The Division of Land Among the Twelve Tribes

After the Israelites left Egypt, they wandered in the wilderness for forty years (1446-1406 BCE) due to their disobedience to God, delaying their entry into the Promised Land of Canaan. At that time, God had instructed Moses to take two censuses of the twelve tribes of Israel as the basis for the future division of the land.

After Moses and his generation died, Joshua led the Israelites for sixteen years (1406-1390 BCE). He continued to lead the nation, crossing the Jordan River and entering the land of Canaan, where they captured Jericho and the city of Ai. From then on, Joshua led the Israelites from victory to victory, conquering a total of thirty-one kings west of the Jordan River. Adding the two kings east of the Jordan that the Israelites had already defeated—Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan—they had destroyed a total of thirty-three kings.

After this, the Israelites began to divide the land according to the twelve tribes. As the Lord had commanded Moses, Joshua and the Israelites followed suit, using lots to determine the location for each tribe. This fulfilled the prophecies of both Jacob and Moses. The land on the east bank of the Jordan River was divided from north to south among the half-tribe of Manasseh, Gad, and Reuben. The land on the west bank of the Jordan River was divided from north to south among Asher, Naphtali, Zebulun, Issachar, the half-tribe of Manasseh, Ephraim, Dan, Benjamin, Judah, and Simeon. The tribe of Dan was originally assigned a plot of land next to Benjamin, but they were driven out by the Amorites. As a result, they migrated to the upper Jordan Valley, captured the city of Leshem, renamed it Dan, and settled there.

The tribe of Levi was to serve as the hereditary priests and were not given a tribal land inheritance. Instead, the Lord instructed the other twelve tribes to give the Levites forty-eight cities. The Levites (priests) then lived in these cities and taught the Israelites the Law. Of these forty-eight cities, six were designated as cities of refuge: three east of the Jordan (Golan, Ramoth-Gilead, and Bezer) and three west of the Jordan (Kedesh, Shechem, and Hebron).

In the process of entering Canaan, the conquest was the first phase, the division of the land was the second, and the conquering of the “unconquered land” was the third. God used different methods to lead and train His people in these different stages. He appointed Joshua as the successor to Moses to be responsible for the conquest of Canaan and the division of the land, but He did not appoint a successor for Joshua. Instead, He left it to each tribe to be responsible for conquering their “unconquered land,” allowing the remaining inhabitants to be “food” for their faith (Numbers 14:9) and teaching the people to continually possess more of the promise until they had fully “taken possession of the land” (Exodus 23:30). God did not wait for new covenant believers to become spiritually mature before they could enjoy Christ. Instead, He wants us to enjoy the riches in Christ while we are still running the race to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14), working out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12) until we have the fullness of Christ.