In essence, this is Joshua’s message to the last seven tribes of Israel. Having established
themselves as a nation in Canaan by taking 31 hostile cities in a
relatively short period, it only remained to settle the rest of the people in
their God-given inheritance. No Canaanite king or combination of kings ruling
in the territory nearby was strong enough to push Israel back into the
wilderness and deny them the Promised Land. All they had to do was finish
the job, which would require each tribe to win a series of minor
conquests — skirmishes, really, compared to what they had been through already.
Previously they had
won battles as a nation. Now Joshua would see what the individual tribes were
really made of.
