Joshua 19:49-51--The Inheritance for Joshua

Joshua 19:49-51
English Standard Version

The Inheritance for Joshua
49 When they had finished distributing the several territories of the land as inheritances, the people of Israel gave an inheritance among them to Joshua the son of Nun. 50 By command of the LORD they gave him the city that he asked, Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim. And he rebuilt the city and settled in it.

​51 These are the inheritances that Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun and the heads of the fathers' houses of the tribes of the people of Israel distributed by lot at Shiloh before the LORD, at the entrance of the tent of meeting. So they finished dividing the land.

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Notice that the people, by command of the LORD, gave Joshua, the son of Nun, a special inheritance from among the people.  No other person other than Caleb had been offered a particular inheritance like this.  They gave him the city that he asked for--Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim, for he was of the tribe of Ephraim (though the passage makes it sound as if he would have been allowed to choose his portion from any of the allotments given to any of the tribes).  He rebuilt the city so that he and his family could settle in it.

The division of all the Land was done at the direction of Eleazar the High Priest and Joshua in Shiloh before the Tabernacle (the passage refers to it as the Tent of Meeting, for it is where the people came to not just meet with each other, but with the LORD) that had been set up there, so that it was clear that though the allotments were made by choosing lots, even that "random chance" was done at the direction of the LORD so that it was His election at work.  Only after all the Land had been divided as such could the Levites receive their allotment of the Cities of Refuge from among the people.  We'll talk more about this in the next journal article, but if you'd like to see the promise the the LORD is going to fulfill, please read Numbers 35 ahead of time.