Joshua divides the Israelites' inheritance by lot.  www.freebibleillustrations.com

More Dividing the Spoils (Joshua 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20) - Damn!  A large chunk of the Book of Joshua is just dividing up the spoils of war to the various Israelite tribes.

Chapter 16 through 19 are basically the same thing.  "These guys get this lot of land, those guys get that lot of land."  The only thing notable about these chapters is that in 16 and 17, we see that Yahweh yet again failed on His promises to drive out everyone the Israelites encounter.  Apparently, there was a little bit of difficulty with the Canaanites (and the Jebusites earlier, remember?).

Another interesting development happens in 18 and 19, where the last seven tribes who still need their inheritance draw lots for the land - thereby gambling.  Fortunately, it isn't until later in the Bible that gambling is seen in a bad light.  In their defense though, there had to be some method in which to designate who gets what.

It isn't until Chapter 20 that the story changes.  I was starting to get a little worried that the Book of Joshua was just going to be one long story of dividing up lots of land to the different tribes.  Chapter 20 brings up the "avenger of the blood" again.  If you don't remember, the avenger of the blood is a relative of a murder victim who is seeking to kill the murderer. 

Chapter 20 designates refuge cities where the alleged murderer can run to and not be expected to be killed by the avenger of the blood.  The alleged murderer essentially has something akin to probation here.  It's an interesting idea for their time, but still the murderer is basically free.  All they've done is give him refuge from the "avenger of the blood".

Contradictions in Joshua Ch. 15? - First of all, I think one planning to read the Bible can skip this chapter.  It's just more dividing up conquered lands to people.  But, if you're interested in contradictions there's some in here.

The first one comes up in Joshua 15:20, 33.  It says "this is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah ... in the valley, Eshataol and Zoreah.  But then, if we skip ahead to Ch. 19:40-41, it says those cities were given to the children of Dan.

The second contradiction is actually a false prophecy.  In Ex.33:2; Dt.7:1,  7:24, 9:4-6,  31:3-7; Jos.1:1-5,  3:10, 17:17-18,  21:41-43, Yahweh tells the Israelites that He will drive ALL the inhabitants out of the land for the Israelites.  However, Yahweh and the Israelites can not, for the life of them, drive out those damned Jebusites!  (Josh. 15:63).


And of course there's a little bit of good old fashioned Old Testament cruelty and family values.  In Josh. 15:16-17, a man named Caleb offers his daughter to the person who conquers a city called Kirjathsepher.  A man named Othniel, son of Kenaz, conquers the strangely named city, and so Caleb gives his daughter to him.

Joshua Divides Conquered Territories Amongst Israelite Tribes (Joshua Chapter 13) - Joshua is getting pretty old now, and now he is given the task of dividing the conquered lands and appropriating them to the various Israelite tribes.

There's not much else to it, so I don't want to bore you, except that there seems to be a confusion of names.  It starts off with Joshua being old and told my Yahweh that he must divide the remaining land amongst the tribes; and then suddenly it's Moses dividing the land.  And, I get a feeling this is a repetition or some sort of reiteration from Numbers. 

Also noteworthy is that tribe of Levites do not get any inheritance (because they are the priestly tribe), for their inheritance is Yahweh Himself. 

So anyways, this chapter is a little bit confusing

Just a few leftover giants from the time of Moses.  From theholychao.atorium.net

A List of Kings Killed?  (Joshua 12) - Okay, so after the havoc wrought in the previous chapters, it appears that Chapter 12 is an inventory of dead kings.  I read it three or four times, and I admit I can't make much sense of it, so if anyone knows what it means, please tell me.  But, my impression is that Chapter 12 is basically a list of the kings were summarily executed upon the Israelites' victory.

Also interesting is the mention of the remnants of giants, whom are mentioned during a recap of the amount of territory that Moses had conquered.  Gotta love those giants! 

I know a Christian guy that is all about these giants, aka the Nephilim, and really believes they existed.  After all, it's right there in the Bible. And he even has some cool Photoshopped pictures to prove it!