Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 21-22.

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Today’s passage begins by finishing up the allotment of land to the Israelites, specifically by giving cities to the Levites from within the territories given to the other tribes.  One thing of note here is that the city of Hebron was given to the Levites, even though it had previously been listed as being given to Caleb.  Here it clarifies that the fields of the city and the villages around it were given to Caleb, suggesting that the city itself could be given to the Levites without interfering with what was given to Caleb.  Later, Hebron becomes King David’s capital after the death of King Saul, but before David became king over all of Israel.  The passage also mentions that two cities from within the territory of Dan were given to the Levites, Elteke and Gibbethon.  In yesterday’s passage, after describing the territory given to Dan it said “When the territory of the people of Dan was lost to them…” Now, was that referring to all of the territory of Dan, or just part of it?  And if it was all of the territory of Dan, did the Levites lose their cities along with the tribe of Dan losing its territory?  I don’t know the answer to these questions, but wanted to make note of them because I never thought about them before.

After listing the cities given to the Levites, the passage says that the Lord had thus given to Israel all of the land that he swore to give to their fathers and He gave them rest on every side.  After which Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh and sent them home to Gilead and Bashan, east of the Jordan River.  He told them to make sure that they kept the commands which God had given them through Moses.  He also told them to share their plunder with those who had remained behind, guarding their wives, children, and flocks.  This is an important principle which we see mentioned later when David insists that those who stayed behind to guard the baggage train receive an equal share with those who went into battle.  The principle here does not just apply to battle, but to any situation where some go out to obtain wealth while others must stay behind to maintain existing property.  We should share the wealth we gain with those who provide the support we need to have a place to which we can come home.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.