Joshua 17
Joshua 17 is the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Joshua in the Hebrew Bible or in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to Joshua, with additions by the high priests Eleazar and Phinehas, but modern scholars view it as part of the Deuteronomistic History, which spans the books of Deuteronomy to 2 Kings, attributed to nationalistic and devotedly Yahwistic writers during the time of the reformer Judean king Josiah in 7th century BCE. This chapter records the allotment of land for the tribe of Joseph, especially the tribe of Manasseh, a part of a section comprising Joshua 13:1–21:45 about the Israelites allotting the land of Canaan.
Text
This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 18 verses.Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, Aleppo Codex, and Codex Leningradensis. Fragments containing parts of this chapter in Hebrew were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls including 4Q48 with extant verses 1–5, 11–15.Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint include Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus.
Analysis
The narrative of Israelites allotting the land of Canaan comprising verses 13:1 to 21:45 of the Book of Joshua and has the following outline:There are three key elements in the report of the allotments for the nine and a half tribes in the land of Canaan as follows:
Allotment for Manasseh (17:1–13)
The tribe of Joseph is allotted with subdivision into Ephraim and Manasseh, overall covering a huge area of land in Canaan between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea from just north of the Dead Sea to Mount Carmel in the north-west, in addition to the Transjordan lands allotted the other half of Manasseh. The allotment for the tribe of Manasseh as a whole include the Transjordan territory, containing genealogical information closely related to Numbers 26:29–34. Machir and Gilead appear in Judges 5, where Machir appears to occupy lands west of the Jordan, while Gilead has the eastern part of Jordan, with six clans named in the Book of Numbers. The story of Zelophehad's daughters concludes a narrative from Numbers 27, 36, that the right of inheritance for female descendants, to protect family property in the absence of male ones, was established by Moses, with a requirement that the daughters should marry within the tribe. Now the provisions were respected, and the five daughters of Zelophehad, son of Hepher, along with the five Gileadite clans, making 'ten portions' within the territory of Manasseh in west of Jordan.Western Manasseh's allotment stretches from the north, bordering the land of Asher, to Michmethath, on the border with the land of Ephraim to the south. There were still enclaves of the Canaanites, that the people of Manasseh failed to expel, but put them as forced labor.