knoweth, and Israel he shall know; if it be in rebellion, or A.C. 1444. if in transgression against the LORD, (save us not this day,)

23 That we have built us an altar to turn from following the LORD, or if to offer thereon burnt offering or meat offering, or if to offer peace offerings thereon, let the LORD himself require it;

24 And if we have not rather done it for fear of this thing, saying,

In time to come your children might speak unto Heb. To our children, saying, What have ye to do with the LORD morrow. God of Israel?

25 For the LORD hath made Jordan a border between us and you, ye children of Reuben and children of Gad; ye have no part in the LORD: So shall your children make our children cease from fearing the LORD.

26 Therefore we said, Let us now prepare to build us an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice:

27.34.

27 But that it may be a witness between us, and you, k Gen. xxxi. and our generations after us, that we might do the service 45 ch. xxiv. of the LORD before him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings; that your children may not say to our children in time to come, Ye have no part in the LORD.

28 Therefore said we, that it shall be, when they should so say to us or to our generations in time to come, that we may say again, Behold the pattern of the altar of the LORD, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifices; but it is a witness between us and you.

29 God forbid that we should rebel against the LORD, and turn this day from following the LORD, to build an altar for burnt offerings, for meat offerings, or for sacrifices, beside the altar of the LORD our God that is before his tabernacle.

30 ¶ And when Phinehas the priest, and the princes of the congregation and heads of the thousands of Israel which were with him, heard the words that the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh spake, it pleased them.

+ Heb. it was

eyes.

31 And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said unto good in their the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the children of Manasseh, This day we perceive that the LORD is among us, because ye have not committed this trespass against the LORD; now ye have delivered the Heb. then, children of Israel out of the hand of the LORD.

32 And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and the princes, returned from the children of Reuben, and from the children of Gad, out of the land of Gilead, unto the land of

A.C. 1444. Canaan, to the children of Israel, and brought them word

* That is, a witness: so ch. xxiv. 27.

1 Num. xxi. 24. Deut. iii. 6.

again.

33 And the thing pleased the children of Israel; and the children of Israel blessed God, and did not intend to go up against them in battle, to destroy the land wherein the children of Reuben and Gad dwelt.

34 And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad called the altar * Ed: for it shall be a witness between us that the LORD is God.

CHAPTER II.

General Division of the Country.

SECTION I

Recapitulation of Conquests.

JOSHUA XII

1 Now these are the kings of the land, which the children of Israel smote, and possessed their land on the other side Jordan toward the rising of the sun, from the river Arnon unto mount Hermon, and all the plain on the east:

2 Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and ruled from Aroer, which is upon the bank of the river Arnon, and from the middle of the river, and from half Gilead, even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon;

3 And from the plain to the sea of Chinneroth on the east, and unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea on the east,

+ Or, Teman, the way to Beth-jeshimoth; and from † the south, under springs of Pis-Ashdoth-pisgah :

Or, the

gah, or, the hill.

4¶ And the coast of Og king of Bashan, which was of "the remnant of the giants, that dwelt at Ashtaroth and at n Deut. iii. 11. Edrei,

m Deut. iii. 17. & iv. 49.

ch. xiii. 12.

o Num. xxxii.

29. Deut. iii.

12. ch. xiii. 8.

p Ch. xi. 17.

5 And reigned in mount Hermon, and in Salcah, and in all Bashan, unto the border of the Geshurites and the Maachathites, and half Gilead, the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.

6 Them did Moses the servant of the LORD and the children of Israel smite: and Moses the servant of the LORD gave it for a possession unto the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh.

7¶And these are the kings of the country which Joshua and the children of Israel smote on this side Jordan on the west, from Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon even unto the mount Halak, that goeth up to Seir; which Joshua gave unto the tribes of Israel for a possession according to their divisions;

8 In the mountains, and in the valleys, and in the plains, A.C. 1444. and in the springs, and in the wilderness, and in the south country; the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites:

9 The king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is beside Beth-el, one;

S

t

Ch. vi. 2.

r Ch. viii. 29.

Ch. x. 23.

t Ch. x. 33.

u Ch. x. 38.

10 The king of Jerusalem, one; the king of Hebron, one; 11 The king of Jarmuth, one; the king of Lachish, one; 12 The king of Eglon, one; the king of Gezer, one; 13 "The king of Debir, one; the king of Geder, one; 14 The king of Hormah, one; the king of Arad, one; 15 The king of Libnah, one; the king of Adullam, one; x Ch. x. 29. 16 The king of Makkedah, one; the king of Beth-el, one; y Ch. x. 28. 17. The king of Tappuah, one; the king of Hepher, one;

y

18 The king of Aphek, one; the king of Lasharon, one; * Or, Sharon. 19 The king of Madon, one; the king of Hazor, one; z Ch. xi. 10. 20 The king of Shimron-meron, one; the king of Ach

shaph, one;

21 The king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one; 22 The king of Kedesh, one; the king of Jokneam of Carmel, one;

23 The king of Dor in the coast of Dor, one; the king a Gen. xiv. 1. of the nations of Gilgal, one;

24 The king of Tirzah, one: all the kings thirty and one.

JOSHUA XIII. VER. 1-15.

1 Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land + to be possessed.

2 This is the land that yet remaineth: all the borders of the Philistines, and all Geshuri,

3 From Sihor, which is before Egypt, even unto the borders of Ekron northward, which is counted to the Canaanite: five lords of the Philistines; the Gazathites, and the Ashdothites, the Eshkalonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avites:

+ Heb. to posscss it.

4 From the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that is beside the Sidonians, unto Aphek, to the Or, the cave. borders of the Amorites:

5 And the land of the Giblites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrising, from Baal-gad under mount Hermon unto the entering into Hamath.

6 All the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon unto Misrephoth-maim, and all the Sidonians, them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites for an inheritance, as I have commanded thee.

A.C. 1444.

b Num. xxxii 33. Deut. ii.

12, 13. ch. xxii. 4.

ch. xii. 4.

7 Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance unto the nine tribes, and the half tribe of Manasseh,

b

8 With whom the Reubenites and the Gadites have received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond Jordan eastward, even as Moses the servant of the LORD gave them;

9 From Aroer, that is upon the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that is in the midst of the river, and all the plain of Medeba unto Dibon;

10 And all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, which reigned in Heshbon, unto the border of the children of Ammon;

11 And Gilead, and the border of the Geshurites and Maachathites, and all mount Hermon, and all Bashan unto Salcah ;

с

12 All the kingdom of Og in Bashan, which reigned in c Deut. iii. 11. Ashtaroth and in Edrei, who remained of the remnant of the giants for these did Moses smite, and cast them out. 13 Nevertheless the children of Israel expelled not the Geshurites, nor the Maachathites: but the Geshurites and the Maachathites dwell among the Israelites until this day.

d Num.xxxiv. 17, 18.

e Num. xxvi. 55. & xxxiii. 51.

14 Only unto the tribe of Levi he gave none inheritance; the sacrifices of the LORD God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance, as he said unto them.

SECTION II.

Division of the Country".

JOSHUA XIV. VER. 1-6.

The nine tribes and a half are to have their inheritance by lot.

1 And these are the countries which the children of Israel inherited in the land of Canaan, d which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed for inheritance to them.

e

2 By lot was their inheritance, as the LORD commanded

9 An instructive lesson was taught to each of the tribes, on their taking possession of their respective allotted settlements. They were well acquainted with the prophecies of their ancestor Jacob. On his death bed he had predicted the nature of the territory they should severally possess, at the future appointed time of obtaining the promised land. If the descriptive allusions of this patriarch, contained in the forty-ninth chapter of Genesis, be compared with the nature of the settlements of the various tribes, they will be found to correspond beautifully throughout. So true was the declaration of Moses, that the word was nigh them; the evidences of their religion were continually before them, appealing to their hearts; and demonstrating every day, the faithfulness and truth of God.

by the hand of Moses, for the nine tribes, and for the half_A.C. 1444. tribe.

3 For Moses had given the inheritance of two tribes and

an half tribe on the other side Jordan: but unto the Levites

he

gave none inheritance among them.

4 For the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim: therefore they gave no part unto the Levites in the land, save cities to dwell in, with their suburbs for their cattle and for their substance.

2, ch. xxi. 2.

5 As the LORD commanded Moses, so the children of £ Num. xxxv. Israel did, and they divided the land.

SECTION III.

Inheritance of the two Tribes and a half.

JOSHUA XIII. VER. 15, TO THE END.

15 ¶ And Moses gave unto the tribe of the children of Reuben inheritance according to their families.

16 And their coast was from Aroer, that is on the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that is in the midst of the river, and all the plain by Medeba;

17 Heshbon, and all her cities that are in the plain; Dibon, and * Bamoth-baal, and Beth-baal-meon,

18 And Jahaza, and Kedemoth, and Mephaath, 19 And Kirjathaim, and Sibmah, and Zareth-shahar in the mount of the valley,

20 And Beth-peor, and +Ashdoth-pisgah, and Bethjeshimoth,

Deut. iii. 17.

+ Or, springs of Pisgah, or, the hill.

21 And all the cities of the plain, and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, which reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses smote with the princes of Midian, Evi, and h Num, xxxi. Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, which were dukes of Sihon, dwelling in the country.

8.

22 Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, did Or, diviner. the children of Israel slay with the sword among them that were slain by them.

23 And the border of the children of Reuben was Jordan, and the border thereof. This was the inheritance of the children of Reuben after their families, the cities and the villages thereof.

24 And Moses gave inheritance unto the tribe of Gad, even unto the children of Gad according to their families.

25 And their coast was Jazer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon, unto Aroer that is before Rabbah;

26 And from Heshbon unto Ramath-mizpeh, and Betonim; and from Mahanaim unto the border of Debir;