Joshua 13 Summary and Study Guide

“There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.” God says that to a man at the end of his strength. This Joshua 13 summary and study guide follows the work God gives him in place of the fighting, and why a chapter of property boundaries ends by naming the LORD Himself as one tribe’s inheritance.

Setting the Stage

God promised the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants (Genesis 12:7). Hundreds of years later that family came out of slavery in Egypt and reached the border of it, refused to go in, and died in the desert instead.

Their children crossed the Jordan under a commander named Joshua and took the middle of the country, city by city. The chapter before this one closes by counting the kings they beat: thirty-one west of the river, and two more east of it. Joshua 13 opens by telling Joshua what that list left out.

Comprehensive Joshua 13 Summary

Joshua is an old man now, and God says so to his face. The fighting has won the heartland, but the coast and the far north are still in other hands, and God tells Joshua that taking them will not be his work.

Then God names what is left. The Philistine coast in the south west, with its five ruling cities. The Canaanite and Sidonian country further up, the land of the Gebalites, and the Lebanon ranges as far as the entrance to Hamath. God promises to drive those peoples out Himself, and orders Joshua to divide the whole land by lot now, before a foot of it has been taken, among the nine and a half tribes still waiting for a home.

God stops speaking at verse 7. From there the record turns east across the Jordan, to land Moses had already given the other two and a half tribes. Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh hold the old kingdoms of Sihon and Og, running from the Arnon gorge in the south up to Mount Hermon. Israel never drove out the Geshurites or the Maachathites, and they were still living among Israel when this was written.

Then each of the three has its borders written out in turn, town by town. The record breaks off once, in the middle of Reuben’s list, to say that Israel killed Balaam the fortune teller with the sword.

Twice the record stops to say that Levi was given no land at all. The chapter’s last sentence says what Levi was given instead.

One Word Summary

• Unfinished: most of the coast and the north were still unconquered.
• Allotment: the chapter’s business is dividing, not fighting.
• Portion: the word the last verse settles on.

In One Sentence

God tells Joshua he is too old to finish the conquest and orders him to divide the land by lot anyway, and the record of the eastern allotments closes by saying Levi received no ground at all because the LORD was Levi’s inheritance.

Theme of Joshua 13

Joshua 13 is about an inheritance God gives that His people still have to go and take. Half the chapter hands out deeds to ground nobody has cleared yet, and half of it records deeds already honoured east of the Jordan, so the division rests on what God said rather than on what Israel had managed.

Two ideas run alongside that one. What Israel left undone stayed undone, and Joshua’s record says so without excusing it. And the chapter measures a portion by who gave it rather than by how much ground it covers.

Joshua 13 Outline

• Joshua 13:1: God tells Joshua that he is old and that much of the land is still unpossessed.
• Joshua 13:2-6: God names the land that remains, from the Philistine coast to Lebanon, and promises to drive out the people living there.
• Joshua 13:7: God orders Joshua to divide the land as an inheritance for the nine tribes and the half tribe of Manasseh.
• Joshua 13:8-12: The eastern territory Moses gave Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh is set down, taken from Sihon and Og.
• Joshua 13:13: Israel never expelled the Geshurites and the Maachathites, who still lived among them.
• Joshua 13:14: Levi received no land because the offerings made by fire to the LORD were their inheritance.
• Joshua 13:15-23: Reuben’s portion in the south, ending with the death of Balaam.
• Joshua 13:24-28: Gad’s portion through Gilead and the Jordan valley.
• Joshua 13:29-31: Half of Manasseh’s portion in Bashan and northern Gilead.
• Joshua 13:32: These were the territories Moses distributed in the plains of Moab, east of Jericho.
• Joshua 13:33: Moses gave Levi no inheritance, because the LORD God of Israel was their inheritance.

The Three Allotments East of the Jordan

Verses 15 to 31 are hard to read because the place names arrive with nothing to hang them on. The three portions run in a line from south to north, and knowing that turns the list into a map.

Sihon’s kingdom and Og’s kingdom fill that last column because every acre east of the Jordan came out of those two wars, fought under Moses before Joshua ever crossed the river (Numbers 21:21-35).

Mahanaim on the Gad and Manasseh border is where Jacob met the angels of God (Genesis 32:1-2) and where David sheltered when Absalom drove him out of Jerusalem (2 Samuel 17:24). The slopes of Pisgah in Reuben’s portion are where Moses stood to look at the land he would not enter (Deuteronomy 34:1).

Observations from Joshua 13

The Tribe With No Land Is Named Both First and Last (Joshua 13:14, 33)

Levi appears twice in this chapter, and both times it is to say Levi got nothing. The first mention comes before a single tribal boundary is listed and the second is the closing sentence of the whole record, so the land list is wrapped at both ends by the tribe left out of it. The chapter opens and closes its survey of the ground by naming one portion that was not made of ground at all.

Levi’s landlessness started out as a sentence against their violence. Jacob’s last words over Simeon and Levi were “I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel” (Genesis 49:7), a sentence of dispersal rather than a homeland of their own, spoken over their violence at Shechem.

The turn came at Sinai, when Israel worshipped the golden calf and Moses asked who was on the LORD’s side, and the sons of Levi were the ones who gathered to him (Exodus 32:26). The scattering stayed. What it meant changed, and a later Israelite could pray, “The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup” (Psalm 16:5), borrowing the language of Levi’s portion for himself.

Israel’s Failure Gets One Sentence and No Excuse (Joshua 13:13)

One sentence in the middle of the eastern survey reports a failure: “the Geshurites and the Maachathites dwell among the Israelites until this day” (Joshua 13:13). Israel did not drive those two peoples out, and they were still there when this was written down.

“Until this day” is the phrase that stings. When this was written down, those peoples were still living among Israel, and the chapter says so rather than passing over it. No reason is given and no blame is assigned. The same phrase comes back over Jerusalem in Joshua 15:63 and over Gezer in Joshua 16:10, so Joshua 13:13 is the first in a pattern the book keeps recording.

Moses Is Called the Servant of the LORD Where the Eastern Grant Is Confirmed (Joshua 13:8)

The eastern land came to Reuben and Gad by their own request, made while Israel was still camped in Moab because the country suited their cattle (Numbers 32:1-5). Many readers treat that request as a compromise, and Joshua 13 says the opposite twice in one verse.

The land was theirs “which Moses gave them, beyond Jordan eastward, even as Moses the servant of the LORD gave them.” Moses gave it, and he gave it as the LORD’s servant. “The servant of the LORD” is this book’s standing title for Moses, and it stands here over exactly the grant a reader might expect it to question.

The Man Hired to Curse Israel Is Filed Inside the Deed to Israel’s Land (Joshua 13:22)

A property record stops mid boundary to say this: “Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the sword among them that were slain by them.” The Israelites killed Balaam the fortune teller along with the others who fell in that battle.

Balak of Moab paid Balaam to curse Israel, and Balaam could not do it (Numbers 22-24). What he did instead was advise Moab and Midian how to pull Israel into idolatry and immorality, and God says so plainly through Moses in Numbers 31:16. He died in the battle that answered that advice (Numbers 31:8). Putting his name inside the title deed to Reuben’s land may be a way of marking that the ground Israel now holds is ground the curse never took.

Difficult Verses Explained

Did God Break His Promise to Drive Out the Nations?

No, and the promise was never a promise to do it all at once. God said in Joshua 13:6, “them will I drive out from before the children of Israel.” He will remove those peoples ahead of Israel.

But long before Joshua, God had already set the pace and the condition: “By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land” (Exodus 23:30). He would do it gradually, as Israel grew large enough to fill the country.

Numbers 33:55 attaches a warning: whatever Israel failed to drive out would become a permanent trouble to them. Judges 2:20-23 then states outright why the nations were left: Israel had broken the covenant, so God stopped driving them out and used what remained to test the next generation. The promise held. Israel’s part of it did not.

Why Divide Land Israel Did Not Yet Hold?

Because the division was a pledge before it was a property transfer. God tells Joshua to allot the Philistine coast and the Lebanon country while other people are still living on them (Joshua 13:6-7), so some tribes were handed a title to ground they could not yet walk on. God gave Jeremiah the same kind of errand centuries later: buy a field at Anathoth while a besieging army held the country around it (Jeremiah 32:6-15). A deed drawn up under those conditions is a statement about who is going to win.

It also made sense to do it while Joshua still had the standing to make an allotment stick. Joshua 14:1-2 shows the machinery: Eleazar the priest, Joshua, and the heads of the tribes casting lots.

The lot appears to have settled where a tribe would sit, while the size of its share was fixed separately by how many people it had (Numbers 26:54-56). That left little room for a charge of favouritism. As Proverbs 16:33 puts it, “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.” The lot looked like chance and was not.

Why Are There Two Different Geshurs in One Chapter?

Because two different peoples in two different places carry the same name. Joshua 13:2 lists “all Geshuri” among the unconquered land next to Philistia in the far south, and that group is among the peoples David later raided while he was living at Ziklag (1 Samuel 27:8).

Joshua 13:11 names the Geshurites in the north east instead, next to the Maachathites near Mount Hermon and Bashan, and verse 13 is about that northern pair. That northern Geshur became a small kingdom with its own king, and David married a princess from it. Their son was Absalom, who fled back to Geshur after killing his half brother (2 Samuel 3:3; 13:37). A reader tracking one word through the chapter will end up placing the same people at opposite ends of the map, and the chapter means two distinct groups.

Why Is Balaam’s Death Recorded in a List of Boundaries?

Because it happened in that territory, and because it belonged to how Israel came to hold it. Balaam died in the campaign against Midian, alongside the five Midianite kings named in the verse just before (Numbers 31:8), and that campaign is part of the war that took the land Reuben now received.

There may be more to the placement than geography. Joshua 13:21 has just listed Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba as the men who fell with Sihon, and verse 22 adds the one name Israel had most reason to remember. The New Testament keeps that memory alive as a warning about a teacher who sold his gift: “the way of Balaam” (2 Peter 2:15), “the error of Balaam” (Jude 11), and “the doctrine of Balaam” (Revelation 2:14).

Common Misunderstandings

• Joshua 13 never gives Joshua’s age. It says only that he was “old and stricken in years,” and readers often come away thinking a number was stated. He was 110 when he died (Joshua 24:29), and the common estimates of ninety to a hundred here are worked back from Caleb, who says in Joshua 14:10 that he is eighty-five. Treat any figure as an estimate, because Scripture does not give one.
• Caleb appears nowhere in Joshua 13. Some summaries list him among the chapter’s figures, and he is not in any verse of it. He enters the land distribution at Joshua 14:6, when he comes to Joshua at Gilgal to ask for Hebron.
• The peoples still to be driven out were Philistines, Geshurites, Avites, Canaanites, Sidonians and Gebalites (Joshua 13:2-6). Retellings sometimes name the Amorites and Hittites instead. The Amorites appear here only as a border marker in verse 4 and as Sihon’s already defeated kingdom, and the Hittites are not named in the chapter at all.
• Joshua 13 passes no judgment on Reuben and Gad for settling east of the Jordan. It records the grant as given by “Moses the servant of the LORD” (13:8), though it is often read as a rebuke. Those tribes did suffer for their position later, losing ground to Hazael of Syria (2 Kings 10:32-33) and going into exile before the rest of Israel (1 Chronicles 5:26), and Numbers 32:1 does record that they asked for it on account of their livestock. A pattern like that is worth weighing. Joshua 13 does not turn it into a verdict, and neither should we.

Christ Connection

Joshua 13:1 says that land “remaineth yet very much” to be possessed, and Joshua died before it was. The letter to the Hebrews picks up that unfinished business and uses the same word: “For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God” (Hebrews 4:8-9).

The “Jesus” in verse 8 is Joshua, since it is the same name in Greek. The argument runs like this: God went on speaking of another day of rest long after Joshua’s time, which shows that the rest Joshua gave was a smaller one. Joshua left the map unfinished, and Hebrews reads that gap as a sign pointing forward, to the rest Christ gives.

Levi’s portion was God Himself rather than a stretch of ground (Joshua 13:33), and that is now every believer’s language. Paul thanks the Father for making us “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:12), and Peter calls it “an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away” (1 Peter 1:4).

Jesus described His own work in these terms, sending Paul so that people might receive “inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me” (Acts 26:18). Believers are called priests now (1 Peter 2:5), which is Levi’s old office, and the Holy Spirit is given as “the earnest of our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:14), a deposit on ground not yet occupied. That is Joshua 13 in miniature: a portion granted in full before it is entered.

When, Where, and Why

• When: near the end of Joshua’s life, roughly seven years after Israel crossed the Jordan. That figure is an estimate rather than a stated date, worked back from Caleb, who was forty when Moses sent him to spy out the land and eighty-five by the time the allotment began (Joshua 14:7, 10).
• Where: the chapter looks two ways. The land it lists as unconquered lies west and north, along the Philistine coast and up through Sidon and Lebanon. The Philistines were not Canaanites by descent (Genesis 10:13-14), but Joshua 13:3 counts their territory as Canaanite ground, which puts it inside the grant. The land it actually divides lies east of the Jordan, stretching from the Arnon valley at its southern edge up to Mount Hermon and Bashan.
• Why: this is the hinge of the book. Chapters 1 to 12 are the war and chapters 13 to 21 are the division, and this chapter is where one stops and the other starts. The boundary lists are receipts. They show, town by town, that the promise made to Abraham was kept in detail and not merely in principle.

Key Verses

“Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.”

Joshua 13:1

Joshua had grown old, and God told him so and added that a great deal of the land was still not taken. Everything in the chapter follows from that sentence. It ends Joshua’s campaigning and starts his last piece of work.

“Nevertheless the children of Israel expelled not the Geshurites, nor the Maachathites: but the Geshurites and the Maachathites dwell among the Israelites until this day.”

Joshua 13:13

Israel never removed the Geshurites and the Maachathites, who were still in the land when this account was set down. It is the one line in the chapter that reports a failure, and it is left standing without softening.

“But unto the tribe of Levi Moses gave not any inheritance: the LORD God of Israel was their inheritance, as he said unto them.”

Joshua 13:33

Moses gave the tribe of Levi no land, because the LORD God of Israel was what they had been promised instead. After thirty-two verses of borders and towns, this is where the chapter chooses to stop.

Key Lessons from Joshua 13

• God had more work for Joshua after his fighting days were over, and the new work was to divide the land rather than to take it (Joshua 13:1, 7).
• Israel was told to parcel out territory nobody yet held, which made the division an act of confidence in God’s promise (Joshua 13:6-7).
• What Israel left undone in the land was still there generations later, so unfinished obedience can outlast the person who left it unfinished (Joshua 13:13).
• The tribe given no ground at all was given God Himself, and the chapter treats that as the better portion (Joshua 13:33).

To go deeper into the lessons from this chapter, read our full study: 12 Sobering Lessons from Joshua 13.

Bible Study Questions

1. Read Joshua 13:2-6 and list the regions God says are still unconquered. Where are they in relation to the land Israel had already taken?
2. God tells Joshua to divide land that Israel does not yet hold (13:6-7). Why would God order that instead of waiting until the fighting was finished?
3. Joshua 13:13 records what Israel failed to do and gives no reason for it. What does the phrase “until this day” tell you about when this was written and why it was included?
4. Compare Joshua 13:14 with Joshua 13:33. Both say Levi received no land, but each names a different inheritance in its place. What does each one add?
5. Why do you think Balaam’s death is recorded inside a boundary list (13:22)? Read Numbers 31:16 and Revelation 2:14 before answering.
6. God told Joshua that much land remained to be possessed. What has God given you that you have not yet taken up, and what would taking it up look like this month?

Frequently Asked Questions

Joshua 13, The Full Text (KJV)

Read the full chapter below for reference.

1 Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.

2 This is the land that yet remaineth: all the borders of the Philistines, and all Geshuri,

3 From Sihor, which is before Egypt, even unto the borders of Ekron northward, which is counted to the Canaanite: five lords of the Philistines; the Gazathites, and the Ashdothites, the Eshkalonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avites:

4 From the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that is beside the Sidonians, unto Aphek, to the borders of the Amorites:

5 And the land of the Giblites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrising, from Baal-gad under mount Hermon unto the entering into Hamath.

6 All the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon unto Misrephoth-maim, and all the Sidonians, them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites for an inheritance, as I have commanded thee.

7 Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance unto the nine tribes, and the half tribe of Manasseh,

8 With whom the Reubenites and the Gadites have received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond Jordan eastward, even as Moses the servant of the LORD gave them;

9 From Aroer, that is upon the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that is in the midst of the river, and all the plain of Medeba unto Dibon;

10 And all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, which reigned in Heshbon, unto the border of the children of Ammon;

11 And Gilead, and the border of the Geshurites and Maachathites, and all mount Hermon, and all Bashan unto Salcah;

12 All the kingdom of Og in Bashan, which reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei, who remained of the remnant of the giants: for these did Moses smite, and cast them out.

13 Nevertheless the children of Israel expelled not the Geshurites, nor the Maachathites: but the Geshurites and the Maachathites dwell among the Israelites until this day.

14 Only unto the tribe of Levi he gave none inheritance; the sacrifices of the LORD God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance, as he said unto them.

15 And Moses gave unto the tribe of the children of Reuben inheritance according to their families.

16 And their coast was from Aroer, that is on the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that is in the midst of the river, and all the plain by Medeba;

17 Heshbon, and all her cities that are in the plain; Dibon, and Bamoth-baal, and Beth-baal-meon,

18 And Jahazah, and Kedemoth, and Mephaath,

19 And Kirjathaim, and Sibmah, and Zareth-shahar in the mount of the valley,

20 And Beth-peor, and Ashdoth-pisgah, and Beth-jeshimoth,

21 And all the cities of the plain, and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, which reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses smote with the princes of Midian, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, which were dukes of Sihon, dwelling in the country.

22 Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the sword among them that were slain by them.

23 And the border of the children of Reuben was Jordan, and the border thereof. This was the inheritance of the children of Reuben after their families, the cities and the villages thereof.

24 And Moses gave inheritance unto the tribe of Gad, even unto the children of Gad according to their families.

25 And their coast was Jazer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon, unto Aroer that is before Rabbah;

26 And from Heshbon unto Ramath-mizpeh, and Betonim; and from Mahanaim unto the border of Debir;

27 And in the valley, Beth-aram, and Beth-nimrah, and Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon, Jordan and his border, even unto the edge of the sea of Chinnereth on the other side Jordan eastward.

28 This is the inheritance of the children of Gad after their families, the cities, and their villages.

29 And Moses gave inheritance unto the half tribe of Manasseh: and this was the possession of the half tribe of the children of Manasseh by their families.

30 And their coast was from Mahanaim, all Bashan, all the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, and all the towns of Jair, which are in Bashan, threescore cities:

31 And half Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were pertaining unto the children of Machir the son of Manasseh, even to the one half of the children of Machir by their families.

32 These are the countries which Moses did distribute for inheritance in the plains of Moab, on the other side Jordan, by Jericho, eastward.

33 But unto the tribe of Levi Moses gave not any inheritance: the LORD God of Israel was their inheritance, as he said unto them.