J13-8: Israel Was Only Allowed To Make Peace With Gentiles Who Lived OUTSIDE Of The Promised Land

“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 Salkhahand 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 Isra’el 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

Starting from verse 8 of Joshua chapter 13, we’re given a list of the territories associated with the land that Israel DID successfully conquer, including the land on both the east and west sides of the Jordan River.

By repeating the boundaries, Reuben, Gad, and 1/2 of the tribe of Manasseh receive an official assurance of their land inheritance on the east side of the Jordan.

But again, let’s not forget that this was territory OUTSIDE of the Promised Land.

Next, right after this proclamation concerning their land inheritance, we’re told they did NOT drive out the Geshurites and Maakites.

To avoid any confusion, let me just state right now that this was a totally different group than the other group of Geshurites who lived in the southern region of Philistia and had allied themselves with Israel.

The Geshurites being mentioned here in chapter 13 lived way up in the northern regions of Canaan.

Let’s take a close look at the latter half of verse 13.

^“However, the people of Isra’el 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“.

I find this statement very interesting.

Notice the part where it says…“with the consequence that…”.

We need to understand that it’s not like these Geshurites converted to Judaism and fully assimilated into Israelite society.

They did not.

They kept their heathen gentile identities intact while still living side-by-side in harmony and peace with the Hebrews.

This raises a really important question.

Was this something Hashem was okay with?

The answer is NO.

However, there’s some clarifying nuance I need to add to the equation.

The Lord would have been totally fine with with the Geshurites living next to Israel in peace as long as they were OUTSIDE of the land.

However, to have them living in peace with Israel while residing within the borders of the Promised Land would have been a whole other story altogether.

Israel was instructed to make peace with the surrounding nations but unbelieving foreigners INSIDE the land were to be either expelled or killed with no middle ground or exceptions allowed.

Having said that, I need to mention that the Gerushites in the north technically were outside of the Land of Canaan.

However, given the absolutely negative sense of verse 13, we can conclude that the Gerushites were too close for comfort to the point where they were completely intertwined with the Hebrews and they shouldn’t have been.

In this verse, the use of an interesting Hebrew word makes this clear.

That Hebrew word is QEREB or קֶרֶב.

This word means “midst, among, inner part, middle” according to Strong’s.

In other words, the Geshurites lived among Israel and this situation was what undoubtedly led to the Hebrews falling into idolatry and intermarriage.

And we all know what happened after this happened.

God sent them into exile for their rebellion.