Synopsis of the Chapter
The borders of the half tribe of Manasseh on this side of the Jordan are described, and of the other half beyond the Jordan, verse 5, which likewise left some Canaanites in its lot and made them tributaries. Finally, in verse 14, when the children of Joseph complained about their cramped habitation, Joshua answered that they should expand their territory by arms, by driving the Canaanites out of the mountains.
Verse 1: Manasseh the Firstborn of Joseph; Machir and Gilead ¶
1. FOR HE WAS THE FIRSTBORN OF JOSEPH. — He gives the reason why the tribe of Manasseh was one of the tribes that divided Canaan by lot, namely that although Manasseh was not a son of the patriarch Jacob but a grandson, nevertheless because he was the son of Joseph, Jacob had adopted him as his own son, and with equal right as his other sons had commanded him to divide and inherit Canaan directly, Genesis 48.
MACHIR THE FIRSTBORN (indeed the only son) OF MANASSEH. — For he left no other son than Machir, who was the father of Gilead. "Who (Gilead) was a warrior," not in Canaan, but in Egypt under Pharaoh in the wars of the Ephraimites, who are narrated to have been slain in 1 Chronicles chapter 7:21. For Gilead was born in Egypt while his grandfather Joseph was still alive; therefore he could have served Pharaoh in wars before the latter's persecution of the Hebrews began (Exodus 1). It seems that Gilead died in Egypt, or certainly in the desert; for at the exodus of Moses and the Hebrews from Egypt, he, if he was still alive, would have been 440 years old; and at the entry of the Hebrews into Canaan he would have been 480 years old, an age that happened to no one in that era.
Verse 4: The Lord Commanded — Zelophehad's Daughters ¶
4. THE LORD COMMANDED, — Numbers 27. See the commentary there.
Verse 5: The Ten Portions of Manasseh ¶
5. AND THE PORTIONS OF MANASSEH FELL AS TEN, APART FROM THE LAND OF GILEAD AND BASHAN BEYOND THE JORDAN. — "Portions" (literally "measuring lines"), that is, allotments or hereditary lots; for in ancient times boundaries and inheritances were measured with cords, just as they are now measured with rods or measuring sticks, although this measurement of so great a land was not done with cords (for that would have been too lengthy and laborious), but by visual inspection and estimation of the space. It is therefore a catachresis.
Moreover, the tribe of Manasseh was divided into two parts. For the half tribe obtained Gilead and Bashan on this side of the Jordan, and the other half obtained its lots beyond the Jordan, and these were ten, because ten lots had to be given to the ten families of Manasseh — namely five sons: Abiezer, Helek, Asriel, Shechem, and Shemida, verse 2, and five daughters of Zelophehad: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah; for the sixth son, Hepher, begot no sons except Zelophehad, who left behind only these five daughters and substituted them for himself, verse 3.
Verse 8: Tappuah and the Shared Border ¶
8. FOR IN THE LOT OF MANASSEH THE LAND OF TAPPUAH HAD FALLEN, WHICH (the land of Tappuah) IS BESIDE THE BORDERS OF MANASSEH AND BELONGS TO THE CHILDREN OF EPHRAIM. — Whence from the Hebrew you may clearly translate: The land of Tappuah belonged to Manasseh himself, but Tappuah on the border of Manasseh belonged to the children of Ephraim. The meaning is, as if to say: The land near the city of Tappuah belonged to the children of Ephraim; whence in the following verse it is said that some cities of Ephraim (such as Tappuah) were in the midst of the cities of Manasseh. He said the same in chapter 16, verse 9. The reason was that the tribe of Ephraim was more abundant and more numerous than could conveniently dwell entirely in the region that had fallen to it by lot; therefore its too narrow borders had to be expanded, so that it might occupy and inhabit some cities in the lot of Manasseh, while leaving the neighboring fields to the tribe of Manasseh itself, because the fields that had fallen to the tribe of Ephraim were so fertile that they sufficed to feed the whole tribe. So Masius and others.
Verse 11: Beth-shean (Scythopolis) in Issachar and Asher ¶
11. AND THE INHERITANCE OF MANASSEH WAS IN ISSACHAR AND IN ASHER. — "In," that is, next to, or in the vicinity and as it were in the embrace of the tribes of Issachar and Asher, in the way that in Hebrew the golden urn containing the manna and Aaron's rod are said to have been in the ark, that is, next to the ark; for in the ark there were only the tablets of the law. Hebrews 9:4. See the commentary there.
"Beth-shean," which was later called Scythopolis, that is, the city of the Scythians, because it was inhabited by Scythians, as Saint Augustine indicates, Question 8 on the book of Judges; Josephus, Antiquities Book 5, chapter 1; Herodotus, Book 1, and others.
Verse 14: The Children of Joseph Complain to Joshua ¶
14. AND THE CHILDREN OF JOSEPH (NAMELY THE MANASSITES AND EPHRAIMITES) SPOKE TO JOSHUA AND SAID: WHY HAVE YOU GIVEN ME A POSSESSION OF ONLY ONE LOT AND ONE PORTION, WHEN I AM SUCH A GREAT MULTITUDE AND THE LORD HAS BLESSED ME? — That is to say: Why have you given us, who constitute two tribes — namely Ephraim and Manasseh — such narrow limits that it seems like one portion, that is, one lot for one tribe, since it barely suffices for one tribe alone; when yet by God's blessing we have grown into a great multitude? They say this not because the regions assigned to them by lot did not suffice for both tribes, but because most of them were possessed by the Canaanites, whom they despaired of being able to expel, because they occupied citadels and cities fortified by situation and art on mountains and cliffs. They hoped that from Joshua, as their fellow tribesman (for Joshua was from the tribe of Ephraim), they would obtain that some peaceful regions from other tribes would be assigned to them. But Joshua stood firm and was unwilling to take anything from other tribes to give to his own. He therefore gave nothing to flesh and blood, but all to justice, and confirmed the just distribution already made. Whence he says:
Verse 15: Go Up to the Forest ¶
15. IF YOU ARE A NUMEROUS PEOPLE, GO UP TO THE FOREST AND CUT SPACES FOR YOURSELF IN THE LAND OF THE PERIZZITES AND THE REPHAIM, — that is to say: If you abound in people and seek broader spaces to dwell in, do not request them from other tribes to their injury, but occupy, cultivate, and build the spaces assigned to you in the land of the Perizzites and Rephaim, expelling them and cutting them down like a forest. It is a metaphor; for he calls the land occupied by the Canaanites a forest, because just as a forest must be cut down so that the land can be plowed, so the Perizzites had to be cut down so that the Josephites might occupy their land.
Verse 16: Iron Chariots of the Canaanites ¶
16. WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GO UP TO THE MOUNTAINS, BECAUSE THE CANAANITES USE IRON CHARIOTS. — These were scythed chariots, which, armed with scythes and swords and sent against the enemy, cut down men and everything in their path, as if reaping them. Darius, king of the Persians, used such chariots fighting against Alexander the Great. Hear Curtius, Book 4: "He had scythed chariots before him, which at the given signal he sent all against the enemy. The charioteers rushed with loosened reins, that they might crush more people whose charge was not yet sufficiently foreseen. Some therefore were torn by spears projecting far beyond the pole, others by scythes released from both sides."
Xenophon, in Book 6 of the Cyropaedia, makes Cyrus the inventor of these chariots; but from this it is clear that in the time of Joshua, who preceded Cyrus by nine hundred years, the Canaanites used such chariots. Moreover, the terror of these chariots soon vanished; for against them they deployed soldiers packed in close formation with long spears, who would stab the bellies of the horses, and thus by killing or wounding them would render their chariots useless. Alexander the Great devised this, as Curtius testifies in Book 4, and Diodorus Siculus in Book 17: "He instructed all the infantry of the phalanx," he says, "that when the chariots had been driven closer, they should join their shields together and strike them violently with their sarissas, so that the horses, terrified by that noise, would drag the chariots backward — which is exactly what happened."
Verse 17: Joshua Stands Firm ¶
17. AND JOSHUA SAID. — Joshua, not at all moved by the Manassites' objection, stands firm and gives them no other answer than what he has already given — namely, that they should expand their territory by arms.