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southernmost and smallest portion of the district east of the Jordan belonged to Reuben.
His territory extended from the river Arnon, in the south, to where Jordan flowed into
the Dead Sea, and embraced the original kingdom of Sihon. Northward of it, the
Ammonites had once held possession, but had been driven out by Sihon. That new
portion of Sihon's kingdom was given not to Reuben but to Gad. The territory of that
tribe ran along the Jordan as far as the Lake of Gennesaret - the upper portion (from
Mahanaim) narrowing almost into a point. North of this was the possession of the half
tribe of Manasseh, which embraced the whole of Bashan. It occupied by far the largest
extent of area. But from its position it also lay most open to constant nomadic
incursions, and possessed comparatively few settled cities.
The division of the land among the nine and a half tribes^134 was, in strict accordance
with Divine direction (Numbers 26:52-56; 33:54; 34:2-29), made by Eleazar, Joshua,
and one representative from each of the ten tribes. It was decided by the "lot," which
probably, however, only determined the situation of each inheritance, whether north or
south, in. land or by the sea-shore, not its extent and precise boundaries. These would
depend upon the size of each tribe. In point of fact, the original arrangements had in
some cases to be afterwards modified, not as to tribal localization, which was
unalterably fixed by the Divine lot, but as to extent of territory. Thus Judah had to give
up part of its possession to Simeon (Joshua 19:9), while Dan, whose portion proved too
small, obtained certain cities both from Judah and from Ephraim.^135 As regards the lot,
we may probably accept the Rabbinical tradition, that two urns were set out, one
containing the names of the ten (or rather nine and a half) tribes, the other the
designation of the various districts into which the country had been arranged, and that
from each a lot was successively drawn, to designate first the tribe, and then the locality
of its inheritance.
This is not the place, however interesting the task, to describe the exact boundaries and
cities of each tribe. We can only attempt the most general outline, which the reader must
fill up for himself. Beginning in the far south, at Kadesh in the wilderness, and along
the borders of Edom, we are within the territory of Simeon; north of it, bounded on the
west by the land of the Philistines, and on the east by the Dead Sea, is the possession of
Judah; beyond it, to the east, that of Benjamin, and to the west, that of Dan; north of
Dan we reach Ephraim, and then Manasseh, the possession of Issachar running along
the east of these two territories, and ending at the southern extremity of the Lake of
Gennesaret; by the shore of that lake and far beyond it is the territory of Naphtali, first a
narrow slip, then widening, and finally merging into a point. Asher occupied the
seaboard, north of Manasseh; while, lastly, Zebulon is as it were wedged in between
Issachar, Manasseh, Asher, and Naphtali.
It only remains briefly to notice the incidents recorded in connection with the territorial
division of the land.
(^)