Semi-Random Musings (43)

I have written a couple of times before about the “labels” the writers of the Old Testament used for the cities, towns, nations and people groups in their histories. These men wrote centuries after the events they described, for audiences unfamiliar with any helpful historical context and detail. In many cases, the ethnicity of the people who lived in any particular geographic location about which they were writing had changed drastically in the intervening years, giving rise to potential confusion.

Lost Territory

“Here’s what God has given you. All you have to do is go and take possession of it. So what’s holding you up?”

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.