J13-13: The Boundaries Of The Transjordan Territory That Were Given To Reuben And Gad

“Moshe gave land to the tribe of the descendants of Re’uven by clans. Their territory included ‘Aro‘er on the edge of the Arnon Valley, the city in the middle of the valley, all the plateau near Meidva, Heshbon and its villages on the plateau, Divon, Bamot-Ba‘al, Beit-Ba‘al-M‘on, Yahatz, K’demot, Mefa‘at, Kiryatayim, Sivmah, Tzeret-Shachar at the top of the valley, Beit-P‘or, the slopes of Pisgah, Beit-Yeshimot, all the cities of the plateau — all the kingdom of Sichon king of the Emori, who ruled in Heshbon. Moshe defeated him with the chiefs of Midyan, along with Evi, Rekem, Tzur, Hur and Reva the princes of Sichon who lived in the land.”-Joshua 13:15-21

Okay, our slog through Joshua 13 continues.

I’m not even gonna try to make today’s content more interesting than it is or isn’t.

Why?

Because God’s Word is God’s Word and we shall take it as it is.

So up until now, we’ve been dealing with the territory on the east side of the Jordan River in a very general sense that was given to the 2 1/2 tribes of Israel.

However, from verse 15, the general sense of things becomes very specific.

We’re now being given the specific boundaries of the territories individually for each of the 2 1/2 tribes.

We’re told the region lying between the Arnon River on the south side and the Jabbok River on the north side was split up between Reuben and Gad.

In terms of national boundaries, the south side was inhabited by the Moabites and the eastern side was inhabited by the Ammonites.

The very southernmost region was given to Reuben.

It stretched all the way from the Arnon River to the inlet (connecting point) of the Jordan River that flowed right into the Dead Sea. 

Onward.

The land that Gad received followed the Jordan River and stretched on eastward until it reached far north where the Sea of Galilee (at this time called the Sea of Kinnereth) was located.