Powerful Joshua 17 Summary and Study Guide: Manasseh’s Inheritance, Five Sisters, and the Cities Israel Never Took

Two requests reach Joshua in the same chapter. Five sisters ask for land and walk away with it; two of the largest tribes in Israel ask for more and are handed an axe instead. This Joshua 17 summary and study guide follows both, and the ground Manasseh never took.

Setting the Stage

Joseph had two sons while he was in Egypt, Manasseh first and Ephraim second. When their grandfather Jacob was dying he crossed his hands over the two boys and gave the greater blessing to the younger one, then promised that the older one would also become a great people (Genesis 48:14, 19). Jacob counted both boys as his own sons (Genesis 48:5), so both became tribes of Israel.

Centuries later their descendants came out of slavery in Egypt, crossed the Jordan River under Joshua, and took the land. Now it is being divided. Ephraim’s share was measured out in the chapter before this one. Joshua 17 is where the older brother’s share is finally described, and where the family of Joseph finds out what it costs to hold it.

Comprehensive Joshua 17 Summary

Manasseh was Joseph’s older son, and part of his tribe already held Gilead and Bashan east of the Jordan, taken by the fighting line of Machir. Joshua 17 sets out what fell to the rest of the family on the western side of the river, clan by clan: Abiezer, Helek, Asriel, Shechem, Hepher and Shemida. Then a family with no sons in it steps forward.

Hepher’s son Zelophehad had died leaving five daughters, and the five of them, Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah, came and stood in front of Eleazar the priest, Joshua, and the leaders of Israel. Their whole argument was a command God had given through Moses years earlier. They were given land alongside the men of their family, which is why ten shares fell to Manasseh instead of six.

Manasseh’s border then ran from Asher past Shechem, south to the brook Kanah, and out at the Mediterranean, with Ephraim below it and towns of each tribe sitting inside the other’s ground. Six fortified cities in the northern valleys belonged to Manasseh as well, Beth-shean, Ibleam, Dor, Endor, Taanach and Megiddo, and Manasseh never took one of them. When Israel grew strong enough to do it, the tribe put the Canaanites to forced labour and left them where they were.

The chapter closes with a second request. Ephraim and Manasseh came together and complained that one allotment was too small for a people God had blessed so heavily.

Joshua answered that if they were as large as they claimed, they could go up and clear the wooded hills for themselves. They pointed at the Canaanite chariots down on the flat ground. He told them the hill country was theirs, and so was the enemy holding it.

One Word Summary

• Unfinished: six strong cities named, and not one of them taken
• Claim: both halves of the chapter turn on somebody asking Joshua for land
• Portions: the chapter counts out shares, ten of them, family by family

In One Sentence

Joshua and Eleazar hand western Manasseh its share, grant Zelophehad’s five daughters the land Moses had promised them, record that Manasseh left the Canaanites sitting in six strong cities, and send Ephraim and Manasseh back to clear the forest they were complaining about.

Theme of Joshua 17

Joshua 17 is about the difference between claiming a promise and wanting a better deal. Two more ideas run alongside that one. God keeps His word down to the level of a single family with no male heir, and a grant of land is not the same thing as possession of it. Joshua 17 ends with a command instead of a boundary line, because Israel had been handed more ground than it had taken.

Joshua 17 Outline

• Joshua 17:1-2: Manasseh’s lot is named, with Machir’s line already holding Gilead and Bashan east of Jordan, and six clans listed on the western side.
• Joshua 17:3-6: Zelophehad’s five daughters come before Eleazar, Joshua and the princes, claim the inheritance God commanded through Moses, and receive it, bringing Manasseh’s shares to ten.
• Joshua 17:7-10: The border of Manasseh is traced from Asher past Shechem and down to the sea, with Ephraim to the south and towns of each tribe inside the other’s territory.
• Joshua 17:11: Six cities inside the land of Issachar and Asher belong to Manasseh: Beth-shean, Ibleam, Dor, Endor, Taanach and Megiddo.
• Joshua 17:12-13: Manasseh cannot drive the Canaanites out of those cities, and later puts them to forced labour instead of removing them.
• Joshua 17:14: The children of Joseph complain to Joshua that one lot is too small for so great a people.
• Joshua 17:15: Joshua answers that if they are so great they should go up and clear the forested country for themselves.
• Joshua 17:16: They reply that the hill country is not enough and that the Canaanites of the valley have chariots of iron.
• Joshua 17:17-18: Joshua grants that they are a great people, and charges them to cut down the forest and drive out the Canaanites anyway.

The Petition of Zelophehad’s Daughters

Five women interrupt a list of land, and the chapter gives every one of their names.

“But Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but daughters: and these are the names of his daughters, Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.”

Joshua 17:3

Zelophehad came from the clan of Hepher, four generations down from Manasseh, and he died with five daughters and no son to carry his name or his land. The clans he is listed among are ordinary Israelite families, and one of them, Abiezer, later produced Gideon (Judges 6:11, 15).

The petition itself has four parts, and Joshua 17:4 gives all of them in one verse:

• Who came: the five sisters, together, and the words the verse records are theirs.
• Who heard it: Eleazar the high priest, Joshua, and the princes of Israel, the same men appointed to divide the whole land (Joshua 14:1).
• What they asked for: an inheritance alongside their father’s male relatives.
• What they stood on: a ruling God had already given through Moses, recorded in Numbers 27:6-7.

Joshua granted it, and the verse records that he did so at the LORD’s commandment rather than at his own discretion.

Nothing in the petition rests on how much they needed the land or how unfairly they had been treated. They quoted God, and Joshua obeyed the God they quoted. Numbers 36 later ruled that they should marry inside their father’s tribe so the land stayed with Manasseh, and Numbers 36:11 records that they did.

Several of these names, the clans and the daughters alike, turn up centuries later as place names written on broken pottery dug up at Samaria. If that identification holds, as many scholars take it, the list names ground as well as people.

Observations from Joshua 17

Verse 2 Says “Male Children,” and Verse 3 Answers It

Joshua 17:2 ends its clan list with “these were the male children of Manasseh,” and Zelophehad arrives in the very next verse with none. What settles his daughters’ case is a command God gave Moses, rather than the custom that phrase describes.

Two “Yet” Turns in Verses 12 and 13

Both verses concede something and then take it back. Verse 12 says Manasseh could not drive the Canaanites out, “but the Canaanites would dwell in that land.” The Canaanites get a will in that sentence and Israel gets only an inability, and verse 18 puts that inability in question.

Verse 13 says that when Israel grew strong they put the Canaanites to tribute, which here means forced labour, “but did not utterly drive them out.” Strength arrived and the job stayed half done, which is the harder of the two admissions.

“A Great People,” Said Three Times in Verses 14 to 17

The tribes of Joseph use the phrase to argue for more land in verse 14. Joshua picks it up in verse 15 as a condition, “If thou be a great people,” and returns it in verse 17 as a fact, “Thou art a great people, and hast great power.” He never disputes their claim about themselves. He makes it the reason they are able to do the work.

The Chariots Are Raised in Verse 16 and Answered in Verse 18

The tribes of Joseph name the “chariots of iron” in verse 16 as the reason the valley is out of reach. Joshua gives the same words back in verse 18, and puts them inside a promise: they shall drive the Canaanites out “though they have iron chariots, and though they be strong.” The last clause of Joshua 17 is the fear the tribes brought to him, repeated and overruled.

Difficult Verses Explained

If Manasseh Was the Firstborn, Why Is Ephraim’s Land Described First?

Because the greater blessing had gone to the younger brother, and the birthright had not. Jacob said plainly that Ephraim would be the greater of the two (Genesis 48:19), which may well be why Joshua 16 measures Ephraim’s border first. Some older commentators read the Hebrew word in 17:1 as “though he was the firstborn of Joseph” rather than “for he was,” which says the same thing.

Read as it stands, though, the clause may explain something else in the chapter. A firstborn son was owed a double portion under Deuteronomy 21:17, and a double portion is exactly what Manasseh has: one territory east of the Jordan and another west of it. On that reading, losing the blessing did not cost him the birthright.

Where Do the Ten Portions in Joshua 17:5 Come From?

Six clans are named in verse 2, so the count looks as though it should be eleven or six, not ten. The arithmetic works out because Hepher’s line is represented by his son’s five daughters rather than by Hepher himself. Five shares go to the five other clans, five shares go to the five sisters, and the total is ten. Verse 6 states the reason in plain terms: “because the daughters of Manasseh had an inheritance among his sons.”

What Does “Even Three Countries” Mean in Joshua 17:11?

Nobody is certain. The Hebrew phrase at the end of the verse is obscure, and English versions handle it several different ways, some reading it as a place name attached to Dor and others as a count of districts.

Older commentators took it as three regions or provinces inside the territories of Issachar and Asher. Manasseh clearly held high ground and towns inside its neighbours’ territory. How much, the verse no longer says clearly enough to build anything on.

If God Gave Them the Land, Why Could Manasseh Not Drive the Canaanites Out?

The chapter answers itself six verses later. Joshua closes it by charging the same tribes to drive the Canaanites out, and a leader gives that charge to people he believes able to obey it.

Hebrew also allows a word for inability to carry the sense of unwillingness, as it appears to in Genesis 29:8 and Genesis 34:14, so “could not” in 17:12 may well be the record of a decision rather than a limit.

Verse 13 supports that reading: once Israel was strong, the tribe used its strength to collect labour from the Canaanites instead of clearing them out, which is a choice rather than a defeat. God had told Israel plainly in Deuteronomy 20:16-18 to clear the cities of Canaan, and had given His reason, that the nations there would otherwise teach Israel their worship.

Common Misunderstandings

• Ephraim and Manasseh come to Joshua together, not against each other. Joshua 17:14 has them speaking as one, “the children of Joseph,” with a single complaint between them, so summaries that describe a quarrel between the two brothers have imported it. The friction runs between the tribes of Joseph and their leader.
• The daughters of Zelophehad petitioned; they did not protest or demand. Joshua 17:4 records a case brought to the appointed leaders, and its entire content is a quotation of what God had commanded Moses. They asked for what had already been granted.
• This passage records a complaint and a job left undone, not unity, persistence and gratitude. Those three readings turn up in more than one summary of the chapter, and Joshua 17:12-16 will not carry them. What the verses give is a grievance, a fear named out loud, and six cities still in Canaanite hands.
• Only Manasseh’s name has a meaning Scripture explains. Genesis 41:51 says Joseph named him because God had made him forget his trouble. Meanings offered for Zelophehad or Beth-shean are guesses, and popular sources contradict each other about them, so nothing in this chapter should be built on them.

Christ Connection

Joshua handed Israel a border, and the rest that was supposed to come with it stayed out of reach. The New Testament says so directly. Hebrews 4:8 in the King James reads, “For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.” The name in that verse is Joshua, written in its Greek form, and the writer’s point is that the rest Joshua gave Israel was not the last rest God had in mind.

Joshua 17 is that argument in a single chapter. Joshua measured out a border for Manasseh and left them still outside Beth-shean, and Hebrews 4:9 answers with a rest that still remains for the people of God. That rest is the one Jesus offers when He says, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). He is inviting the worn out to come to Him and promising to give them the rest they cannot win for themselves.

The daughters of Zelophehad point the same way from the other side. The custom of their day gave them nothing, the word of God gave them a full portion, and they received it because God had spoken.

Paul says the same thing about a far larger inheritance: “There is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:28-29). Everyone who belongs to Christ counts as one of Abraham’s descendants and inherits on the strength of a promise rather than on their standing.

That inheritance is “reserved in heaven” (1 Peter 1:4), which means God is keeping it safe and His people have yet to enter it, and the Spirit is called its down payment in Ephesians 1:13-14.

Manasseh’s failure shows what becomes of ground that is granted and left uncleared, and the answer for a believer is the Spirit’s work rather than a truce: “if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:13). Paul means that the Spirit is how a Christian puts sin to death, and that life follows.

When, Where, and Why

• When: About 1400 BC, in the years after the main campaigns of Joshua 10 to 12, while the land was being divided among the tribes. The exact dating is debated, so treat the figure as approximate.
• Where: Central Canaan, west of the Jordan, running from the hills north of Ephraim out to the Mediterranean coast. The border with Ephraim is untidy: Manasseh holds the farmland around Tappuah while Ephraim holds the town itself (17:8). The northern edge touches the valley of Jezreel, where Beth-shean guarded the meeting of two valleys and Megiddo and Taanach guarded passes on the main road running north out of Egypt. That flat ground is where chariots worked and where Manasseh never took the cities it had been given. It is also where the Philistines later fastened Saul’s body to the wall of Beth-shan (1 Samuel 31:10) and where Naboth’s vineyard stood in Jezreel (1 Kings 21:1).
• Why: To record the land promise being kept family by family, and in the same passage to record where the keeping stopped. Joshua 15:63 says Judah did not take Jerusalem and Joshua 16:10 says Ephraim did not take Gezer, so Joshua 17:12-13 is the third such note in three chapters, and Joshua 18:3 turns it into a rebuke of the whole nation.

Key Verses

“The LORD commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brethren. Therefore according to the commandment of the LORD he gave them an inheritance among the brethren of their father.”

Joshua 17:4

“Brethren” here means the men of their father’s family, so the sisters were given land among their uncles and cousins. Joshua then treats a ruling God gave Moses years earlier, in another place and to another generation, as binding on him now, and the verse says so twice in one sentence.

“Why hast thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit, seeing I am a great people, forasmuch as the LORD hath blessed me hitherto?”

Joshua 17:14

The tribes of Joseph ask Joshua why they were given only one allotment when God has blessed them so far with such numbers. They turn the blessing itself into the complaint, and they address it to Joshua although the allotments had fallen by lot, which Proverbs 16:33 assigns to the LORD.

“But the mountain shall be thine; for it is a wood, and thou shalt cut it down: and the outgoings of it shall be thine: for thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they be strong.”

Joshua 17:18

Joshua tells them the hill country is theirs, that they will have to fell the trees standing on it, and that its far edges will belong to them once they do. The promise arrives with the work attached, in that order: cut it down first, and the land is yours to its outer limits.

Key Lessons from Joshua 17

• A promise you can quote is stronger ground than a case you have to argue (Joshua 17:3-4).
• Strength that arrives without obedience tends to produce an arrangement rather than a victory (Joshua 17:13).
• God’s blessing on your life is not an argument for a larger portion; it is the reason to go and take the one you have (Joshua 17:14-15).
• Naming an obstacle honestly is not unbelief, though refusing to move because of it can be (Joshua 17:16-18).
• What is left standing in the land tends to cause trouble later, as Judges 1:27-28 shows on most of the same cities (Joshua 17:12).

To go deeper into the lessons from this chapter, read our full study: Lessons from Joshua 17.

Bible Study Questions

1. In Joshua 17:4 the daughters of Zelophehad give one reason for their request. What is it, and what does it tell you about how they thought of God’s word?
2. Joshua 17:12 says Manasseh could not drive out the Canaanites and Joshua 17:18 says they shall. How do you hold those two verses together?
3. In verse 13 Israel is strong enough to act and settles for forced labour instead. Why is that harder to excuse than the failure in verse 12?
4. Joshua calls Ephraim and Manasseh “a great people” and then gives them work rather than land (17:15, 17:17-18). Was that harsh or kind, and why?
5. Compare Caleb’s request in Joshua 14:10-12 with the request of the tribes of Joseph in Joshua 17:14. What is different about the ground each one stands on?
6. Where in your own life is the honest word “could not” closer to “would not,” and what would clearing that ground actually involve this week?

Frequently Asked Questions

Joshua 17, The Full Text (KJV)

Read the full chapter below for reference.

1 There was also a lot for the tribe of Manasseh; for he was the firstborn of Joseph; to wit, for Machir the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead: because he was a man of war, therefore he had Gilead and Bashan.

2 There was also a lot for the rest of the children of Manasseh by their families; for the children of Abiezer, and for the children of Helek, and for the children of Asriel, and for the children of Shechem, and for the children of Hepher, and for the children of Shemida: these were the male children of Manasseh the son of Joseph by their families.

3 But Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but daughters: and these are the names of his daughters, Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

4 And they came near before Eleazar the priest, and before Joshua the son of Nun, and before the princes, saying, The LORD commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brethren. Therefore according to the commandment of the LORD he gave them an inheritance among the brethren of their father.

5 And there fell ten portions to Manasseh, beside the land of Gilead and Bashan, which were on the other side Jordan;

6 Because the daughters of Manasseh had an inheritance among his sons: and the rest of Manasseh’s sons had the land of Gilead.

7 And the coast of Manasseh was from Asher to Michmethah, that lieth before Shechem; and the border went along on the right hand unto the inhabitants of En-tappuah.

8 Now Manasseh had the land of Tappuah: but Tappuah on the border of Manasseh belonged to the children of Ephraim;

9 And the coast descended unto the river Kanah, southward of the river: these cities of Ephraim are among the cities of Manasseh: the coast of Manasseh also was on the north side of the river, and the outgoings of it were at the sea:

10 Southward it was Ephraim’s, and northward it was Manasseh’s, and the sea is his border; and they met together in Asher on the north, and in Issachar on the east.

11 And Manasseh had in Issachar and in Asher Beth-shean and her towns, and Ibleam and her towns, and the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, and the inhabitants of Endor and her towns, and the inhabitants of Taanach and her towns, and the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns, even three countries.

12 Yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land.

13 Yet it came to pass, when the children of Israel were waxen strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute; but did not utterly drive them out.

14 And the children of Joseph spake unto Joshua, saying, Why hast thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit, seeing I am a great people, forasmuch as the LORD hath blessed me hitherto?

15 And Joshua answered them, If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants, if mount Ephraim be too narrow for thee.

16 And the children of Joseph said, The hill is not enough for us: and all the Canaanites that dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both they who are of Beth-shean and her towns, and they who are of the valley of Jezreel.

17 And Joshua spake unto the house of Joseph, even to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, Thou art a great people, and hast great power: thou shalt not have one lot only:

18 But the mountain shall be thine; for it is a wood, and thou shalt cut it down: and the outgoings of it shall be thine: for thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they be strong.