Joshua 18:9

_AND THEY SHALL DIVIDE IT INTO SEVEN PARTS: JUDAH SHALL ABIDE IN THEIR COAST ON THE SOUTH, AND THE HOUSE OF JOSEPH SHALL ABIDE IN THEIR COASTS ON THE NORTH._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

9._And the men went and passed, _etc Here not only is praise bestowed on the ready obedience by which their virtue shone forth conspicuous, but the Lord gives a signal manifestation of his favor by deigning to bestow remarkable success on pious Joshua and the zeal of the people. Had they crept along by subterranean burrows, they could scarcely have escaped innumerable dangers, but now, when they are taking notes of the cities and their sites, of the fields, the varying features of the districts, and all the coasts, and without meeting with any adverse occurrence, return in safety to their countrymen, who can doubt that their life had been kept safe among a thousand deaths by a wonderful exertion of divine power? It is accordingly said emphatically, that they returned to celebrate the grace of God, which is just equivalent to saying that they were brought back by the hand of God. This mad...

2-10 After a year or more, Joshua blamed their slackness, and told them how to proceed. God, by his grace, has given us a title to a good land, the heavenly Canaan, but we are slack to take possession of it; we enter not into that rest, as we might by faith, and hope, and holy joy. How long shall it be thus with us? How long shall we thus stand in our own light, and forsake our own mercies for lying vanities? Joshua stirs the Israelites up to take possession of their lots. He is ready to do his part, if they will do theirs....

Verse Joshua 18:9. _AND DESCRIBED IT IN A BOOK_] This as far as I can recollect, is the first act of _surveying_ on record. These men and their work differed widely from those who had searched the land in the time of Moses; _they_ went only to discover the nature of the country, and the state of its inhabitants; but _these_ went to take an actual _geographical_ survey of it, in order to divide it among the tribes which had not yet received their portions. We may suppose that the country was exactly described _in a book_, that is, a _map_, pointing out the face of the country, accompanied with descriptions of each part....

EXPOSITION THE CONTINUED DIVISION OF THE LAND.— JOSHUA 18:1 CONGREGATION. The word signifies a body of persons gathered together at a spot before indicated. The LXX. renders by συναγωγή. The idea is evidently that of an assembly gathered together for some specific acts of worship. This passage teaches the duty of a national recognition of religion. Whatever evils there might be in Israel at that time, the absence of a general and formal acknowledgment of God was not one of them. When that public acknowledgment of Him ceased, the downfall of the nation was at hand. It was the absence of such acknowledgment that was the ruin of Israel, while the hypocritical and purely external recognition of God by Judah was equally o

AND THE MEN WENT AND PASSED THROUGH THE LAND,.... Undisturbed by the inhabitants that remained; the fear of the Israelites being still upon them, and the providence of God restraining them, so that the men passed through the whole country, and took a survey of it without any molestation: AND DESCRIBED IT BY CITIES, INTO SEVEN PARTS, IN A BOOK; or map, or rather made seven maps of it, and set down the several cities in each division, with the places adjacent, hills and vales, and marked out a plain and exact chorography of the whole, by which it appears they must be men well skilled in geometry. Josephus b says, that Joshua added to them some that understood geometry; but doubtless the persons each tribe chose and sent were such whom they knew were well versed in that art, and so fit for the business; and which they had, no doubt, learned in Egypt, this being one part of the wisdom and l...

6. THE PORTION OF THE REST OF THE TRIBES CHAPTER 18 _ 1. The tabernacle at Shiloh (Joshua 18:1)_ 2. The remaining seven tribes (Joshua 18:2) 3. The lot of Benjamin (Joshua 18:11) The tabernacle of the congregation is now set up at Shiloh. Shiloh means “peace,” “security.” The land was then subdued before them. Shiloh is now the center. From there the operations proceed. Seven times after this Shiloh is mentioned in the book of Joshua: Joshua 18:8; Joshua 19:51;...

IN. BOOK. See note on Exodus 17:14 and App-47....

Joshua 18:1-10. Erection of the Tabernacle at Shiloh 1. _And the whole congregation of the children of Israel_ The descendants of Judah and of Joseph had now taken up their respective inheritances, the one in the south, the other in the north of the country. But "the murmuring," it has been remarked, "of the children of Joseph, and the spirit from which it proceeded, gave sad indications of danger in the near future. National disintegration, tribal jealousies, coupled with boastfulness and unwillingness to execute the work given them of God, were only too surely foreboded in the conduct of the children of Joseph. If such troubles were to be averted, it was high time to seek a revival of religion." Dr Edersheim's _Israel in Canaan under Joshua and the Judges_, p. 94. The camp at Gilgal, therefore, was broken up, and the people removed to Shiloh, which was situated within

_The Remaining Land Divided Into Portions Joshua 18:1-10_ And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there. And the land was subdued before them. 2 And there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes, which had not yet received their inheritance. 3 And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, How long are ye slack to go to possess the land, which the Lord God of your fathers hath given you? 4 Give out from among you three men for each tribe: and I will send them, and they shall rise, and go through the land, and describe it according to the inheritance of them; and they shall come again to me. 5 And they shall divide it into seven parts: Judah shall abide in their coast on the south, and the house of Joseph shall abide in their coasts on the north. 6 Ye shall therefore descr