Bible Commentaries

Verses 1-5

Joshua 14-19. The Division of the Land on the W. of Jordan.

Joshua 14:1-5 is P’ s introduction to the division of the land by lot, but instead of going on at once with his account of the inheritance of Judah the editor inserts ( Joshua 14:6-15) a Deuteronomic account of Caleb’ s claim to Hebron in accordance with the promise given him by Moses in Nu. After this we get in Joshua 15:1-12, P’ s account of the boundaries of Judah. But before giving the names of the various cities of Judah, the editor inserted another account ( Joshua 15:13-15) of Caleb’ s conquests from a source older than the Deuteronomic section just mentioned in Joshua 15:6-15. Then in Joshua 15:20 to Joshua 16:2 we get the names of the cities of Judah. In Joshua 6:3 we have an old fragment of genuine historical interest stating that the Jebusites maintained their ground in Jerusalem, a duplicate of which is found in Judges 1:21 with the erroneous alteration of Benjamin for Judah.