Chapter 16 The Lot For the Children of Joseph.
In this chapter the lot allocated to the children of Joseph, seen as one tribe and yet two, is described. It was the portion north of that of Benjamin and Dan. It was not necessary to deal with it in such detail because it was discernible from the boundaries of the other tribes. Their prospective possessions occupied the centre of Palestine, bounded on the north by the Plain of Esdraelon, and the territories of Asher and Issachar, and on the south by those of Dan (Joshua 19:41-46) and Benjamin (Joshua 18:11-28). No list of towns is given, possibly because of the stress on their need to clear the forest land (Joshua 17:15-18). That was what they should have been concentrating on rather than towns. Furthermore their area included Shechem and its related towns which were probably to be left alone having joined the tribal confederacy. No suggestion was to be given that they had been possessed.
‘ And the lot for the children of Joseph went out from the Jordan at Jericho, at the waters of Jericho on the east, even the wilderness going up from Jericho through the hill country to Bethel.'
Once again the sacred lot was called on to determine the land allocated to Ephraim and Manasseh. Yet as the other large tribe, their activity in the Central Highlands was necessary. Thus did the sacred lot and what was necessary for success go hand in hand.
The border parallels that of Benjamin, but here was looking northward, commencing with ‘the Jordan of Jericho', that part of the Jordan close to Jericho (compare Numbers 22:1). The ‘waters of Jericho on the east' refers to some copious spring on the east of, and connected with, the wilderness going up from Jericho through the hill country to Bethel.