“In Asher and Yissakhar, M’nasheh had Beit-Sh’an and its villages; Yivle‘am and its villages; and the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, of ‘Ein-Dor and its villages, of Ta‘anakh and its villages, and of Megiddo and its villages — three districts in all.”-Joshua 17:11
Let’s take a look at a controversial part of verse 11 from Joshua Chapter 17.
The Complete Jewish Bible says…“In Asher and Yissakhar, M’nasheh had Beit-Sh’an and its villages”.
That’s a bit fuzzy and difficult to understand, so instead let’s look at the King James and NIV versions.
The King James Bible says…“And Manasseh had in Issachar and in Asher Bethshean and her towns”.
And the NIV version says...”Within Issachar and Asher, Manasseh also had Beth Shan, Ibleam and the people of Dor”.
Darn, that’s still not clear enough for me.
Let’s take a look at the ERV (Easy-To-Read) version.
The ERV version says…“The people of Manasseh had towns in the area of Issachar and Asher”.
Now that’s more like it.
Okay, so let’s dive right into the controversy surrounding these verses.
We’re being told that Manasseh had towns inside the territory of Issachar and Asher.
Excuse me?
How in the heck could one tribe have cities inside the territory of another tribe or tribes?
Is this some kind of scribal error?
That would be the equivalent of me saying the state of California has cities in Texas and New York.
Clearly, there is some kind of meaning behind this, but what?
There have been two different opinions on the matter.
One opinion is that the names Issachar and Asher being mentioned here are NOT actually referring to the tribes of Israel but instead are referring to other tinier regions within the Promised Land.
How much evidence is there to support this idea?
Exactly none.
It’s a bunch of bloated speculation.
That’s why I go with the other existing opinion on the matter…
…which is that the verse means exactly what it says (how’s that for an original idea?).
In other words, inside the original tribal territories of Asher and Issachar, Manasseh actually held some towns.
I’m done.
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