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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Joshua 18:1 - 18:7
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The Tabernacle Set Up
v. 1. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, a little more than one half the distance between Jerusalem and Shechem, and set up the Tabernacle of the Congregation there. Shiloh, approximately in the center of the country, was the city of the Sanctuary for several centuries, until the time of Eli. So the Ark of the Covenant had now found a place of rest and thus served as a sign encouraging the people to strive for the true rest which is reserved for the children of God, Hebrews 4. And the land was subdued before them, and there was nothing hindering the division of the land.
v. 2. And there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes which had not yet received their inheritance, Reuben, Gad, Judah, Ephraim, and Manasseh having been provided for.
v. 3. And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, How long are ye slack to go to possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers hath given you? The chief strongholds of the heathen inhabitants had fallen before the vigorous onslaughts of Joshua and the army of Israel, and it now remained merely to take possession of the land and to complete the extermination of the heathen. Apparently the tribes of Israel were not at all eager to exchange the nomadic form of life with that of settled abodes, and the thought of taking possession of their land with their weapons in their hand did not appeal to them.
v. 4. Give out from among you, select and set forth, three men for each tribe; and I will send them, and they shall rise, and go through the land, and describe it according to the inheritance of them, with reference to its being taken possession of by the seven remaining tribes. Their chief work consisted in their making a list of the cities and their vicinity, the physical aspect of the land, and the condition of the soil. And they shall come again to me, their report serving as the basis of the subsequent division of the land.
v. 5. And they shall divide it, the land still remaining, into seven parts; Judah shall abide in their coast on the south, and the house of Joseph shall abide in their coasts on the north, no changes being made in the possessions of these tribes.
v. 6. Ye shall therefore describe the land into seven parts, and bring the description, the list as thus made out, hither to me, to Shiloh, that I may cast lots for you here before the Lord, our God, probably in the court of the Tabernacle, Jos_19:51.
v. 7. But the Levites have no part among you, Jos_13:33; Num_18:20; for the priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance, and as ministers of the Sanctuary they were granted certain privileges which compensated, in a way, for the fact that they had not received a definite section of the Promised Land as their home; and Gad and Reuben and half the tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond Jordan on the east, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave them, Numbers 32. The weakness of the children of God in waging the war which is their lot in life may easily result in disaster of the worst kind for them.