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Joshua 17:1-18 Darby English Bible (DARBY)

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1 And the lot came to the tribe of Manasseh (for he was the firstborn of Joseph), to Machir, the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, for he was a man of war, and he had Gilead and Bashan.

2 There was also [a portion] for the rest of the children of Manasseh according to their families: for the children of Abiezer, and for the children of Helek, and for the children of Asriel, and for the children of Shechem, and for the children of Hepher, and for the children of Shemida: these are the children of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, the males, according to their families.

3 And Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but daughters; and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

4 And they came near before Eleazar the priest, and before Joshua the son of Nun, and before the princes, saying, Jehovah commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brethren. And he gave them according to the commandment of Jehovah an inheritance among the brethren of their father.

5 And there fell ten portions to Manasseh, besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, which are beyond the Jordan.

6 For the daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance among his sons; and the rest of Manasseh's sons had the land of Gilead.

7 And the territory of Manasseh was from Asher to Micmethath, which is before Shechem, and the border went on the right hand toward the inhabitants of En-Tappuah.

8 Manasseh had the land of Tappuah; but Tappuah on the border of Manasseh belonged to the children of Ephraim.

9 And the border descended to the torrent Kanah, south of the torrent. These cities were Ephraim's among the cities of Manasseh. And the territory of Manasseh was on the north side of the torrent, and ended at the sea.

10 Southward it was Ephraim's, and northward it was Manasseh's, and the sea was his border. And they touched upon Asher on the north, and upon Issachar on the east.

11 And Manasseh had in Issachar and in Asher, Beth-shean and its dependent villages, and Ibleam and its dependent villages, and the inhabitants of Dor and its dependent villages, and the inhabitants of En-Dor and its dependent villages, and the inhabitants of Taanach and its dependent villages, and the inhabitants of Megiddo and its dependent villages, the three hilly regions.

12 But the children of Manasseh could not dispossess [the inhabitants of] those cities; and the Canaanites would dwell in that land.

13 And it came to pass when the children of Israel were become strong, that they made the Canaanites tributary; but they did not utterly dispossess them.

14 And the children of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, Why hast thou given me as inheritance one lot and one portion, seeing I am a great people, forasmuch as Jehovah has blessed me hitherto?

15 And Joshua said unto them, If thou art a great people, then get thee up to the wood, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants, if the hill-country of Ephraim is too narrow for thee.

16 And the children of Joseph said, The hill-country will not be enough for us; and all the Canaanites that dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, those that are of Beth-shean and its dependent villages, and those that are in the valley of Jizreel.

17 And Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, Thou art a great people, and hast great power: thou shalt not have one lot only,

18 but the hill-country shall be thine, as it is a wood, thou shalt cut it down, and its outgoings shall be thine; for thou shalt dispossess the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots; for they are powerful.

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Commentary on Joshua 17 Matthew Henry Commentary

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Chapter 17

The half tribe of Manasseh comes next to be provided for; and here we have,

  • I. The families of that tribe that were to be portioned (v. 1-6).
  • II. The country that fell to their lot (v. 7-13).
  • III. The joint request of the two tribes that descended from Joseph, for the enlargement of their lot, and Joshua's answer to that request (v. 14-18).

Jos 17:1-6

Manasseh was itself but one half of the tribe of Joseph, and yet was divided and subdivided.

  • 1. It was divided into two parts, one already settled on the other side Jordan, consisting of those who were the posterity of Machir, v. 1. This Machir was born to Manasseh in Egypt; there he had signalized himself as a man of war, probably in the contests between the Ephraimites and the men of Gath, 1 Chr. 7:21. His warlike disposition descended to his posterity, and therefore Moses gave them Gileaxdand Bashan, on the other side Jordan, of which before, ch. 13:31. It is here said that the lot came to Manasseh, for he was the first-born of Joseph. Bishop Patrick thinks it should be translated, though he was the first-born of Joseph, and then the meaning is plain, that the second lot was for Manasseh, because, though he was the first-born, yet Jacob had preferred Ephraim before him. See the names of those heads of the families that settled on the other side Jordan, 1 Chr. 5:24.
  • 2. That part on this side Jordan as subdivided into ten families, v. 5. There were six sons of Gilead here named (v. 2), the same that are recorded Num. 26:30-32, only that he who is there called Jezeer is here called Abiezer. Five of these sons had each of them their portion; the sixth, which was Hepher, had his male line cut off in his son Zelophehad, who left daughters only, five in number, of whom we have often read, and these five had each of them a portion; though perhaps, they claiming under Hepher, all their five portions were but equal to one of the portions of the five sons. Or if Hepher had other sons besides Zelophehad, in whom the name of his family was kept up, their posterity married to the daughters of Zelophehad the elder brother, and in their right had these portions assigned them. See Num. 36:12. Here is,
    • (1.) The claim which the daughters of Zelophehad made, grounded upon the command God gave to Moses concerning them, v. 4. They had themselves, when they were young, pleaded their own cause before Moses, and obtained the grant of an inheritance with their brethren, and now they would not lose the benefit of that grant for want of speaking to Joshua, but seasonably put in their demand themselves, as it should seem, and not their husbands for them.
    • (2.) The assignment of their portions according to their claim. Joshua knew very well what God had ordered in their case, and did not object that they having not served in the wars of Canaan there was no reason why they should share in the possessions of Canaan, but readily gave them as inheritance among the brethren of their father. And now they reaped the benefit of their own pious zeal and prudent forecast in this matter. Thus those who take care in the wilderness of this world to make sure to themselves a place in the inheritance of the saints in light will certainly have the comfort of it in the other world, while those that neglect it now will lose it for ever.

Jos 17:7-13

We have here a short account of the lot of this half tribe. It reached from Jordan on the east to the great sea on the west; on the south it lay all along contiguous to Ephraim, but on the north it abutted upon Asher and Issachar. Asher lay north-west, and Issachar north-east, which seems to be the meaning of that (v. 10), that they (that is, Manasseh and Ephraim, as related to it, both together making the tribe of Joseph) met in Asher on the north and Issachar on the east, for Ephraim itself reached not those tribes. Some things are particularly observed concerning this lot:-

  • 1. That there was great communication between this tribe and that of Ephraim. The city of Tappuah belonged to Ephraim, but the country adjoining to Manasseh (v. 8); there were likewise many cities of Ephraim that lay within the border of Manasseh (v. 9), of which before, ch. 16:9.
  • 2. That Manasseh likewise had cities with their appurtenances in the tribes of Issachar and Asher (v. 11), God so ordering it, that though every tribe had its peculiar inheritance, which might not be alienated from it, yet they should thus intermix one with another, to keep up mutual acquaintance and correspondence among the tribes, and to give occasion for the doing of good offices one to another, as became those who, though of different tribes, were all one Israel, and were bound to love as brethren.