Page 42 - Advanced Biblical Backgrounds Revised

The map to the left shows the campaigns west of the
Jordan River.

77 Once the major parts of the promised land had
been conquered, Joshua divided up the land among
the tribes. The Tribe of Levi, the priests, did not
receive land as God was to be their inheritance. The
other tribes were each given large tracks of land
throughout the Promised land. On the east side of
the Jordan River, the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and half
the tribe of Manasseh (Joshua 13:7-8). On the west
side, the other tribes were given land. These tribes
included Asher, Zebulun, Naphtali, Issachar,
Manasseh, Ephraim, Dan, Benjamin, Judah, and
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Simeon. Though the land was divided, they did not
actually conquer it all then “We discover from the
books of Joshua and Judges that the Hebrews
initially did not conquer the land assigned to these
tribes. In fact, they did not get control of it all until
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the reign of David.”

The conquest itself is described in three campaigns:
the thrust into central Canaan (Joshua 6:1 – 8:35),
the southern campaign (9:1 – 10:43), and the
northern campaign (11:1-15). The reader of these passages could easily assume that the whole
operation to conquer the land took only a short time, whereas the process lasted several years. And
when the conquests were “completed,” there still was left to each tribe's land and a group of people yet
to conquer.

If you take time to read the book of Joshua, you will find that there are areas that were not conquered
and managed to avoid for an extended period after the initial division of the land. Two major areas that
are not conquered, and are a threat to Israel, include Philistia and Phoenicia. As you read the book of
Joshua and Judges, the Philistines are a source of turmoil for the Israelites. Saul and David had to fight
them. Samson also had to fight them. God used Samson to demolish one of their temples, killing many
inside it.

Some of the Israelites' conquests appear to have been by peaceful assimilation of the native peoples
into the Israelites’ own group, such as happened with the Gibeonites (Joshua 9).

The danger of such assimilation is that the Israelites’ faith would be mixed with the religious beliefs and
practices of Canaan. The Canaanites recognized many deities, two of the more prominent ones being El,

77 Voss, illustrative map: “Land allocated to the Tribes of Israel” in Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Manners and
Customs, 109.
78 Ibid., 10.
79 Ibid.

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