(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Joshua 18:2–10, “And there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes, which had not yet received their inheritance. And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, How long are ye slack to go to possess the land, which the LORD God of your fathers hath given you? Give out from among you three men for each tribe: and I will send them, and they shall rise, and go through the land, and describe it according to the inheritance of them; and they shall come again to me. And they shall divide it into seven parts: Judah shall abide in their coast on the south, and the house of Joseph shall abide in their coasts on the north. Ye shall therefore describe the land into seven parts, and bring the description hither to me, that I may cast lots for you here before the LORD our God. But the Levites have no part among you; for the priesthood of the LORD is their inheritance: and Gad, and Reuben, and half the tribe of Manasseh, have received their inheritance beyond Jordan on the east, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave them. And the men arose, and went away: and Joshua charged them that went to describe the land, saying, Go and walk through the land, and describe it, and come again to me, that I may here cast lots for you before the LORD in Shiloh. And the men went and passed through the land, and described it by cities into seven parts in a book, and came again to Joshua to the host at Shiloh. And Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the LORD: and there Joshua divided the land unto the children of Israel according to their divisions.”
While some of the tribes were willing to take up their inheritance, even though none of them were willing to take complete possession, there were others who didn’t even bother to take possession of their inheritance. There were twelve tribes plus Levi (Reuben, Simeon. Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Ephraim and Manasseh). Judah, Reuben, Gad, Manasseh and Ephraim, went to take their own inheritance in the Land. The remaining seven (Simeon, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali and Asher) hadn’t even tried to take possession even though the armies belonging to all the city states had been defeated in battle. Joshua upbraided these tribes for being slack and told them to select delegations and send these men to survey all the remaining land so that it could be surveyed according to the methods used in those days. After that, Joshua divided the Land for them in sevens portions and then used the Lord’s appointed method of dividing the remaining land among the tribes. This was to make sure that the entire Promised Land was properly allocated and every portion of the Land was allocated to the tribes to give them the opportunity to obey the Lord because the sin of the Amorites was now complete.
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