Today’s Passage: Joshua 17
The lot falls next to Manasseh, Joseph’s firstborn, and the land east and west of the Jordan is divided among his clans. Then five sisters step forward. The daughters of Zelophehad, who had no brothers, come to Eleazar and Joshua and remind them that the LORD had promised them an inheritance through Moses, and Joshua gives it to them among their father’s brothers. The chapter marks the borders of Manasseh, and it also marks a failure: the Canaanites in certain towns were not driven out. At the end, the tribe of Joseph comes to Joshua discontent, complaining that they are too great a people for one portion. Joshua answers that if they are truly so numerous and strong, then they should go up and clear the forested hills and drive the Canaanites out, iron chariots and all.
As you read, hold this: God keeps His promise and gives His people ample land, then calls a grumbling, comfortable people to stop complaining and take hold by faith of the very ground He has already given them.
Context The world of Joshua 17
The land is being parceled out at Shiloh, tribe by tribe, and the book slows down to walk the boundary lines. This is the settling of the promise made to Abraham centuries before, the inheritance sworn to the fathers now measured out in fields and forests and towns. Manasseh is the other half of Joseph’s double portion; the tribe had already taken Gilead and Bashan on the east side of the Jordan, and now the western share is divided among the remaining clans.
Into this record of names and borders comes a striking scene. Back in the wilderness, in Numbers, five sisters had brought their case to Moses because their father died with no sons, and the LORD Himself had ruled that they should receive their father’s inheritance. Now, a generation later and across the river, they come again to make sure the promise is kept. And when the chapter turns to the sons of Joseph, the mood shifts from faith to complaint, and the settled land becomes a test of whether the people will take hold of what God has given.
Joshua 17:1–6 (BSB)
¹ Now this was the allotment for the tribe of Manasseh as Joseph’s firstborn son, namely for Machir the firstborn of Manasseh and father of the Gileadites, who had received Gilead and Bashan because Machir was a man of war. ² So this allotment was for the rest of the descendants of Manasseh—the clans of Abiezer, Helek, Asriel, Shechem, Hepher, and Shemida. These are the other male descendants of the clans of Manasseh son of Joseph. ³ But Zelophehad son of Hepher (the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh) had no sons but only daughters. These are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. ⁴ They approached Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the leaders, and said, “The LORD commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brothers.” So Joshua gave them an inheritance among their father’s brothers, in keeping with the command of the LORD. ⁵ Thus ten shares fell to Manasseh, in addition to the land of Gilead and Bashan beyond the Jordan, ⁶ because the daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance among his sons. And the land of Gilead belonged to the rest of the sons of Manasseh.
The record of clans reads like any other boundary list until five names break in where you do not expect them. Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah are the daughters of a man who died with no sons, and by every ordinary custom of the age their line would simply have vanished from the map. But they had heard a promise. Years earlier the LORD had spoken through Moses that they should not be left landless, and they hold Him to His word. They come to the priest and to Joshua and the leaders and say plainly, the LORD commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brothers.
Notice what Joshua does. He does not weigh whether it is convenient, and he does not treat the promise as a thing that has faded with time. He gives them their share, in keeping with the command of the LORD. The double phrase in these verses is the point of the whole scene: what the LORD commanded is what gets done, so that ten shares fall to Manasseh because these daughters received an nachalah, pronounced nah-khah-LAH. Strong's H5159, inheritance, possession, portion. The word means a possession handed down, a portion received rather than earned, the settled property that passes from a father to his children. It is not wages for work done; it is a gift secured by another and granted to those who belong to him. When the daughters ask for their share, they are not begging for charity but claiming what the LORD had already promised was theirs. And that is how the whole land comes to Israel in this book, never seized by their own strength alone but received from the hand of God. The New Testament reaches for this same word when it tells believers they have an inheritance kept in heaven for them, a portion no one earns and no one can lose. among the sons. God remembers the ones the world would forget, and He keeps His word to them across a generation and a river.
Joshua 17:7–13 (BSB)
⁷ Now the border of Manasseh went from Asher to Michmethath near Shechem, then southward to include the inhabitants of En-tappuah. ⁸ The region of Tappuah belonged to Manasseh, but Tappuah itself, on the border of Manasseh, belonged to Ephraim. ⁹ From there the border continued southward to the Brook of Kanah. There were cities belonging to Ephraim among the cities of Manasseh, but the border of Manasseh was on the north side of the brook and ended at the Sea. ¹⁰ Ephraim’s territory was to the south, and Manasseh’s was to the north, having the Sea as its border and adjoining Asher on the north and Issachar on the east. ¹¹ Within Issachar and Asher, Manasseh was assigned Beth-shean, Ibleam, Dor (that is, Naphath), Endor, Taanach, and Megiddo, each with their surrounding settlements. ¹² But the descendants of Manasseh were unable to occupy these cities, because the Canaanites were determined to stay in this land. ¹³ However, when the Israelites grew stronger, they put the Canaanites to forced labor; but they failed to drive them out completely.
The boundary walks from town to town, and the names are real places you could stand in: Shechem in the hills, the Brook of Kanah running down to the sea, the string of strong cities like Beth-shean and Megiddo guarding the plains. God’s gift is not vague. It is measured ground with fixed edges, a real home for a real people. And then, in the middle of this careful record, comes an honest and sobering line. The descendants of Manasseh were unable to occupy these cities, because the Canaanites were determined to stay.
The word says unable, but the whole book has already told us the strength was never meant to be Manasseh’s own. The LORD who dried up the Jordan and threw down the walls of Jericho had promised to drive these nations out before His people. When Israel later grew stronger, they did not finish the work; they settled for putting the Canaanites to forced labor instead of clearing the land as God had said. It is the first crack of a pattern that will run through the years ahead. A gift half-taken is a gift half-lived, and the towns they left unconquered would become snares to their children.
Joshua 17:14–18 (BSB)
¹⁴ Then the sons of Joseph said to Joshua, “Why have you given us only one portion as an inheritance? We have many people, because the LORD has blessed us abundantly.” ¹⁵ Joshua answered them, “If you have so many people that the hill country of Ephraim is too small for you, go to the forest and clear for yourself an area in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim.” ¹⁶ “The hill country is not enough for us,” they replied, “and all the Canaanites who live in the valley have iron chariots, both in Beth-shean with its towns and in the Valley of Jezreel.” ¹⁷ So Joshua said to the house of Joseph—to Ephraim and Manasseh—“You have many people and great strength. You shall not have just one allotment, ¹⁸ because the hill country will be yours as well. It is a forest; clear it, and its farthest limits will be yours. Although the Canaanites have iron chariots and although they are strong, you can drive them out.”
Now the true trouble surfaces, and it is not a shortage of land but a shortage of faith. The sons of Joseph come to Joshua with a complaint dressed up as a compliment. We have many people, they say, because the LORD has blessed us abundantly, so why only one portion? They can name God’s blessing with their lips while grumbling against it in their hearts. Joshua does not coddle them. If you are so numerous, he says, then go up to the forest and clear it for yourselves. There is room; take it.
Their answer exposes them. The hill country is not enough, and the Canaanites in the valley have iron chariots. There it is, the real objection. Not too little land, but too strong an enemy. And Joshua’s reply is the heart of the chapter, spoken to a people standing on the edge of a gift they are afraid to seize. You have many people and great strength, he tells them. The forest will be yours; clear it, and even its farthest limits will belong to you. Then, straight at their fear: although the Canaanites have iron chariots and although they are strong, you can yārash, pronounced yaw-RASH. Strong's H3423, to take possession, inherit; to dispossess, drive out. This is one of the great working words of Joshua, and it carries two joined ideas: to take possession of something, and to dispossess the ones who hold it. To inherit and to drive out are the same verb, because entering the promise meant clearing the ground of what stood against it. When Joshua tells the sons of Joseph to drive them out, he is not asking them to conquer in their own power against the odds. He is telling them to lay hold of what God has already granted. The chariots are real and the enemy is strong, but the promise is stronger, and the God who gave the land will make the taking of it good. Their part is to stop measuring the enemy and start taking possession. . He turns their own words around on them. They said they were great and blessed and numerous; then let them act like it. The land is already given. What remains is to take hold of it by faith, and by the work faith puts its hand to.
Study notes Going deeper
Two responses to the same gift sit side by side in this chapter. Five daughters with no natural claim come forward and take hold of the LORD’s promise, and it is given to them. A whole tribe, numerous and strong and openly blessed, stands at the edge of a forest full of room and complains that the work is too hard and the enemy too fierce. The difference between them is not the size of the gift but whether they will lay hold of it. God had already given the land; He would not carry His people into it while they sat still and grumbled.
"Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be deemed to have fallen short of it." Hebrews 4:1 (BSB)
The promise still stands, and it is fully God’s to give, but a promise unclaimed is a promise unlived. The same LORD who kept His word to five forgotten sisters calls a comfortable people to rise, trust Him against the iron chariots, and take hold of everything He has already made theirs.