Covering A Lot Of Ground

Joshua Chapters 11 thru 21

Yes, I’m covering eleven chapters, but don’t worry, many of those chapters are about splitting up the land among the tribes. I am also not going to bother summarizing much of anything here. Instead, I want to talk about a big, huge, glaring, issue I have with chapters 11 and 12 (along with every chapter of this book so far).

God commanded the Israelites to conquer the kingdoms in Canaan and wipe those names from under the heavens (or something like that). Yet, here I am reading a book that contains all of those names of all of those kings and their kingdoms. The list of the kings that Moses conquered and the list of kings that Joshua conquered. Isn’t this kind of counterintuitive? Sorry, strike that “kind of,” because it is counterintuitive. Of course, I guess God moves in mysterious ways or something.

Then chapter 13 starts off with this verse:

^13:1Now Joshua was old and advanced in years; and the LORD said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and very much of the land still remains to be possessed…”

Bibles, Harper . NRSV Bible with the Apocrypha (p. 535). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

That verse just made me chuckle because this is like a line out of a Mel Brooks or Zucker Brothers production. Of course, this verse is the lead-in to a discussion regarding more people who have to die, and die they will.

I would like to take a moment here to discuss these conquests because some apologists will attempt to say, “not everyone died in these towns…” to which I have to remind them that the bible states quite clearly that EVERYONE IN THESE TOWNS WAS PUT TO THE SWORD. They all died. Men, women, and yes, even children. OK, I’m done…for now.

The rest of chapter 13 and on through 19 discuss the allocation of the land of Canaan among the tribes of Israel. It’s a lot of relative repetition from chapter to chapter naming a tribe and which piece of the land they get. The only break in the monotony is when Joseph protests, but it’s short-lived as they get more land. Finally, at the end of chapter 19, Joshua gets his inheritance which is a town of his own that he has rebuilt.

Chapter 20 is the realization of the cities of refuge as discussed in Numbers and Deuteronomy. And Chapter 21 is the allocation of cities for the Levites.