Joshua 13:1-33

Territories of the Eastern Tribes

1-7. These vv. describe the land which, though still unconquered, is to be assigned to the 9½ tribes. It includes the W. and N. borders of Palestine. Wellhausen ('History of Israel') remarks, 'The conquest was at first but an incomplete one. The plain which fringed the coast was hardly touched: so also the valley of Jezreel with its girdle of fortified cities stretching from Accho to Beth-shean. All that was subdued in the strict sense of the word was the mountainous land, particularly the southern hill-country of Mt. Ephraim; yet even here the Canaanites retained possession of not a few cities, such as Jebus, Shechem, Thebez.'