Ver. 15. And Joshua answered them, If thou be a great people, &c.— Joshua was not a man calculated to sacrifice his duty to the caprice of the people of his own tribe, and to abuse the authority deposited with him, in order to gratify their inclinations. He answers them, that the will of God, as specified by lot, was to be the rule of his conduct, and ought to be of their desires; and that indeed the very thing they urged, namely, their being so many in number, gave them the means of settling themselves at large, by felling down the thick forests of the country, and driving the Perizzites and the Rephaims from their residence there; and thus by their valour enlarging the portion which had fallen to them, if they were not content with mount Ephraim, and the fine country about it.
Related Commentaries of Joshua 17:15
Joshua 17:15
15 And Joshua answered them, If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants,c if mount Ephraim be too narrow for thee.