Joshua 17: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter records the land given to the tribe of Manasseh, Joseph's older son. Machir's descendants had already received Gilead and Bashan east of the Jordan, and the five daughters of Zelophehad receive land among their father's relatives, as the LORD had commanded Moses. The chapter traces Manasseh's borders west of the Jordan and notes that Manasseh could not drive out the Canaanites in several cities, and that once the Israelites grew strong they put them to forced labor instead. It ends with the descendants of Joseph complaining that one share is too small, and Joshua telling them to clear the forested hill country and drive out the Canaanites there.

Claim by Claim

1. 17:1
   • A lot fell to the tribe of Manasseh.
   • Manasseh was the firstborn of Joseph.
   • The lot was for Machir, the firstborn of Manasseh.
   • Machir was the father of Gilead.
   • Machir was a man of war.
   • Because Machir was a man of war, Gilead and Bashan were given to him.
2. 17:2
   • A lot fell to the remaining sons of Manasseh according to their clans.
   • The lot was for the sons of Abiezer.
   • The lot was for the sons of Helek.
   • The lot was for the sons of Asriel.
   • The lot was for the sons of Shechem.
   • The lot was for the sons of Hepher.
   • The lot was for the sons of Shemida.
   • These were the male descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph, by their clans.
3. 17:3
   • Zelophehad was the son of Hepher.
   • Hepher was the son of Gilead.
   • Gilead was the son of Machir.
   • Machir was the son of Manasseh.
   • Zelophehad had no sons.
   • Zelophehad had only daughters.
   • The names of his daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.
4. 17:4
   • The daughters of Zelophehad came before Eleazar the priest, before Joshua son of Nun, and before the leaders.
   • They said that the LORD had commanded Moses to give them an inheritance among their kinsmen.
   • An inheritance was given to them according to the command of the LORD.
   • The inheritance given to them was among the brothers of their father.
5. 17:5
   • Ten portions fell to Manasseh.
   • These ten portions were in addition to the land of Gilead and Bashan.
   • Gilead and Bashan lay across the Jordan.
6. 17:6
   • The daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance among his sons.
   • The land of Gilead belonged to the rest of the sons of Manasseh.
7. 17:7
   • The border of Manasseh ran from Asher to Michmethath.
   • Michmethath lies east of Shechem.
   • The border went southward to the inhabitants of En-tappuah.
8. 17:8
   • The land of Tappuah belonged to Manasseh.
   • The town of Tappuah, on the border of Manasseh, belonged to the sons of Ephraim.
9. 17:9
   • The border went down to the brook Kanah.
   • The border ran south of the brook.
   • These cities belonged to Ephraim, standing among the cities of Manasseh.
   • The border of Manasseh was on the north side of the brook.
   • The border ended at the sea.
10. 17:10
    • The land to the south belonged to Ephraim.
    • The land to the north belonged to Manasseh.
    • The sea was its border.
    • The territory touched Asher on the north.
    • The territory touched Issachar on the east.
11. 17:11
    • Within Issachar and Asher, Manasseh held Beth-shean and its dependent settlements.
    • Manasseh held Ibleam and its dependent settlements.
    • Manasseh held the inhabitants of Dor and its dependent settlements.
    • Manasseh held the inhabitants of En-dor and its dependent settlements.
    • Manasseh held the inhabitants of Taanach and its dependent settlements.
    • Manasseh held the inhabitants of Megiddo and its dependent settlements.
    • These were three regions of high ground, though what the number three counts is unclear.
12. 17:12
    • The sons of Manasseh were not able to dispossess those cities.
    • The Canaanites were determined to go on living in that land.
13. 17:13
    • The Israelites grew strong.
    • When the Israelites grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor.
    • The Israelites did not drive the Canaanites out completely.
14. 17:14
    • The sons of Joseph spoke to Joshua.
    • They asked why he had given them only one lot and one portion as an inheritance.
    • They said they were a numerous people.
    • They said the LORD had blessed them up to this point.
15. 17:15
    • Joshua answered them.
    • Joshua said that if they were a numerous people they should go up to the forest.
    • Joshua told them to clear ground for themselves there.
    • The forest was in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim.
    • Joshua said this applied if the hill country of Ephraim was too cramped for them.
16. 17:16
    • The sons of Joseph said the hill country was not enough for them.
    • They said all the Canaanites living in the valley land had iron chariots.
    • They said this included those in Beth-shean and its dependent settlements.
    • They said this included those in the Valley of Jezreel.
17. 17:17
    • Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, that is, to Ephraim and to Manasseh.
    • Joshua said they were a numerous people.
    • Joshua said they had great power.
    • Joshua said they would not have only one lot.
18. 17:18
    • Joshua said the hill country would be theirs.
    • Joshua said the hill country was forest.
    • Joshua said they would clear it.
    • Joshua said its farthest limits would be theirs.
    • Joshua said they would drive out the Canaanites.
    • The Canaanites had iron chariots.
    • The Canaanites were strong.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

17:1

"Lot" means the share of land a tribe received, and also the method used to assign it: marked stones or sticks were drawn, a procedure Israel understood as leaving the decision to God rather than to human bargaining. Gilead and Bashan are regions east of the Jordan River, outside Canaan proper; Machir's descendants had already been settled there in Moses' lifetime, before the crossing into the land west of the river. "Gilead" works here both as a man's name and as the name of the territory his descendants held, Hebrew genealogies often use a single name for an ancestor, his clan, and the district that clan occupied.

17:2

Israel's social structure ran tribe, then clan, then household. These six names are the clans of Manasseh who settled west of the Jordan; each name was a man in the genealogy and became the label for all his descendants and for the block of land they held.

17:3

Zelophehad's daughters are named because of a legal case decided earlier, in Moses' time (Numbers 27 and 36). Land normally passed from father to son, and a man with no sons left no line to hold his allotment. The daughters petitioned Moses and were granted their father's share in their own right, on the condition that they marry within their own tribe so the land would not transfer to another tribe.

17:4

Eleazar was the son of Aaron and the chief priest of the period. "Inheritance" here does not mean property left at death; it is the permanent family holding assigned to each household, meant to stay in that family's hands across generations. "Among our relatives" means an allotment counted alongside the men's, not merely support from them.

17:5

The ten portions are the arithmetic of verses 2 and 3: five clans descended through sons (Abiezer, Helek, Asriel, Shechem, Shemida), plus five more counted through Zelophehad's five daughters in place of the clan of Hepher. "The other side of the Jordan" means the east side, the territory already held before Israel crossed the river.

17:7

The King James "on the right hand" means south. Hebrew describes directions as if the speaker is facing east toward the sunrise, so ahead is east, behind is west, the left hand is north and the right hand is south.

17:9

"The sea" is the Mediterranean, which formed Israel's western coast; a border "ending at the sea" simply runs west until it reaches the coastline.

17:11

These towns sit on or around the plain of Jezreel, the broad flat corridor cutting across northern Canaan that carried the main trade and army routes. They were fortified and strategically valuable, which is part of why the next verse reports Manasseh unable to take them. The closing phrase translated "three regions" is obscure in the Hebrew; it may be a count of three districts, a reference to three hill slopes, or the place name Naphath attached to Dor, and translations differ.

17:12

The Canaanites were the settled population of the land before Israel's arrival, city dwellers with walled towns, kings, and, as verse 16 notes, chariot forces that Israel lacked.

17:13

Putting a people "to tribute" meant conscripting them into forced-labor gangs for state building projects and farm work, a standard practice of ancient kingdoms toward a subject population. It was an alternative to driving them out, not a step toward it.

17:14

Joseph himself had no tribe named for him; his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, each became a tribe, which is why the two speak here as one group. Their complaint is that between them they received a single allotment when their numbers warranted more.

17:15

The Perizzites were one of the pre-Israelite peoples of Canaan, associated with unwalled villages rather than fortified cities. "The Rephaim", rendered "giants" in the King James Version, were a people remembered in Israelite tradition as unusually tall and formidable, and their name attaches to several districts on both sides of the Jordan. The central hill country was forested at this period; clearing it by hand was hard, slow work, which is the point of Joshua's answer.

17:16

Chariots were the heavy weapon of the age, effective on flat ground and useless on steep or wooded slopes, which is exactly why the Canaanites held the valleys and Israel held the hills. "Iron chariots" most likely means chariots fitted with iron parts, a technology Israel did not yet have. The Valley of Jezreel is the wide fertile plain running across the north of the country.