“With the half-tribe of M’nasheh, the Re’uveni and the Gadi received their inheritance, which Moshe had given them, beyond the Yarden eastward, just as Moshe the servant of Adonai had given them — from ‘Aro‘er on the edge of the Arnon Valley, the city in the middle of the valley, all the plateau between Meidva and Divon, and all the cities of Sichon king of the Emori who ruled in Heshbon to the border with the people of ‘Amon; and Gil‘ad, the territory of the G’shuri and Ma‘akhati, all Mount Hermon, all Bashan as far as Salkhah — that is, all the kingdom of ‘Og in Bashan, who ruled in ‘Ashtarot and Edre‘i. ‘Og was one of those remaining from the Refa’im, whom Moshe defeated and expelled. However, the people of Israel expelled neither the G’shuri nor the Ma‘akhati, with the consequence that G’shur and Ma‘akhat have lived among Isra’el to this day.-Joshua 13:8-13
Verses 8-13 of Joshua Chapter 13 are referring to the area scholars call the Transjordan or the territory east of the Jordan River that was outside of the Promised Land but still occupied by Israel (specifically the tribes of Reuben, Gad and 1/2 of Manasseh).
I know it seems like the Scriptures are beating a dead horse by continually pointing this out but there’s actually some good reasons why these verses are here.
FIRST, the boundaries being defined in these verses are making it crystal clear that it was Moses who was in control and was the one who had assigned the land to Reuben, Gad and 1/2 of Manasseh.
SECOND, as I mentioned yesterday, we’re told that the two gentile nations known as the Geshurites and Maakites were not pushed out of the Transjordan area like they should have been.
They still remained in the area living right alongside Israel and in some cases, some of them were living smack dab among the Israelites.
The idea being communicated here is that even as great a leader as Moses, a man hand-picked by Hashem Himself was not able to perfectly fulfill God’s commands.
Therefore, if that’s the case, it wouldn’t be right to hold Joshua to a higher standard nor should Joshua be viewed as a bad leader because he hadn’t yet conquered and driven out the Canaanites on the west side of the Jordan.
In other words, if Moses went ahead and divided the territory on the east side of the Jordan River BEFORE it was completely conquered, then there’s no reason why Joshua couldn’t and shouldn’t do the same with the territory on the west side of the river…regardless of whether it was completely conquered yet or not.
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