joshua (vv. 3-6), the geography of the contested borders (vv. 7-11), and the meaning of the iron chariots and the wood country in the exchange with Joseph (vv. 14-18).
Where this echoes in Scripture
An Inheritance Among Our Brethren
- Numbers 27:6-7The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father’s brethren.The first ruling, a generation earlier - the standing word the daughters now come to claim in verses 3-6.
- Galatians 3:28-29There is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s... heirs according to the promise.The inheritance held out to all who come in faith - the shape of the daughters’ portion among their brethren (v. 4).
- 1 Peter 1:4To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.The portion secured by God’s faithfulness, not the heir’s strength - the lasting form of the nachalah of verses 4-6.
- Romans 8:16-17The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God... heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.Made full heirs and not dependents - the place <em>among the brethren</em> the daughters received in verse 4.
- Genesis 48:5thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh... are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.Why the line of Joseph receives a double portion - the background to Manasseh’s lot in verses 1-2.
The Borders, and the Land Not Yet Cleared
- Judges 1:27-28Neither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean... but when Israel was strong... they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out.The same failure, told again later - verses 12-13 become the seedbed of Israel’s long trouble with the nations around them.
- Exodus 23:32-33Thou shalt make no covenant with them... lest they make thee sin against me.Why leaving the Canaanites under tribute was a falling-short, not a victory - the command behind verses 12-13.
- Numbers 33:55But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land... those which ye let remain... shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides.The warning attached to an unfinished conquest - exactly the gap recorded in verse 13.
- Joshua 16:10And they drave not out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer... and serve under tribute.Ephraim’s identical shortfall in the chapter just before - the same pattern as Manasseh in verses 12-13.
- Romans 6:12-13Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body... yield yourselves unto God.The New Testament call to drive out rather than make terms with what God said to remove - against the tribute of verse 13.
Thou Shalt Drive Out the Canaanites
- Romans 8:31, 37If God be for us, who can be against us?... we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.The promise set over the iron chariots (v. 18) - the strong thing in the valley is not the last word.
- 1 John 5:4For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.The victory located in faith, not in force - the answer to <em>they have chariots of iron</em> (v. 16).
- Judges 4:3he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.The iron chariots faced again later - and overcome, when Israel believed the word that stood over them (v. 18).
- Joshua 1:9Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid... for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.The charge that grounds Joshua’s confidence in verses 17-18 - courage because God goes with His people.
- 2 Corinthians 10:4the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.Strongholds that look unbreakable pulled down by God’s power - the iron chariots of verse 18 in their New Testament key.