Study Desk

We are your servants, and we live far from here. We came because the Lord your God is so famous. We heard what the Lord did in Egypt

but the leaders reminded them, "We promised these people in the name of the Lord God of Israel that we would let them live, so we must not harm them. If we break our promise, God will punish us. We'll let them live, but we'll make them cut wood and carry water for our people."

The Gibeonites answered, "The Lord your God told his servant Moses that you were to kill everyone who lives here and take their land for yourselves. We were afraid you would kill us, and so we tricked you into making a peace treaty. But we agreed to be your servants,

But you and everyone else must keep after the enemy troops, because they will be safe if they reach their walled towns. Don't let them get away! The Lord our God is helping us get rid of them."

Joshua captured towns everywhere in the land: In the central hill country and the foothills to the west, in the Southern Desert and the region that slopes down toward the Dead Sea. Whenever he captured a town, he would kill the king and everyone else, as the Lord God of Israel had commanded.

Moses did not give any land to the Levi tribe, because the Lord God of Israel had told them, "Instead of land, you will receive the sacrifices offered at my altar."

The other spies said things that made our people afraid, but I completely trusted the Lord God.

The same day I came back, Moses told me, "Since you were faithful to the Lord God, I promise that the places where you went as a spy will belong to you and your descendants forever."

Joshua prayed that God would help Caleb, then he gave Hebron to Caleb and his descendants.

And Hebron still belongs to Caleb's descendants, because he was faithful to the Lord God of Israel.

Joshua gave Caleb some land among the people of Judah, as God had told him to do. Caleb's share was Hebron, which at that time was known as Arba's Town, because Arba was the famous ancestor of the Anakim.

so Joshua told the people: The Judah tribe has already settled in its land in the south, and the Joseph tribes have settled in their land in the north. The tribes of Gad, Reuben, and East Manasseh already have the land that the Lord 's servant Moses gave them east of the Jordan River. And the people of Levi won't get a single large region of the land like the other tribes. Instead, they will serve the Lord as priests. But the rest of you haven't done a thing to take over any land. The Lord God who was worshiped by your ancestors has given you the land, and now it's time to go ahead and settle there. Seven tribes still don't have any land. Each of these tribes should choose three men, and I'll send them to explore the remaining land. They will divide it into seven regions, write a description of each region, and bring these descriptions back to me. I will find out from the Lord our God what region each tribe should get.

You have obeyed every command of the Lord your God and of his servant Moses. And you have done everything I've told you to do. It's taken a long time, but you have stayed and helped your relatives.

Moses taught you to love the Lord your God, to be faithful to him, and to worship and obey him with your whole heart and with all your strength. So be very careful to do everything Moses commanded.

You've become rich from what you've taken from your enemies. You have big herds of cattle, lots of silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and plenty of clothes. Take everything home with you and share with the people of your tribe. I pray that God will be kind to you. You are now free to go home. The tribes of Reuben and Gad started back to Gilead, their own land. Moses had given the land of Bashan to the East Manasseh tribe, so they started back along with Reuben and Gad. God had told Moses that these two and a half tribes should conquer Gilead and Bashan, and they had done so. Joshua had given land west of the Jordan River to the other half of the Manasseh tribe, so they stayed at Shiloh in the land of Canaan with the rest of the Israelites.

All of the Lord 's people have gathered together and have sent us to find out why you are unfaithful to our God. You have turned your backs on the Lord by building that altar. Why are you rebelling against him?

If you don't think your land is a fit place to serve God, then move across the Jordan and live with us in the Lord 's own land, where his sacred tent is located. But don't rebel against the Lord our God or against us by building another altar besides the Lord 's own altar.

Don't you remember what happened when Achan was unfaithful and took some of the things that belonged to God? This made God angry with the entire nation. Achan died because he sinned, but he also caused the death of many others.

The Lord is the greatest God! We ask him to be our witness, because he knows whether or not we were rebellious or unfaithful when we built that altar. If we were unfaithful, then we pray that God won't rescue us today. Let us tell you why we built that altar,

We built that altar because we were worried. Someday your descendants might tell our descendants, "The Lord made the Jordan River the boundary between us Israelites and you people of Reuben and Gad. The Lord is Israel's God, but you're not part of Israel, so you can't take part in worshiping the Lord ." Your descendants might say that and try to make our descendants stop worshiping and obeying the Lord .