THE RECORD OF
Y'hoshua
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THE RECORD OFY'hoshua
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CHAPTER 11. Now what took place after the death of Moshe, servant of YHWH, was [that] YHWH spoke to Y'hoshua the son of Nun--the one who waited on Moshe--saying,Who waited on Moshe: his assistant, a menial servant, one who contributes to what another is doing. Instead of saying, "Now I'm in charge and we're going to do things the right way!", Y'hoshua describes himself humbly as one who was a small part of what Moshe was about. It is not about himself, or even about Moshe, but about taking Israel home.2. "Moshe My servant is dead, so get up and cross over this Yarden--you and this whole people--into the Land that I am giving to them (to the sons of Israel).
My servant: Only Avraham, Iyov, Kalev, David, and a very few others are directly called YHWH's servants. Only the very faithful merit this title. So this is a true compliment from YHWH. Cross over: This Y'hoshua has been in the Land before--ahead of the rest--just as Yahshua has gone on before us into the Kingdom. But he did not cross the Yarden to get there the first time; he came up the mountain ridge from the south instead. This Yarden (See photo): This phraseology indicates that there is another people who at another time will cross over with another Y'hoshua. I am giving: While for a moment Moshe took credit for what YHWH was doing (Num. 20:10)--and paid a high price for it--he was really only a vessel YHWH used, and YHWH is reminding Y'hoshua from the start that the same is true of him. In this sense, Moshe symbolizes the Torah and Y'hoshua, of course, represents the later Yahshua. Both Torah and Yahshua were the means YHWH used. While they both deserve immense respect since they are above us in most respects, and as our king Yahshua deserves a different type of "worship", neither is to be treated as on the same level as YHWH, for that is idolatry. One would not eat the pot because the spaghetti sauce it held tasted so delicious, would he? Yahshua showed us how to accept YHWH's offer of the Torah by His own example.3. "Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given to you, as I told Moshe. Your …to you: plural in both cases. YHWH does not give us what we only hope for or dream about, or even what we "proclaim the blood" over, but what we walk out. He offers us the Kingdom, but if we do not walk into it, we will never have it. If we do not invest our lives in it now, we will never receive anything from Him in its fullness. When we take the first step, He will come out to meet us. The more we walk, the more we receive. The more we are merciful, the more we will obtain mercy. The more we allow ourselves to be corrected, the better we will be able to see to correct others. Only as we walk into the sea will He prove that it was He who called us to step out in faith.4. "From the uninhabited land and this Levanon and as far as the great river (the River Ferath), the whole land of the Chittites and as far as the Great Sea of the Sunset will become your territory. This Levanon: or possibly, this great snow-capped range, since the term generically means "whitest". This was just before Passover and at that time, prior to the great 6-degree polar shift of 701 B.C.E., the climate at this latitude was cooler than it is today, and there very well might have been a snow cover on Mt. Nevo, where Israel was camped at this time. Great River: At that time the climate may have made the Ferath (Euphrates) an even larger river than it is today. In any case, that it is called "this" Levanon indicates that there is another. And indeed, we can see a significance on the level of the meanings of all these places: the uninhabited land (wilderness) means "place of the word". Levanon means "great whiteness". Ferath is from a word meaning "fruitful". Chittites means "terrorizers". If we walk out what YHWH has given us from His word, we will become very pure and bear much fruit--and dispossess all terrorists! He will not make us pure by magic, if we are not walking in purity, nor will He make us wiser if we do not use the wisdom He has already given. The Holy Spirit cannot recall to our memory things form YHWH's Word that we never learned.5. "Not a man will be able to keep himself standing before you all the days of your life! As I was with Moshe, I will be with you. I will not let you drop nor will I abandon you. Could there be any promise that could instill courage more effectively than this? As I was with: Moshe was a prophet (Deut. 18:15), a priest of a different order than Aharon (having set up and dedicated the Tabernacle, offering the inauguratory sacrifices), and king (Deut. 33:4-5),6. "Keep your grip strong and [your heart] firm, because you will enable this people to receive as an inheritance the land that I swore to their ancestors that I would give them. Because YHWH's grip on us is firm (v. 5), He can ask us to hold on tightly as well. Firm: or persistent. Enable: or cause. Why would this be such a difficult task? Wouldn't they be eager to inherit? Yet the terms said they had to work for it, and this they did not desire. That work included killing even the youngest of the nations that had reached their limit of sin, and they may not have been so sure they wanted the Land that badly. Yahshua, too, said He had come to bring a sword rather than peace, at first. He would divide us from some of our family members, from our possessions, from our own goals. He in one sense inherited the Kingdom for us; we cannot go in without Him, but we also cannot send Him in to do all the work for us, instead of us. They would have plenty of excuses, so Y'hoshua had to be ready to overcome these.7. "Just keep your grip strong and be very determined to be careful to act in accordance with the whole instruction about which My servant Moshe gave you orders. Do not turn from it to the right hand or the left, in order that you may cause [them] to act prudently in every [place] you go. Act prudently: or prosper, have success, act wisely, have insight, walk circumspectly--that is, be aware of every angle on what you are doing and what may be coming at you from any direction. Compare Ephesians 5:15.8. "This legal document of the Torah must not recede from your mouth, but you must muse on it by day and by night, in order that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that it written in it, because then you will advance your march and then you will cause [them] to act prudently. From your mouth: Even a kosher diet can teach us much and remind us of the rest of His commandments. Most kosher animals chew the cud, and this is a picture of what He is talking about here: digesting what we can, absorbing what we can understand into our lifestyles, then coming back to the parts we could not comprehend the first time. With His word in our mouths, there is no room for gossip, useless communication (Eph. 4:29), or the names of pagan deities. (Ex. 23:13) Muse: think and meditate about, with the additional aspect of speaking about it. This way it does not just remain in one person's mind, but inspires others within Israel to act on it as well. Advance your march: or, make progress in your journey, make your way successful, prosperous, or profitable. There are many definitions of prosperity that the Church has claimed, but which are not warranted by Scripture. The kind of progress YHWH promises is Israel spreading out and taking over His Land again. Other kinds of prosperity often stand in the way.9. "Haven't I [already] given you the order? Keep your grip strong and [your heart] firm! Do not be in dread or lose your composure, because YHWH your Elohim is [the One who goes] with you in every [place] you go." The order: Not a suggestion. We need to "take the bull by the horns." It will indeed buck, because the Kingdom is the biggest threat to the power that men currently hold, but He leaves us no excuse to let go. The easiest way for it to impede our progress is to make us comfortable where we are. This was why so few returned from Babylon with Nekhemyah. They were respected and placed in high positions there, so life was much easier than in a land full of the ruins of war. The "other abundant" life is what keeps us from the inheritance YHWH intends for us. It keeps us wrapped up in responsibilities on the Sabbath, or even with morals that remind us to take care of our children before matters of the Kingdom. But YHWH can take better care of them than we can, and His reputation is at stake if He does not, so who will we trust? We need to learn to recognize the traps. Christianity, too, deters us by telling us that the Torah is dangerous, but the consequences of not stepping out are more frightening than the risks of doing so. Be in dread: or, regard with awe (the armies of the nations he is being sent to conquer). Lose your composure: literally, "go to pieces" or be shattered. We must not be intimidated by anything but YHWH. Only He is worthy to make our jaws drop. Go: literally, walk (as in v. 7 also). 10. Then Y'hoshua gave orders to the officers of the people, saying, Officers: from a word meaning to write or record. We cannot enter the Land without leaders. No matter how badly we have been "burned" before, Israel cannot travel without order, with everyone doing what is right in his own eyes. YHWH will not tolerate a chaotic mess in His Land. This fact behooves us to raise up leaders who will be faithful to love the sheep more than wealth, which has made so many people's ministry go "to the dogs".11. "Pass through the inside of the camp and give orders to the people, saying, 'Prepare provisions for yourselves because within another three days you are crossing over this Yarden to go in to seize the Land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you to take possession of.'" One of the things it means to enter the Land is to be able to "pack your own lunch"--to get what we need out of YHWH's Word, because the manna will stop falling, and there will be no one else to feed us. We will need to interact with the Land itself. This is a new level of responsibility. Will we starve without the manna, or will we be able to hunt out our own provision in a kosher manner? Remember what the five virgins who had prepared enough oil said to those who had not: "Go buy your own!" (Mat. 25:1ff) Being unprepared, they missed the appointment with the Bridegroom.12. Then Y'hoshua spoke to the Re'uvenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Menashe, saying, 13. "Remember the matter about which Moshe, the servant of YHWH, gave you orders, saying, 'YHWH your Elohim is letting you settle down, and has granted you this land. Granted: permitted, since they had asked for it. (Deut. 3:19) The servant of YHWH: thus, as His representative, to be treated with the same respect YHWH is given.14. "'Your wives, your toddlers, and your livestock may remain on the land that Moshe granted you across the Yarden, but you must cross over armed in front of your brothers--all the brave men of the army--and you must help them Armed: literally, by fives. This is apparently the order in which they were arranged to be ready for battle. Mystically, it is obvious that the way to be armed is to know the five books of Moshe inside and out.15. "'until YHWH has given rest to your brothers as [He has] to you, and they too have taken possession of the Land that YHWH your Elohim is assigning to them. Then you may come back to the land you have taken possession of, and occupy it, as Moshe the servant of YHWH permitted you on the other side of the Yarden, where the sun rises." 16. And they answered Y'hoshua, saying, "All that you have commanded us, we will do, and we will go anywhere you may send us. 17. "In anything about which we listened to Moshe, we will listen to you in the same way; only may YHWH your Elohim be with you just as He has been with Moshe. Like the Bereans (Acts 17), though they were eager, they only promised to be loyal to Y'hoshua as long as YHWH was with him--that is, as long as he remained loyal to YHWH. The moment it became about Y'hoshua, they would not be there for him, because Moshe was not about Moshe but about YHWH. And finally, they echo what YHWH has already told Y'hoshua three times:18. "Any man who resists your mouth and will not listen to your words, for all that you may command him, may be killed. Just keep your grip strong and [your heart] firm!" CHAPTER 21. So Y'hoshua the son of Nun [began by] quietly sending two men on foot from the Acacias, saying, "Go, observe the Land and Y'rikho." So they went and entered the house of a woman--a prostitute--and her name was Rahav. And they lodged there.Men: the LXX adds that they were young. Tha Acacias: They had been in this place before (Num. 25:1), and had ended up being persuaded to worship Moavite elohim. The name in Hebrew actually means "sticks", because the acacia is a tree largely made up of thorny twigs rather than something lumber can be obtained from. Yet the Ark of the Covenant, the Table of the Bread of the Faces, and the understructure of the brazen altar were all made of this wood. It would necessitate fitting together many carefully-planed pieces--a picture of Israel in unity. Alone, the pieces are nearly useless, together the performed an awesome function. The last time Israel was here, many chose to act as individuals, but this time they remained in unity. Observe: LXX, spy out. He may have only sent two, because only two of the twelve sent 38 years earlier (of which Y'hoshua himself was one) had given a favorable report, after there had been much publicity among the nation about their mission. Quietly: or secretly, not so much so that the enemies would not be as alert to their approach, as that Israel would not begin to fear because they thought Y'hoshua needed extra reassurance about the condition of the Land. This was a reconnaissance mission in order to know the best means to defeat the city, not to decide whether or not to do so. Y'rikho is an oasis town about four miles west of the Yarden River, and no more than two miles east of the edge of the Great Rift Valley. Rahav means "broad", hence the colloquial term for a prostitute, related also to the type of wall in which she had her home, termed a Broad Wall. Lodged: relaxed or lay down; also often a euphemistic term for having sexual relations. (Gen. 39:11, et al) Though it is a foolish thing to expose oneself to because of how easily it leads us into selfish indulgence and diverts us from higher priorities, the Torah never forbids men from visiting unmarried prostitutes, except when it is in the context of pagan religious worship, which was nevertheless very common. This may have been part of their ruse, and possibly the best place in their estimation to hear the gossip that would help them gauge the city's readiness for war. Or it may have been as result of the atmosphere of whoredom that hung over the location due to what took place the former time they had encamped there. (Num. 25:1) In any case, it turned out to be an appointment from YHWH.2. And the king of Y'rikho was told, "Look here! Men from the sons of Israel have come here tonight to search out the Land!" Search out: or explore. How would they know these were Israelites? By how they dressed, specifically their tzitziyoth. (Num. 15:38-39) Undoubtedly many of the peoples in this region had been watching this spectacle of a several-million strong war camp surrounding the Tabernacle from their hilltop watch-posts. The news about them got around. (v. 9ff)3. So the king of Y'rikho sent [word] to Rahav to say, "Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house! They have come to search out the whole Land!" 4. Now the woman had taken the two men and hidden them away. And she said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had originated from. 5. "When the gate began to be shut at dark, the men went out. I don't know where the men have gone. Quickly, chase after them, because you can catch up with them!" She must have had some clout in this city and certainly a great deal of boldness to lie to her king. This is also indicated by the fact that the he did not send soldiers to storm the house, but only sent her a request to release the men. Again, this goes against modern Christian ethics, but both the writer to the Hebrews (11:31) and Yaaqov (James 2:25) commend her for both her faith and the works that evidenced it. She was even found worthy to be an ancestress of both King David and the Messiah. (Mat. 1:5) This may be one reason Yahshua was particularly patient with prostitutes and saw more potential in them than others did. She was not bearing false witness in court against her neighbors, and even the Renewed Covenant only commands us not to lie to one another--that is, among fellow Israelites (Colossians 3:9, nearly an exact quote of Lev. 19:11), though habitual liars will not inherit Yahshua's Kingdom because truthfulness is a characteristic of Israel. As in the Holocaust, there may be times when it is necessary to lie to those we judge as evil in order to save someone's life, as Rahav did here. YHWH judges us on based on whether we love our neighbors as ourselves, and protecting our innocent brothers is definitely one way to do that.6. (Now she had had them go up on the roof, and had concealed them with flax--the stalks that were arranged in order for herself on the roof.) Flax is used to spin thread to make linen. Stalks: Aramaic, loads, as if they had been delivered in bundles. The Hebrew term actually means "trees", and it may be a reference to bolts of linen. A house of prostitution would be expected to need a constant supply of clean sheets.7. So the men chased after them in the direction of the Yarden around the fords, and they shut the gate afterwards, when the pursuers hade gone out after them. Fords: They would not find the camp of Israel there, because YHWH would provide a special arrangement to have them cross the river at a place not normally used for crossing over, though it came to be called "the place of the crossing" (Beyth-Abarah) and Yochanan the Immerser would use this historical site as a visual aid in his message that it was time to repent (i.e., enter a new level of holiness, as the Yarden symbolized).8. Now [as for] them: before they lay down, she had come up to them on the roof, 9. and she had said to the men, "I have recognized that YHWH has given you the Land, and that dread of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the Land have gone soft because of your presence YHWH's fame had preceded them. It is clear that Israel was using His actual name and not a substitute when the Kanaanite spies overheard them speaking about Him! Gone soft: fainted or dissolved. Aramaic, shattered. They "had no fight left in them". They recognized that they were beaten before Israel even lifted a finger. The timing for the conquest of the Land was thus perfect.10. "because we have heard how YHWH dried up the water of the Reed Sea from in front of you as you were leaving Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Emorites who [were] across the Yarden--to Sikhon and to Og--how you devoted them to destruction. Devoted them to destruction: i.e., took no spoils. This would tell the people of the Land that it was for the purpose of justice and not plunder or expansionism that this people was on the move, and they knew they deserved the same, because four generations earlier, YHWH had emplaced Avraham there--not to mention Melkhitzedeq--to teach them the right way, and the Emorites in particular had allowed their "cup" of sins to fill up instead. (Gen. 15:16)11. "When we heard, our courage melted away, and spirit has not risen up again in [any] man because of your presence, because YHWH your Elohim--He is Elohim in the heavens above and the earth below! Courage: literally, heart (singular). Spirit: or vigor, breath; i.e., they were "breathless"! When Israel is gathered in YHWH's presence, it is obvious to everyone else that they cannot stand against it.12. "So now, please swear to me by YHWH that, since I have acted mercifully toward you, you will deal mercifully with my father's household, and give me a token of reliability, Token: the sign of a pledge.13. "and let my father and my mother, my brothers and my sisters live, along with all that is theirs, and that you will cause our souls to be recovered from death!" Recovered: snatched away, as if being plucked out of a fire already set.14. So the men told her, "Our soul in exchange for yours, to death! If you do not report this matter of ours, then it will be [the case that] when YHWH gives us the Land, we will deal with you in mercy and truthfulness." Aramaic, "Our lives are handed over in place of your lives to die." They were doing what Yahshua would later say, inquiring who was worthy (Mat. 10:11) Someone who bears witness to YHWH, even a prostitute, was therefore worthy of their consideration as a recipient for the glad news of the Kingdom. She has recognized who He is and that Israel is blessed by Him (v. 11), and has sided with Israel even against her own people. It seems she was waiting for someone to bring her into Israel. The fact that Israel was acting in unity (see note on v. 1) earned them allies even within the walled cities of the enemy!15. Then she let them down with a rope through the window, because her house was in the dug-out part of the wall; that is, she lived on the wall. It may have been common to lower garbage in baskets from the wall by night, and not attracted any attention. Paul's disciples used the same method with him. (Acts 9:23-25)16. And she told them, "Go onto the mountain [range] to avoid having the pursuers meet up with you, and stay hidden there three days until the pursuers return; then you can go your way." 17. And the men told her, "We will be exempt from [obligation to] this oath of yours which you have had us swear. 18. "Look! We are coming into the Land! You must tie this collection of scarlet thread into the window by which you let us down, and gather your father, your mother, your brothers, and all of your father's household to yourself in the house, There has to be a sign of redemption on her house, like the blood of the Passover lamb in Egypt. Collection: the same as the word for "hope" in Hebrew, and the name of Israel's national anthem; Aramaic, band. As a three-fold cord is not easily broken (Qoheleth/Eccles.4:12), our hope is made up of many threads bound together and covered with the Blood of the Lamb. It was not a tiny single thread; it had to be something Israel could see when they arrived at the city. Our hope for the salvation of the nation is not only in Yahshua and YHWH, but also in one another. There have to be enough of us bound together to be noticeable, or YHWH may be released from the oath He made to us.19. "and if anyone should go abroad outside the doors of your house, his blood is on his own head, and we [will be held] innocent, but anyone who is with you in the house, his blood is on our head if a hand comes upon him. Like Noakh's Ark, there was refuge in only one place. (Compare Yochanan 14:6) They had to remain in the house (a picture of being part of the House of Israel), not out on their own. If they went back to being part of the people of Kanaan, they would be killed along with them. When Y'hoshua is on the border, only those bound together and under the Blood will be spared. The spies took responsibility to ensure that no one else in Israel would kill this family.20. "But if you report this matter of ours, then we will be exempt from the oath that you have made us swear." 21. And she said, "According to your words, so it [will be]." And she sent them off, and they left, and she tied the collection of scarlet in the window. She did not wait until the last minute to obey their condition, but moved into it right away, though she might have run the risk of someone asking what this thread was for, and exposing the fact that she had lied to the king. But she identified with Israel anyway, and was true to who she now was even if her countrymen said she could not.22. And they walked, and arrived at the mountain-range and stayed there three days until the pursuers returned. Now the pursuers had searched along the whole road, but had not found them. 23. So both of the men turned back and came down from the mountain-range, and crossed over and came to Y'hoshua the son of Nun and recounted to Y'hoshua the son of Nun everything that had befallen them. 24. And they told Y'hoshua, "…because YHWH has given the whole Land into our hands, and all the inhabitants of the Land have even gone soft because of our presence!" They repaired the error of the previous generation by giving a unanimously-favorable report. The whole land: based on what the king 's messengers told Rahav, they deduced that the rest of the Kanaanites were just as fearful as those who inhabited Y'rikho. CHAPTER 31. And Y'hoshua had them rise early [in the morning] and set out from the Acacias, and they came as far as the Yarden--he and all the descendants of Israel--and they lodged there before crossing over.2. Then when they had reached the end of three days, the recording officials passed through the middle of the camp, Three days: the time Yonah was in the belly of the fish and that Yahshua was in the heart of the earth. It is thus symbolic of the need to die to self before we can move on into a higher degree of YHWH's presence. They also had an appointment about which they did not know, and had to wait for the right time even to cross the river.3. and gave the people orders, saying, "As you see the ark of the covenant of YHWH your Elohim and the cohanim of the Levites carrying it, then pull up stakes from your place and walk behind it. They had to travel light to be ready to break camp so quickly. We will be shaken up when His presence moves, because this is not yet our resting-place. But if the ark has not moved, we should not allow our fears or desires or other emotions to drag us in any direction. All Israel must set out together, remaining in His presence, rather than traveling as individuals who are merely seeking His "presents".4. "However, there must be a distance between you and it--about two thousand cubits by the measurement; you must not come any closer to it, in order that you may be familiar with the direction in which you are to walk, because you have not passed this way before." Two thousand cubits: about 3,000 feet or close to one kilometer. The only other place in Scripture that this measurement appears is the distance from the center of a Levitical city to the end of the first zone outside the city within which their animals were kept, but stopping short of where their crops grew. (Num. 35:1-5) The tradition of a "Sabbath Day's journey" (alluded to in the Renewed Covenant but not directly defined anywhere in Scripture) was based on this, for since their animals also rested on the Sabbath, they could go that far from the city for bodily necessities, but not as far as the place that would get their minds back on their daily work. The Levites were established as the example for all Israel, so what YHWH has established for them is to teach us. What this tells us is that when YHWH appears to be leading, it may be a test. We must not implement our interpretations of Scripture too quickly, but wait at least until the next Sabbath, where they can be presented to gathered Israel and our own blind spots tested against the pooled wisdom of others who know the Torah. There is wisdom in much counsel. You have not passed this way before: The Kingdom interrupts our routines. This is especially true of Efrayim, who, unlike Yehudah, has espoused traditions, customs, and holy days completely different from those prescribed by the Torah. These became a strange thing to us. (Hos. 8:12) Moving toward His Kingdom will certainly change our habits. We will worship on a different day, stop eating some foods or cutting our beards, change the way we dress, and fill the role of a kingdom of priests as we have never done before. So we must not be hasty, but watch closely to be sure it is really the covenant that is leading us and that it is really heading in a certain direction rather than just sidestepping an obstacle first. Also, walking too close to the ark can "burn" us if we are not those so designated by YHWH. (2 Shmu'el 6:6-7)5. Then Y'hoshua told the people, "Keep yourselves set apart, because tomorrow YHWH will do extraordinary things among you!" Keep…set aspart: Aramaic, prepare yourselves; compare Ex. 19:15 and Acts 1:4. Extraordinary things: wonders, things difficult or beyond your power. The converse is also axiomatic: If we set ourselves apart, He will be able to do wonders among us. He has appointed us to be a set-apart people, but if we remain in our other pursuits, it will not actually be true of us, just as someone appointed to a government post could not claim that as his title if he did not leave his other employer, move to the seat of his office, and start doing that job.6. And Y'hoshua spoke to the cohanim, saying, "Pick up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people." So they picked up the ark of the covenant and walked ahead of the people. 7. Then YHWH said to Y'hoshua, "This day I will make a breakthrough in causing you to be great in the eyes of all Israel, so that they will know that just as I was with Moshe, I will be with you. A breakthrough: Though the preparation Y'hoshua received as Moshe's apprentice, and the authority conferred openly on him by Moshe, should have been enough to establish his role as unquestioned leader, YHWH knew that most of this generation needed a more spectacular sign, so in His mercy He would give them one that would make Y'hoshua an "instant celebrity" in their eyes. This would also curb anyone's jealousy of his position before it had time to fester. This, more than the need to get the people across a rushing river, was the stated purpose for the miracle He was about to perform.8. "And you must give orders to the priests who are carrying the ark of the covenant, saying, 'When you arrive at the edge of the waters of the Yarden, you must stand still in the Yarden.'" The constituted ruler of Israel has authority over the priesthood. (2 Kings 22:3-5)9. So Y'hoshua said to the descendants of Israel, "Come close and listen to the words of YHWH your Elohim!" If we do not draw near to YHWH, we may think we heard Him say something different from what He actually said.10. Then Y'hoshua said, "By this you will recognize that the living El is in your midst, and [know that] He will certainly cause the Kanaanites, the Chittites, the Chiwites, the Prizzites, the Girgashites, the Emorites, and the Y'vusites to be dispossessed before you: 11. "Watch! The ark of the covenant of the Master of the whole earth is passing on ahead of you into the Yarden. Watch: or behold. We would unmistakably discern YHWH's presence by seeing the event that was about to take place. The people had asked Y'hoshua to be sure YHWH was with him (1:17), so this would be their evidence.12. "So now, fetch for yourselves twelve men out of the tribes of Israel--one man per tribe. Y'hoshua does not say what these men are being selected for. He may not have even found out until YHWH told him in chapter 4. But because he was walking in the right order and on the right path, doing YHWH's will was becoming natural to him, and he knew something was coming up that had to do with these men even before YHWH gave him orders in this regard. As we follow YHWH's statutes we will be inclined to be in the right place. (Psalm 119:9-16)13. "And when the soles of the feet of the cohanim who are carrying the ark of YHWH, the Master of the whole earth, come to rest in the waters of the Yarden, the waters of the Yarden will be cut off from the waters coming down from up[stream], and they will stand still as one swaying pile. Coming down: related to the word Yarden. 14. And as it turned out, when the people set out from their tents to cross the Yarden, the cohanim [were] carrying the ark of the covenant ahead of the people, 15. and as those who were carrying the ark arrived at the Yarden, and the feet of the cohanim who were carrying the ark were plunged into the edge of the water (and the Yarden was full, over[flowing] both its banks the whole period of the harvest), As this was apparently not long before Passover, this may have been just after the rainy season of the late winter. YHWH set them up for an even greater miracle by bringing them at the time when crossing the river looked even less possible than usual. Today the Yarden is a very small river, but at that time the climate was much wetter, and the river has shifted its course with every earthquake, being directly over a fault line. Infrared satellite photos show that the river's course has been much different and the river much wider in times past. At this time there were probably rapids.16. the waters of the Yarden [coming] from up[stream] stood still; they rose up in one swaying pile far in the distance above Adam, the city that is beside Tzarthan, and those [waters] going down into the sea of the Aravah (the Salt Sea) stopped, being blocked off, and the people crossed over opposite Y'rikho. Adam ("red") may refer to the color of the soil on the banks there. Tzarthan means "their distress". Someone had to step into the unsafe situation first, so those who were expected to be closest to YHWH took the lead. If we do not risk moving into what we fear, we will spend our whole lives waiting on the shore, because it will never look safe. The object of our faith is never proven if we stay in the easy places. YHWH does not begin to provide until we begin to do what we know we cannot do without Him. Tradition says the water of the Red Sea was all the way up to Moshe's nostrils before the water parted.17. While the priests who [were] carrying the ark of the covenant of YHWH remained standing firmly on dry ground in the middle of the Yarden, all Israel crossed over on dry ground until the whole nation had completely crossed the Yarden. The whole nation had to take the same steps. Each step we take should be for all Israel, and if we follow in the footsteps of those who have gone before us, we can be sure we are on the right path. Yahshua leads us across, but His going does not magically transport us to the other side. Once on the other side, they were now more vulnerable, apart from YHWH's presence--especially the four priests who were out ahead, because none of their countrymen could come within 2,000 cubits to rescue them should they be attacked. But the people of Y'rikho were already undermining the stability of their own walls as they trembled in fear of this huge multitude whom they undoubtedly saw from their wall! CHAPTER 41. Now what took place when the whole nation had finished crossing over the Yarden [was] that YHWH spoke to Y'hoshua, saying,2. "Pick for yourselves twelve men from the people--one man out of each tribe-- 3. "and give them orders, saying, "Pick up twelve stones for yourselves from this [site]--from within the middle of the Yarden, from where the priests' feet stood firm--and bring them across with you and set them down in the lodging-place where you spend the night." Stones often represent a witness to an encounter or event that has taken place on a particular site. Yaaqov used them to commemorate a vision he had of YHWH's house. (Gen. 28:18) He used a heap of stones as a monument to the peace treaty between himself and Lavan. (Gen. 31:45ff) The stones represented the men who had made the covenant, as if they themselves were there watching to ensure that it remained steadfast. Moshe sang, "Let [Your enemies] be as still as a stone until Your people pass over." (Ex. 15:16) He thus emphasized that a stone can do nothing (thus it is not to be worshipped), but it says of YHWH and His people, "I have been here." The Hebrew word for stone is related to both the word for "build" and the word for "son" or "offspring". Children are the "stones" that build up our "house", and thus these stones prepresented the children of Israel. (Ex. 28:12) Stones used to build an Israelite altar are not to have been altered by human tools (Ex. 20:25), for this profanes them; it represents being shaped by human doctrines rather than set apart to YHWH. Those taken from a river (which represents the water of the Word of YHWH) or deep underground would be the ones best suited for this job. Most of us have been shaped by human doctrines, so the only thing we can do to become suitable for His altar (which must be built before His Temple) is to get back into the river and let those edges be rounded back off, until there is not much of self left. The middle of the Yarden: This was the place where YHWH's provision was miraculously brought to light.4. So Y'hoshua called the twelve men of the sons of Israel whom he had prepared--a man out of each tribe-- Had prepared: Y'hoshua had been walking directly in Moshe's footsteps for nearly 40 years, so his steps had been established by the Torah. He had seen the pattern by which YHWH works, so he had anticipated that these men would be needed before YHWH said anything about them. (3:12) Even if YHWH had never said He needed them, it was better for Y'hoshua to have been prepared than to have been preoccupied with his own matters and not have been ready if they were needed. He knew there was a "house" to build, so he counted the cost in advance, taking inventory. As we are seeing today, one tribe alone cannot occupy the whole Land effectively; all twelve are needed in order to bear this burden. So there is no need to be apologetic to the Jews about being Efrayim and not converting to Judaism. We also do not need to apologize to Christians; they are the ones upon whom the burden of proofs rests. Rocks are not unobtrusive; they cannot just be kicked over, try as they may. But they also do not speak (though they will cry out if they need to), but just stand where they are and force those who want to get past them to deal with them. Who we are is clearly explained in the Book; all others are the ones who have to explain why theirs is not, yet they are trying to press us to accept it. We bear witness to what we accept as authoritative. Churches bear witness to paganism when they use its symbols, whether they know it or not. Pasted-on Christian smiles and refusal to judge anyone are really witnesses to humanism. Having fabulous homes and cars is a witness to Mammon. We have to be aware of where our priorities come from, and be sure we are bearing witness to the right things by our actions.5. And Y'hoshua told them, "Cross over in front of the ark of YHWH your Elohim to the middle of the Yarden, and each of you take up one stone on his shoulder for the number of the tribes of the descendants of Israel, They would literally "bear" witness of the twelve trobes having crossed over. To carry heavy stones on their shoulder, they could not have been much larger than a basketball. YHWH often chooses what is small to remind us His deeds. He chose one man (Avraham) rather than an existing empire to accomplish what He is still doing today through that man's descendants. The room where His presence was represented in the Tabernacle was the smallest of all. When Eliyahu was on the mountain, it was the still, small voice in which YHWH spoke, after the pomp and parade of more attention-getting things had already passed by. It only took one small stone to fell Golyath. As the one who sets the twelve tribes in order and commands the bringing of the stones, Y'hoshua is a precedent for the one who bears his name. eshua chose twelve unknown men (again representing the twelve tribes) whom others considered illiterate, and who clearly had never attended a Yeshiva. (Acts 4:13) Even though Yahshua was the rightful king of Israel, the throne had been stripped of all its wealth and power by that time. YHWH does not need His witnesses to be huge to accomplish His purposes; the smaller they are, the more easily we see that He is the one doing the work. Yahshua was called the stone that the builders rejected, yet who became the head of the corner--the one who ties together and sets in order the other building-blocks of Israel--a stumblingblock to some, but precious to those who make up the house of YHWH. (Mat. 21:23, 42; 1 Kefa 2:7, quoting Psalm 118:22)6. "in order that this may be a sign in your very midst later when your children ask, 'What are these stones to you?' Reminiscent of the Passover (Ex. 13:8), the witness is for the sake of the generations to come. Each generation must have a personal sense of the meaning of this event so they can present it to the next generation as if it had only recently taken place and it was fresh in mind. But these stones apparently mean nothing to the modern Israeli government, because they are trying to give away the very place on which these stones were deposited.7. "Then tell them that the waters of the Yarden were cut off from before the ark of the covenant of YHWH: 'When it passed through the Yarden, the waters of the Yarden were cut off, and these stones have become a memorial for the descendants of Israel into eternity." YHWH brought them across when the water was highest, so that there could be no doubt who had brought them over. Nothing could stand in His way. When He delivers us again, it will not be in a time when we can easily get to where He is taking us, but when there is a flood and the foundations are being washed away. Yet He will come through nonetheless, in a season of harvest when the twelve tribes are again all together. 8. So the descendants of Israel did just as Y'hoshua had ordered, and picked up twelve stones out of the middle of the Yarden, as YHWH had told Y'hoshua, for the number of the tribes of the descendants of Israel, brought them over with them to the lodging place, and set them down there. The witness to what YHWH had done also defined where Israel would camp, since the stones represent us. The witness must be brought from the place where YHWH acted into the camp where we dwell together.9. And Y'hoshua stood twelve stones up in the middle of the Yarden in the place where the feet of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant stood firm, and they remain there to this day. This is a second set of stones. YHWH did not tell Y'hoshua to do this, but he understood the need for a second witness. While it was important that one witness be where the people lived, it was also important to be able to point back to the where the witnesses had come from. This act of Y'hoshua's is Yahshua's authority to raise up a second set of twelve witnesses. But we need to constantly remember where they came from. Many who bear witness to the Scriptures today think only back to the last "old country" their ancestors came from, and thus think that this is the norm to which they need to shape those to whom they carry the message today. It makes all the difference in the world to remember that it is Israel from which weoriginally came. Signposts are needed to point us back to where we came from. (Yirmeyahu/Jer. 31:21) And indeed there are many signposts right in the "water"--the Word. One says YHWH will shepherd His lost sheep back from all the places He dispersed them. ((Yirm. 31:10; compare Y'hezq'el 34:12, 23) Another says both houses of Israel will again have one shepherd from the House of David. (Y'hezq'el 37:24) Another says Yahshua came only for the lost sheep of the House of Israel. (Mat. 15:48) Still another, that His sheep hear His voice. (Mat. 10:16-27) There is at least one place in the Renewed Covenant where we actually see someone referring to these stones. They are undoubtedly "these stones" to which Yochanan the Immerser appealed as a witness against those who trusted the fact that they were descendants of Avraham to be enough to spare them in the day of YHWH's wrath (Mat. 3:9), as at this time he was immersing at the "Place of the Crossing Over". (Yoch. 1:28) He said YHWH was able to raise up descendants of Avraham from these stones--i.e., the twelve tribes which they represented, not just Yehudah.10. And the priests who carried the ark [were] standing in the middle of the Yarden until every matter [about] which YHWH had told Y'hoshua to speak to the people was completed in accordance with all the orders that Moshe had given Y'hoshua, so the people had hurried when they crossed over! The ark was no light thing to carry, and they had to be careful not to touch it lest they die, yet several million people had to cross while they held it. They had a special calling from YHWH, and had to stay they no matter what. So the people were considerate of the priests' burden and did not dawdle as they walked. They took up this part of the burden themselves, and thus showed appreciation for those who had made it much easier for them to cross over, since they had no right to expect this act of mercy. Those who are the first to re-enter the realm of Torah may have to persevere in a similar way to blaze a trail for those who may not be grateful.11. And when all the people had finished crossing over, what took place [next was] that the ark of YHWH and the priests passed by to the front of the people. 12. Now the sons of Re'uven, the sons of Gad, and half of the tribe of Menashe had crossed at the front of the sons of Israel, armed in battle array [by fives], as Moshe had told them. They fulfilled their promise to go first (Numbers 32:17)--after the Levites bearing the ark, of course. Had crossed: no different from simply "crossed" in Hebrew, so on the surface of the text itself it appears that there was a second crossing over by the sons of Israel. While literally this was not the case, there is a prophetic importance in the way it is written that applies to us today as we prepare to cross over again. First there is a crossing over in attitude--a choice to go through with it, coming to terms with what it means, so as to make the commitment firm; then the actual doing.13. About 40,000 men equipped for war passed in front of YHWH onto the steppe-plains of Y'rikho. 40,000: apparently only from these two and a half tribes, for the tribe of Gad alone was able to muster over 40,000 a short time prior to this. (Numbers 26:18) Passed in front of: He was reviewing His troops!14. On that day, YHWH made Y'hoshua great in the eyes of all Israel, and they respected him all the days of his life, just as they had respected Moshe. That day: identified in v. 19. Made great: Aramaic, magnified. Respected: or feared. It is right to fear those whom YHWH has chosen--to fear failing to deserve their leadership and certainly to fear slandering them. Remember what befell Miryam and Korach when they were not afraid to criticize Moshe. 15. Then YHWH spoke to Y'hoshua, saying, 16. "Order the priests who are carrying the ark of the testimony that they should come up out of the Yarden." 17. So Y'hoshua gave orders to the priests, saying, "Come up out of the Yarden!" He is thus a foreshadowing of the Yahshua who commands the servants who take their stand as guardians of Israel, as YHWH directs Him to.18. Then, when the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of YHWH had come up out of the middle of the Yarden, and the soles of the feet of the priests had been pulled up onto the dry land, the waters of the Yarden began to return to their place and went up over both of its banks as [they had] previously. 19. And the people came up from the Yarden on the tenth of the first month and camped at Gilgal on the outskirts of Y'rikho to the east One Aramaic translation leaves no doubt as to which of the two "first months" it is, specifying "Nisan" (the same as Aviv). This is the day the lamb is to be chosen for Passover, and on this day Israel accepted Yehoshua as their leader. (v. 14) This gives Paul a basis for saying the later Yahshua was our Passover. (1 Cor. 5:7) It was indeed on this same day that Yahshua was acknowledged as king. (Yochanan 12:12-15) East: literally "rising", usually used in connection with the sun.20. Thus Y'hoshua had those twelve stones that they had taken out of the Yarden set up in Gilgal. The history behind the name Gilgal will show up in the next chapter.21. Then he spoke to the descendants of Israel, saying, "After [this], whenever your children ask their parents, saying, 'What are these stones [for]?', 22. "then let your children know, saying, 'Israel crossed over this Yarden on dry ground', What YHWH has done for Israel is our heritage, and we are responsible to pass it on. It is much more important than your ancestor having been a Cherokee princess or having come over on the Mayflower--or a slave ship. We must embrace who we are, because it is who we are meant to be. The ground will be dried up again for those who bear the burden of what it means to be an Israelite; there is no such promise for anyone else. Our hope is that our children, who are being raised in a day when the signposts have been uncovered again, will have new stones to point out to their children from when we cross over this time. But regardless, as Paul says, our ancestors were there, and so all of us who were not yet there still crossed over while we were still within them. This is not just about them; it is about us. What YHWH does for Israel applies to every Israelite for eternity. Israel has already crossed over; why is any Israelite not living as one who has crossed over? We are not waiting for the Kingdom to come; it is waiting for us to become it.23. "as YHWH your Elohim dried up the waters of the Yarden from in front of you until you had crossed over, just as YHWH your Elohim had done to the Sea of Reeds, which He dried up from in front of us until we had crossed over, 24. "in order that all the people of the Land may recognize the hand of YHWH, because it is firm, so that you might fear YHWH your Elohim [for] all time." All time: literally, all the days. CHAPTER 51. Now when all the kings of the Emorites who were on the seaward side of the Yarden and all the kings of the Kanaanites who were on the sea heard that YHWH had dried up the waters of the Yarden from in front of the descendants of Israel until we had had crossed over, their courage began to melt, nor was there any more spirit in them due to the presence of the descendants of Israel.It was not the fact that there was an army on the march that terrified them as much as the fact that this army had "nature"--that is, the Elohim who controlled such things as rivers--on their side. In an army, you can find a weak point and take advantage of that, but how does one plot a military strategy against such unmatched power? Many have tried to outsmart YHWH, and could not, so they attack His people instead. Because Israel was walking in obedience to YHWH under the authority of the one He had put in place, there was no chink in their armor. If we follow our Yahshua in the same way, it leaves our enemies with no battle plan, as seen in Acts 5. But how did the enemies know YHWH was the one who did this? Throughout the journey Israelites on the fringe of the camp came in contact with the cultures all around them, and they did not withhold the accounts for fear of not being believed. The power of the testimony of what He has done defeats our enemies, the most present of which is self. The nations may be hard-hearted now, but some will recognize the wisdom of surrendering to His obviously-superior power. That is why Rahav was ready to throw in her lot with a nation that had been camping in the wilderness for 40 years rather than the king of an established culture in a walled city. This is why YHWH places so much emphasis on recounting His past acts to our children. One day everyone will stand in awe of Him; we need to start now to put self in awe of Him while it is still a voluntary choice.2. At that time, YHWH told Y'hoshua, "Make for yourself stone blades, and return [and] circumcise the sons of Israel a second time." Stone: traditionally it was specifically flint, but the text actually uses the generic word for a large rock. If bronze and iron tools were already common, why did they use this seemingly antiquated method? In part, to maintain their ancestors' tradition, but actually the flint knife was the way of mercy, because when broken along the right plane and filed to an edge, it is as sharp as any modern surgical instrument, and therefore less painful. It still was not pleasant for these people who were not circumcised on the eighth day, when the prothrombin and vitamin K are at their highest in one's lifetime and the blood clots readily. There was a price to pay for their parents' disobedience. Flint is not as easy to shape as metal, and thus the people had not continued making them once they were sentenced to die without entering the Promised Land. They probably assumed their children would also disqualify themselves since in their anger at being excluded, they probably saw YHWH as cruel and considered all the rest of His promises null and void. The fact that Y'hoshua had to make these knives shows that they did not have any, and thus that they sdid not intend to keep this command. A second time: no individuals needed to have it done a second time if they had been circumcised at the time of the Exodus, but the nation as a whole needed to re-establish this practice. If we do not have the sign of the covenant, we have broken the covenant itself, and where there is no sign, it means we are not "open for business", or at least that there is nothing in the "store" that is worth having. How can we say we are Israelites but not bear the identifying mark? It had been a standing command since the time of Avraham--a sign of the Covenant when done on the eighth day (Gen. 17:10ff), so circumcisions immediately after birth, though still more hygienic than leaving it undone, are not enough in a generation where we are again aware that we are Israel. Yahshua was circumcised on the eighth day, so how can we follow Him yet misinterpret Paul to say circumcision is no longer necessary? There are other signs of the covenant--unleavened bread in the right season (Ex. 13:7ff), the Sabbath (Ex. 31:13), and the affirmation that YHWH is both one and to be worshipped and loved to the exclusion of all others (Deut. 6:4) These are the very things Christianity discouraged us from doing, though we see Yahshua doing every one of them. He made it His practice to be in a synagogue every Sabbath (Luke 4:16), keeping the Passover (Mat. 28:16), and saying, "Not My will but Yours be done" at the ultimate test of whether He loved YHWH above even His own life. Circumcision is a removal of obstructing and unnecessary flesh, and it symbolizes removing any of our flesh that is not serving Him. Elsewhere in Scripture, we read of uncircumcised hearts, eyes, ears, and lips--i.e., anywhere there is flesh in a place that needs to be exposed to YHWH as the veil over our understanding is removed. (Rom. 11:25)3. So Y'hoshua made himself [some] stone blades and began circumcising the sons of Israel toward the Hill of Foreskins. This site received a new name, as most of the other places in the Land now would.4. And this is the reason that Y'hoshua circumcised all the people who came out of Egypt: The males--all the men of war--had died in the wilderness on the journey, as they came out from Egypt, Reason: literally, matter, affair or word.5. because all the people who had come out had been circumcised, but none of the people who had been born in the wilderness on the journey as they came out of Egypt had been circumcised, 6. since the sons of Israel had walked [for] forty years in the wilderness until the whole nation--the men of war who had come out of Egypt, who did not listen to the voice of YHWH, to whom YHWH had sworn not to let them see the Land that YHWH had sworn to their ancestors to give to us--a Land that gushes forth milk and honey. For 40 years, they were without the prescribed sign of the Covenant. YHWH had still dwelt among them and given them protection, provision, and the Torah for instruction. But these blessings only meant that He was extremely merciful. He upheld His side of the covenant for Avraham's sake. Just because things are "coming up roses" for us does not imply that we are doing everything right. Had Moshe known that no one was circumcising their children, he might have been less patient about it, though he himself had hesitated to carry out this practice (Ex. 4:24ff) because it did not sit well with his wife. But as when he was about to take up his role as leader, YHWH gave him no choice but to obey or die, now that the Israelites were in the Land and ready to carry out justice on the Kanaanites, they had to remove the splinter from their own eye to be on the moral high ground and more blameless than they. The season left no room for compromise or neglect, just like ours today.7. But He raised up sons in their place; them Y'hoshua circumcised, because they had not circumcised them on the way. 8. And what took place when the whole nation was finished being circumcised was that they stayed in their places in the camp until they had revived. Revived: i.e., healed and regained their strength. Since the tenth and the fourteenth of the month are both identified (v.10 and 4:19), there are three days between at the end of which they revived, or "came back to life", a picture of Yahshua's resurrection on the third day. Indeed, circumcision is a picture of the death of the flesh. But note that they had to still be in the camp to be revived. Outside of true community, even if we seem to be effective individuals, we are actually hiding from having our flesh exposed and removed. The long delay before any attack would also serve to increase the fearfulness of the Y'rikhites.9. And YHWH told Y'hoshua, "Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from upon you." So he called the name of that place Gilgal to this day. Gilgal means "rolling" or a wheel. Reproach: shame or disgrace, but from a root word meaning to pull off or expose, or even to betrothe. Having a foreskin is thus a sign of being betrothed to Egypt. (1 Maccabees tells us that many Jews, when courting Greek culture to enhance their own standing in the world, actually had operations to make it appear that they had never undergone this ritual. YHWH was angry at Egypt for taking His wife into its harem (as it had done to Avram). Egypt is not kind to its betrothed; it enslaves them. B y this sign--the sign that symbolizes exposing our lives to one another--He removes the betrothals of Egypt from us, tearing down the wrong wall and building another in the right place. 10. As the descendants of Israel camped at Gilgal, they prepared the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, on the steppe-plains of Y'rikho. Thus at Gilgal they restored two of the signs of the covenant, circumcision and the Passover. Here they entered the Land, so we could call it the gateway to Israel. The prophets Eliyah and Elisha spent a great deal of time here. (2 Kings 2:1; 4;38) Shmu'el is said to have renewed the kingdom at Gilgal (1 Shmu'el 11), at the beginning of the reign of Sha'ul. But how could it be renewed if he was the first king of Israel? Because there had been a "king" confirmed here before--Y'hoshua, for the people confirmed their support for him here. (4:14) And here YHWH confirmed His support for the later Yahshua by calling Him "My Beloved Son"--an idiom for a king of Israel. (Psalm 2:7 et al) Not much later, we find idols at Gilgal. (Judges 3:19) We are told the stones set up in the river "are here to this day", but the same is not said of those on the shore at Gilgal, possibly because they became these idols that were worshipped there, much like the bronze serpent Moshe had made. Were the things YHWH gave as a memorial reshaped to suit a later generation's tastes? The event of Yahshua's immersion here has likewise been used to establish Mithraic forms of baptism, the doctrine of the trinity, etc. So this may be why Gilgal is a turning wheel: we need to leave Gilgal behind so we can return to it and re-establish the original witness that was there. Evening… steppe-plains: both words stem from the same root in Hebrew. The word means "to mix". One is the mixing of light and darkness, and the other is the transitional zone from desert to vegetated land.11. And they ate of the overflow of the Land the morning after the Passover--unleavened bread and parched grain on this same day. Overflow: We are not permitted to eat of new crops until after the firstfruits are brought the day after the Sabbath after Passover. (Lev. 23:14) Parched grain is specifically forbidden until "that same day"--the same phrase used here--suggesting that the Passover fell at the end of a Sabbath this year (meaning they could not roast a lamb until after sunset). This could be hinted at in v. 8 when compared with Ex. 16:29. The Aramaic text adds "the first fruits", reflecting the halakhic argument over when the sheaf is offered. But the term here for overflow (based on the word for crossing a boundary or going beyond, implies grain which was not needed for immediate use and therefore stored up. Thus it was old grain, which would not violate Lev. 23:14. There was a king of Gilgal (12:23), though it would be some time before he would be attacked. So there must have already been a town with storehouses near their camp. The Land was providing for Israel even before the first battle.12. And the manna stopped, [beginning] from the next day after they had eaten of the overflow of the Land. And there was no more manna for the descendants of Israel, but they ate from the produce of the land of Kanaan that year. Stopped: from the same root word as "Sabbath". YHWH made one form of provision cease, and began another, to remind us that He, not it, is what we depend on. But He continued providing by grace until we were in a position to take responsibility for working the land ourselves. This is how His "grace" works during our exile as well, but we are approaching a time when we will again be able to work, and thus responsible to do so. The honeymoon period will be over. He still has grain stored up for us, but we have to know how to search it out in His Word. 13. Now it came about that when Y'hoshua was at Y'rikho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and lo and behold, a man was standing right in front of him with his sword drawn in his hand. So Y'hoshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" For us: Aramaic, coming to our aid.14. And he said, "No, because I have now come [as] the captain of the army of YHWH." And Y'hoshua fell to his face on the earth and bowed down and said to him, "What is my Master saying to His servant?" I.e., he was for neither, but only for YHWH. If Y'hoshua also lined up with YHWH's agenda, there would be no threat from him. Y'hoshua probably thought he himself was the captain of YHWH's army, because all Israel was following him, but he was never been called that. It is not enough to recognize that we are Israel; we need to take on all the signs of what this means, letting our light shine by being a people who love one another. After Israel has again begun walking in the signs of the covenant, they are given the offer of being part of something larger--the army of YHWH. It was no longer about them or even about bringing judgment on their enemies, but about YHWH. We need to keep the same perspective. Was this man Yahshua? Mikha'el the archangel? In bowing to him, Y'hoshua is not treating him as YHWH, but as His representative, who would have a message from Him. He probably was not a glowing "angel" as we think of them, because Y'hoshua was not terrified, and even challenged him, probably with his own sword drawn. He might have just been a descendant of Melkhitzedeq who came down from Yerushalayim, which is little more than 15 miles away. We are not told, so it is not necessary to know. The point is that Y'hoshua found him worthy of honor because, like Moshe in Egypt, he came in YHWH's name and was thus recognized as someone to lower himself before. This is not worship in the sense that we worship YHWH, but recognition of one's higher position--a concept we need to recover in our day in order for all things Israelite to be properly restored. Now he was master of Y'hoshua's army too.15. And the captain of the army of YHWH said to Y'hoshua, "Take your shoe off your foot, because the place where you are standing is set-apart." So Y'hoshua did so. His mentor Moshe had had the same experience at the burning bush (Ex. 3:5)--except that in his case, it was both shoes he needed to remove. Something is different here. The key is in Ruth 4:7. By Ruth's day the custom of confirming a redemption or exchange by removing and giving the other party one's sandal was already ancient. Y'hoshua had already said by his actions that he would join forces with this captain, so he essentially told Y'hoshua to "prove it" with this sign. If he walked back to the camp with only one of his 40-year-old sandals that did not wear out, he would have appeared to be limping like Yaaqov after his walk was changed by a similar encounter. (Gen. 32) CHAPTER 61. Then Y'rikho was closed up and shut in due to the presence of the descendants of Israel; there was no one going out and no one coming in.Israel had not sent any threats or terms of surrender, but still Y'rikho was under a self-imposed siege because of their fear! When Israel was walking in Torah and in unity, their mere presence terrified those around them, and they would not even dare show their face.2. And YHWH told Y'hoshua, "Look! I have given Y'rikho into your hand along with her king--brave heroes of the army! Along with her king: he represents the whole city-state, but when King Sha'ul spared the king of the Amaleqites (1 Shmu'el 15:8), it came back to haunt the tribe of Yehudah in a major way (Esther 9:24). The last phrase may be describing the Y'rikhite army mockingly, or it may be addressing the Israelites. Though like Gid'on (Judges 6:12-16) they might not have felt brave, it takes courage to live in a Torah-keeping community. Humans naturally run in clans, but in our day YHWH has given us a test in that our society allows us and encourages us to be self-sufficient. Though this is seen as a virtue today, it is what keeps our enemies thriving behind effective defenses. Only as Israel gathers together again can this change.3. "Now you will march a circuit around the city--all the mortal men of war--to encompass the city one time; you must do it this way [for] six days. Now you: YHWH has just said He had given them the city. He had made all the arrangements for it to be accomplished and removed all obstacles if they did it His way; if it did not come to pass, it would only be because they did not make it the ruin He had said it already was. Encompass: or, strike skin off of. This makes the underlying nerves extremely sensitive, and indeed it heightened the suspense for the citizens of Y'rikho to see these people marching around and doing nothing but blowing trumpets. It created fear in them, and once there was enough of that, they were already defeated. It gave them time to think of all the things they stood to lose. If we see our possessions as YHWH's, given to us only to use, they will not have such a hold on us. Like spiritual giftings, if we are not giving them away, we are not doing with them what He gave them to us for. This idea of striking off seems to be that of a repeated action necessary to accomplish the task, like peeling off the layers of an onion, around and around. This is upheld by the fact that the words for "one time" literally denote one (rhythmic) beat, with the assumption that there would be more. This may be a colorful description of how the city was undermined by the vibration of the ground at specific intervals, weakening it a little more each time. Thus there are two types of encirclings being described here. Just as both revolution and rotation are needed to sustain life on earth, Israel must both revolve around YHWH and keep his festival cycle, for the term for His festivals (khag) actually means to move in a circle, as in Hebraic dance. As the earth's rotation forms the needed gravity to keep us grounded, the festivals bring order to our love for YHWH by giving us a community to express His love to. Israel had tried to do without YHWH's calendar for 38 years, and many plagues and hardships resulted. They did not see themselves as a people, but as needy individuals.4. "Have seven priests carry seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark, and on the seventh day you must circle the city seven times, then the priests must give a blast on the trumpets. Seven trumpets of ram's horns: or, the seven shofars that are borne along, seven rams' horns of the yovel (jubilee). Seven is the number of completion in unity and purpose, and the Hebrew word comes from the word for swearing an oath. Hearing the number seven four times would remind Israel of the promises YHWH had kept and those they had made to Him. They marched around the city for seven days in a row, so one of them had to be the Sabbath. How can we make war on the day we are meant to rest? The answer will become clearer as the chapter progresses.5. "And when they make a prolonged [blast] with the horn that is borne along, what must take place is that when you hear the sound of the shofar, all the people must give a war-cry with a great shout, and the wall of the city will collapse [from] beneath it, and the people will climb up, [each] man directly in front of him." Collapse from beneath it: or, fall down where it stands/in its place; the Aramaic Targum adds, "and be swallowed up". In front of him: or, corresponding to him.6. So Y'hoshua the son of Nun summoned the priests and told them, "Pick up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests carry seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of YHWH." 7. Then they said to the people, "Go over and march around the city, and those who are armed [for war] must go over in front of the ark of YHWH. 8. So it took place, as Y'hoshua was speaking to the people, that the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams' horns went over and gave a blast with the shofars, and the ark of the covenant of YHWH went behind them. 9. And whoever was armed went before the priests who were blowing the shofars, and the rear guard went after the ark, walking and blowing the shofars. Rear guard: literally, those who gather up; Aramaic, the tribe of the house of Dan, based on Num. 10:25ff (in which Asher and Nafthali were also included with Dan). It was the ark that was guarded, not the people as such, though the people of Y'rikho might have been able to rain any number of objects down on them from the top of the wall. Everyone was in this sense a "sapper"--those who risk their lives to undermine a city wall so it can be breached by the next wave of soldiers. But if the covenant is guarded, individual selves do not need to be.10. But to the people, Y'hoshua had given orders, saying, "You must not shout nor let your voice be heard, nor shall a word come out of your mouth until [the] day I tell you, 'Shout!' Then you will shout." Though they must have had an infinite number of questions about why they were doing this, they were to do their part, and no more. They were not to be heard until it was time, and Y'hoshua would let them know when that time was! YHWH did not command Y'hoshua to tell them this; he saw the need for it himself. When the Messiah beings justice to the entire earth, it will not be through noisy words, but through actions. (Yeshayahu/Isa. 42:1-4) A word spoken in season has great effects. (Prov. 15:23; 17:28; 25:11; compare Qoheleth/Eccles. 9:17) Yaaqov (James) says that if we can tame the tongue, we can stop sinning altogether, as it is the hardest member to bring into submission. So the people "fast from speaking", and the result is heavy-duty psychological warfare.11. So he had the ark of YHWH circle the city, encompassing it once, then they came into the camp, and spent the night in the camp. 12. And Y'hoshua rose early [to shoulder the burden] in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of YHWH, 13. and the seven priests who carried the seven trumpets of rams' horns in front of the ark of YHWH proceeded to walk and gave a blast with the shofars, and whoever was armed walked ahead of them, and the rear guard went after the ark of YHWH. Walking and blowing the shofars, 14. they thus circled the city one time on the second day, then returned to the camp. They did this [same thing for] six days. 15. Now what took place on the seventh day [was that] they made an early [start] as the dawn came up and encircled the city in this [same] manner seven times; only on that day did they encircle the city seven times. We must not only look at all the "sevens"; they went around the city a total of thirteen times. The total numerical value of letters that make up the Hebrew word ekhad ("one" or "united") is 13. Unity is what wins battles when Israel is taking the Land, as will become even clearer in the next chapter.16. And what took place on the seventh time [around] was that the priests gave a blast with the shofars, and Y'hoshua told the people, "Shout! Because YHWH has given you the city! The way they made war on the Sabbath was by celebrating.17. "And the city will be devoted to YHWH--it and everything that is in it; only Rahav the prostitute may remain alive (she and all who are with her in the house), because she [secretly] hid the messengers whom we sent. Devoted to YHWH: that is, off limits to everyone else. In practicality this meant it would be completely destroyed, and everyone in it killed. Messengers: They are not called spies, for they came chiefly to bring a message of deliverance to Rahav when she proved her faith and loyalty. The term for messengers is the same as that for angels, so she entertained angels. This is the answer to whom outside of Israel can be saved: those who receive the message. There were two of them who went into a house to see if anyone there was worthy--a precedent for Yahshua, who sent His disciples out two by two to preach repentance in the same manner. (Mark 6:7-12) He said He only did what He saw His Father doing. (Yochanan 5:19) Where did He see this? In the Scriptures, not in a mystical trance. Therefore we can do the same.18. "But you, by all means keep [clear] of what is off limits, lest you make yourselves dedicated to destruction by taking from what is dedicated to destruction and you appoint the camp of Israel for destruction and bring calamity to it. What one partakes of affects all of Israel. Appoint for destruction: the same term as "off limits", "dedicated", and "devoted" above. Recall that it was the fact that Israel had put the cities across the river "under the ban" that struck fear in the Y'rikhites (2:10) They knew Israel was coming for the purpose of judgment, not booty. Bear this in mind, for (as per note on verse 3) we see the whole festival year walked out within a matter of days. They observed Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread, then they walked out a cycle of seven within seven, a microcosm of the seven weeks of counting the days until Shavuoth. The next thing they do is blow trumpets, which is what Yom T'ruah is all about. Judgment follows on Yom Kippur, which by tradition also features a scarlet cord like the one Rahav hung in her window. Afterward follows the salvation of those from other nations, a prominent theme of Sukkoth, the next and final prescribed feast.19. "But all silver and gold and articles of copper or iron, they are set apart for YHWH; they will go into YHWH's treasury." The pagan objects made from these metals could be melted down and their form changed completely. But note that all the Mammon (wealth) still belongs to YHWH. 20. So the people shouted and blew the shofars, and it did turn out that when the people heard the sound of the shofar, the people raised a great shout, and the wall collapsed under it, and the people went up into the city, each directly in front of [where] he [was], and they captured the city! 21. And they dedicated everything that was in the city--including both men and women, from young to old, as well as ox and lamb and donkey--to the mouth of the sword. It is not even easy to kill an animal we are going to eat, but they had to kill everything that lived, for they would be a stumblingblock to Israel if they were just left to coexist in the Land. The people of Y'rikho had done nothing against Israel in particular, so this was not their vengeance, nor was it a defensive battle. Israel was the aggressor--a very unchristian concept, and one that does not meet the "standards" of modern humanism. What earned them this judgment was the fact that they had built a pagan city in a Land that belonged to YHWH and which He had promised to Avraham's descendants. They were in the way of this promise being fulfilled, so they had to go.22. Now to the two men who had explored the Land by foot, Y'hoshua said, "Go to the house of the woman--the prostitute--and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her, as you swore to her." 23. So the young men who had explored the Land on foot went in and brought out Rahav, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had--that is, they brought all her family [member]s and let them rest outside the camp of Israel. 24. Then they burned the city and all that was in it with fire. Only the silver, gold, and articles of copper and iron they entrusted to the treasury of the House of YHWH. 25. And Y'hoshua allowed Rahav the prostitute, and her father's household and all who belonged to her, to remain alive, and she dwells in the innermost part of Israel to this day, because she held back the messengers whom Y'hoshua had sent to go about Y'rikho on foot. Her father's household: This does not fit with the "personal salvation" formula, for they rode in on the coattails of another, but it is a concept the first believers in Yahshua espoused. (Acts 11:14; 16:31) This is because they were not thinking about a mere spiritual salvation, but establishing a physical kingdom under the rulership of Y'hoshua. In ancient Israel, the most basic societal unit was the father's household, so as the Kingdom is re-established, it makes perfect sense to build it again of father's houses, not just individuals.26. And at that time Y'hoshua made them swear, saying, "Cursed before YHWH is [any] man who may raise up and rebuilt this city, Y'rikho. May he lay the foundation with his firstborn, and with his youngest may he stand its gates up!" This indeed came to pass in the days of Akhav, king of Israel. A man from Beyth-El named Khi'el ("El lives") lost his eldest and youngest sons in the process, just as YHWH had said through Y'hoshua. (1 Kings 16:34) This took place immediately before the rise of Eliyahu the prophet to prominence, and seeing this prophecy fulfilled may have even been a catalyst that helped him find the confidence to go ahead and dare to prophesy the message he had been given--that it would not rain again until he said so! Y'rikho means "his (own) moon". The new moon is what determines when the biblical festivals will be, so the cycle of feasts is what conquers the city with this name. This "city" has been "rebuilt" by the Rabbis, who chose their own way of determining when they would be observed,, so anyone who follows this calendar will usually be doing things in the wrong season, until the authority they usurped, which really belongs to the moon, is taken back aggressively by Torah-observant Israel.27. And YHWH came to be with Y'hoshua, and his fame went throughout all the Land. CHAPTER 71. But the descendants of Israel committed a trespass in [regard to] what was off-limits [in that] Akhan the son of Karmi the son of Zavdi the son of Zerakh, for the tribe of Yehudah, took [some] of the things devoted [to YHWH], and the anger of YHWH grew heated against the descendants of Israel.On this rare occasion, all of Israel was unified, so the sin of one was counted as the sin of all. We are our brothers' keeper. Committed a trespass: from a root word meaning "over or above", suggesting that arrogance is the central concept. As a community they overstepped the boundary simply because one man among them had done so. Akhan's name means "troublemaker." It may have reflected a slight change from his original name, as was sometimes done with Hebrew names, as from Ben Kosiba to Bar Kochba, once it became known that he was responsible for what took place. His forefathers are mentioned, for what he did reflected on them as well as bringing disgrace to Y'hoshua and guilt to all of Israel corporately. The fact that one man's sin can bring the whole nation into a sinful state (compare Romans 5:12) makes the whole doctrine of original sin a moot point. What we do also reflects on our Y'hoshua. Jews today will rarely speak His name because of the crusades. They did this is "Jesus'" name; now that we know His true name, we have a higher responsibility to bring it honor.2. When Y'hoshua sent men from Y'rikho [to] the Ay that is with Beyth-Awen eastward from Beyth-El, and told them, "Go up and explore the territory on foot." So the men went up and explored Ay on foot. Ay means "a heap of ruins". It may have had a different meaning in the Emorite language. Beyth-Aven means "house of vanity (wickedness, sorrow, trouble, or idolatry)". Beyth-El: a city, not the place Yaaqov had named Beyth-El, which was later the Temple Mount north of Yerushalayim. Explore: or spy out. Y'hoshua was clearly not yet aware that YHWH was upset. Should he have checked with YHWH first? He already had standing orders to conquer the whole Land, so it should not have been necessary. He had a right to expect Israel to do the right thing, though their record did not particularly make this a realistic assumption.3. When they returned to Y'hoshua, they told him, "Not all the people should go up; about two or three thousand men can go up, and they can beat Ay. Don't weary all the people with [the trouble of going] there, because they are [so] few." They did not need to bother making the whole army work so hard for a victory that a small percentage of them should have been easily able to accomplish.4. So of the people about three thousand men went up there, but they would [end up] fleeing before the men of Ay. 5. The men of Ay even struck down about thirty-six men, and chased them from the gate as far as the Breaches, and started killing them on the steep slope. And the heart of the people melted and turned into water. As far as the Breaches: possibly to a specific gap in the mountains, or, "to the point of crushing [them]"; the Aramaic leans toward this latter possibility with "until they broke them". It was merciful of YHWH that they did send so few, for more might have been lost if they had sent more.6. And Y'hoshua tore his clothing and fell on his face on the ground in front of the ark of YHWH [all the way] until evening--[both] he and the elders of Israel--and they put dust up on their heads. 7. And Y'hoshua said, "Alas, Master YHWH! Why did you even have us cross the Yarden at all, [if it is just] to hand us over to the Emorites and have us destroyed? O, if only we had been willing to stay on the other side of the Yarden! At first he sounds like the whining Israelites in the wilderness, but then he turns, though unsuccessfully, to a tactic Moshe had used:8. "Please, Master, what can I say after Israel has turned her back before her enemies? 9. "When the Kanaanite and all the inhabitants of the Land hear, they will close in on us from around and cut off our name from the earth! So what will You do for Your great name?" 10. But YHWH told Y'hoshua, "Raise yourself up! Why are you fallen on your face [like] this? Something was clearly broken, but he should not "call the manufacturer before checking the instruction manual he had already been given." Also, none of Israel was welcome to bow before YHWH until this matter was resolved.11. "Israel has sinned and also transgressed My covenant about which I gave them orders, in that they have even taken from what was off limits, and also stolen and also acted deceitfully, having actually put it among their own equipment, Off limits: closed in, separated from us, something we are not supposed to be close to or partake of, yet it was right in our midst! It was dedicated to something other than to Israel. YHWH did not say He would rid us of it; we would have to be the ones to confront our brothers and eradicate the stumblingblock.12. "so the descendants of Israel have been unable to stand up to the faces of their enemies; they will turn their backs before their enemies, because they have come to be dedicated [to destruction]. I will not be with you again unless you eradicate from your midst what is off limits! I will not be with you: the most frightening prospect of all; Aramaic, I will not let My Memra (living Word) be your aid anymore.13. "Get up, set the people apart, and say, 'Set yourselves apart for tomorrow, because this is what YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, says: "Something that is off limits is among you, Israel; you will not be able to stand before your enemies until you remove what is off limits from your midst." 14. "'So you will be approached in the morning by your tribes, and what will come about is that the tribe that YHWH catches will approach by clans, and the clan that YHWH catches must approach by households, and the household that YHWH catches must approach [man] by man, Catches: takes, seizes, chooses; Aramaic, singles out. This would probably be done by casting lots, but instead of just pointing out who the culprit was, YHWH heightened the suspense so each would be searching his own heart and taking inventory of what he might have done wrong, and undoubtedly many people repented for lesser sins. Though most of them could breathe a sigh of relief when the lot did not fall to them, they would still all be able to identify with what the tribe that was "caught" was going through, and the fear of YHWH in each heart would be strengthened.15. "'and it will turn out that the one who is caught with the thing that is devoted [to YHWH] must be burned with fire--himself and all who belong to him, because he has transgressed YHWH's covenant and because he has acted disgracefully in Israel.'" Disgracefully: foolishly, shamefully, or senselessly; Aramaic, done what is not fitting. How sobering to realize that those who belong to us must also pay for our folly. No one in Israel can act in isolation. Very few people in Scripture are ever burned; normally it is only the daughter of a priest who is caught in adultery who would be executed in this way, so there must be a parallel here. YHWH feels betrayed by His bride because He made sure Y'hoshua told them not to do this very thing. (6:18) 16. So Y'hoshua rose up early [and shouldered the burden] in the morning and presented Israel by its tribes, and the tribe of Yehudah was caught, 17. so he had the clan[s] of Yehudah approach, and he caught the Zarkhite clan, so he had the clan of Zarkhi approach [man] by man, and Zavdi was caught, 18. so he had his household approach [man] by man, and Akhan, the son of Karmi, the son of Zavdi, the son of Zerakh, was caught for the tribe of Yehudah. 19. So Y'hoshua said to Akhan, "My son, please direct honor to YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, and make confession before Him, and please make known to me what you have done; do not conceal [it] from me!" Make confession: or, give thanks; the word actually means to throw or gesture with one's hands. In this case, it would be the "I surrender" aspect of lifting his hands, since he was caught "red-handed".20. So Akhan answered Y'hoshua, and said, "I truly have sinned against YHWH the Elohim of Israel, and like this, like this I have done: 21. "When I saw among the spoils a robe [from] Shinar--a nice one, 200 sheqels of silver, and a tongue of gold--one with its weight fifty sheqels--I wanted them, and I snatched them up, and there they are, hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the money under it." Robe: the root word reveals that it was wide and majestic. In Scripture robes are symbolic of our works. When Yahshua speaks of keeping our garments (Rev. 16:15), He does not mean fancy attire. Those who do not "soil their garments" will walk with Him in white." (Rev. 3:3ff) To buy from Him white garments (3:17ff) speaks of our service to Israel, because white robes were worn by the priesthood when on duty. But Shinar is where the tower of Bavel was built. (Gen. 11) The builders used substitutionary building materials because they wanted to make the building flood-proof in case YHWH should decide to send judgment again. There was a unity there, but it was of such a nature that each person was pursuing his own interests. Thus they were united for the sake of finding ways around keeping YHWH's commands, and thought they could still get away with it. A robe from Shinar would symbolize one's best works within this context. Indeed, Christianity, which is full of highly-moral works, invented an "insurance policy" by which to evade His judgment and yet avoid doing the more difficult things He commanded. Each is thus given a right to keep doing what he wants to do--and it is even free! Why would this not be attractive? With a garment like this, one could pretend he was a king, but he would have to soothe his flesh with it when no one was looking. It was the hidden things that brought defeat and shame. What are you hiding away for yourself at the expense of all Israel? Dig them up and turn them over before He asks for them, and certainly before Israel's next battle! Otherwise none of us can enjoy our inheritance. A "tongue of gold" may have been broken off a golden idol. But it is a "golden tongue" that enables us to keep things hidden, always having an excuse available to justify our sins. Akhan does confess his sin, but seemed to be explaining why he really was not guilty. Wouldn't any man do the same thing? But the things he took indicate that he really did not trust YHWH. If anything will turn Israel away from the right walk correctly, it is the desire for wealth and security. But why would private security be needed if he was under the pillar of fire with all Israel, walking where he was meant to walk? Many serve security by working on the Sabbath because they think they cannot survive without doing so, but in doing so they write their own death sentence as Akhan did. (Ex. 35:2)22. So Y'hoshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and indeed it was hidden in his tent with the money under it. The money was not part of "it", and it was buried deepest, indicating that he valued it more highly than the rest. The reason is that the Hebrew word for money simply means "silver", and silver was always the means of exchange used in payment for human life or blood, and that of some animals as well. So it symbolizes his cherishing of his own life. Thus a person can either be ransomed by silver or by blood. But Yahshua says, "He who wants to save his life will lose it." (Mat. 16:35) Yahshua had a contentment about Him, though He knew He would suffer terribly, because He was not hanging onto His life and seeking "happiness", which is a shaky, unstable thing which is very easy to lose.23. So they took them from inside the tent and brought them to Y'hoshua and to all the descendants of Israel, and they poured them out before YHWH. 24. So Y'hoshua seized Akhan the son of Zerakh, and the silver and the robe and the tongue of gold, along with his sons and his daughters and his oxen and his donkeys and his sheep, as well as his tent and everything that he had. And [he] and all Israel with him brought them up to the Valley of Akhor, His wife is not mentioned, but if the two are one flesh, they could not kill him without killing his wife as well. His sons and daughters would undoubtedly have been the reason he wanted this personal security, so they had become idols to him. But for trying to maintain his security at the expense of obeying YHWH, he lost his "future" altogether, having no seed left to carry on his ways. Anything that bore the association with him had to be annihilated. Up to the valley: This sounds oxymoronic, but a place of righteous judgment, no matter how low-lying, is a step up from the place sin was committed. Akhor (related to Akhan's name) means "trouble, disturbance, calamity, grief." Y'hoshua then makes a play on these words:25. and Y'hoshua said, "How you have brought calamity on us! YHWH will bring calamity on you this day!" And all of Israel executed him [with] stone, then they burned them with fire when they had pelted them with stones. 26. And they raised over him a large round [heap] of stones [that have remained there] until this day. Then YHWH turned back from the heat of His anger. On account of this the name of that place is called the Valley of Akhor to this day. Heat: Aramaic, force. CHAPTER 81. Then YHWH told Y'hoshua, "Don't be afraid and don't be flustered. Take with you all the people of war, rise, and go up to Ay; look, I have handed over to you the king of Ay along with his people, his city, and his territory,Flustered: Moshe had often told Y'hoshua to be strong, so he may have been one who needed frequent encouragement. But the incident with Akhan that had just taken place could have really shattered his confidence. If they lost 36 innocent men when one sinned, what was the additional potential for loss if two or three of the millions of people he was leading did something wrong? He had even questioned YHWH when he thought He had abandoned him, and he certainly felt remorseful about that too, which further undermined his focus. But they were to recover their composure, because He was with them again, and that was the only factor that mattered. People of war: It does not say "men", but includes all of Israel. Israel had called YHWH a "man of war" (Ex. 15:3), and now, partly for Y'hoshua's sake, He reciprocates by calling us a people of war, further identifying us with Himself. Since the next stop was further up in the same direction, it appears that he took the whole nation along with him to Ay. They camped close to the battle site. (v. 9, 13) Rise, go up: or, stand firm, ascend. Before we are ready for battle, we need to move to a higher place, closer to YHWH, for He is always higher than where we are.2. "and you will do to Ay and to her king just what you did to Y'rikho and her king, except that you may take its spoils and its animals as plunder for yourselves. Set yourself an ambush for the city from behind it." The rules of engagement changed somewhat. If only Akhan had waited for YHWH's timing instead of desiring instant gratification, he would have spared himself and Israel so much grief--though if he had, then Ay might have been used as the test instead. Now that Israel was wide awake and the sin is removed from the camp, YHWH knows their hearts are right and it is safe to allow them a reward. Also, unlike Y'rikho, this city had taken Israelite lives, and so deserved to be plundered. We must do things in season, for what is allowable today may not be allowable when other factors change. Not even all the tribes are in the same place at the same time, so if it is not Torah, it should not be mailed down or written in stone.3. So Y'hoshua rose up along with all the people of war to go up to Ay, and Y'hoshua chose 30,000 men--capable, valiant ones--and sent them at night, Y'hoshua rose up: again a foreshadowing of Yahshua's resurrection. In the vision in revelation, He is the one leading His people to war. The leader must rise up first, but the people must follow closely behind, not lag back, waiting to see what becomes of him before proceeding. He also does not lead from a distance, but sets an example to follow. He only asks us to do what He has already done.4. and gave them orders, saying, "Look, you will be an ambush for the city from behind the city; don't go very far away from the city, but all of you be ready, Behind the city: This may imply that the city only had one gate. Be ready: a favorite phrase of the later Yahshua was "be watchful". Though we may have to await the readiness of the Kingdom, we are not to become so deeply involved in other pursuits that we do not notice when it is time to do what we really came here for. (Mat. 24:42-43; 25:13)5. "and I and all the people who are with me will approach the city, and what we will do when they come out to meet us like the first time is that we will run away in front of them 6. "when they come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city--because they will say, 'They are fleeing before us just like the first time!' So [once] we have run away in front of them, Drawn them away: also means to snap off or tear apart--i.e., take them far enough from the city that they are effectively cut off from being able to retreat into it.7. "then you must rise up from [where you are] waiting in ambush, and take possession of the city; thus YHWH your Elohim will hand it over to you. You: It is too big to conquer on our own, but He will not answer us before we take the first step. As Israel's "spouse", He wants us to trust Him, to say, "He can take care of me". His promises do not come to us; we have to go where He tells us they are. We will receive His provision after we start moving. But if we still worry at that point, that only delays the fulfillment, because He does not inhabit the fear of anything else. Take possession of: or, occupy, seize control, again so that they have no place to fall back to.8. "Then once you have captured the city, you must set the city on fire. You must do as YHWH has said; see, I have given you orders." Don't imagine the men of Ay do not have weapons; we have seen that they are fierce, though small. We have no promise of success if we do not do it His way.9. So Y'hoshua sent them off, and they went to [wait in] ambush, and they remained still between Beyth-El and Ay, to the west of Ay, and Y'hoshua passed that night in the midst of the people. Ay was about twelve miles west-northwest of Y'rikho; Beyth-El is on the ridge of the mountain range that forms the "backbone" of the Land of Israel. They could follow the base of the Aravah's western rim part of the way there, as the Aravah (Great Rift Valley) widens out north of Y'rikho, making it somewhat more passable, though we know from 7:3 that part of the way was laborious. After that they would have gone up one of the ravines, possibly the one mentioned in verse 11.10. Then Y'hoshua rose early in the morning [to shoulder the burden] and mustered the people, and he and the elders of Israel went up before the people of Ay, Mustered: or, inspected. Before: possibly in full view of the city's watchmen.11. and all the people of war who were with him went up and came near and arrived opposite the city, and encamped to the north of Ay, with the steep gorge between them and Ay. Came near: often used as a euphemism for intimacy with one's spouse; again we cannot win the wars of YHWH without first rising higher away from the world into further intimacy with Him, corporately as a people. Loving Him means keeping His commandments, and not keeping Him at arm's length. (Yeshayahu 64:6-7)12. Then he took about 5,000 men and set them as an ambush between Beyth-El and Ay to the west of the city, This is a second ambush group--further reinforcement.13. and they stationed the people--the whole camp that was to the north of the city--with its heel to the west of the city, and that night Y'hoshua walked into the middle of the gorge. 14. So then the king of Ay noticed, and the men of the city hurried and got up early to meet Israel for battle--he and all his people--at the appointed time in front of the Aravah, but he was not aware that [there was] an ambush for him from behind the city. Appointed time: Was this on one of YHWH's festival days? Or did the king just not want to go fight at night? Not aware: Their overconfidence made them grow slack concerning intelligence and reconnaissance.15. But Y'hoshua and all of Israel let themselves be "beaten back" before them--that is, they ran away by way of the wilderness. They used this tactic to "fake them out" so they would be in a better position to be surrounded.16. Then all the people who were in the city were called [to their aid] to pursue them, and they chased after Y'hoshua and were [thus] drawn away from the city, 17. and there was not a man left in Ay or Beyth-El who had not gone out after Israel, and they left the city open when they chased after Israel. Left: neglected or abandoned. Again they were assuming they had seen the whole army, because of how small it was the last time they had come up, and so they assumed they were between their city and all of the enemy. YHWH used this arrogance to Israel's advantage. Our gates--like the openings of our bodies--are our most vulnerable places. Like the Medieval castles, it is best to have a small re-closeable window cut into the gate so we can screen out who is at the door before we throw it wide open.18. Then YHWH told Y'hoshua, "Stretch forth the javelin that is in your hand toward Ay, because I will deliver it into your hand!" So Y'hoshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. YHWH gave them the general plan first, and the details as they were needed. Stretch forth: This was understood as his signal to attack, so it was probably pre-arranged:19. Then when he stretched out his hand, the ambush got up quickly from its place and ran and entered the city and captured it, and hurried and set the city on fire. 20. Then the men of Ay turned to look behind them, and they noticed that, lo and behold, the smoke of the city was rising into the skies, and there was no strength in them to escape this way or that. So the people who had "fled" to the uninhabited land turned themselves back toward the [group that was] pursuing. Strength: literally, hand. They could turn neither to the right hand nor the left. They were thrown off balance. Pursuing: singular in Hebrew.21. That is, when Y'hoshua and all Israel saw that the ambush [group] had captured the city and that the city was going up [in] smoke, they turned around and started striking down the men of Ay. 22. And those [others] came out of the city to meet them, and they ended up [right] in the middle of Israel--those from this [side] and those from that [side], and they struck then down until there was not a survivor or fugitive left to them. 23. But they took the king of Ay alive and made him approach Y'hoshua. 24. Now when Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ay in the field--in the uninhabited land into which they had chased them--and all of them had fallen by the mouth of the sword until they were finished off when all Israel had turned back to Ay and struck it with the mouth of the sword. They must have last some women and children still in the city to kill, and possibly some animals that were not kosher and therefore not useful as booty.25. And all who fell that day, from men as well as women, came to 12,000--all the men of Ay. 26. And Y'hoshua did not withdraw his hand [with] which he held out the javelin until he had exterminated all the natives of Ay. 27. Israel only seized the animals and the spoils of that city for themselves, in compliance with YHWH's word [by] which He had given orders to Y'hoshua. How was there plunder if they had burned the city? In stone buildings, mainly the roofs would have burned, but the main thing they would have set on fire was the gates, further preventing the inhabitants from having a place to return to by "burning their bridges". This time they obeyed completely. They probably only took the spoils that had no association with idolatry, having learned the lesson from Akhan. They were probably very hesitant to even get close to any "garments from Shinar"!28. And Y'hoshua burned Ay up, and turned it into an everlasting mound of ruins--a desolate place to this day. And so it remains to THIS day. The ruins of Ay have been discovered by archaeologists, and the burned level that identifies it with this time included much gold that was left behind, because it was in the form of idols.29. And the king of Ay he hung on a tree until the time of evening, and as the sun went [down] Y'hoshua gave the order and they took his corpse down from the tree and threw it into the gap of the city's gates, and raised up over it a large [rounded] heap of stones to this day. 30. At that time, Y'hoshua built an altar to YHWH the Elohim of Israel, on Mount Eval, Mt. Eval: on the north side of Sh'khem, some twenty miles nearly due north of Ay and Beyth-El; they would have traveled along the mountain ridges to get there. Y'hoshua obeyed this command (Deut. 27:4ff) as soon as the path to the mountain was clear. This is probably the main reason they chose to take Ay second, because the first time they went, YHWH had not specified what city to take next. It seems that Y'hoshua surmised that Ay was the only major obstacle that stood in the way of obeying this command, so it was the logical choice of where to attack.31. as Moshe, the servant of YHWH, ordered the descendants of Israel [to do], as it is written in the scroll of the Torah of Moshe, "an altar of unaltered stones on which no iron [tool] has been wielded". And on it they caused ascending offerings to go up to YHWH and slaughtered peace [offerings]. Unaltered stones: symbolizing doctrines unshaped by the opinions of men. No sin offerings were made here because it was not the Tabernacle altar. They probably slaughtered many of the animals they had just taken as plunder out of thankfulness to YHWH that no man was lost. An altar has been found on Mount Eval that may well be this one.32. And he wrote there over the stones a copy of the Torah of Moshe which he had written, in front of the descendants of Israel, It was probably limed over so there would be a smooth surface to write all these words on.33. with all of Israel and its elders and its writing-officials and its judges standing on this [side] and that [side] of the Ark, paralleling the Levitical priests [who were] carrying the Ark of YHWH's covenant--the newcomer and those born [among the nation] alike, half close toward the front of Mount Grizim, an half of them close toward the front of Mount Eval, just as Moshe the servant of YHWH had commanded, to bless the people of Israel. Newcomer: like Rahav, there may have been others from surrounding towns who, knowing there would be no mercy once Israel arrived, joined them before they arrived at their towns and became counted as part of Israel. The same holds true today: Israel will bring down any philosophy that rises against Yahshua, so now is the time to surrender.34. And after [they did] thus, he read aloud all the words of the Torah, the blessing as well as the curse, according to whatever is written in the scroll of the Torah. This was commanded in Deut. 11:29.35. There was not a word of anything that Moshe commanded that Y'hoshua did not read right in front of the whole congregation of Israel, as well as the women, the toddlers, and the sojourners who were walking among them. Not just the men, and not in separate groups. All received the Torah and became responsible for it together. His word was what brought the victory, so going back to dwell in it was the next step before attempting any further battles. Among them: The particular word implies being close to the middle of the group, not on the sidelines. CHAPTER 91. Now what came about as all the kings who were beyond the Yarden on the mountain-range, in the foothills, and on the whole coast of the Great Sea toward the front of the Levanon [range]--the Chittite, the Emorite, the Kanaanite, the Prizzite, the Chiwite, and the Y'vusite--heardHeard what? What immediately precedes is the reading of the Torah, so they heard that Y'hoshua had a teacher, Moshe, who had heard from YHWH and whose directives he was following as he directed Israel. We must follow the same order today: YHWH, Moshe, our Yahshua, and the rest of Israel. Foothills: Heb., sh'felah, that is, where the land "falls".2. [was that] they collected themselves together with one mouth to fight with Y'hoshua and with Israel. With one mouth: the Aramaic targum explains this idiom as meaning "as one company". But "one mouth" means they are all telling the same story. Granted, each of these peoples had a personal interest, but they were all focusing on "the problem at hand". If they had only been fighting Israel, and not YHWH as well, this might have been enough in itself to defeat them. As at Bavel, the sought to use their unity to overcome YHWH's will, and again we see a worldwide unification shaping up which is built on sand instead of the rock of Torah, and it may accept "Jesus" as its figurehead (because a figment of their imagination who never really existed as they depict him can hardly have any power to stand in the way of their plans), but will oppose what the true Yahshua is doing, but He will "iron out" both their falsely-based unity and our differences that comes from each one wanting everyone else to bow down to his own ways. He will do this with His "rod of iron". But much of our disunity is unnecessary. Note that they were fighting Y'hoshua in particular, probably assuming that if the shepherd was struck, the sheep would scatter. But anyone who attacks Yahshua is attaching all who follow Him. Making war on the god-man "Jesus" actually upholds the true Yahshua's agenda, so do not be afraid to do so, thinking that in the process you might actually be attacking Yahshua. You are not, if your battling is based on Scriptural truth.3. When the inhabitants of Giv'on heard what Y'hoshua had done to Y'rikho and to Ay, This is an aside, showing that there was one exception to the unity seen in verses 1-2. One group of Chiwites had a different plan. Giv'on: only a few miles north of Yerushalayim, and not far south of Ay, they would be located only some twenty miles from where Israel was encamped. (v. 6) Y'hoshua did not do these feats alone, but the work accomplished by his people is credited to him. What we do also reflects on the Y'hoshua we serve (Yahshua). His enemies will hardly fear Him if we present Him as always gentle and compassionate, and never fierce as the Scripture presents Him. He was always in balance, but we have weighted Him only to one side. We must properly represent Him by doing what He did. The job of the Body is to go in the same direction as the Head, or everyone will see Him wrongly. Because pedophile priests have raped choir boys, "Jesus" has done this too. Because crusaders murdered thousands of Jews, "Jesus" did too; no wonder they avoid him! But thanks to YHWH, these evil representatives did not have His real name, so they were not representing the true Yahshua; but we do, so we have no margin for such errors. The result of our actions is meant to be that people know who YHWH is and acknowledge His authority. (Mat. 5:14-16) Note that we are to give light to those "in the house". The focus is not outside, but many lit-up houses cannot help but be a lit-up city that attracts those who need protection when the enemy is on the prowl. It did just that to Giv'on here:4. they too acted with shrewdness and, acting as if they were ambassadors , took worn-out sacks on their donkeys, wine skins that were worn through, cracked open, and tightened up, Shrewdness: with a more pejorative connotation of "cunning", "wiliness", "craftiness", or "guile"; the Aramaic targum euphemizes it to mere "wisdom". Indeed, in going straight to the camp of those who had come to kill them, they ended up in a better position than those who directly opposed Israel. Indeed, in the days to come, the only hope anyone has is to surrender to Israel.Yahshua told a parable in which He essentially said, "If only Israel were this smart." (Luqa 16:8) It was probably from this that He also drew His idiom about sending His followers out like sheep in the midst of wolves. Tightened up: that is, warped to the point of shrinking.5. worn-out and patched shoes on their feet, and worn-out clothing on themselves, and all the bread of their supply was dried-up and moldy, Moldy: or crumbling; the root word means "spotted".6. and came to Y'hoshua in the camp at Gilgal, and told him and a man of Israel, "We have come from a distant land, so now cut a covenant with us!" Apparently they returned to Gilgal after going to Mt. Eval because the terrain was much easier to camp on and the water supply was readily nearby. This became their "headquarters" throughout the campaign of conquest. (10:15) Though they were already in the Land of everyone's inheritance, there were all still encamped together. The Giv'onites knew that Israel had spared some people and were not required to kill everyone outside the Land, so they claimed to be from outside it.7. But the man of Israel said to the Chiwites, "It could be that you live right near us; how could we cut a covenant with you?" The man: possibly the entire nation acting in unity. The Chiwites: the ethnicity of the people of Giv'on.8. So they told Y'hoshua, "We are your servants." And Y'hoshua said to them, "Who are you, and where do you come from?" Now those who had been "wise as serpents" prove that they can also be "harmless as doves."9. So they told him, "Your servants have come from a land very far away for the name of YHWH your Elohim, because we have heard the report [about] Him and all that He did in Egypt, Name often connotes "reputation". They indeed saw Israel's works and gave weight to YHWH (Mat. 5:16), wanting to be under His authority as well--or at least pretended to. They just wanted to survive, and is that not how most of us initially gave lip service to YHWH--for selfish reasons? Yet He took us anyway, and now we are no longer about ourselves, but are servants of Israel.10. "and all that He did to the two kings of the Emorites who [were] across the Yarden--Sichon, king of Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, who was in Ashtaroth. 11. "So our elders and all the inhabitants of our land spoke to us, saying, "Take in your hand provisions for the journey and go to meet them, and tell them, 'We are your servants, so now cut a covenant with us.' 12. "This is our bread; we took it from our houses warm as our provision on the day we left to come to you, and now look [at it]; it is dry and has become moldy. 13. "And these wineskins that we filled up were new and, look, they have cracked open, and these clothes and sandals of ours have worn out from the great length of the journey." 14. So the men took of their provisions, and did not ask from the mouth of YHWH. This is the crux of the matter--and any matter. They put something into their mouths without consulting Him, since they may not have wanted to offend these people who offered them bread, as disgusting as it appeared.. While it is foolish to pray for direction when it has already been given in Scripture (Y'hoshua had authority to dispossess the Land, and YHWH left some of the specifics to Y'hoshua's discretion), in this case there was no precedent in Torah. YHWH had given no instruction regarding this circumstance; it was only those in the Land with whom they were required to not to make a covenant. They probably felt sorry for these people because they had something in common. They, too, had been traveling for a long time, yet they had been blessed with manna and clothing that did not wear out. They felt like for once they did not have to be the "bad guys", the aggressors, but could let these who wanted to share the bread and wine of community become part of our community. Israel is doing the same thing with the Arabs who seem to have much in common--except the worship of YHWH. Yahshua said to beware of men, to not believe all that they appear to be on the surface before we weigh their fruit.15. And Y'hoshua made peace for them and cut a covenant for them to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them. 16. But it turned out that at the end of three days after they had cut a covenant with them, they heard that they were close to them and that they were living right in their midst, 17. when the descendants of Israel had traveled and arrived at their cities on the third day. Now their cities [were] Giv'on, the K'firah, Be'eroth, and Qiryat Y'arim. Giv'on means "the big hill". K'frah means "lioness", but is related to the word for "village", possibly in contrast to Giv'on. Be'eroth means "wells". Qiryath Y'arim means "town of forests" When they arrived at the next cities they planned to attack, either they recognized something about the inhabitants that looked familiar, or the men of Giv'on were starting to get nervous when they saw Israel preparing to kill those with whom they had made an oath, and someone let the secret slip.18. But the descendants of Israel did not punish them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by YHWH the Elohim of Israel. So the whole congregation complained about the leaders. Punish: or strike down, attack, conquer. Complained: the passive or reflexive form of the word for spending the night at a lodging place. Well they should complain, because the leaders had inadvertently disobeyed an order of YHWH, and could do nothing to remedy this:19. So all the leaders said to the whole congregation, "We have sworn an oath to them by YHWH the Elohim of Israel, so now we cannot strike them. 20. "We must do this to them: that is, to let them live, so that [twig-splitting] wrath will not come upon us on account of the oath that we have sworn to them." The imagery seems to be of YHWH charging through a forest toward them like an elephant. They cannot break their oath, because they had tied YHWH's name to it. Yahshua goes further and says that those who always have YHWH's Name on us should never break an oath, but that our word should be able to in itself be able to be taken as a promise. (Mat. 5:37) We see from Yaaqov that oaths of separation can be made with those outside of Israel (Gen. 31:44-53), but the Torah does not encourage any other kind of oath toward outsiders. This put Him in a bad light, for He would not show the same mercy on the other peoples around Giv'on. He appears double-minded. Anything Israel does reflects on Him for better or worse. Psalm 15 says those who swear to their own hurt and do not change are the type of people who can ascend to YHWH's holy mountain. These people would indeed end up being a thorn in their sides, but they did take advantage of the fact that they had said they would serve them. Since they had been deceptive, they would become slaves:21. But the leaders told them, "They will survive, but they will become the ones who cut down trees and draw water for the whole congregation", as the leaders had promised them. Moshe identified "the ones who cut down trees and draw water" with sojourners among the camp of Israel--people who cannot inherit land but who do have some rights and are to be treated civilly. (Deut. 29:11--in the context of the whole congregation making a covenant with YHWH lest the wrath that came on S'dom and Ghamorah also come upon us.) Aramaic: gatherers of wood and fillers of water.22. So Y'hoshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, "Why have you misled us, saying, 'We are very far away from you', yet you are living [right] in our [very] midst? 23. "So now you are put under a curse: Not one of you will fail to be the ones who cut down trees and draw water for the household of my Elohim." Fail to: be cut off from (that is, set free from).24. And they answered Y'hoshua and said, "Since it was conspicuously announced to your servants what YHWH your Elohim had commanded Moshe His servant--to give you the whole Land and to exterminate all the inhabitants of the Land from before your faces, we greatly feared for our lives because of your presence, so we did this thing. Lives: literally, souls or inhalations of breath. Now they are honest, and let their real motivation be known.25. "So now, here we are in your hands; do as it is pleasing and proper in your eyes to do to us." 26. And he did so to them and rescued them from the hand of the descendants of Israel, so they did not kill them. 27. Thus Y'hoshua made them the ones who cut down trees and draw water for the congregation and for the altar of YHWH to this day in whatever place He might choose. These were beautiful chains, for it is better to be a slave in Israel than a king elsewhere. (Psalm 84:10) These slaves ended up being honored along with the priests and Levites, because they are the Nethinim or "donated ones" mentioned in 1 Chropn. 9:2 and throughout Ezra and Nekhemyah. We, too, indeed came in the door to save our skin, but when we become servants, our position becomes a more valuable one than we realize. Even Yahshua could not be enthroned without laying down His life; how could we imagine it would be different for us? He says the ones served are more important than those who serve. (Luqa 22:24ff) It is only that the people of Israel must be served according to their true needs, not their wants or demands, and it requires well-trained leaders to do this. CHAPTER 101. What took place when Adoni-tsedeq, king of Yerushalaim, heard that Y'hoshua had taken Ay and had dedicated it to destruction (as he had done to Y'rikho and her king, he had done to Ay and her king), and that the inhabitants of Giv'on had made peace with Israel, and were right in their midst,Yerushalaim: spelled defectively, without the second yodh, indicating that something was lacking. YHWH's Name starts with a yodh, and He had said He would set His name there, so until He did, it was incomplete, even "peace" is part of its name and if the king's name meant "my master is righteous". Made peace: Note that the way to make peace with Israel is to become its unconditional servant.2. [was that] they were very afraid, because Giv'on was a large city, as one of the dominant cities, and because she was bigger than Ay and all her men were champions. They: In verse 1, only the king is mentioned, but what affects him affects all his people. Their fear was based on Y'hoshua's reputation, though in fact Y'hoshua did not do all these things alone; it was all of Israel that did. So all of Israel is being called "Y'hoshua", because they were all under his authority. This is the precedent for the concept of the Body of the Messiah. Anything that Israel now does in His Name, for His sake, or because He commanded it is attributed to Him. This is proper as long as we remember that it was actually YHWH who empowered Y'hoshua, and the same holds true in the Renewed Covenant. Yahshua only does what He sees the Father doing, and where He sees the Father working is in the Torah (and writings such as Y'hoshua), to which we also have access. This also means that the Body of Messiah is Israel--the true Israel that does YHWH's will. For the Church to lay claim to that title is a great counterfeit, like Adoni-Tsedeq, the "king of peace" who is called righteous, but is occupying the Land but outside the context of Israel. This taking of the Land is the same story as that in the Book of Acts. Dominant: or royal. This may indicate city-states, which had other unwalled villages dependent on them, from which people came to the walled city for safety when there was danger approaching.3. So Adoni-tzedeq, king of Yerushalaim, sent to Hoham, the king of Hevron, to Pir'am, the king of Yarmuth, to Yafey'a, the king of Lakhish, and to D'vir, the king of Eglon, saying, All of these cities are in what would be the territory of the tribe of Y'hudah, south of the areas that had already been taken. Lakhish ("invincible") and Yarmuth ("the heights") were in the heart of the Sh'felah, and Eglon ("like a great calf") is closer to the coast, yet still some 12 miles inland. D'vir was just southwest of Hevron ("close friend"), which remains today. Hoham is thought to mean "whom YHWH impels". Pir'am means "one who acts wildly", but the name comes from a root meaning "to bear fruit". Yafey'a means "shining". D'vir means "inner sanctuary"; it is the same word used for the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle. All of these combinations are pictures of the "inhabitants of the land" that Israel is coming back to displace as their rightful owner. What could be wrong with the one whom YHWH impels and close friendship? Yet we must cut ties with it until it is expressed in the context of Israel, for outside this the friendship is misplaced and we "cast our pearls before swine". The one who acts wildly on the heights is a picture of charismatic worship, where one becomes so lost in how high he can soar that he forgets whom he is worshipping. The church also sees itself as invincible because it is led by the shining one. But when it is involved in battles YHWH did not assign it to, it ends up opposing His intentions and must be opposed by the One who can vanquish any man. The worst sin in the incident of the golden calf was that they called it "YHWH". When Moshe delayed in coming back, they built their own "YHWH". After all, they came out to the wilderness to worship YHWH, and it appeared as if Moshe had not provided what they needed in order to do so. And Eglon has exactly the same meaning as Italy--"calf-like". So here we see something from Italy that calls its king the "Holy of Holies". What could this be but the one in the Vatican who demands to be called "your holiness"? While Yahshua has tarried, we again built our own system and called it His. Also, even Yahshua is not the "Holy of Holies", though He has access there; YHWH is. Islam and Pharisaic (Rabbinic) Judaism also lay claim to the authority that only belongs to Yahshua within the parameters of the Torah, and they "occupy the Land" as much as the Church does. These old worship systems will attack us when we abandon them to side with Israel, so they are what Israel-in-the-right-context will need to cut down when they rise up. We have long since ousted the obvious evils; now it is the counterfeit righteousness that needs conquering.4. "Come up to me and help me, so we can attack Giv'on, because it has made peace with Y'hoshua and with the descendants of Israel!" Instead of directly attacking Israel, which they knew was futile, they attacked those who were once their own allies who now sided with Israel as its servants. The present usurpers also know they cannot stop Israel, but we can expect flak from those who would rather have our energies serving their agendas rather than the agenda YHWH has laid out in Scripture. Whatever corrupted form of religion you have left behind is what will give you trouble since you have removed your loyalty from it. In most cases they truly think they are doing the right thing, but we have YHWH's written authorization.5. So the five kings of the Emorites--the king of Yerushalaim, the king of Hevron, the king of Yarmuth, the king of Lakhish, and the king of Eglon--assembled themselves and all their camps and went up against Giv'on and fought against it. 6. Then the men of Giv'on sent to Y'hoshua at the encampment of Gilgal, saying, "Do not let your hand abandon your servants! Come up to us quickly and rescue us and help us, because all the kings of the Emorites who live in the mountainous [region] have been collected [and are coming] in our direction!" Aramaic, Do not loosen (or withdraw) your hand from your servants.7. So Y'hoshua--he and all the people of war with him--went up from Gilgal, in addition to all the heroes of the army. Went up: Gilgal means "rolling", and our later Yahshua rose from the dead when the stone was rolled away (Mat. 27:62ff), and will again rise up for war in order to rescue the servants of Israel. (Rev. 19:11-16)8. And YHWH told Y'hoshua, "Don't be afraid of them, because I have delivered them into your hands, and not a man of them will stand in your presence." 9. So Y'hoshua came toward them suddenly, having climbed all night from Gilgal, 10. and YHWH confused them before Israel and struck a great blow [against] them at Giv'on, and chased them by way of the Ascent of Beyth-Horon and beat them back as far as Azeqah and Maqqedah. 11. And what occurred as they fled from the face of Israel, while they were on the Descent of Beyth-Horon, [was that] YHWH hurled huge stones on them out of the sky all the way to Azeqah, and they died. There were more who were killed by the "hailstones" than the descendants of Israel killed with the sword. Hailstones: Large stones have been found in this area which do not at all match the rock of the surrounding terrain, and this is therefore thought to have been a meteorite shower. This--or simply large stones picked up by a great wind or magnetic force-- will seem all the more likely in light of the next major event in the battle:12. Then Y'hoshua spoke to YHWH on the day when YHWH yielded over the Emorites before the descendants of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, "Sun, stand still at Giv'on and moon in the Valley of Ayalon!" Spoke: Aramaic, sang praise. Stand still: or, tarry. The sun would have been toward his east, and the moon to his west. He was succeeding, but if he ran out of daylight and had to stop the battle before it was completely won, the Emorites might have had time to escape or regroup, so He asked YHWH to extend the day for him.13. And the sun was still, and the moon delayed until the nation took vengeance on their enemies; isn't it recorded in the Book of the Upright, "…and the sun held its position at the halfway-point of the skies, and did not insist on going [down] for about a whole day"? The timing was perfect, for according to Donald Patten (in Catastrophism and the Old Testament), Mars used to have an orbit that crossed earth's, and its year was exactly twice the length of earth's. Every 54 years, the two planets came very close to colliding, explaining many of the immense catastrophes described in Scripture. On this day, he calculates that Mars (known to the Kanaanites as Ba'al) came within 27,000 miles of earth (just over 1/7 the distance to the moon!) and caused the polar axis to shift, letting the sun appear to "stand still" for another reason. With Mars over the northern hemisphere, there would be a wobble in the earth's rotation much like that seen on a spinning top, allowinghours to be added to the day on that part of the earth's surface as it essentially stayed in the same place while the rest spun erratically due to the strong gravitational pull of this large heavenly body that was now so close. Events such as these are why Mars was connected so directly with war in many legends that may not be so far-fetched after all, only more picturesque ways of describing what science can now decipher. Soothsayers would have prognosticated this to be an especially auspicious day to go to battle, in hopes that the cataclysm would aid their side in the battle. After all, they were the ones on familiar territory! Josephus says YHWH aided with "thunderbolts"--a description of the discharges of electricity (up to hundreds of thousands of amperes) that would accompany the proximity of the two planets as they exchanged charges, killing the iron-clad soldiers with shock waves if not by frying them alive within their armor, which would attract the electricity directly to them. Two cycles (108 years) later, at the battle of Baraq, the prophetess D'vorah described such an event as "the stars by their pathways fighting against Sisera". (Judges 5:20) Another such "flyby" some 703 years (13 cycles) later, at the time of Sennakheriv's attack on Yerushalayim under Hizqiyahu (precipitating the backtracking of his sundial), was the final one, since the repelling poles threw both planets into new orbits and required nations the world over to come up with ways of adjusting the calendar from 360 to 365.24 days, and they all compensated differently. Book of the Upright: An extant Book of Yashar may or may not be the same one referred to here; several versions exist, so at least some are clearly spurious. The only added details given by the extant version about this incident are that the day was declining toward evening when Y'hoshua said this, and that the sun stood still for "36 times", though how long these units of time were is not known. (88:63, 64)14. And there has never been a day like that one before or after for YHWH to heed the voice of a man, because YHWH fought for Israel! This was not an everyday occurrence. They had to act in season. When YHWH opens doors for victory, do not hesitate or put it off. We need to be ready with a solid knowledge of the truth so we can defeat men's rebellion against the Word of YHWH whenever it may arise. Our weapons are not fleshly, that is, selfish (2 Cor. 10:4); the five smooth stones of the Torah can drop any giant.15. Then Y'hoshua, and all Israel with him, returned to the camp at Gilgal. 16. But those five kings escaped and hid themselves in a cave at Maqqedah, Compare Yeshayahu 2:19, Luqa 23:30, and Rev. 6:16. Maqqedah means "place of those who mark the flocks", i.e., brand them. Those not marked by YHWH for protection because they mourn over the misuse of His sanctuary and keep His feasts (Y'hezq'el 9) will be prey to the Counterfeit Messiah who claims to be their shepherd and wants to mark them as his own. (Rev. 13:16-17) But Yahshua had much to say about such a one. (Yochanan 10:10)17. and it was reported to Y'hoshua, saying, "The five kings have been found hidden in the cave at Maqqedah!" 18. So Y'hoshua said, "Roll big stones to the mouth of the cave, and appointed men to keep guard over them. This is exactly what was done to Yahshua's body, so this may have been a burial cave as well. They were not able to overcome these stones as He was.19. "But you, don't stand still! Chase down your enemies, and strike at their rear. Don't give them [occasion] to get into their cities, because YHWH your Elohim has handed them over to you!"
21. and all the people returned to Y'hoshua at the camp at Maqqedah in peace. No one sharpened his tongue against the descendants of Israel. It was said the not even a dog sharpened its tongues against the previous generation as they (and some of these people themselves) had left Egypt (Ex. 11:7), to let everyone know that YHWH made a distinction between Israel and Egypt. Aramaic, there was no harm for the sons of Israel, for a man to afflict himself.22. Then Y'hoshua said, "Open the mouth of the cave, and bring me out these five kings from the cave." 23. And they did so, that is, they brought out these five kings to him from the cave--the king of Yerushalaim, the king of Hevron, the king of Yarmuth, the king of Lakhish, and the king of Eglon.. This is a picture of Yahshua making war on the doctrines of men. These men had attacked those who allied themselves with Israel as servants. Yahshua says He and the set-apart messengers will judge the nations on how they treated the least of His brothers (Mat. 25:31ff)--not on how they treated disaster victims or the homeless at large, or how many dictators they overthrew; their lot will be determined by what they did for or against those who do the will of YHWH in particular (Mat. 12:50). The least are those who will be the servants of all. (Mark 9:35)24. And what took place when they brought these kings to Y'hoshua [was that] Y'hoshua called out to every man of Israel, and told the commanders of the men of war who had gone with him, and said, "Come close and set your feet on the backs of these kings' necks!" So they came close and put their feet on their necks. This was symbolic of their having been humiliated and conquered. Feet are one Hebraic way of describing the three pilgrimage festivals (Ex. 23:14), so they are one of the weapons by which we can overcome YHWH's enemies if we do not let them become tainted by men's doctrines.25. Then Y'hoshua said to them, "Don't be afraid or terrified! Be strong and [solidly] courageous, because YHWH will do like this to all your enemies whom you are battling." This promise is contingent upon our not bowing down to any of them in fear.26. And after this, Y'hoshua struck them and put them to death and hung them on five trees, and they were hanging on the trees until the evening. They were obedient to Deut. 21:22-23. Leaving them there any longer would have brought a curse on the Land. Trees: Aramaic, gallows. This is a warning to others that this is what becomes of those who oppose those who have come to YHWH for refuge.27. And what took place toward the time the sun went down [was that] Y'hoshua gave the order and they took them down from the trees, and threw them into the cave in which they had hidden, and they set large stones over the mouth of the cave up to this very day. The same idea was used to try to keep Yahshua in the grave. They may have gotten the large stones from among those that fell from the sky onto their enemies.28. And Y'hoshua captured Maqqedah that day, and he struck it and its king by the mouth of the sword, and he devoted them to destruction, along with every soul that was in it. He did not leave a survivor; thus he did to the king of Maqqedah just what he had done to the king of Y'rikho. 29. Then Y'hoshua went on, and all Israel with him, from Maqqedah to Livnah, and he fought with Livnah, Livnah means "place of whiteness", picturing the people who feel a need to present themselves as righteous. Neither of these cities had attacked Israel, but they were on the agenda to be eventually destroyed, so they might as well do so while they are in the neighborhood. They defeated the enemy that was in front of them and stood in the way of conquering Lakhish before they moved on. It seems, though, that they substituted it for Yerushalaim at this time, for this was not a city that attacked them, and the Yevusites continued to live in Yerushalaim until David's day.30. and YHWH also delivered it into the hand of Israel along with its king, and he struck her with the mouth of the sword, along with every soul in her; he did not leave a survivor in her, and he did to her king just what he had done to the king of Y'rikho. 31. Then Y'hoshua went on, and all Israel with him, from Livnah to Lakhish, and they encamped to lay siege against, and were engaged in battle therein. 32. and YHWH delivered Lakhish into the hand of Israel, and she captured it on the second day, and struck her and every soul that was in her with the mouth of the sword--just like all he had done to Livnah. On the second day: even this early, Lakhish was one of the best-fortified cities in the Land, so it took longer than it did with other cities. Still, it took Sennakheriv of Assyria much longer than this to defeat the city.33. At that time, Horam, the king of Gezer, came up to help Lakhish, and Y'hoshua attacked him and his people until he was without a survivor left to him. 34. Then Y'hoshua went on, and all Israel with him, from Lakhish to Eglon, and they encamped to lay siege against, and they were engaged in battle against it Though the king of Eglon had already been killed, the rest of his citizens had to die. While they have stopped paying homage to the pope, Protestants still keep his doctrines alive by partaking in the mass of Christ, the day of the sun, etc., and these too must be done away with.35. and captured it on that day, and attacked her and every soul that was in her with the mouth of the sword; on that day he devoted it to destruction, just like all he had done to Lakhish. 36. Then Y'hoshua went on, and all Israel with him, from Eglon to Hevron, and they were engaged in battle against it 37. and captured it, and struck it down with the mouth of the sword, along with its king and all its towns, and every soul who was in her; he did not leave a survivor--just like all he had done to Eglon--but devoted her and every soul that was in her to destruction. Wasn't the king already killed? His son would become king as soon as he died. Towns: apparently suburbs or those dependent on it in some other way.38. Then Y'hoshua and all Israel with him came back to D'vir and fought against her They backtracked only a few miles from the city that had been more important to defeat. This city may have been named after the king of Yarmuth, suggesting some political connection or miniature nation-state, though it may refer to a sanctuary of a different sort.39. and captured her and her king and all her towns, and attacked them with the mouth of the sword, and devoted every soul who was in her to destruction; he did not leave a survivor. He did to D'vir and to her king just as he had done to Hevron and as he had done to Livnah and its king. 40. Thus Y'hoshua conquered all the territory: the mountain-range, the Negev, the foothills, and the lower slopes with all their kings; he did not leave a survivor, but devoted to destruction everything that breathed, just as YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, had commanded. Lower slopes: or poured foundations; Aramaic, the channel from the heights.41. Then Y'hoshua attacked from Qadesh-Barnea as far as 'Azzah and the whole territory of Goshen and right up to Giv'on. Qadesh-Barnea: Aramaic, Rekam-Gea, described in m. Gittin 1:1-2 as the eastern border of Israel.42. And Y'hoshua captured all these kings and their territory at one time, because YHWH the Elohim of Israel was waging war for Israel. At one time: or, one stroke, one footstep. The Aramaic adds that YHWH waged war "by His Memra (living Word)".43. Then Y'hoshua and all of Israel with him returned to the camp at Gilgal. CHAPTER 111. Now what took place when Yavin, the king of Khatzor, heard [was that] he sent to Yovav, the king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Akhshaf,Khatzor is the largest tel yet discovered in Israel, and has been partially excavated. It is north of the Kinnereth (Sea of Galilee) and just southwest of Lake Huleh. It was the capital of a thirteen-city alliance. Its name means "enclosed castle", but the root word means "trumpet-shaped". Yovav means "desert-howler". Madon: the site is uncertain, but its name means "strife" or "great size/stature". Shimron means "the height for watching"; chapter 12 identifies this as being in the region of Mer'on. Akhshaf is on the northern side of Mt. Karmel, about five miles east of the harbor of modern Haifa. Its name means "I will be bewitched"!2. and to the kings who were northward from the mountain-region and in the Aravah south of Kinneroth and on the Sh'felah and on the uplift of Dor from the sea, Mountain-region: probably the central massif, whose northern border is formed by Mt. Karmel and Mt. Gilboa. The Galil is very hilly, but most of it does not qualify as truly mountainous. The Aravah: the Great Rift Valley. Sh'felah: the foothills west of the mountain-region. Kinneroth: another name for the Kinnereth, or Sea of Galil.3. the Kanaanite from the east and from the west, as well as the Emorite, the Khittite, the Prizzite, and the Y'vusite in the mountain-region, and the Chiwite below Khermon in the territory of Mitzpah. 4. They and all their armies with them went out--a great company like the sand that is on the seashore for abundance--with horses and very many chariots! As we see in the last days, a counterfeit of those YHWH promised Avraham would fill this Land is coming against those who have the true claim to the Land. When we are enough of a threat to make our enemies upset is one thing that proves we are effective.5. And all these kings assembled at a designated time, and came and camped together at the Waters of Merom to fight with Israel. All these kings: everyone that had any obligation to Yavin, though they might normally have been enemies of one another. They all join together to fight Israel--as will always be the case. Waters of Merom: between Khatzor and the Kinnereth lake. Yavin has invited them all to a battle in his own front yard!6. But YHWH told Y'hoshua, "Don't be afraid because of their presence, because tomorrow at about this time I Myself am yielding them all over, pierced, to the faces of Israel. You must hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire. YHWH brings everything against Israel so there is no other option but to run to Him; if He leaves us a choice, we tend to make Him our last resort. But He wants intimacy with His bride, and so tests their faith so it will be strengthened. If they are coming to harm you, that is the worst time to be afraid; it is time to be our strongest. They are assembling against us so they will be available for us to destroy. Things look most horrible when YHWH is about to put them under our feet. Israel is also assembled, and what can man do to us if YHWH is with us? But He is with us through our helpers. (Psalm 118:6-9) The only allies He leaves us are the rest of Israel. If anyone will fight, it has to be us. We have no hired army; we have to look to our brothers to be YHWH's agents, but the credit goes to Y'hoshua--and the One named after him. Pierced: or, slain. Hamstring their horses: make them unusable for battle, since YHWH did not want them to multiply horses to the point that they would rely on them and it would appear that we rather than He won the battle. (Deut. 17:16) The horses might have still been used for other purposes, but they went ahead and got rid of the temptation to trust them instead of YHWH.7. So Y'hoshua, and all the people of war with him, came against them by the Waters of Merom, and pounced upon them suddenly. He obeys, no questions asked. He does not even pray for protection, because he has already been promised that. He goes right to work. He refused to wait for them to attack. This would give fear time to get a foothold, and if it does, we have already lost. He sees them coming and goes after them, taking the battle to them so they are the ones on the defensive. Pounced: literally, fell.8. And YHWH yielded them into Israel's hand, and they attacked them and chased them as far as the great Tsidon and as far as the burnings of water and as far as the cleft of the lookout-tower on the east, and they destroyed them until they did not have a survivor left. He finished the job YHWH had given him, as hard as it must have been to kill women and children. There is a season for mercy, but not as long as those who are attached to a foreign elohim are still in this Land.9. And Y'hoshua did as YHWH had told him--he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire. 10. Then Y'hoshua returned at that time and captured Khatzor and he struck down its king with the sword, because beforehand Khatzor had been the head of all these dominions. 11. And they struck down every soul that was in her; with the mouth of the sword he devoted them to destruction. He did not leave alive anything that was breathing, and he burned Khatzor with fire. 12. Then Y'hoshua captured all the cities of these kings along with all their kings, and he struck them down with the mouth of the sword, and he devoted them to destruction, just as Moshe the servant of YHWH had ordered, 13. only Israel did not burn any of the cities that were standing on their mounds with the exception of Khatzor; it alone did Y'hoshua burn. Their mounds: Heb., tels, i.e., they were built atop more ancient cities, not just natural hills. They would have only breached enough of the wall to enter the city and left the rest intact for their own use, as these positions would be strategic. YHWH had promised that they would dwell in houses they did not build. (24:13) They only burned what was totally abominable--the stronghold of the pagan spirits that had ruled these parts of the Land.14. And the descendants of Israel took as spoils for themselves all the plunder of these cities as well as the animals; they only struck every human being with the mouth of the sword until they had annihilated them; they did not leave a remnant of any that breathed. Any that breathed: the term is often used of a higher soul, and therefore did not include animals, even if the Latin root word anima does mean "soul"; Hebrew takes precedence!15. Just as YHWH had ordered Moshe His servant, Moshe likewise ordered Y'hoshua, and Y'hoshua carried out the same; he left not a [single] word of anything YHWH had ordered Moshe undone. Left not a word undone: or, did not avoid or turn aside from [one] thing. This is a picture of the order of authority in which Yahshua obeyed YHWH by means of the Torah. This is the path of victory for Israel. This, not negotiations with the United Nations or ecumenical dealings with the chief rabbi, is what will get us back into the Land. 16. Thus Y'hoshua took all that territory--the mountainous [region], the whole Negev, the whole territory of Goshen, the foothills, the Aravah, the mountains of Israel and their foothills, 17. from the mountain of Khalaq that goes up to Seir all the way to Baal-Gad in the Levanon Gap below Mount Khermon. And he captured all their kings, and had them beaten and killed. Khalaq means "smooth". Seir is Esau's territory southeastward from the Dead Sea. Baal-Gad means "Master Fortune", could simply be rendered "Lord God"--two of the names of pagan elohim that we are told not to have on our lips. Baals were often represented by bulls, and fortune is indeed tied in with the "bull" market, so this bull must be sacrificed.18. And Y'hoshua had made war with all of these kings for many days. It was not a quick and easy task; it required perseverance. 19. There was not a city that made peace with the descendants of Israel except the Chiwites who inhabited Giv'on. They took everything [else] in battle, 20. because it was from with YHWH to make their hearts set on approaching the battle with Israel, in order that they might be devoted to destruction and have no recourse to consideration because the intent was that he exterminate them, as YHWH had ordered Moshe. The guilt of the Emorites was now full. (Compare Gen. 15:16) Making peace with them would only bring compromise with everything that they served. Israel has always become enslaved to those with whom they allied for the sake of security. YHWH did not even let them seek peace with Israel, but used their natural pride against them. He did not grant them repentance because they had done nothing to deserve it. (Compare Mat. 3:7-8.)21. Also at that time Y'hoshua came and cut off the Anaqim from the Mountain, from Hevron, from D'vir, from Anav, from the mountains of Yehudah, and from all the mountains of Israel; along with their cities, Y'hoshua dedicated them to destruction. The Anaqim were long-necked giants which were the main reason the previous generation had hesitated to try to take the Land. (Deut. 1:28) Now Y'hoshua, who had confidence in YHWH that they could indeed be conquered, fulfilled that hope by carrying it out at last. He worked his way up to it after attacking smaller challenges first, so his men would see the pattern of success first and not fear them. The Mountain: possibly specifying Yerushalayim.22. There were no Anaqim left in the Land of the descendants of Israel; only in 'Azzah, Gath, and Ashdod did [any] remain. 'Azzah: the infamous Gaza of today, where there are still spirits that battle against Israel. Apparently this area was not counted part of the Land of Israel, originally. Gath was indeed the city that produced another famous giant, Golyath, and his four brothers.23. Thus Y'hoshua took the entire Land in accordance with all that YHWH had said to Moshe, and Y'hoshua entrusted it to Israel as inherited property according to their tribal allotments, and the Land had rest from war. Had rest: quieted down, became tranquil, inactive, and undisturbed. Note that the time to rest did not come until all the enemies were defeated. A microcosm of this is the fact that Yom Kippur, when we battle our self-life most heavily, is right before Sukkoth, the season of greatest joy. Revelation 12:15ff tells the same story in a different way. Note that the Land can only be effectively occupied by those who guard the Torah and also have the testimony of Yahshua. It is clear from recent events that keeping Torah in itself is not enough to guarantee that the Land will be held, and Christians who do not keep Torah are not even thinking about he physical Land that is our inheritance. Both sides are necessary. CHAPTER 121. Now these are the kings of the Land whom the descendants of Israel beat and whose territory they took possession of, across the Yarden River on the sunrise [side], from the Arnon Canyon as far as Mount Khermon and all [along] the Aravah eastward:Arnon comes from a root word meaning to give a ringing cry or high-pitched shout, possibly due to its deep canyon, which would echo with such sounds. The term for canyon (or simply, river-bed, is the root word for "inheritance", related through the idea of flowing downward. Khermon means the most set-apart, and Aravah means "mixture", and is related to the term for growing darker as in the transition from daylight to night at dusk.2. Sikhon, king of the Emorites, who lived in Heshbon, ruled from Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon and within its canyon and half of Gil'ad and as far as Yabboq, the river, the border of the [territory of the] descendants of Ammon, 3. and from the Aravah as far as the sea of Kinneroth on the sunrise [side] and as far as the sea of the Aravah (the Salt Sea) eastward by way of the place of the ruins and southward beneath the lower slopes of Pisgah, Pisgah simply means "summit", but is also an alternate name for the highest ridge east of the Great Rift, which includes Mt. Nevo, where Moshe died.4. and [the area within the] border of Og, the king of Bashan, [one] of the remaining R'fa'im, who lived at Ashtaroth and at Edrei Bashan is called the Golan Heights today. R'fa'im: a race of giants.5. and reigned at Mount Khermon, in Salkhah, and in all of Bashan as far as the border of the G'shurites and the Maakhathites, and the half of Gil'ad [which was the] territory of Sikhon, king of Kheshbon. Mount Khermon is the only snowcapped peak in Israel.6. Moshe the servant of YHWH and the sons of Israel had defeated them, and Moshe the servant of YHWH gave it to the Re'uvenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Menashe as inherited property. Why does Y'hoshua recount these victories again? It is appropriate to look back, not to see what we are losing when we leave it behind, as did Lot's wife, but to recognize what ground we have already gained. Being reminded of what YHWH has done gives us additional incentive to trust Him for what remains to be conquered. He has done more than we thought possible, and His choices have been better than ours could have been. This is the territory conquered by Moshe, who symbolizes the Torah. The term for inherited property has the connotation something seized. This was territory in addition to what YHWH had originally promised. It thus correlates with what we can conquer while we are still outside the Land this time as well. As we saw in verse 1, the names of the territories conquered there symbolize the inheritance of the ringing cry or shout, being set apart from what is devoted to destruction and unto a particular purpose, and the mixing that leads us into darkness. Outside the Land, under Torah alone, we can master the "ringing cry"--methods YHWH sets forth in Scripture by which He wants to be worshipped, surrendering even those that we think would make us look foolish. We can learn the importance of being set apart unto YHWH and start by abstaining from things polluted by idols. (Acts 15:20ff) And we can bring light to the gray areas where the things of the Kingdom are mixed with the thoughts and preferences of men, and render them clearly black and white. Making distinctions between what is of the Kingdom and what is not defeats the enemy. In the gray area of dusk, a lie can look like the truth and the truth can look like a lie. Where the Torah brings clarity, lies cannot maintain a foothold.7. And these are the kings of the Land whom Y'hoshua and the sons of Israel struck down on the westward side of the Yarden, from Baal-Gad in the Levanon Gap and as far as the mountain of Khalaq which goes up to Seir, which Y'hoshua gave to the descendants of Israel as inherited property according to their tribal allotments This section speaks of what Y'hoshua conquered, and thus represents what the latter Yahshua, the Messiah, came to conquer within the Land, which on one level represents within ourselves as grains of the sand of the seed of Avraham which make up His Land. Baal-Gad means "lord/owner of fortune" which crowds in upon and attacks like a troop. This is the origin of the term "Lord God". Not only does this title warn us not to associate this name with YHWH, but also shows us that Yahshua came to conquer that, as well as what it represents--the things other than YHWH's kingdom that we trust in for security, for they make us vulnerable when they are no longer present. They are not reliable and they are not our friends, but will not only leave us wanting just when we need what they deceitfully promised us, but will also gang up on us to defeat us. We may have already found a chink in their armor, but they have not yet been brought down. If we keep our minds on what the Kingdom needs today rather than our theoretical needs for tomorrow,Yahshua can win this battle. Khalaq means to divide and scatter, but also means to share a portion and is the root word for the word "allotments" in this verse. Israel is scattered and divided due to man-made doctrines and our lack or order and proper authority structures. Where do we get the idea that everyone has a right to his own opinion? Look where that got Adam and Chavvah, and the consequences it has had for us. But with the pure, unadulterated Torah as Yahshua taught it, we can be bound back together and return to the proper allotments given to us as tribes, not as individuals. When all of Israel wants YHWH's opinion instead, we will make progress. "Which goes up to Seir" can also be translated as "the ascension of the goat". Goats, though clean animals, are separated from the sheep because though they belong to a flock, they each go off on their own and seek what they individually want. The welling up of self within us is a major enemy Yahshua came to defeat. We cannot say we are followers of Yahshua and not recognize each of these as enemies. Ask yourself at each crossroads, "Is this about myself or about all of Israel?" As we consider the territory that still needs to be conquered, we can take courage as we consider what YHWH has already done. A willing heart is important, but actually completing the conquest is what He really wants. Yahshua was willing to obey YHWH in the most difficult way (Luqa 22:41ff), but what would have been accomplished if He had not actually gone through with it? If even He could not do it without a fight, how can we expect to never suffer? The works are what makes our faith complete and proves we are righteous. (Yaaqov 2:14-26) Saying, "I intended to", but never actually clothing ourselves with the white robes of works only leaves us naked and sets us up for further judgment.8. in the mountainous [region] and the foothills, in the Aravah, on the lower slopes, in the wilderness, and in the Negev (the Chittites, Emorites, Kanaanites, Prizzites, Chiwites, and Y'vusites): 9. The king of Y'rikho, one.
10. The king of Yerushalaim, one.
11. The king of Yarmuth, one.
12. The king of Eglon, one.
13. The king of D'vir, one.
14. The king of Kharmah, one.
15. The king of Livnah, one.
16. The king of Maqqedah, one.
17. The king of Tappuakh, one.
18. The king of Afeq, one.
19. The king of Madon, one.
20. The king of Shimron-Mer'on, one.
21. The king of Ta'anakh, one.
22. The king of Qedesh, one.
23. The king of Dor, for the waves of Dor, one.
Waves: or, lofty heights, but Dor is on the seashore.24. The king of Tirtzah, one. All the kings [came to] 31. This is still short of 32, which is the numeric value of lev, which means "heart", showing that though we have made progress, we are still short of fully capturing what YHWH intends for us. CHAPTER 131. As Y'hoshua was old, coming into the days, YHWH said to him, "You have become elderly and have entered into the days, yet very much of the Land remains to be taken possession of.Into the days: an idiom for the end of his life. (Compare Qoheleth/Eccles. 12:1-7.) Remains: Since Y'hoshua is the one writing this, we can take the fact that he included this as meaning that he accepted the rebuke and confessed his failure to complete the job. Take possession of: This type of inheritance is not one in which we wait for someone else to die, then it just falls into our laps with no effort on our part. It has to be taken from our enemies, then defended because they will want it back--as we see in the Land of Israel today. We cannot expect peace, unity, or community to appear magically; faith will not simply well up within us. This inheritance must be seized from other principalities and powers. The Kingdom will come when--and not until--we stand up and fight for it. We do not take it too quickly, lest other types of threats grow faster than we can deal with them. (Deut. 7:22) But we must deliberately establish our presence in each place YHWH makes it available to us. He will turn it over to us a piece at a time if we will indeed go to war for it. We have to hear His voice as to which to go after in its proper season, but we tend to stop too long to enjoy each bit of gained ground as if there were no more to conquer. Once we feel safe from immediate threat and we are well-enough fed, we settle down and become lazy, forgetting to exercise so we can be ready when it is time to gain more ground. We must each understand our importance as part of a people. Those who stand on the sidelines while Israel is preparing herself cannot expect to go into battle when the time comes and not get hurt. Anyone who does not do his part weakens the entire army. Those who are not active in building community become dead weights that the rest need to support. YHWH is all for the defense of the genuinely weak, but the lazy He leaves open for Amaleq to devour.2. "This is the area that remains: all the districts of the Filistines and all the Geshurites, 3. "from the dark [area] that is on the face of Egypt and as far as the territory of Eqron in the north; it is considered to belong to the Kanaanites--five tyrannical rulers of the Filistines: [those] of 'Azzah, and Ashdod, Eshq'lon, Gath, and Eqron, as well as the Avim. 4. "From the south, all the land of the Kanaanites, as well as Me'arah, which belongs to the Tzidonians, as far as Afeq, all the way to the border of the Emorites, 5. "and the territory of the Givlites and the whole of Levanon, from the sunrise--from Ba'al-Gad beneath Mount Khermon as far as the Entrance of Khamath-- 6. "all the inhabitants of the mountain-range from Levanon as far as the Burning of Waters--all the Tzidonians; I Myself will cause them to be dispossessed before the descendants of Israel; just cause it to fall to Israel as inherited property, as I ordered you. Cause it to fall: to be distributed by lot.7. "So now, apportion out this land as inherited property for the nine tribes, as well as half the tribe of Menashe. 8. "With them the Re'uvenites and Gadites received their inheritance that Moshe gave them across the Yarden eastward according to that which Moshe the servant of YHWH assigned to them-- Re'uven wanted their inheritance before the rest of Israel received any, just as their ancestor had wanted what was his father's while he was still alive. It is not surprising that Qorach, who wanted Moshe's position, also came from the tribe of Re'uven.9. "from Aroer on the bank of the Arnon Canyon, and the city that is within the canyon, and the whole plateau of Meydva as far as Dibon, 10. "and all the cities of Sihon, king of the Emorites, who reigned in Heshbon as far as the border of the descendants of Ammon, 11. "as well as Gil'ad, the Geshurite and Maakhathite territory, and all of Mount Khermon, all of Bashan as far as Salkhah, Salkhah: modern Sulkhad, 56 miles (90 km.) east of the Yarden River and the southern end of the Hauran mountain range.12. "the whole dominion of Og in Bashan--(the one who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei as the last of the R'fa'im who remained when Moshe defeated and dispossessed them, 13. "though the descendants of Israel did not dispossess the Geshurite and Maakhathite, so Geshur ["joiner, bridge-builder"] and Maakhath ["she has pressured"] dwell within Israel to this day). What a sad statement! Israel did not do all that YHWH told us to do. Therefore there are enemies still present among us. In fact, the word "within" here can mean "in our midst"--the very position YHWH is meant to occupy. Until this day: This signals the fact that there is still a way in which these same enemies still remain even today. Who are they? The bridge-builders (those who join us to something other than Israel) and those who pressure us. When those coming back into Israel fail to burn our bridges, we leave the door open for our old lives to pull us back into their influence again and keep us from being what we are called to be. YHWH will rebuild the bridges when someone on the other side is ready to commit to the same standards, but until they do, it is a drain on us to leave the gates open to them. They will be able to apply pressure to us to try to serve two masters. Maakhath also means to squeeze or emasculate. Our natural families, our old ideas of what is right or wrong, old commitments will try to lay claim to us if we leave the door open to them. Until we burn our bridges and stop giving in to pressure, we cannot be who we need to be and YHWH cannot dwell where He wants to. The Land can only be a Kingdom when the King has dominion over the entire territory. We need to remedy this lack before the harvest when the wheat and tares will be judged between. His intention is that only Israel dwells in the Land. If we simply occupy rather than driving out the enemy, we will continue to need to fight them off time after time. We cannot expect purity, and cannot complain when we do not have it, if we do not do what He tells us to do. This is part of what removing the leaven at Passover symbolizes. As we partake in YHWH's appointed times, we can take more territory if we do not just go through the motions, but let them change us. This is not a fantasy land that will take itself; nothing will come naturally. It will not appear out of thin air. But neither are our weapons fleshly ones (2 Cor. 10:4) Our animal nature can accomplish nothing toward this conquest, which is one reason for animal offerings in the Temple; we are to identify them with that side of our nature, which is to be killed off within us. Instead, we bring the Kingdom closer by doing what He tells us to in the Torah for each season. The festivals are our weapons. Our base camp is the Sabbath, where we train regularly, with special exercises at each new moon. There we learn how to shoot straight and what we should shoot at, so that we are ready when it is time for battle. We must move in season, but move we must. Don't expect rest in the Land if we do not enter into the rest He has already given us on the Sabbath. It is the door; we cannot go forth to YHWH's battles unless we have camped with Israel on the Sabbath. We can ask Him to shore up our best efforts, but He will not do the part He has told us to do. We may have to force ourselves at first, but hunger for the Kingdom can replace our natural appetites as His patterns become second nature to us through much practice. We all start out with self-interest as at least part of our motives. But as a child moves from bathing only because his mother says so or because he likes to feel clean to bathing because it will have a negative effect on others if he does not, we too need to move on to keeping the Sabbath and keeping the Torah because the whole community of Israel needs us to. And this requires us to remove the connections to what is not the Kingdom.14. "Only to the tribe of Levi did he not give inherited property; the offerings made by fire [to] YHWH the Elohim of Israel are its inheritance, as he told him." This is an inheritance of a different kind. They were given an inheritance which included hard work. They were the poorest of all in Israel, dependent on the obedience of the rest of the tribes for their sustenance. Yet for this they were held in higher esteem than any other tribe. Levi means "attached", and indeed they were attached to YHWH's sanctuary in a special way. They were privileged to eat at YHWH's table; no one else could do this! 15. Now Moshe had assigned to the tribe of the descendants of Re'uven for their clans, 16. and territory came to be theirs from Aroer [destitute ruins], which is on the bank of the Arnon Canyon, as well as the city which is within the canyon, and the whole plateau above Meydva ["gliding gently over"]-- 17. Heshbon and all her cities which are on the plateau: Dibon ["wasting away"], the cultic platforms of Ba'al, and the Place of Ba'al-M'on ["Master of a Lair/refuge"], 18. as well as Yah'tzah ["downtrodden"], Qedemoth ["ancient confrontations"], and M'faath ["shining splendor"], 19. and Qiryathayim ["pair of towns"] and Sivmah ["place of fragrance"] and Tzereth-haShakhar ["splendor of the dawn"] where the deep places loom up, 20. and Beyth-p'or ["place of the cleft"] , the slopes of Pisgah, and Beyth-y'shimoth ["house of desolations"], Pe'or was also the Moavite name for Ba'al.21. both all the cities of the plateau and the whole dominion of Sikhon, king of the Emorites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moshe defeated along with the rulers of Midyan ["strife"], Ewi ["my longing"], Reqem ["variegation of colors"], Tzur ["rock"], Khur ["cave" or "white linen"], and Reba ["a fourth"], rulers installed by Sikhon, inhabitants of the land. 22. The descendants of Israel also killed Bilaam the son of Be'or, the one who practiced divination, with the sword among those they mortally wounded. They may not have even known who he was when he killed them, because he had prophesied about them from an overlook somewhat removed from them. (Num. 22-24) Though he technically obeyed YHWH and would not curse Israel directly, Bilaam (of the royal family of Edom) told the king of Moav how to weaken Israel (Rev. 2:14), and thus ended up siding with Moav, who had hired him, and thus had to perish along with those with whom he threw in his lot.23. Now the border of the descendants of Re'uven was the Yarden River, and this territory was the inheritance of the descendants of Re'uven for their families--the cities and their enclosed villages. 24. And Moshe appointed to the tribe of Gad--to the descendants of Gad--for their clans, 25. and what came to be their territory was Ya'zer ["helped"] and all the cities of Gil'ad and half of the territory of the descendants of Ammon as far as the ruin that is on the face of Rabbah, Rabbah: the capital city of the Ammonites, whose name is preserved in its modern name, Amman, the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.26. and from Heshbon as far as Ramath-Mitzpeh ["the height of the watchtower"] and Betonim ["pistachio nuts" or "bellies"] and from Makhanayim ["pair of camps"] as far as the boundary of D'vir ["sanctuary"]. 27. And in the valley, Beyth-Haram ["the lofty place"], Beyth-Nimrah ["at the house of the leopard"], Sukkoth ["temporary dwellings"], Tz'fon ["hidden treasure"]--the rest of the dominion of Sikhon, king of Heshbon, the yarden [being] its border as far as the Sea of Kinnereth across the Yarden on the east. 28. This is the inheritance of the descendants of Gad for their families--the cities and their enclosed villages.
30. and their territory [within its borders went] from Makhanayim, all of Bashan, the whole dominion of Og, the king of Bashan, and all the tent-villages of Ya'ir ["he enlightens"] which are in Bashan--sixty cities. 31. And half of Gil'ad, as well as Ashtaroth and Edrei, cities of the dominion of Og in Bashan, belonged to the descendants of Makhir, the son of Menashe--to half of the sons of Makhir for their families. Menashe got something they did not ask for, in addition to one of the largest territories in the Land of Israel proper. This would not seem fair, but YHWH considered it just. The reason so much was deeded to them is found in chapter 17. (See also Numbers 32:39, 40; Deut. 3:15.) Half of Gil'ad: probably the part north of the Yarmuq River canyon, which forms a natural boundary. Gil'ad extends up the eastern shore of the Kinnereth (Sea of Galilee) along the base of the plateau which rises east of the Great Rift Valley to constitute Bashan (known today as the Golan Heights). Makhir thus almost constitutes a fourteenth tribe. Gil'ad was the name of one of Makhir's sons. (Num. 26:29)32. These are the ones whom Moshe allowed to have an inheritance on the steppes of Moav on the other side of the Yarden [from] Y'rikho eastward. 33. But to the tribe of Levi, Moshe did not give inherited property; YHWH the Elohim of Israel is their inheritance, as he told them.
El'azar presides over the distribution of the inherited lands because he has no personal stake in how it is distributed, since he and his family will receive none of it. (v. 4) Fathers of the tribes: probably the 70 whom Moshe appointed to help share his burden. (Num. 11:16-17) They were chosen from among the elders and record-keepers--those with wisdom based on experience and those who could write the Torah and thus be most intimate with it. They were given some of the spirit that was in Moshe--the spirit of a shepherd that he had developed over 40 years of caring for Yithro's flocks. They were emplaced around the Tabernacle, where YHWH's presence dwelt, as a first line of defense to keep people from approaching YHWH in a profane way and to intercede for the people in the face of His wrath. (Num. 11:24) The elders were not chosen in democratic fashion based on popularity or even age. They were chosen from among those who had proven themselves natural leaders of each of the tribes and clans and were recognized as such. Those who did well as rulers of 10 could qualify as rulers of 50, and so on. A counterfeit of them that was self-appointed appears in Y'hezq'el (Ezekiel) 8:6ff--70 men with firepans like Qorach's companions (Numbers 16:16ff), who served things that were an abomination to YHWH and upheld everything that was against Torah. Renewed Covenant criteria for leadership as the Northern Kingdom returns include being above reproach, not being motivated by financial gain, having a record of ruling well in their places of existing jurisdiction, and being about the flock, not about themselves. (1 Tim. 3, 5; Titus 1:5ff; 1 Keyfa 5:1-4) The pattern was not a new one, but was designed to re-establish the ancient pattern. As Moshe had appointed the other leaders, elders were appointed in each congregation by those more experienced, and as directed by those still more superior to them. They are to set things in order, for creation is the triumph of order over chaos. (Genesis 1) Our flesh resists being ruled, but rebelling against the order YHWH sets in place is reintroducing chaos, which always seeks to overcome order. (Yochanan 1:5) Moshe represents the Torah, reminding us that it is those who are most learned in and faithful to the Torah who are truly qualified to be elders. The high priest best understands the rules concerning the proper order of approach to YHWH, for if we are not seeking to draw near, Israel has no reason to be a people or to have a Land or heritage. Y'hoshua represents keeping the proper order in the nation as a whole. The fathers of the tribes represent proper order in the household, which is the most basic building block of Israel. (Only the leaders of the heads appeared here.) YHWH's structure includes representatives of those responsible for order in all areas.2. Their inheritance was by lot, as YHWH had commanded Moshe for the nine tribes and half a tribe, Casting lots removes the will of men from the decision. YHWH allowed this, and the urim and thummim (Ex. 28:30) may have even been a form of lots.3. because Moshe had provided an inheritance to the two tribes and half a tribe across the Yarden. But to the Levites he did not provide any inheritance among them, 4. since of the descendants of Yoseyf there were two tribes, Menashe and Efrayim, and they did not give a share of territory to the Levites, except cities to inhabit and their open land for their livestock and their possessions. Since: This way the tribal lands could still total twelve. The youngest of Yaaqov's sons (Yoseyf's sons whom he adopted as his own) have taken the place of Re'uven and Shim'on as the "double portion" allotted to Yoseyf, who deserved the position of firstborn more than they did. (Gen. 48:5) In Yoseyf's eyes, Menashe was the firstborn, so he received a double portion of land (the "half-tribes" in vv. 2-3), but Efrayim took precedence in Yaaqov's eyes, so he also became a complete tribe in himself.5. Just as YHWH ordered Moshe is what the descendants of Israel carried out when they apportioned out the Land. If there was ever a time to change Israel's "constitution", this was it, with all the living authorities present. Moshe was dead; granted, no one can point to where his grave is, but why did they still do things his way, intead of saying, "That was then; Y'hoshua is the leader now and we'll let him decide how to do things"? Because YHWH had given instructions directly to him. Y'hoshua is a great liberator and highly respected, but he does not dare oppose what Moshe laid down as the pattern for Israel forever. We cannot "cut the garment" out of anything else, or it will turn out disastrously, and will not be Israel. We will have the wrong covering. They do not even consider doing any differently from Moshe, because they have seen the results of departing from the pattern. Yahshua does not operate any differently from His namesake; He is "a prophet like Moshe". (Deut. 18:18) He does not change the rules either, but establishes them on firmer footings.6. Then the sons of Yehudah approached Y'hoshua in Gilgal and Kalev the son of Y'funeh, the Q'nizzite, said to him, "You are aware of the promise that YHWH made to Moshe the man of Elohim in regard to me and in regard to you in Qadesh-Barnea. 7. "I [was] forty years old when Moshe the servant of YHWH sent me from Qadesh-Barnea to [search out] the Land by foot, and I brought him back word as it was with my heart. 8. "But my brothers who went up with me caused the courage of the people to dissolve away, though I had followed after YHWH my Elohim fully. 9. "So Moshe swore an oath in that day, saying, 'If the land on which your foot has trodden does not come to be an inheritance for you and for your descendants forever, since you have followed after YHWH my Elohim fully…!' If…not: the Hebrew pattern for making an oath does not always include the consequence statement, but it is understood.10. "And now, sure enough! YHWH has kept me alive, just as He said, these forty-five years since YHWH spoke this word to Moshe as Israel was walking through the wilderness, and here I am, eighty-five years old today! There were thirty-eight years of wandering in the wilderness after the spies went in and most spurned the Land (Deut. 2:14), so there have been seven years since Y'hoshua brought the people into the Land. The conquest thus far has taken that long, and now they are settling into some degree of "normalcy" in the Land. There are numerous hints that there will again be a seven-year period that ushers in the 1,000-year Messianic Kingdom before the "normal" mode of the Kingdom's order can begin. It appears that this is the seventieth "week" of Daniel 9:24ff. It should have been fulfilled right after Yahshua's resurrection, but the job was not completed at that time, so the conquest yet remains.11. "Yet I am as solid today as in the day Moshe sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now for battle--both to go out and to come in. Solid: literally "as firm of grip". As my strength: in the Hebrew text, the first letter of this phrase is twice the size as normal. The letter is a kaf, which in Hebrew also means the palm of the hand--that which one uses to grasp with a firm grip. Even more miraculous is that his belief in the promise never diminished for 45 years, though delayed so long.12. "So give me this mountain-ridge of which YHWH spoke on that day, since you heard on that day that there are Anaqim there along with large, inaccessible cities. Maybe YHWH will be with me and I can dispossess them as YHWH said!" If all of Israel had had this attitude, that yet-unconquered land seen in chapter 13 would be remedied in no time! His name is spelled like the Hebrew word for "dog" (kelev), and he could have taken his life in that direction. He saw the same threats that the other spies had seen. But another reading of his name means "like the heart" (ka-lev), and indeed he, like David, proved to be a man after YHWH's own heart. Moshe had said we could conquer the Land; that is all he needed to know. Anaqim: the giants who inhabited the Land and had struck fear in the other spies. Kalev did not look at them according to the mistrust that is in the heart of man. This was not a miracle, but a choice to see things as YHWH does, which led to a miracle. His attitude was, "If YHWH gives me what He promised, I'll take care of any giants that may remain now that Y'hoshua has conquered the city. (12:10) If YHWH is with me, it will not be a problem."13. So Y'hoshua blessed him and gave Hevron to Kalev the son of Y'funeh as inherited property. Hevron is the first major city along the mountain-ridge of which he spoke, which runs the length of the Land as far as the Yezre'el Valley. It was this route the spies followed when searching out the Land. (Num. 13:17-22) Hevron is the city with the highest altitude in Israel, and so has often been seen as symbolic of "heaven". It became David's capital for the first seven years while he reigned only over Yehudah. (1 Kings 2:11) Y'hoshua had been the leader on that excursion as well. (13:16) Hevron means "united together" or "the greatest ally". Since Kalev's heart was after YHWH, he was symbolically given friendship with YHWH as his inheritance. Though he was not originally an Israelite, he permanently attached himself to the tribe of Yehudah. (Compare Y'hoshua 13:14 above.)14. Therefore, Hevron has belonged to Kalev the son of Y'funeh, the Q'nizzite, as inherited property to this day, on account of the fact that he followed after YHWH the Elohim of Israel completely. 15. (Now, the name of Hevron had previously been "the town of Arba"--he was the greatest man among the Anaqim.) Then the Land had rest from war. Kalev accomplished his goal. (15:14) Arba means "four" in Hebrew; it suggests the common motif in which giants are not bright enough to think of names for their children, so they simply numbered them! Note that the Land only has rest when things are done in the order in which Moshe lays them out. CHAPTER 151. Now the lot to the tribe of the descendants of Yehudah for their clans was to the border of Edom; the Wilderness of Tzin in the Negev was the southern extremity,This territory is where the king of all Israel ruled from and from where He will rule again. Southern: The word means "on the right hand" in Hebrew, for in true "orientation", we face east, and the south is thus on the right hand. Today we are learning to face east again, being oriented toward the ancient ways (for "ancient" is the same word as "east" in Hebrew). On Israel's right hand, therefore, is Edom--the territory of Esau, Israel's relative, which is otherwise delineated as Mt. Seir. (Gen. 36:8) Seir means a shaggy goat, and goats by their nature are loners and individualists, though they are clean animals and live in flocks. On this count, it is not surprising that in Jewish lore, possibly through Herodos, who was half-Edomite and a puppet of Rome, Edom came to symbolize Rome, and by extension, Christianity, when it became attached to Rome. Christianity does "border" on Yehudah. They are close relatives. Both believe they have authority over Moshe's words, though both have additions to and deletions from the Torah of various sorts, and neither of them is what YHWH has called Israel to be. Yahshua, who came to bring the Torah to its fullness, said we must exceed the righteousness of the P'rushim (Mat. 5), from which the Judaism of today directly evolved. There is much profit in Judaism, as in Christianity, but there are many snares in both as well. Proof that He is the Messiah is the fact that He kept and taught the whole Torah, even when the powers in control taught otherwise. Keeping it and teaching it is the way to bring about the Kingdom that neither of these two digressions from the main oath has been able to get us to. In Scripture, destruction typically comes from the north, which in Hebrew is called "the place of hidden treasure". And indeed, Christianity is "oriented" toward the north--toward being hidden away from destruction rather than being oriented toward returning to our physical homeland in the east, from which Yahshua's physical Kingdom will emanate.2. and their southern border was from the edge of the Sea of Salt--from the tongue that turns southward, At that time, the "tongue" which is now about two-thirds of the way down the Salt (Dead) Sea, was at the southern extremity, according to the dimensions Josephus gives and the physics of how long the shallow southern end would have only begun forming in recent centuries.3. then it went out toward the Negev to the Ascent of Scorpions, then crossed over into Tzin, and went up from the Negev to Qadesh-Barnea, then went through Khetzron and up into Adar, then skirted Qarqaah, 4. went across to 'Atzmon, and proceeded out the River of Egypt, and the end of the border was at the sea. This will be your southern border. 5. And the border on the east is the Salt Sea as far as where the Yarden ends. Then the northern border is from the tongue of the sea at the end of the Yarden. 6. And the border went up [to] Beyth-Hoglah, then crossed to the north of Beyth-haAravah, and the border went up to the stone of Bohan the son of Re'uven. Stone of Bohan: similar in sound to even bokhan, the "tried stone" of Yeshayahu 28:16. But bohan means a thumb or big toe. This reminds us of the priesthood (Ex. 29:20) and may reflect an attempt by Re'uven to press for continued recognition as the firstborn, though Ya'aqov rescinded this. (Gen. 49:3ff)7. Then the border went up to D'vir from the Valley of Akhor, turning northward toward Gilgal, which is directly opposite Maaleh Adumim [the ruddy ascents] south of the riverbed. Then the border crossed over toward the waters of Eyn-Shemesh [the spring of the sun] whose source was at Eyn-Rogel (the spring of the spy]. Valley of Akhor: where Akhan was punished.8. then the border [followed] the Valley of the Son of Hinnom up to the southern slope of the Y'vusite (that is, Yerushalayim), then the border went up to the top of the mountain that is on the face of the Valley of Hinnom on the west, which is at the northern end of the Valley of the Refaim. The border bisects the Temple Mount. Contrasted with the commentary on v. 1, the Temple is on Yehudah's border as well, but this border is well within the confines of the larger border of Israel. The other portion of the Temple Mount is in Binyamin's territory, so the "son of the right hand" is on Yehudah's left hand! We are not told whether Binyamin was within the northern or southern Kingdom after the split; if it was the northern, it would give Israel as well as Yehudah a more obvious claim to be able to rebuild the Temple. Yet Yehudah took responsibility for Bimyamin9. And the border extended from the top of the mountain to the fountain of the waters of Neftoakh [opening], then went out to the cities of Mount Efron [like a fawn]. Then the border extended to Ba'alah (that is, Kiryath-Ye'arim [town of forests]). 10. Then the border went around from Ba'alah westward toward Mount Seir and went across to the northern shoulder of Mount Ye'arim (that is, Khesalon [foolish hopes]), then it went down to Beyth-Shemesh and passed Timnah. Mount Seir: apparently a different one than Esau's territory in Edom, which is southward from the Dead Sea, not westward. Khesalon is about ten miles west of Yerushalayim. Both Yehudah and Shimshon (Samson) were tempted by women at Timnah. (Gen. 38; Judges 14)11. Then the border proceeded to the north shoulder of Eqron and the territory extended to Shikkeron [drunkenness] and crossed the mountain of Ba'alah and proceeded out to Yavne'el, and the end of the boundary was the sea. 12. And the western border was the Great Sea and its coast; this is the border of the descendants of Yehudah on all sides for their clans. This chapter is about borders and boundaries--and what lies within them. In Hebrew, border and boundary are the same word--g'vul. It really means a rope, and we see the same connection today when police cordon off a crime scene or a rope defines aisles so one approaches the bank teller in an orderly fashion. We can think of a boundary as something viewed from the inside, and a border as the same line viewed from the outside. Either way, it shows us what is to remain on one side of the rope and what needs to stay on the other. While today boundaries are often thought of as a negative thing, that is not the Scriptural view. If we were on a very narrow bridge, the tighter the guard-wires are, the safer we would feel. When Yahshua speaks of "breaking" commandments in Mat. 5:19, the term actually used (in the Greek version) is luo, to loosen! Slackening the rope not only makes it dangerous; it makes the boundary unclear and someone can step off the path without realizing it. The boundary on the narrow way is the Torah and the prophets. (5:17) Whoever loosens the least command will be called the least. In contrast, Yahshua says, whoever "does" them and teaches them will be called great. The term for "do" means to construct or fashion. In other words, if we set back in place the boundaries that others have removed. That is a huge need in Israel today. Yahshua gave Keyfa the authority to bind and loose (Mat. 16:15ff), but even Yahshua Himself would not loosen any part of the Torah; this was in regard to things not specified clearly within the Torah--the "how to". Yahshua says we do not have to rely on the additions brought by the P'rushim or Tzadoqim; He established who had the authority to do so (those who had walked most closely with Him and seen Him in every context), and brought us back to simple adherence to Torah with an "easy yoke" which agrees with the Torah's own statement that it is within our reach. (Deut. 30:12) Keyfa could not loose what was not already loosed in heaven; he could not turn the king of Israel and Messiah into YHWH Himself, or change what day the Sabbath is--things the Church thought it had authority to do. He could not make exceptions to the Torah to make someone else feel better. As our children are more secure when they know their limits, and an army is more confident when it discipline itself by following orders, even though they may not always like them, staying within the limits prescribed by Torah keeps Israel out of trouble and on the right track. Once we define what is on the inside of the boundary, we automatically define what is outside--everything else. To accommodate anything outside the rope, you have to loosen it, and at that point Yahshua says you are outside as well. When we encounter a stranger (or foreign concept), we have to ask which of us crossed the border. If we stay within the bounds, we know the stranger must be the one that stepped within our borders. The only way anything that is not Israel can have any form of intimacy with Israel is to come within the boundaries placed by Torah. If we go out to meet them, then we are in their territory and must operate by their standards, which inevitably means compromise. Yahshua had said, "Do not go in the way of the Gentiles", but Paul did not hear this, and he decided to meet Gentiles on their own terms, and blurred the boundaries to this day, though he himself later clarified them again. If others come within our borders, you are responsible to uphold the standard that applies here. If they decide to follow it, they too are Iosrael; if not, they will leave. Do not run after them to brig them back, because then you are no longer at home. You do no one a favor by blurring the boundaries. Our inheritance lies within these borders. If there is something you "need" which is outside them, it is an idol.13. He also gave a share among the sons of Yehudah to Kalev the son of Y'funeh, at the mouth of YHWH to Y'hoshua--the city of Arba, father of Anaq (that is, Hevron). 14. And Kalev dispossessed three of the sons of Anaq: Sheshai, Akhiman, and Thalmai, the progeny of Anaq. 15. And he went up from there to the inhabitants of D'vir [sanctuary]. (Now the name of D'vir had previously been Kiryath-Sefer [town of a scroll].) 16. And Kalev said, "Whoever attacks the Kiryath-Sefer and takes it, I will give my daughter Akhsah as a wife." This appears to be a flashback to 10:36ff, adding details that were not mentioned there, because of what was brought out in chapter 14, rather than a re-conquest of the same town. Kalev cl;early had a great deal of discretion over who else owned the land in this region. He had authority to "bind and loose" in his realm of jurisdiction.17. So Othni'el the descendant of Qenaz [hunter], Kalev's kinsman, captured it, so he gave him Akhsah, his daughter, as a wife. Qenaz: the ancestor of the Qenizzites, of which Kalev was one. Qenaz was the youngest son of Esau's firstborn, Elifaz.. (Gen. 36:11, 42) He was one of the leaders of the Edomites. It is not clear when Kalev joined the tribe of Yehudah (though it could not have been much later than the time of the Exodus) or whether his other family members came along with him at that time or later.18. But what took place is that, as she came, she persuaded him to request a field from her father. As she was getting down from her donkey, Kalev said to her, "What [is it] for you?" She made the request herself, but not without her husband's consent.19. So she said, "Give me a blessing, because you have given me land [in] the Negev, so give me [flowing] springs of water!" So he gave her the upper and lower springs.
21. And the cities from the extremity of the tribe of the Yehudah to the border of Edom in the Negev [were]: Qabtze'el [Elohim gathers], Eder [flock], and Yagur [he sojourns], 22. Qinah [lamentation], Dimonah [silent river bed], and 'Ad'adah [boundary, festival gathering], 23. Qedesh [holy place], Khatzor [enclosed settlement], and Yithnan [hire], 24. Zif [battlement], Telem [oppression], and B'Aloth [mistresses], 25. Khatzor Khadathah [new castle], Q'rioth [towns], and Khetzron [surrounded by a wall]--it is an enclosed settlement-- Khadathah is the Aramaic form of khadashah (new or renewed).26. Amam [their mother], Shema' [hearken!], and Moladah [native race], 27. Khatzar-Gaddah [castle of the goddess of fortune], Heshmon [rich soil], and Beyth-Palet [house of a fugitive], 28. Khatzar-Shual [castle of a fox], Be'er-Sheva' [well of the oath], and Bizyothyah [places despised by YHWH], 29. Ba'alah [mistress], 'Iyim [ruins], and 'Atzem [bone, selfsame], 30. Eltholad [Elohim has brought forth], Kh'sil [stupid], and Hormah [devotion], 31. Tziqlag [winding], Madmannah [dunghill], and Sansannah [palm branch], 32. Leva'oth [lionesses], Shilkhim [things shot forth], Ayin [eye/fountain], and Rimmon [pomegranate]. The total of the cities is twenty-nine, along with their enclosed settlements. Enclosed settlements: or "villages". Many of the ancient settlements mentioned here have been unearthed by archaeologists.33. In the Sh'felah [foothills]: Eshtha'ol [entreaty], Tzor'ah [hornet], and Ashnah [I will cause change], 34. Zanoakh [castoff], Eyn-Gannim [fountain of the gardens], Tappuakh [apple], and 'Eynam [pair of springs], 35. Yarmuth [uplifted], 'Adullam [justice of the people], Sokhoh [hedged], and 'Azeqah [dug over], 36. Shaarayim [pair of gates], 'Adithayim [pair of ornaments], Hagderah [the wall], and G'derothayim [pair of walls]--fourteen cities, along with their enclosed settlements; 37. Tz'nan [pointed], Khadashah [new/renewed], and Migdal-Gad [tower of the god of fortune], 38. Dil'an [gourd], Mitzpeh [watchtower], and Yoqthe'el [obeying Elohim blamelessly], 39. Lakhish [invincible], Botzqath [rocky height], and 'Eglon [great calf], 40. Kabbon [builder who heaps up], Lakhmam [their provisions], and Kithlish [wall of a man], 41. G'deroth Beyth-dagon [walls of the house of the great fish-god], Naamah [lovely], and Maqqedah [place of speckled sheep]--sixteen cities, along with their enclosed settlements; 42. Livnah [pavement], Ether [plentiful], and 'Ashan [smoke], 43. Yifthakh [he opens], Ashnah [storage], and N'tziv [garrison-post], 44. Qe'ilah [enclosed fortress], Akhziv [deceit], and Mare'shah [crest of a hill]--nine cities, along with their enclosed settlements; 45. 'Eqron [uprooted] with her daughters and her enclosed settlements, 'Eqron may have been so named because the Filistines, which had inhabited it, had to move their complete culture away from a Mediterranean island when they settled on the coast of Kanaan. Daughters: suburbs dependent on the "metropolis"--mother-city. A substantial portion of 'Eqron has been found outside the fortified part of the city.46. from 'Eqron and at the sea, all that were near Ashdod [violent despoiler] and their enclosed settlements, 47. Ashdod, her daughters and enclosed settlements, 'Azzah [fierce], her daughters and enclosed settlements, as far as the riverbed of Egypt, the Great Sea, and [the] border. 48. In the mountains, Shamir [thorn], Yathir [overflowing], and Sokhoh [bushy], 49. Dannah [judgment], Kiryath-Sannah [town of the pointed bough] (that is, D'vir), 50. 'Anav [grape], Eshtemoth [I will make myself heard], and 'Anim [springs], 51. Goshen [drawing near], Kholon [whirling sand], and Giloh [laid bare/exile]--eleven cities, along with their enclosed settlements; 52. Arav [ambush], Dumah [silence], and Esh'an [support to lean on], 53. Yanum [he sleeps], Beyth-Tappuakh [house of the apple], and Afeqah [strong enclosure], 54. Khumtah [place of lizards], Qiryath-Arba' (that is, Hevron), and Tzior [small and insignificant]--nine cities, along with their enclosed settlements; 55. Maon [refuge], Karmel [orchard], Tzif [battlement], and Yutah [stretched out], 56. Yezre'el [Elohim will sow], Yoqde'am [kindling of a people], and Zanoakh [cast off], 57. the Qayin [possession], Giv'ah [hill], and Timnah [assigned portion]--ten cities, along with their enclosed settlements; 58. Khalkhul [trembling], Beyth-Tzur [house of a rock], and G'dor [closed off], 59. Maarath [bare place], Beyth-'Anoth [house of answers], and Elthqon [Elohim sets back in order]--six cities, along with their enclosed settlements; 60. Qiryath-Baal (which is Qiryath-Ye'arim) and Rabbah [great one]--two cities, along with their enclosed settlements. 61. In the wilderness: Beyth-haAravah [house of the willow], Middin [measures], and Sakhakhah [thicket], The wilderness of Yehudah is south of Yerushalayim and west of the Dead Sea.62. haNivshan [the soft soil], Ir-haMelakh [city of salt], Eyn-gedi [spring of the young goat]--six cities, along with their enclosed settlements. 112 cities were thus allotted to Yehudah altogether.63. Now as for the Y'vusites, the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, the sons of Yehudah could not dispossess them, so the Y'vusites dwell along with the descendants of Yehudah in Yerushalayim to this day. David would finally be the one to conquer them. CHAPTER 161. And the lot for the sons of Yoseyf went out from the Yarden of Y'rikho to the waters of Y'rikho on the east, the wilderness that goes up from Y'rikho to the mountain of Beyth-El.Where the lots fell showed what had already been bound in heaven (cf. Mat.16:19), so the earthly "bounds" followed suit. Note that the ancient pattern is that the House of Yoseyf must receive an inheritance in the Land. This is Torah. We do not need to become Yehudah in order to do so, nor do we need Yehudah's permission, for we already have YHWH's, in writing--right here--so there is nothing they can say to deny it, though the one who redeemed our inheritance and gave us the right to come back, and will be our king there, is indeed from the tribe of Yehudah.2. Then it went from Beyth-El [house of Elohim] to Luz [almond tree] and went over to the border of the Arkites--Ataroth [crowns]. Gen. 28:19 says Beyth-El used to be named Luz. There may have been a short distance between the original city and the rebuilt one, between which the border "jogged" over slightly.3. Then it went down on the west toward the border of the Yafletites ["he will deliver"] as far as the lowest limit of Beyth-Horon [house of the great bore-hole], then as far as Gezer [a portion], then its issuing-out was at the Sea. Issuing out: using the imagery of a river as it ends at the sea. Beyth-Horon is a very steep incline down the western side of the mountain range, but the easiest pass by which to cross the mountains toward Yerushalayim. At the sea: or, on the west, as Gezer is still about 14 miles inland.4. Thus the sons of Yoseyf--Menashe and Efrayim--received inherited property. 5. The territory belonging to the descendants of Efrayim came to be for their clans. The border of their inherited property on the sunrise [side was from] Ataroth-Addar [crowns of glory] as far as Upper Beyth-Horon. 6. Then the border went out on the west, the Mikhmathath [hiding place] from the north, then the border circled to the east of Taanath-shiloh [the approach to him to whom it belongs] and crossed it from the sunrise [side] at Yanokhah [where he rests]. 7. And it went down from Yanokhah [to] Ataroth, and at Naarath [maiden], it touched Y'rikho and went out the Yarden. 8. From Tappuakh [apple] went westward [via] the Qanah River, and their issuings-out were at the Sea. This is the inherited property of the tribe of the descendants of Efrayim for their clans. 9. And the distinct cities of the descendants of Efrayim are in the midst of the inherited property of the descendants of Menashe, all the cities and their enclosed settlements. 10. But they did not dispossess the Kanaanite [merchant] who lived at Gezer, so the Kanaanite lives at the approach [to] Efrayim to this day and has become a forced-labor gang. At the approach: or, on the inside. Gezer means "portion", and this portion belonged to Efrayim (whose name means "doubly fruitful"). The precedent of Giv'on may have led the Efrayimites to think it was not a problem to allow the Gezerites to remain among them. After all, it is acceptable for Israelites to own slaves if they are treated well according to Torah. But YHWH had told them specifically to destroy the Kanaanites completely if they lived within the borders He laid out. (Ex. 23:27ff; Num. 33:51ff) It could be done little by little (Deut. 7:22), but it always had to be the plan, because these people would become a snare. Coexistence was not an option, and YHWH even said that if we failed to drive them out, He would do to us what He intended to do to them--sending fear, confusion, and things that sting us. (We do see a parallel in what is taking place in the Land of Israel today.) Why was it so important to remove the Kanaanites? It goes all the way back to an incident about a thousand years earlier in which Noakh was drunk, and awoke to realize that Kanaan, his grandson through Kham, had violated him, while his other two sons had acted honorably. He thus spoke a curse upon Kanaan and a blessing on Shem and Yefeth. (Gen. 9) Kham's claim to fame in YHWH's eyes was being Kanaan's father. (9:18) He is not even the eldest son, but is the focus of the Hamitic line from that point on in Scripture (other than Egypt, briefly). YHWH looks back at whose seed they are. YHWH is called the Elohim of Shem, and Yefeth's blessing is that he would be inhabit the tents of Shem. This is an idiom for being taught by Shem. (Yaaqov is called a dweller in tents in Gen. 25:27, and these plural tents were the tents of Shem.) This was necessary because the other part of Shem's blessing was that he would be "enlarged". But this term really means "made wide open", and is used elsewhere in Scripture with the connotation of being deceived (Deut. 11:16; 2 Shmu'el 3:25), enticed (Judges 14:15), persuaded in a negative direction (2 Chron. 18:19), and flattered. (Psalm 78:36) The Hebrew term used here is actually a play on words, because it is also the root for Yefeth's name. Shem had a clear inclination toward the ways of YHWH, and Kanaan had a clear tendency away from it, but Yefeth had the proclivity to be open-minded and thus wide open to being led astray. Noakh means "rest", and Shem, the firstborn, received a double portion of this rest. Under Shem's leadership, he would learn to do the right thing, but if influenced by Kanaan, he would be led to follow his belly. Noakh apparently knew Kanaan's tendencies to indulge his flesh, so he gave him a curse that was actually a blessing--that he would serve Shem and Yefeth. Whoever desires to be first needs to be come a slave. (Mat. 20:25ff) By doing so he could at least be useful toward a worthwhile cause, and there was hope that he might learn from Yefeth to become teachable, then learn what Shem had to teach. Men are to walk uprightly, but animals walk with their bellies parallel to the ground. We are not to eat the animals that creep on the ground (Lev. 11:42), because we are not meant to be like them. Kanaan means "to bend the knee", and so suggests getting down on all fours like this. What we hunger for determines how we walk. Kanaan wanted pleasure at any cost, and thus was turned over to his animal nature. The serpent's punishment was that he would take this to the extreme--be on its belly at all times (Gen. 3:14), since that was the direction it wanted to take humanity. The reason Kanaan had to be thoroughly removed from the Holy Land was because that Land is a picture of the Kingdom, when there will be no Kanaanite there. (Zkh. 14:21) Kanaanite here is an idiom for a merchandiser or trafficker. In the figurative sense, even up to our day, the Kanaanite lives on within Efrayim (the whole Northern Kingdom of Israel), though this is not something that will be acceptable in YHWH's household in the Kingdom. Thus it is not acceptable to have them in this particular Land, even as servants. The animal nature is not to occupy the Land where the Kingdom will be established. Outside the Land, some learning might be possible, but no "belly-crawlers" are to be within. Our job is to oust Kanaan, not only in the form of the lying religions that can lead us astray, but also on the personal level. Gen. 5:32 suggests that Shem, Kham, and Yefeth were triplets, all born when Noakh was 500 years old. So they represent three sides of Noah, who is the ancestor of us all--the teacher, the teachable, and the worldly. Each of us has these three within us. If we want to be the greatest (like Shem) in the Kingdom, we must enslave Kanaan now by serving one another. In whatever area we keep back for self instead of allowing ourselves to be taught the better way is where Kanaan still dwells with us. By the end of the Kingdom, whatever is Kanaan will be done away with. (Rev. 20:12) The question is, will we go with him? If we let him have free rein, we too will be cast out of the Kingdom. Instead, we should turn Kanaan into Yefeth. YHWH gave us tzitziyoth to remind us not to follow after our heart or eyes, after which we tend to stray, but to follow the Torah, which means "teaching". (Num. 15:38-39) Kosher animals have four stomachs rather than one. This is a picture of community, wherein we serve not only our own bellies but those of our neighbors, thus turning over our appetites to community instead of self. When Israel is in unity, it is called Yeshurun--the upright one. Gorillas walk on their knuckles when in the wild, but when around humans, they begin to imitate men and walk on two legs. By becoming teachable like Yefeth we can go through a genuine evolution toward the upright position of Shem, and be qualified to then be a light to the nations as well, as a whole "kingdom of priests". CHAPTER 171. Then came the lot for Menashe, because he was the firstborn of Yoseyf--to Makhir the firstborn of Menashe, father of Gil'ad, since he had been a man of war, so Gil'ad and Bashan became his.Firstborn: He was out of the womb and into the challenges before the rest, and thus is fighting longer than the rest, but for this reason he is given land he did not even seek. The Hebrew word also means "firstfruits", so the same applies to us today as among the first to recognize that we are Israel and not actually Gentiles. We have to take the first steps toward the Kingdom whose vision has been restored to us, and there is no one from the generation immediately before us who has already blazed a trail; we have to do it. Father of Gil'ad: It is very unusual to identify someone by whom his son is. We see Kham called Kanaan's father in Gen. 9:18, because of Kanaan's infamy. A tree is known by its fruit. Here it works the opposite way. A man whose children are great is counted as great. Makhir himself was long dead, but he is credited with the actions of his descendants. He was given this land because he was willing to fight, and the other two tribes east of the Yarden who were most interested in the comfort of their cattle needed someone like this to protect them and keep enemies away. So YHWH gave him this land, since he could be what they needed. But he still had to drive out some very strong nations to get it. The only men in Israel that are called "man of war" (a title given to YHWH in Ex. 15:3) are Makhir (here) and David (1 Chron. 28:3), another man who was willing to pay the full price for what he knew needed to be done for the benefit of all of Israel. (1 Chron. 21:24) He had learned this because he was told to build an alter on a place that was not his own in order to stop a plague that came because he wanted to count the people he did not actually own, since he had not purchased them; YHWH had, and they were His. David realized that what cost him nothing would be worth nothing to him. YHWH does speak in Yeshayahu (Isa.) 45:13 of returning His captives "for no price or reward", but the very next verse shows that there will be a reward for His people. It is a question of motivation. If we act righteously for the sake of reward, there will be none, but if we do it because it is the right thing to do and is what needs to be done, there will be an unexpected reward. (Compare Luqa 14:8-11.) We have to identify our motives. Is the Kingdom worth laying down our lives for, even if we do not receive a reward, just because it is the highest road? Is YHWH worth it, even if He keeps raising the standard and expecting more of us as we advance in what He has give us? The more treasure He gives us, the more return He anticipates on His investment. He will not give the Kingdom to those who will waste it and make conditions even worse than they are now. The King will not come until there are people fit to inhabit and administer His Kingdom. Yeshua says to count the cost of being His disciple. (Luqa 14:25ff) He says to determine in advance if we have what it takes to build a tower before we begin, or we will be mocked for not being able to finish. Be sure you can finish what you start. Don't fight a battle you know you can't win. Logic would say we should put the work of the world first so we can acquire the wealth or manpower to build a Kingdom, but Yeshua puts in the opposite order. We have to consider whether the Kingdom will benefit from our building this tower or fighting this war. In ancient Israel, usually if someone wanted to build a tower it was for the sake of being better able to watch over his flocks and see predators or thieves coming long before they arrived. Paul echoes this in 1 Tim. 3:1-10, giving us a list of what it will cost to be an overseer of YHWH's flock. If we put our resources somewhere else, we will not have enough left to build the tower or fight the battle. If we are about our own business, we will not be able to acquire the skills for what He wants done. Yeshua says if we do not "hate" the rivals, our natural loves (our closest relatives and even our own life)--which simply means we give priority to them--we cannot be His student. That is the cost we have to count. The Kingdom is a pearl of great price, a hidden treasure that we have to sell everything else to be able to "afford". (Mat. 13:44-46) And this ties us back in to Makhir, for his name means "price", from a root word meaning "to sell". He was the one willing to sell all he had; he was willing to pay the price, so he inherited. The Kingdom belongs to the one willing to sell all he has so he can buy what is more valuable. Are you?2. And there was a lot for the rest of the descendants of Menashe, for their families--for the sons of Avi-ezer, for the sons of Kheleq, for the sons of Asri'el, for the sons of Sh'khem, for the sons of Khefer, and for the sons of Shmida; these were the male descendants of Menashe, the son of Yoseyf, by their clans. Male: or, remembered--which is an interesting twist in relation specifically to Menashe, whose name means "causing to forget"! (The reason behind why he was named this is in Gen.41:51.)3. But Ts'lafchad, the son of Khefer, the son of Gil'ad, the son of Makhir, the son of Menashe, had no sons, but only daughters, and these are the names of his daughters: Makhlah, Noah, Khoglah, Milkah, and Tirtzah. This tells us that Khefer was not a direct son of Menashe, but the third generation after him. If we compare Gen. 50:23, it appears that Makhir was the only male child of Menashe, and in Numbers 26:29ff it appears that all of the others mentioned in verse 2 are actually sons of Gil'ad. How the land was divided between them is thus unclear.4. So they approached the presence of El'azar the priest and Y'hoshua the son of Nun and the leaders, to say, "YHWH ordered Moshe to give us inherited property among our brothers, and he gave them, to the mouth of YHWH, inherited property among their father's brothers." He gave them to the mouth of YHWH: probably an idiom for "he swore before YHWH".5. So ten regions fell to Menashe, let alone that from the land of Gil'ad and Bashan, which were on the Yarden's other side, 6. because the daughters of Menashe had inherited property among his sons, while the land of Gil'ad belonged to the rest of the sons of Menashe. Apparently Khefer, mentioned in verse 2, fell under Makhir's inheritance, so that the number of heirs west of the Yarden could come to ten, since six sons and five daughters are actually mentioned here aside from Makhir.7. And Menashe's territory was from Asher to Mikhmathah, which is on the face of Sh'khem. Asher: apparently a town east of Sh'khem on the Yarden River rather than the tribal lands of Asher, which also border on Menashe's, but on the north.8. Then the border went southward toward the inhabitants of Eyn-Tappuakh [spring of the apple]. The land of Tappuakh belonged to Menashe, but Tappuakh, up against the border of Menashe, belonged to the sons of Efrayim. Southward: literally, toward the right hand.9. Then the border went down to the Qanah River-valley. South of the brook, these cities belonged to Efrayim among the cities of Menashe, and the territory of Menashe was northward from the river-valley, and its issuings-out were at the sea. 10. Southward it was Efrayim's and northward it was Menashe's, and the sea became its boundary, and they reached as far as Asher on the north and Issakhar on the east. 11. Now Menashe had within Issakhar and Asher Beth-She'an and its suburbs, Yivleam and its suburbs, the inhabitants of Dor amd its suburbs, the inhabitants of Eyn-Dor and its suburbs, the inhabitants of Taanakh and its suburbs, the inhabitants of Megiddo and its suburbs--the regions are three. Suburbs: literally, daughters. Regions: or, heights.12. But the descendants of Menashe had not been able to dispossess these cities, and the Kanaanite was determined to remain in that area. 13. What did take place is that when the descendants of Israel had a firmer hold, they set the Kanaanites to forced labor, but they did not truly dispossess them. Like Efrayim and Yehudah, they let the Kanaanite have their way to some extent--a picture of compromising with the flesh, trying to allow the animal nature to serve us rather than driving it out altogether. This keeps us from fully inheiting the Kingdom. "Kanaanite" also means a merchant--the wrong kind of "seller" to be in the Land where the pearl of great price lies, for it is a rival to Makhir. (See note on v. 1.) 14. Then the descendants of Yoseyf told Y'hoshua, "Why have you given me inherited property of one lot and one measured [portion] when I am a great people insofar as YHWH has blessed me thus far?" Great: emphasizing its size. Verse 5 said there were actually over ten lots, but since they were all attached to one another, they were counted as one piece of land. Similarly, this whole tribe (actually two tribes together) are speaking as one man, in unity. They all have the same "lot". As we approach Yeshua, our Y'hoshua, for what we need, we must come with the interests of the whole of Israel in the forefront of our minds.15. So Y'hoshua said to them, "If you are [such] a great people, then go up for yourself into the forest and cut [it] down for yourself there in the land of the Prizzites and the R'fa'im, since the hill-country of Efrayim is too confining for you." Cut it down: or carve out, from the same word as create or constitute in Gen. 1:1. I.e., make more land for yourself.16. But the descendants of Yoseyf said, "The hill-country will not be found [adequate] for us, and every Kanaanite who lives on the lowland belonging to those of Beyth-She'an and its daughters and belonging to those of the Yezre'el Valley [has] a chariot of iron!" For them, every solution constitutes another problem! They really just recognize that in order to cut the forest down, they will no longer be able to escape the notice of the Kanaanites, they let it slip out that they really are fearful of what looks too big for them. The enemy has chariots, and they do not even have horses; how can this ever work? They are counting the cost, but are selling themselves--and YHWH--short. No one alive then would say Y'hoshua couldn't do the job. But that was the problem. They were trying to get him to do the work that was now their responsibility, since it was their land. But we do exactly the same thing with our "Y'hoshua". The lie of Christianity is that "Jesus will fight every battle for us." Yet He said we would do greater things than He. Yeshua made a way for us to win the battles. He set us up with all the supplies we need in order to fight them. But if we do not want to fight, what can He do but send us back to Egypt--or even the wilderness. The Hebrew word for "wilderness" means "place of [the] Word". But if we did not respond to His Word the first time, why should He expect us to do so the second time? Do we expect to find something different there this time? He will not change it; stop going back to it, and get on with stepping up to the challenge of fighting for the whole community.17. But Y'hoshua spoke to the House of Yoseyf--to Efrayim and to Menashe--to say, "You are a great people and you [do] have great strength; you will not have [just] one lot, A great people: Thus Yaaqov's prophecy regarding Menashe (Gen. 48:19) was beginning to come to pass.18. "because the hill-country will become yours since it is a forest, and you can cut it down, so its outer extremities can be yours, because you can dispossess the Kanaanite, though it has iron chariots and though it has a firm hold." They could not see the land for the trees! But there was actually already plenty of room for many people there; the problem was that the specifics of their inheritance listed in v. 11 were fortified cities. They all wanted to live in the places already built for them, where the cisterns were already dug and storehouses already stood. They did not want to do the work. We, too, have grown so used to "grace" that now that the rent is due, we think we should not have to pay it, because we have never done it that way before.
Now Shiloh, rather than Gilgal, became "headquarters". Not much is made of the fact that they left Gilgal, though many important events would yet take place there. Congregation: based on the root word, witness. Only when all of Israel is concentrated like this can YHWH's presence among us be appreciated and experienced in its fullness. Tent of Appointment: This is the first time it is mentioned in Y'hoshua, though it was probably set up at Gilgal, since they encamped there for so long. Recall that it was built of materials plundered from Egypt so that YHWH might dwell in the midst--the very heart--of Israel. Set in place: literally, made to dwell, with a sense of permanence, as a different word is in used in Hebrew for merely staying somewhere overnight or short-term. Archaeology has revealed the fact that although the same Tent of Appointment continued to be used, the wooden pieces that supported the outer curtain, which were so convenient for frequent setup and take-down, were probably replaced by a permanent wall, for a stone wall that was exactly the dimensions given for the outer courtyard has been found at Shiloh. (Click here for more information and photos.) Indeed, the Tabernacle would remain here for some 400 years, until David moved it to the Threshing Floor of Arauna just north of Yerushalayim. Shiloh is in the heart of Efrayim's territory, and its name means "rest" or "at ease". It is a picture of the rest that will come in a fuller sense when Messiah reigns. (Gen. 49:10) Brought into subservience: This was the condition for which Reuven and Gad had been told to wait before they could settle onto their land outside the Holy Land proper, so they had thus fulfilled their debt and were free to go live there. (See note on v. 7.) It was not possible to have such a permanent site the major players had been set in place, and indeed they had, for the most part, subjugated the land, for those Kanaanites who remained were, for the present, fearful of the Israelites and did not dare to attack them. But the word for "brought into subservience" has a double meaning, for it can also mean "disregarded". They had partially subdued the land, but did not consider the rest of it to be so important. After all, the large tribes were settled, the borders were secured, and the rest of the tribes had a safe and roomy place to camp. But there were still things that disgusted YHWH throughout the Land that He wanted clean. Unlike Ts'lafkhad's daughters, the other tribes had not thought it worth the trouble to press for their own inheritance:2. Yet there remained some among the descendants of Israel seven tribes which had not been assigned their portion of [the] inheritance. Seven: the number of completion. Though they were twelve (actually thirteen) tribes in all, the kingdom was not complete and YHWH could not fully dwell within their midst until everything that defiled the land was removed. None of Israel had its full inheritance until these tribes did what the larger, stronger, and more ambitious ones had done. Again today, Israel is dependent on those who have done nothing thus far rising up to do their part. Until they take the initiative to take their place, Israel is still lacking.3. So Y'hoshua said to the descendants of Israel, "How long will you show yourselves [to be] slack about going in to take possession of the Land that YHWH, Elohim of your ancestors, has given you? I.e., at what point will you stop relaxing, get up, and finish taking the Land? How long do you think you can get away with not doing what you know you need to do? Yes, they are at a place of "rest" (Shiloh), but there is sometimes a fine line between resting and being slack. They have mistaken a refreshing pause for tranquility, just as Christianity has used trust in YHWH as an excuse to be lazy and neglect the Torah. Having a map does not mean we have arrived at our goal. It is not enough to be a knowledgeable observer; we must also join the work. Seeing it done and doing our part are two entirely different things.. They have indeed been witnesses of what YHWH did for the tribes that have already done their duty, and to be sure they have helped them accomplish this, but they have not fought the necessary battles to enter into their own inheritance. Part of Israel still has foreigners living in it, which means the settled tribes still have pagan neighbors. This is another reason they need to take their own land, beside the fact that they were still living on the land that belonged to Efrayim, essentially as freeloaders. Those who have blazed the trail cannot support the whole nation forever. As a foreshadowing, these tribes are trusting in the work of Y'hoshua, but not doing their own works. Y'hoshua therefore says what Paul would later say: "You should all be teachers by now!" It is noteworthy that there are seven congregations in the book of Revelation to which Yeshua gives the command to overcome. It may be that these tribes are the ancestors of those who today are still Christian, thinking they have already received a possession, rather than taking their full and proper place as Israel. Those who do not work do not get paid. Resting on what Yeshua has done is only part of the story; He also told us to do what He did.4. "Provide from [among] yourselves three men per tribe, and I will send them, and they will get up and walk throughout the Land and map it out according to the mouth of their possessions, then come to me. The mouth: i.e., how much each tribe needs. Map it out: literally, describe it in writing.5. "Then they will divide it out into seven shares. Yehudah will stay on its [bounded] territory from the south, and Yoseyf will stay on its [bounded] territory from the north. Yehudah and Yoseyf have received the lion's share of the territory because they fought first and hardest. They deserve it. They have very special positions in Israel as the royal tribe and the tribe that received the double portion of the firstborn. Both are pictures of the Messiah, but like them, He will not do all the work for us. That is the lie that has infiltrated Christianity. It is important to be witnesses of Him; He, like these tribes, has shown us how to do it, demonstrated what it takes to do the job (dying to self), and given us proof that it can be done, so that we can take heart. But until we do our part, the Kingdom cannot come. There are (at least) two aspects to the statement that Yehudah and Yoseyf "will stay": first, no one else has a right to eye their territory, because they will not get any of it (though some of Yehudah's would indeed be apportioned to Shim'on for a different reason). But second, these tribes would stay put while the remaining seven went to conquer the rest, for it was their turn to shoulder the responsibility. It was not enough to be knowledgeable observers or attached to those who were warriors; they had to become mature themselves and spread the burden out among as many as possible so none were overworked while others were only weighing them down.6. "Then you must draw out the Land in seven portions, and bring it to me here, and I will pour out lots for it here in the presence of YHWH our Elohim, This shows tremendous wisdom, for none of the "teams" of three would know which area would be apportioned to their tribe. Each "surveying team" would independently draw out what appeared to be equitable boundaries based on natural borders, the land's value for grazing, natural resources, etc. They would make sure each section had advantages, whether that meant in size of area or intensity of resources, because they might be choosing this part for themselves, and they might turn out to be choosing it for their brothers. In other words, they would not do to others what they would find discomforting to themselves (as both Hillel and Yeshua said summarized a large part of the Torah). All seven pieces had to be agreeable to each group; if any of them thought they got the raw end of the deal, they would have no one to blame but themselves. When they came to a consensus of what was suitable, he would maintain the ultimate authority to determine which tribes received which portion.7. "since there is no portion for the Levites in your midst, because YHWH's priestly office is their inheritance. Also, Gad, Re'uven, and half of the tribe of Menashe have accepted their inheritance across the Yarden eastward, which Moshe the servant of YHWH gave them." Since: The priests, who interpreted the lots for YHWH, would be objective since they could not benefit from the outcome, whatever it might be. Accepted: or simply, received, confirming that these tribes were now indeed released to go back to their families and possessions that awaited them in the land they had asked for. 8. So the men got up and started going, and Y'hoshua directed the men who were going to map out the Land, saying, "Go, walk back and forth throughout the Land, draw it out, and come back to me, and I will cast a lot for you in YHWH's presence here at Shiloh." Recalling his own experience, Y'hoshua knows that when they see what remains of the Land, they will fall in love with it. They have not been brave enough to go further, so they do not know what is there, and are fearing the unknown. But when they try it, known the details intimately, and understand what is there, they will embrace it! It is this way with the Torah. Christians have been told that there are giants in that Land; that it cannot be taken. "Here be dragons", as the maps made by the Phoenicians to discourage further exploration by the Greeks and Romans once said. But if we read it, we find that it is actually not too hard when we have a community to help us live it out. But reading is only equivalent to going into the territory. Studying it is the next step--oh so important, but still if we have only mapped out the territory, it is not yet our own. Only when we carry out what it says have we actually taken more land. Seeing what others (including Yeshua) have done is meant to spark a desire in us, but intentions are not enough until we actually walk it out ourselves.9. So the men went and traversed the Land and mapped it out by cities into seven shares on a document, and they came to Y'hoshua at the Shiloh camp. 10. And Y'hoshua cast lots for them in the presence of YHWH at Shiloh, and there Y'hoshua apportioned out the Land to the descendants of Israel according to their allotments: Again, casting lots is shown to be an upright way to make decisions, acceptable to YHWH. 11. When the lot came up for the tribe of Binyamin for their clans, the territory of their lot came out between Yehudah and the sons of Yoseyf, The fact that Binyamin's property touches both Yehudah and Yoseyf reflects Binyamin's history as both the only full brother of Yoseyf but also the one for whom Yehudah swore to keep safe when he had to be taken from his father to Egypt. But it is also prophetic, for those two tribes would later be the main players in the two houses of Israel. Not only did the first king of united Israel come from the tribe of Binyamin. Paul, who was very instrumental in bringing the first harvest of the lost sheep of the House of Israel back to their heritage, was from this tribe. (Rom. 11:1; Filippians 3:5) It also appears likely that those Torah-observant "Jews" who have come to believe that Yeshua is the Messiah are from this tribe, for they form a link between Orthodox Jews and those who are coming out of Christianity and entering back into Torah without throwing Yeshua out with the bathwater. Only those who hold fast to both requirements can build an acceptable bridge between these two estranged segments of YHWH's people. Such will also be an irritant to those on both extremes, just as the tribe of Binyamin was often a trouble-maker among the tribes of Israel.12. and their border for the north side started from the Yarden, then the border went up to the northern "shoulder" of Y'rikho and ascended westward into the mountain-range, and it went out to the wilderness of Beyth-Aven. Shoulder: or slope.13. Then the border crossed from there to Luz, toward the shoulder of Luz, which is south of Beyth-Aven, then the border went down to Ataroth-Addar, onto the hill that is south of the lowest [part of] Beyth-Horon. 14. Then the border angles around southward for its western edge from the hill that faces Beyth-Horon on the south, and goes out to Qiryath-Ba'al (that is, Qiryath-Ye'arim), a city of the descendants of Yehudah; this is its western limit. 15. And the southern side was from the end of Qiryath-Ye'arim, then the border went out westward, then went out to the spring of the waters of Neftoakh, 16. then the border went down to the end of the mountain that faces the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom toward the southern shoulder of the Yevusite, then went down [to] Eyn-Rogel. Here the border slices straight through present-day Yerushalayim. The Temple sat on Binyamin's land, partly as a warning to Yehudah to remember that, though they ended up being responsible for the Temple, it was not theirs exclusively. The "center wall of partition" which was actually a physical entity called the soreg, which kept Gentiles from entering the holiest areas, was thus illegal although understandable after the events described in 1 Maccabees, because it effectively kept the other tribes of Israel out too after they started to return to Torah. And even Shlomo had from the start expressed the intent that this be a "house of prayer for all peoples". And it is the study of the Temple that is prescribed for the House of Israel as our means of fully turning back from our idolatry. (Y'hezq'el 43:7-12)17. Then it angled northward and went out to Eyn-Shemesh, then went out to G'liloth, which is right in front of Maaleh Adummim, then went down the stone of Bohan, the son of Re'uven, 18. and crossed over to the slope of the escarpment of the Rift Valley, then descended into the Rift Valley. The Rift Valley: or transitional land; Heb., Aravah.19. Then the border crossed over to the northern shoulder of Beyth-Khoglah, and the border went out to the northern tongue of the Salt Sea at the southern end of the Yarden; this was its southern boundary, Tongue: possibly a bay that had a different shape at that time than it does today, having not yet filled up as far. There is a peninsula that juts from the eastern shore that is called the "tongue", but it is too far south to fit this specification.20. then the Yarden borders it on the eastern side. This was the inheritance of the descendants of Binyamin, by its boundaries on every side, for its clans.
Y'rikho: Yet it was not to be rebuilt! But the name denotes the whole oasis, which extends a few miles from where the actual walled settlement had been, so there would be plenty of other sites on which to situate a new city.22. Beyth-haAravah [House of the Transitional Land], Tz'marayim [Pair of Fleeces], and Beyth-El [House of Elohim], 23. 'Awwim [the Twisted Ruins], Parah [the Heifer], Ofrah [the Fawn], 'Awwim: Possibly another name for Ay, as it means the same and is mentioned in conjunction with nearby Beyth-El.24. Kfar-haAmmonai [Town of the Ammonites], Ofni [the Moldy One], and Gaba [Cup-shaped Hill]--twelve cities with their enclosed settlements; 25. Giv'on [the Great Hill], Ramah [Lofty Place], Be'eroth [Multiple Wells], 26. haMitzpeh [the Watchtower], haKfirah [the Lioness], haMotzah [Draining Out], Motzah, west of Yerushalayim, was, as its name can connote, the "source" for the long willow-branches later used to build a "sukkah" over the Temple altar during the feast of Sukkoth. It is still a well-watered place compared to the surrounding territory.27. Reqem [Variegated Colors], Yirp'el [Elohim will Heal], Thar'alah [Staggering], 28. Tzelah [Rib], heElef [the Thousand], and the Y'vusite (which is the hill of Yerushalaim), Giv'at, and Qiryath--fourteen cities and their enclosed settlements. This is the inheritance of the descendants of Binyamin for their clans.
One way the lots may have been revealed at this point, since it was deciding between different tribes, is the names of the tribes of Israel on the high priest's breastplate lighting up. Tradition says that the individual letters lit up in other cases to spell out answers when people like David enquired of YHWH through the priests. The background to why YHWH chose Shim'on to receive this portion is in Gen. 34:25ff. Shim'on and Levi had avenged their sister Dinah's honor by killing all the men of the city of the man who violated her the third day after they had all been circumcised. On his deathbed, Yaaqov said of them, "Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their overflowing fury, for it was cruel [excessive]! I will split them up within the land of Yaaqov; I will scatter them among the tribes of Israel." (49:7) And indeed Levi was scattered throughout all of Israel, as we will see in chapter 21. What we sow, we reap. Yet YHWH did not send them to reform school. When these brothers were together, they caused trouble. Yet YHWH knew how to deal with them; He gave them a different focus. Shim'on's existence was owed to YHWH "hearing" Leah's cries and giving her help (Gen. 29:33), and Levi's name reflects the fact that he was "joined" to YHWH in a special way, since He gave him this name. (29:34) Levi had a purpose for their proclivity to knives and had no squeamishness about blood; He attached them directly to His House (where He could watch them closely!) and put them in charge of the slaughtering of offerings brought to YHWH. Since Levi and Shim'on "overflowed"--i.e., went beyond their boundaries, YHWH gave neither of them boundaries of their own. Yehudah, who had proved selfless by taking responsibility for Binyamin at a dangerous time (Gen. 43:8) was now given charge of guarding Shim'on. Shim'on had to stay within Yehudah's boundariess. But we each need to ask ourselves,"What causes me to overstep boundaries? Is it my emotions? Lusts? Connections with certain other people? How can these liabilities take on a different focus and become assets to all of Israel?"2. And in their inherited property they had Be'er-sheva' [well of the oath] (or Sheva' [oath]), and Moladah [birth-race], Sheva' is a shortened version of the name for Be'er-sheva'. Otherwise the cities do not total 13 (as per v. 6), but 14.3. Khatzar-Shual ["Foxville"], Balah [old and worn out], and 'Atzem [a bone], 4. Eltolad [Elohim of a generation], B'thul [El shatters], and Khormah [devoted place], 5. Tsiqlag [winding], Beyth-haMarkavoth [home of the chariots], and Khatzar-Susah [mare-village], 6. Beyth-L'ba'oth [home of lionesses], and Sharukhen [favor let loose]--13 cities and their enclosed settlements. 7. Then Ayin [eye or spring], Rimmon [pomegranate], 'Ether [abundant], and 'Ashan [smoke]--4 cities with their enclosed settlements-- Enclosed settlements: or simply villages, but the term suggests being walled in, and is based on a word for a trumpet, possibly because everyone living there would respond to the same trumpet's signals.8. and all the enclosed settlements that surrounded these cities as far as Baalath-Be'er [mistress of the well] and Ra'math-haNegev [female unicorn of the southern desert]. This is the inherited property of the branch of the descendants of Shim'on for their clans. 9. Out of the descendants of Yehudah's share [came] the inheritance of the descendants of Shim'on, since the share of the descendants of Yehudah turned out to be too much for them, so the descendants of Shim'on received an inheritance within their inherited property. Though Yehudah's territory was not to be coveted by the other tribes (18:5), these cities had not yet been conquered (12:9-24), and though they fall within the boundaries dictated in 15:1-12, apparently Yehudah had already determined that they could not occupy all of this territory. Today we have a very similar situation, in which the whole Land has been given to Yehudah, but they are not able to occupy it all, and enemies still dwell within. They need more of the tribes to whom the Land has been deeded to properly defend it. In many ways, our inheritance does rest within Yehudah's. First and foremost, Yeshua, our King, is from the tribe of Yehudah, and He promises that those who walk beside Him will be "joint heirs" with Him. (Yoch. 14:3; Rom. 8:17; Rev. 3:21) But as returning Israel, we are already partaking of an inheritance that has been within Yedhuah alone for many centuries. That tribe preserved many aspects of the earlier model of the Kingdom that was allowed to fall apart. It has had a better grasp of the things YHWH originally established in David and Shlomo as prototype. To some extent, Yehudah has maintained an unbroken line of Torah practice ever since the days of Y'hoshua. In an electrical line, we can see that, although a broken wire can be re-spliced, there is much more likelihood of corrosion, corruption, and static than in one that remains unbroken. Our line was broken; Yehudah has had "signal boosters" in place in every generation to keep sending the message onward. Sometimes they have taken some unnecessary detours from the shortest distance between two points, but their line is still the cleanest available in this regard. And the records of more ancient practices that it has preserved are even purer than the examples we see today. They show us how to keep one another accountable and thus keep community intact. When we read "Remember the Sabbath to keep it set apart"(Ex. 20:8ff), for example, we might wonder how to do so. The Scriptural text does not tell us the specifics, especially in English. Yehudah has preserved both the "how-to" as well as the Hebrew language that tells us exactly what is meant here by both "Sabbath" (ceasing) and "remember" and which types of "work" are allowed on the Sabbath and which are not. Work that represents another is to be avoided, and the best way to accomplish that is to be involved in the type of work that is not forbidden--that of serving one another without pay. Lev. 23:3ff tells us it is to be a "holy calling-forth". But in Hebrew it is much clearer: this actually means it is to be a proclamation or mention (of what YHWH has done in the past), a calling together of an assembly in which reading takes place, and a rehearsal of the Kingdom that the Sabbath foreshadows. Those who "get the part" in the Kingdom will be those who have rehearsed! Yehudah has kept the Sabbath on the right day while we had veered off course in this regard. As long as Yehudah's traditions strengthen the Torah and in no way diminish or contradict it, they are our inheritance. Possibly the greatest inheritance Yehudah alone has preserved is the Hebraic perspective--how to think the way the writers of Scripture and the Messiah Himself thought, the logic they used rather than what we have today, which has much Greek thought mixed in. To be sure, many Jews have bought into this as well, and we must beware the leaven of the P'rushim (read "Rabbis" today) and Tz'doqim, so we must be learned and study out each aspect, but we must appreciate how far Yehudah surpasses most men alive today. We do not need their permission to return, for Yeshua, the King, who is also from Yehudah, has already granted that. While we do not inhabit their cities (for we have another job to do), we have the same boundaries as they, as prescribed by the Torah. 10. And the third lot came up for the descendants of Z'vulun for their clans, and the territory of their inheritance went as far as Sarid [survivor]. Sarid: not far from present-day Natzereth in the western Galil.11. Then their border went up toward the west and Mar'alah [quivering] and touched on Dabbasheth [camel-hump], then reached toward the river which is on the face of Yoqneam [the people chant a dirge]. This river was probably the Qishon, which runs parallel to Mt. Karmel on the northeast.12. And it turned back eastward from Sarid toward the rising of the sun onto the limit of the flanks of [Mt.] Thavor, then it goes out to haDabrath [the word] then up [to] Yafia [outshining]. Dabrath became a Levitical city on the western foot of Mt. Thavor, a prominent mountain between the Yizre'el Valley and the Galil.13. Then from there it crosses on the east from the sunrise to Githah [winepress], Hefer [dug out], Ithah-Qatzin [at a decisive time], and goes out to Rimmon and was drawn to the Neah [shaking]. 14. Then the border circles around it north from Khannathon [most-favored], and its issuings-forth are at the Valley of Yiftakh-El [Elohim opens], 15. along with Qattath [small], Nahalal [watering-site], Shimron [watchpost], Yid'alah [thanks to Eloah], and Beyth-Lekhem [house of bread]--12 cities [in all] with their enclosed settlements. 16. This is the inherited property of the descendants of Z'vulun for their clans--these cities with their enclosed settlements.
18. And their territory was at Yizre'el [Elohim will sow], K'sulloth [flanks], and Shunem [double resting place], 19. Khafarayim [pair of pits], Shi'on [greatly ravaged], and Anakharath [snoring], 20. haRabbith [the multitude], Qishyon [stubborn], and Abetz [I will make it gleam], 21. Remeth [throwing down], Eyn-gannim [spring of the enclosed gardens], Eyn Khaddah [spring of alertness], and Beyth Patzetz [house of dispersion]. 22. Then the border touches Thavor, Shakhatziomah [strutting with pride], and Beyth Shemesh [house of the sun], and the issuings-out of their border was at the Yarden--16 cities with their enclosed settlements. 23. This is the inherited property of the descendants of Yissakhar for their clans--the cities with their enclosed settlements.
25. And their boundary-line was Khelqath [smooth], Khali [weakening ornament], Beten [hollow], and Akhshaf [I will be bewitched], 26. Alammelekh [king's oak], Am'ad [enduring people], Mish'al [entreaty]; then it touches [Mt.] Karmel on the west, then reaches to Shihor-livnath [darkening of the whiteness]. On the west: or, at the sea. Shihor-livnath is a riverbed south of Dor.27. Then it turns back toward the rising of the sun (Beyth-Dagon [house of the great fish]) and reaches Z'vulun and the Valley of Yifthakh-El on the north of Beyth haEmeq [house of the valley], Nei'el [moved about by Elohim], then goes out to Kavul [binding] on the left, 28. then Hevron [closest ally], Rekhov [wide-open space], Khammon [hot spring], and Qanah [cane reed] as far as greater Tzidon [great hunter]. 29. Then the border turns back at Ramah and as far as the fortified city of Tzur [rock]. Then the border turns back at Khosah [refuge], and its issuings-out are at the sea from Khevel [measuring-line] to Akhziv [deceit]. 30. Also Ummah [agreement], Afeq [restraint], and Rekhov [wide-open]--22 cities with their enclosed settlements. 31. This is the inherited property of the branch of the descendants of Asher for their clans--these cities with their enclosed settlements.
33. And their border came to be from Khelef [exchange], from Elon [the oak] at Tzaananim [removals], and Adami haNeqev [my ground that is concave], Yavne'el [El causes to be built], as far as Laqum [barricade], and its issuings-out was the Yarden. 34. Then the border turns back westward [at] Aznoth-Thavor [the ears of Mt. Tabor], and goes out from there to Khuqoq [decreed], and touches Z'vulun on the south, Asher on the west, and Yehudah [praise], with the Yarden at the sunrise [side]. 35. And the fortified cities are the Tzidim [sides], Tzer [flint], and Khammath [hot spring], Raqath [shore], and Kinnereth [harp], Kinnereth: on the lake by the same name, also called the Sea of Galilee.36. Adamah [the ground], haRamah [the height], and Khatzor [castle court], 37. Qedesh [set-apart], Edrei [excellent pasture], and Eyn-Hatzor [spring of the castle], 38. Yir'on [great fear], Migdal-El [tower of the mighty one], Kharem [devoted], Beyth-'Anath [house of response], and Beyth-Shemesh [house of the sun]--19 cities with their enclosed settlements. 39. This is the inherited property of the branch of the descendants of Nafthali for their clans--the cities with their enclosed settlements.
41. And the boundary of their inheritance came to be Tzor'ah [hornet], Eshta'ol [inquiry], and Ir-Shemesh [city of the sun], Tzor'ah would be Shimshon (Samson)'s hometown. That his hometown was on the boundary may suggest why he was so easily tempted to look outside his people to have his needs met, such as loving Filistine women.42. Shaalabbin [place of foxes], Ayalon [great deer], and Yithlah [it hangs], 43. Eylon [mighty terebinth], Timnathah [assignment], and 'Eqron [uprooted], Eqron was one of the five main cities of the Filistines.44. Eltheqeh [may El spit you out], Gibthon [great mound], and Baalath [mistress], 45. Y'hud [praised], B'ney-Beraq [sons of lightning], and Gath-rimmon [pomegranate press], 46. Mey haYarqon [waters of the greenery], haRaqqon [very thin], with the border against Yafo [beautiful]. Yafo, an important harbor for millennia, is now just south of Tel Aviv (which is in Menashe's territory). Note that no total number of cities is given for Dan as for the other tribes. There is a reason it is left open-ended:47. And the territory of the descendants of Dan ran out for them, so the descendants of Dan went up and fought with Leshem [precious stone] and captured it, and attacked it with the mouth of the sword, took possession of it, and inhabited it, and instead of Leshem, they called it Dan, according to the name of Dan, their ancestor. They did fight for their inheritance, but kept on fighting and added to their inheritance. We, who have not yet received our whole inheritance, can be content with what YHWH has provided thus far, but should not be satisfied until we reach the fullness of what He intends for us, which is Torah-observance in His Land, in His presence, with Yeshua physically reigning there as our King. The glass is still half-empty, though He has given us so much, for there are many areas we have yet to move into both in Torah-observance and in placing our Father's Name on more territory. The earth is not yet full of the knowledge of His Name. But we cannot reach satisfaction without first being content--that is, free from fear and worry about things YHWH has made and therefore is in control of, since we can trust Him to keep them away if we are not entertaining them. Dan's practice of naming places after their ancestor continued even after the tribes were dispersed. Their settlements in exile (Denmark, the Don River, the Danube/Donau, and other places whose names stem from "Dan") have been easier to trace for this reason. Leshem had also been known as La'ish ("crushing lion").48. This is the inherited property of the branch of the descendants of Dan for their clans--these cities with their enclosed settlements.
After everyone else has received their inheritance, the ruler receives his. This is a foreshadowing of the land granted to the prince, Yahshua, during the Messianic Kingdom in Y'hezq'el 48:21. He is not already sitting in His inheritance, though He has gone on ahead, for He cannot receive it in its fullness until we move fully into ours.50. Upon YHWH's word, they gave him the city that he had asked for--Timnath-Serakh [portion of the sun] in the mountains of Efrayim, and he rebuilt the city and lived in it. The name of Y'hoshua's city ("the sun's portion") also correlates with Y'shua's being called the sun of righteousness (a different term for the sun) in Mal'akhi 4:2 and a city being called "the city of the sun" (an inverted form of the same root word as Serakh) in Egypt during the Messianic kingdom (Yeshayahu 19:17ff) We are told that the New Yerushalayim that is completed after the Kingdom will have no need of the sun since the Lamb (Yeshua as per Yochanan 1:29, 36) will give it light, walking in the authority of YHWH. (Rev. 21:23) Y'hoshua chose the place that foreshadowed this light so the kingdom in his own day could be enlightened while under his authority.51. These are the inherited properties that El'azar the priest, Y'hoshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the branches of the descendants of Israel let flow out by lot in Shiloh, in the presence of YHWH at the opening to the Tent of Appointment; thus they finished apportioning out the Land.
2. "Speak to the descendants of Israel, saying, 'Appoint asylum-cities for yourselves as I told you through the hand of Moshe, 3. "'so that a manslayer who inadvertently strikes down a soul unwittingly may escape there, and they will be a refuge for you from the one who avenges blood. Avenges: literally, redeems or ransoms. His other duty is indeed to redeem land that his kinsman loses to the family. But his right is to avenge the blood of certain relatives--a concept tied to the forgiveness of the Land for blood that is spilt (compare Gen. 4:10-11; Ex. 22:2-3; Deut. 21:1-9), the fact that someone must pay for a lost life (Gen. 9:6), especiallyinnocent blood (Deut. 19:1-14; 22:8) or even a sin (Lev. 20:8-18, 27), as well as justice through blood atonement. (Lev. 12:7; 14:52; 16:18-27, etc.) YHWH Himself is such an avenger of blood for Israel. (Deut. 32:43) Unwittingly: without realizing it has been done, or possibly without realizing what consequences one's actions could have, such as in the case of one who is mentally disabled. But one is still held responsible to follow this instruction. Compare Yeshua's request that YHWH forgive those who did not know what they were doing. Yet we are required to obtain as much knowledge as we can (see Proverbs 1-2) so that we can become more responsible people.4. "'When he flees to one of these cities, he must wait at the entrance to the gate of the city and state his case in the hearing of the elders of that city, so they may receive him to themselves in the city and give him a place, and he will live with them. Receive: literally gather, collect, remove, take away, withdraw (from the world outside, where he is "fair game" for any avenger who catches up with him before he is inside the city). He does not come there to escape justice; rather, these cities exist to assure justice.5. "'And though the avenger of blood pursues him, they must not deliver the manslayer into his hand, because he caused his fellow to be struck down unwittingly and did not hate him prior to that. Prior to that: A parallel passage rules that any premeditated slaying is counted as murder. (Deut. 19:11-14) Even in a sudden flare-up of temper, if one wields up an instrument which is likely to cause death, the case must still be judged. (Num. 35:16-25) In Jewish tradition, one's left eye represents judgment and his right eye represents mercy. Judges must have both eyes open, but once it is determined that a killing was intentional, they must close their right eye and show no pity. There must be no emotional baggage when justice is to be done. This takes training since we have become very emotion-oriented. The passage goes on to say, "Do not remove your neighbor's landmark, which those in the first times have established as a boundary for your inheritance." (Compare Mat. 5:18-19) That these two commands are side by side is not coincidental, for this instruction is the ancient boundary YHWH hasa set up, and we must not try to do things our own way; even for the sake of a neighbor, we may not show mercy in such a case. The only time we ever do something wrong should be when it is accidental. There is no provision for forgiveness if a sin was intentional, and the Renewed Covenant does not modify this, except to strengthen it even further. (Heb. 10:26-31) This is not cold and barbaric, because blood defiles the Land where YHWH dwells, and He will not have defilement in His home. One cannot buy his way out of it; only true justice keeps the Land from being defiled. The only way to ransom the blood of the slain is for the killer to die. It is not optional for the designated kinsman to try to avenge his blood; even if he is delicate, he must rise to his responsibility. It is only a race to see whether he can arrive at the city of refuge before the avenger can catch up with him. YHWH uses this to show on whom He wishes to have mercy. It could be that in this case, the killing was unintentional, but the killer may have gotten away with another crime previously that he kept hidden from men, but which YHWH wants punished. (The advantage to his having to run immediately to the city of refuge is that he has no time to cover up the evidence.) If he arrives safely, it means YHWH has favored him in this case. Where the Torah is not more specific, YHWH is leaving room for judges to use wisdom and apply justice or mercy according to the need of the particular person or community.6. "'And he must stay there until he has stood before the gathering [of witnesses] for sentencing--until the death of the one who has been high priest in those days. At that time the manslayer may return and enter his city and [come back] to his home within the city from which he fled.'" Stay there: If he ever leaves the city, the avenger of blood can kill him without guilt because he should have remained in the place of protection. (Num. 35:26-29) One is basically under house arrest on a slightly broader scale. Though the killing was unintentional, one loses his freedom, because even accidents have repercussions; they have changed one's standing in the eyes of the family who lost a loved one, and if they saw him every day, their bitterness would have an opening to grow; YHWH cuts this cycle by removing the source of what could become a festering hatred from their midst. Death of the high priest: One might think it would be more appropriate to be able to return upon the death of the avenger of blood, but it is more like a changing of the guard. The priesthood is responsible for judgment (Deut. 17:9-12; 21:5), and this was done under the authority of the ex-priest; it is now a new day, much like the yovel ("jubilee") year. But the more important purpose of this command is what it represents for us. The term for "asylum" (or refuge) in verses 2-3 is based on a root word meaning "handicapped" or "lacking in body parts". This fits very well with the scenario, because one has robbed another family of a member, and now he must be removed from his own tribe, leaving them without someone to fill his role. He must now live in a city full of those who are strangers to him, because certain death awaits if he returns home. He is attached to a new city where there are others seeking "body parts". Yeshayahu 28 helps us identify who they represent. Verse 5 tells us that in the Kingdom, after His judgment is carried out, YHWH will be a crown of glory for the "remnant of His people". Those who are "left over". Yirmeyahu 23:3 says He will gather "the remnant of His flock" out of many nations, just as these "left over" people have come out of many different cities to form a new community. And Mikha 4:7 says it is the "lame" or "limping" (again, those who are handicapped) that He will make His remnant, and He will make the outcasts into a strong nation. Hebrews 6:18-20 speaks of our having fled for refuge to YHWH's immutable promises, and of Yeshua as being our High Priest, so this is clearly an allusion to the cities of refuge. The body needs to be put back together. All the body parts that show up at our "city of refuge", Yeshua, are guilty of something, not the least of which is Yeshua's own blood. There is still authority and judgment in His city, which Mikha 4:7 identifies as Mount Tzion (in the immediate context of Yeshua's birth). His city is not made up of "big shots", but of those who are lame and limping like Yaaqov after his wrestling with Yeshua, himself, his conscience, and his brother. When one sees our "walk", it should be different, unlike Christians who blend in with everyone else. Lame animals are not fit for sacrifice, so we needed a Lamb that was fit to do the job. That is how our High Priest died, but He will not die again. So we cannot leave. Once we taste the Kingdom and put our hand to the plow, we cannot look back (Luqa 9:62; Heb. 6:5); there is no other place we can live. (Yochanan 6:68) We are part of a new "city" now, having given it higher priority than the one we came from. (Compare Luqa 8:21.) 7. So they set aside Qedesh in the Galil (in the mountains of Nafthali), Sh'khem in the mountains of Efrayim, and Qiryath-Arba (that is, Hevron) in the mountains of Yehudah, Set aside: or dedicated, set apart, from the same root word as Qedesh.8. and across the Yarden, eastward from Y'rikho, they assigned Betzer in the uninhabited land on the plateau out of the tribe of Re'uven, and Ramoth-Gil'ad out of the tribe of gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Menashe. That there are some cities of refuge that are actually outside the Land of Israel proper reiterates that we can begin to take up these practices now while we are still in exile. As we wait for the High Priest who has died to take us home again, we are even now to be forming communities that will become cities when we return. These are the additional cities commanded in Deut. 19:8 and Numbers 35:9-15. The six cities were pretty evenly-spaced throughout the Land so that there would be one within reach of any part of the Land. But they tend to be on the outskirts of the territory. This is because the closer one lives to the heart of the Land, the more responsible he is expected to be because of interacting more intensely with the rest of Israel, and is therefore less likely to need the asylum-city. All of these are Levitical cities, so the elders there are more knowledgeable in Torah, and have allegiance to no other man, being answerable directly to YHWH, since their provision comes from Him. They are therefore the most objective judges of one's guilt or innocence, and less likely to take bribes. But the irony is that the one they are judging is in a sense eager for their kinsman, the High Priest, to die so that he can go home.9. These were the cities designated for all the descendants of Israel and for the guest who stays [temporarily] among them so that anyone who kills a person inadvertently may not die by the hand of the avenger of blood until he has stood before the gathering [of witnesses]. The guest: This protection is afforded not only to Israelites, but for strangers among them if they are willing to submit to the judgment it involves. This is echoed in 1 Korinthians 12:11ff, where we are told that the many members form one body, whether they be "Jew or Greek (i.e., Gentile)".
Recall that the Levites are those YHWH took in place of the firstborn of Israel, they were named by YHWH Himself to be "attached" to Him and thus are His personal property, not numbered among the rest of the tribes of Israel (Numn. 1:47), and include the priests, the teachers of the Torah, the caretakers of the poor, the widow, and the fatherless, guardians of the storehouses, and thus the most respected in all of Israel. Yeshua upholds the standards YHWH gave to the Levites as those for His own followers. (Lev. 21-22; Mat. 8:21ff; Luk. 9:59-62; 2 Kor. 11:2; 2 Tim. 2:3-4; Yaaqov/James 3:1) Note that the high priest here is listed first, indicating that he is of highest importance among the leaders of Israel, hinting at the close connection between kings and priests seen throughout Scripture. He could receive answers directly from YHWH.2. and they spoke to them in Shiloh, in the land of Kanaan, saying, "YHWH commanded by the hands of Moshe to give us cities to inhabit along with their open land for our animals." Each tribe had indeed been commanded to give to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance they would receive. (Num. 35:1-3) But here we see the proper order of appeal in Israel in play. Note that it was not an individual hot-headed young Levite coming to the elders with a demand; if someone did have such a request he had to go through the proper channels. Not everyone in Israel gets to have his opinion heard, but must submit to what the authorities determine based on their knowledge of the Torah. They do not vote, but are available to be consulted as needed. They do not whisper among one another, trying to build consensus (for that is witchcraft) or complain to other tribes, but they send the right people at the right time to present their case to the proper authorities. The fathers are the most basic and natural leaders, who have paid the price of authority by raising their families properly. But they did not all come; only the "heads" representing them all--those whom the tribe know are the most effective leaders. Compare Sha'ul's requirements for leadership among the returning tribes, which are based on these same principles. (1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9) Notice that they do not complain that it is not fair that everyone else in Israel has received their inheritance and they have not, that they have been victimized. They do not just move in on their own. They do not demand. They do not even make a request as such. They simply state the facts that they know to be true, since it was written, and await a ruling. They had to be willing to hear, "This is not the proper time", if there had been a valid reason for this (though in this case there was not). One who is deserving, knowledgeable of the Word of YHWH, and goes through the right channels should receive a just ruling. The focal aspect of YHWH's creation in Genesis 1 is bringing order out of chaos, and this is how YHWH wants Israel to remain.3. So the descendants of Israel gave the descendants of Levi these cities and their open land out of their own inheritance, as YHWH had commanded. Open land: or common land, since it includes the city itself. (Num. 35:3-5) The total area of each was a square 4,000 by 4,000 cubits, with the inner 2,000 by 2,000 being the walled city. It is reminiscent of a four-cornered garment surrounded by four more corners--reminders to keep the Torah like the tzitziyoth that hang thereon. (Num. 15:38-39) The first five times we see the word "keep" (hedge about, guard, protect, observe, or attend to--Hebrew, shomer) it forms a path for us. In Gen. 2:15, Adam is told to "tend" the Garden. Because of unrepentance for his sin, was was driven out--the same word which forms the root for "open land" here. Thus this land around the city was like a buffer of protection for those seeking asylum in six of these cities. It most likely had a hedge of thorns at the extremity in addition to the city wall, as an added way of designating the safe zone. The Garden was "guarded" by kh'ruvim with flaming swords.(Gen. 3:24) In Gen. 4:9, Qayin then asks if he is indeed his brother's "keeper" (as if he were like a shepherd to him). The next two instances of shomer are in Gen. 17:9-10, when Avram is told to "keep", "observe" or "guard" YHWH's covenant, which at this stage involved circumcising his sons at the right time. We can follow this "path" back to the Garden. We have taken on the covenant; now our main focus is to be our brothers' keepers, loving our fellows as ourselves, rather than being driven out further like Qayin because he did not accept this duty. We inherit the common land because of what we drive out of it--pagan ways, wrong interpretations of Scripture, wrong definitions of loving one another, and most of all, self-interest. One cannot guard a city alone. We must become attached to one another and guard it together. How? The answer is in the other things we are told to guard: YHWH's appointments (Ex. 12:17ff), the Sabbath (Ex. 31:14), and our borders--that is, not making covenants with those outside who could be a snare to us and the whole community. (Ex. 34:12) In Gen. 21:29 shomer is used in the sense of fencing in an animal that has been known to gore. Our common ground is given as a place to confine the animal within us--our selfish interests and fleshly lusts--and to bring under control anything that does not conform to Torah. Guarding one another is not comfortable; the comfort of like-mindedness is what we should instead seek. (Filippians. 2:1ff)4. And the lot came out for the familes of the Q'hathites, so the by lot there came to be thirteen cities from the tribe of Yehudah, from the tribe of Shim'on, and from the tribe of Binyamin for the sons of Aharon, from [among] the Levites. Aharon was the grandson of Q'hath. Notice that his tribe was stationed near Yerushalayim even though there were still over 400 years before the sanctuary would be there.5. And the rest of the descendants of Q'hath had, by lot, ten cities from the clans of the tribes of Efrayim and from the tribe of Dan and from half the tribe of Menashe. Not all of the Q'hathites were priests. It seems very unfair that the descendants of Amram (Aharon's father) should have more cities than all three of his brothers put together.(Ex. 6:18) But the highest standards for purity and service were placed on the family of Aharon, and thus they were rewarded with more by YHWH. Remembenr that YHWH has mercy on those on whom He chooses to have mercy (Ex. 33:19), and there had already been rebellion from other Q'hathites over the higher privilege afforded to Aharon and Moshe (Num. 16). He knew what each deserved.6. Then by lot, thirteen cities from the families of the tribe of Issakhar, from the tribe of Asher, and from the tribe of Nafthali, and from half of the tribe of Menashe in Bashan [were] for the descendants of Gershon. 7. The descendants of Merari had twelve cities out of the tribe of Re'uven, out of the tribe of Gad, and out of the tribe of Z'vulun. The tribe of Z'vulun is not contiguous with these other two tribes, but is surrounded by the tribal lands that gave cities to Gershon and Q'hath. It could be that, as Shim'on and Levi were too dangerous when paired together, the Merarites (whose name is rooted in a word meaning "bitterness") might spend too much time commiserating if all together.8. And the descendants of Israel gave these cities and their open land to the Levites by lot, as YHWH had ordered through the hand of Moshe. The hand of Moshe: not the mouth, though that is used as a similar idiom elsewhere. He had indeed written down the Torah so there would be no question later about precisely what he had said after he was no longer around. The hand is also a symbol of authority. Moshe was given authority by YHWH, and he retained it because of his faithfulness in using it for YHWH's purposes, not his own. Yeshua, too, could have used the power given to Him by YHWH to serve his own purposes, and was tempted to. (Mat. 4:3-7) But He chose to do the right ting and use it only for the sake of the Kingdom. You, too, are given strengths, whether physical, mental, or financial, for a purpose, and that purpose is always the Kingdom. He has invested in us, and the return cannot be used as we please; we owe Him dividends on any "profits" we gain thereby. YHWH We live in a day when it is commonly believed that Moshe's writings no longer have authority, yet it is Moshe's very authority that gives us us, like these Levites, our place in the Kingdom! If we do away with the Torah, we have no claim to an inheritance!9. Now [what] they provided from the tribe of the descendants of Yehudah and from the tribe of the descendants of Shim'on [were] these cities, which are specified by name, 10. and they came to belong to the sons of Aharon, [which are] part of the clans of the Q'hathites, from the descendants of Levi, since the first lot came to be for them: 11. That is, they gave them the town of Arba, the father of the Anaqim (that is, Hevron), in the mountains of Yehudah, with its open lands all around it. 12. But the fields [belonging to] the city and its enclosed settlements they gave to Kalev the son of Y'funeh as the possession he had seized. He had already been promised this territory, so they had to clarify that it was the "suburbs" that were to be his, and this included the agricultural land that he needed; the city itself was too special, being the burial place of the patriarchs, to give to any but those closest to YHWH.13. Thus they provided the descendants of Aharon with Hevron and its open lands as an asylum-city [for] the [man]slayer, then Livnah with its open lands, Hevron was built by giants, so would be especially defensible, having walls larger than any other city. This may be why David would choose it as his first capital when king only of Yehudah. (2 Shmu'el 2:11) It is also the city with the highest elevation in the Land--a very strategic location.14. Yathir with its open lands, Esthemoa with its open lands, 15. Holon with its open lands, D'vir with its open lands, 16. Ayin with its open lands, Yuttah with its open lands, and with its open lands--nine cities from within these two tribes. 17. And out of the tribe of Binyamin, Giv'on with its open lands, Geva' with its open lands, Thus the Giv'onites became the servants not just of Israel in general (9:21-27), but of the Levites in particular.18. Anathoth with its open lands, and 'Almon with its open lands--four cities. 19. The cities of the descendants of Aharon, the priests, were thirteen in all, along with their open lands.
21. they provided for them as an asylum-city [for] the [man]slayer Sh'khem with its open lands in the mountains of Efrayim, then Gezer with its open lands, Sh'khem is another very important city which already had a long history of connections with Israel. Y'hoshua had had all the tribes recite the blessings and curses inherent in the Torah here. Yaaqov himself had pitched his tent just outside it. Ironically, Levi had helped kill all the male inhabitants after his sister was raped by the king's son. Now it was to be a city of refuge administered by Levi's sons! But that it is now a city dedicated to justice is a reparation for an injustice done here as well. Yoseyf was sent here by his father to find his brothers, who were supposed tro be pasturing his sheep there, and it was the last place in the Land where he had been a free man; this may be why it is here that he was brought back to be buried.22. Qibtzayim with its open lands, and Beyth-horon with its open lands--four cities. 23. And from out of the tribe of Dan, Elteqe with its open lands, Gibthon with its open lands, 24. Ayalon with its open lands, and Gath-rimmon with its open lands--four cities. 25. And from the half of the tribe of Menashe, Taanakh with its open lands and Gath-rimmon with its open lands--two cities. Gath-rimmon was on the border of these two tribes, and therefore was apparently divided between them, much like modern Kansas City, which is in both Kansas and Missouri.26. The cities for the clans of the remaining descendants of Q'hath, along with their open lands, were ten in all.
Though their tribal land is largest, no more was required of the Menashites than of any of the other tribes, because they were the ones willing to fight for the Land and did not need to be reprimanded about not doing so, like seven other tribes.28. And from the tribe of Issakhar, Qishon with its open land, Dabrath with its open land, 29. Yarmuth with its open land, and Eyn Gannim with its open land--four cities. 30. And from the tribe of Asher, Mish'al with its open land, 'Avdon with its open land, 31. Khelqath with its open land, and R'hov with its open land--four cities. 32. And from the tribe of Nafthali, as a city of refuge [for] the [man]slayer, Qedesh in the Galil with its open land, then Hamoth Do'r with its open land, and Qartawn with its open land--three cities. 33. The cities of the Gershonites for their clans, along with their open lands, were thirteen cities in all.
35. Dimnah with its open land, and Nahalal with its open land--four cities. 36. And from the tribe of Re'uven, Betzer with its open land, Yahatzah with its open land, 37. Qedemah with its open land, and Mefaath with its open land--four cities. Verses 36 and 37 are present in the early trasnslations, supported by most codices, and are supported by verses 7, 40, and 41, but were left out of the Rabbinic Bible by Yaaqov ben Chasim (a Masoretic text used by many today) in 1525, for no apparent reason. (Green, who refers the reader to Keil's Commentary on Joshua, p. 457).38. And from the tribe of Gad, as a city of refuge [for] the [man]slayer, Ramoth in Gil'ad with its open land, then Makhanayim with its open land, Makhanayim was another place important in the life of Yaaqov.39. Heshbon with its open land, and Yaazer with its open land--four cities in all. 40. The cities for the descendants of Merari for their clans--those remaining of the clans of the Levites--their lot came to be twelve cities in all. 41. The Levite cities within the possession seized by the descendants of Israel, with their open lands, were forty-eight in all. Though they had "no inherited possession", the Levites had more cities than any other tribe except Yehudah! But they had no borders as such, and the size of each of these cities was strictly defined. (See note on v. 3.) There was room for shelter, crops, and livestock, but no other industry. Those responsible for judging and teaching YHWH's people and bringing Him pleasure live within much tighter boundaries, because they are about the Kingdom. They are entrusted with more--the Kingdom is theirs--so more is expected of them. (Luk. 12:47-48) They will have more trouble than others if they do not live up to their duties, so they are given few distractions. And this is to be the calling of any for whom YHWH is our inheritance, for the establishment of His Kingdom is our priority in this day. David later set up 24 courses of priests (1 Chron. 24:10) on which basis Israel was divided into 24 districts. Each of them sent two representatives to officiate at the Temple during the weeks of the year. The first division of the priests would serve the first week of the year which would be both in the first month and seventh month since both begin a new year, Tishrei on the Civil Calendar and Nisan on the religious calendar. During the Festivals, the priests from all 24 districts would go to Jerusalem to help with the festival activities. From this verse we could surmise that there might have been two Levitical cities in each district, and they would have taken turns sending representatives to Yerushalayim to serve for two weeks. But it is more likely that the second set of 24 districts were based either on population or tribal affiliation.42. Each of these cities included their open lands all around them; this was the case for all these cities. The different families of the Levites were not stationed among the tribes that had camped closest to each of them in the wilderness, for they might have become closer to those clans and thus been less objective when called to mediate in disputes between them. 43. Thus YHWH gave to Israel the whole Land that He had sworn to their ancestors to give [them], and they took possession of it and settled in it. 44. And YHWH gave them rest from every side according to all that He had sworn to their ancestors, and a man did not stand in their presence of any of their enemies; YHWH handed all of their enemies over to them. 45. Not a word of all the pleasant promise that YHWH had spoken to the House of Israel fell short; it all came about. But note that the final piece had to be in place before His word was fully upheld. Not until the Levites had their cities was the Land considered "rightly divided".
2. and told them, "You have [been faithful to] keep all that Moshe ordered you to keep: you have listened to my voice--to all that I commanded you. Keep: or build a hedge around. They have accomplished their mission, but more--they have understood that it was about loving their neighbors as themselves. What they built a hedge around was their brothers--not their immediate family, for, as Yeshua said, even the pagans take care of their own. These are those from the other tribes:3. "You have not abandoned your brothers these many days until this day, but have been watchful of the observance of the command of YHWH your Elohim. Abandoned: loosened, permitted, or left behind. Thus the opposite of keeping YHWH's charge is leaving our brothers behind and failing to care for them. They proved to be their brothers' keepers, neither opening the fence to let them out or tearing it down. To loosen the Torah--to say it is no longer binding on us--would be to abandon our brothers. Hedging one another in is not comfortable wither for the one doing it or the one being hedged in. But if we were not bound together, we would inevitably be bound by something else, for we are always within some boundaries. We cannot guard one another from a distance or hold one another accountable very well when not dwelling in community. If we are not expecting one another to walk according to Torah, we are not guarding them well. That does not mean "boiling" the young in the "milk" of Torah, but expecting them to stay inside the gate at least. Otherwise we would be guilty of using unequal measures from one tribe to another. Paul slid into this to some extent as the other tribes began to return, and was corrected for it. Yeshua said that if our brother sins, we need to hang with him until he either repents or runs away. His disciples recognized that it took a large measure of faith to rebuke our brothers who are in sin, for we tend to think they will no longer like us if we point out where they need to get back on track.4. "And now YHWH your Elohim has granted rest to your brothers, as He had promised them, so now turn and go to your tents in the land of your inherited property which Moshe, the servant of YHWH, gave you across the Yarden. They could not have rest until their brothers did, and though we, like these tribes, may be the first to enter the fight, we cannot fully enter into our inheritance until all of Israel is back in the "sheepfold" of Torah. There is no individual inheritance for Israelites; Israel inherits the Land corporately. So by assuring our brothers' place we assure our own. So at least help them enter their rest for that reason--though your motive will undoubtedly change once you take up that challenge. Tents: On the literal level, though they had already built houses, they were herdsmen, and would live in the field as their flocks and herds moved around to fresh pastures. But they must not forget the lifestyle of the soldier and the nomad, for this is the context which is most conducive to remaining united with our brothers. Until we reach our final rest, we too must not settle down or become set in our ways, for we still have more changes to make and must keep moving on, so we have to keep a temporary attitude. And there is a prophecy that at least at one point in our return, YHWH will again have us live in tents. (Hoshea 12:9), and at Sukkoth we rehearse this even now.5. "Just be very watchful to carry out the orders and the instruction that Moshe, the servant of YHWH, gave you [as commands]--to love YHWH your Elohim, to walk in His ways, to keep His commandments, and to stick close to Him and serve Him with all your heart and with all your passion!" Even after we have received our rest, it does not mean we can rest on our laurels. We must be all the more watchful lest we lose the ground that has been taken. Note that they were responsible to obey both the Torah (instruction) as well as Y'hoshua's specific marching orders, which, unlike Torah, do not necessarily apply to every place and time, but they were binding at this time. There are things our Yeshua told us which might not be meant to be read as eternal commands, but are mandatory in season, for He is our authority. They--and especially the letters from His disciples-- are given to get us through our present situation of exile so we can get back to the actual meaning of Torah and arrive back at where we can fully keep it. He told them at one point to take no money bag along; doe sthat mean we should always do it that way today? But we need to guard both, because the fact that something is not Torah does not lessen it if it is still about YHWH and in line with both His word and the authority structure He ordained.6. Then Y'hoshua blessed them and sent them off, and they went to their tents. 7. Now to the half-branch of Menashe, Moshe had designated [land] in Bashan, while to [its other] half, Y'hoshua had designated [land] with their brothers across the Yarden to the west, so since Y'hoshua had sent them to their tents, he blessed them also, 8. and spoke to them to say, "Go back to your tents with [the] many treasures [you have accumulated]--very many livestock, both silver and gold, bronze and iron, as well as very much clothing. Share what you plundered from your enemies with your brothers." Share…with your brothers: Although Yaaqov considered Efrayim his firstborn, Y'hoshua is still recognizing Menashe's actual birth order, and the firstborn was given a double portion so that he could act as kinsman-redeemer for any of his brother who needed one. Yoseyf's sons were only able to be put in this position because of the sin of Re'uven, the actual edlest son of Yaaqov, one of the brothers they were specifically to watch over on the same side of the Yarden. Menashe had never asked for land on this side of the Yarden as the other two tribes did, but this was part of his double portion.9. So the sons of Re'uven, the sons of Gad, and the half-tribe of Menashe turned back and went from the descendants of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Kanaan, to go to the land of Gil'ad, the land of their inheritance, in which their property is, upon the word of YHWH through the hand of Moshe. Word: literally, mouth.10. And when they arrived at the turnings of the Yarden which is in the land of Kanaan, the sons of Re'uven, the sons of Gad, and the half-tribe of Mensahe built an altar there on the Yarden--a large altar, a spectacle to behold. Turnings: possibly the place the waters "turned" back to let the nation cross over. A spectacle: or, conspicuous. Since it was patterned after the one at the Tabernacle (v. 28), they undoubtedly used the bronze that had just been given to them (v. 8) and the iron to make tools with which to build it.11. And the descendants of Israel heard [it] said, "Look! The descendants of Re'uven, the descendants of Gad, and the half-tribe of Menashe have built an altar on the forefront of the land of Kanaan, toward the turnings of the Yarden, across from the descendants of Israel. Across from: Or possibly, where they crossed. On the forefromt: or, at the cutting off--suggesting it was on a precipice above the Rift Valley, whichwould indeed be conspicuous (v. 10), and it would make les sense to built it down on the plain where the river might flood or change course, as it often did.12. When the descendants of Israel heard, then the whole congregation of the descendants of Israel were assembled at Shiloh to go up against them for battle. They had not abandoned their brothers (v. 3), and now their brothers proved not to abandon them. Though they came to them with a confrontation, they were only holding them accountable--the opposite of "loosening" them.13. But the descendants of Israel sent to the descendants of Re'uven, the descendants of Gad, and the half-tribe of Menashe in the land of Gil'ad, Pin'has the son of El'azar the priest Pin'has was not only the high priest, but also a man who had proven zealous for YHWH and not hesitant to go to any measure to preserve the purity of YHWH's sanctuary and altar. (Num. 25:7ff)14. and ten leaders with him--one leader each, belonging to a father's household, for all of the tribes of Israel, as well as each head of his ancestral household [as representatives] for the thousands of Israel. As well as…: or, each being head… Notice that each tribe had a chief house and each house had a ruler.15. When they came to the descendants of Re'uven, the descendants of Gad, and the half-tribe of Menashe in the land of Gil'ad, they spoke with them, saying, 16. "This is what the whole congregation of YHWH says: 'What is this treacherous act by which you have betrayed the Elohim of Israel, to turn back today from [following] after YHWH, when you built an altar for yourselves in revolt against YHWH? They do not present this as YHWH's "inspired" word, but His people are united in their action. Though they know they will have to fight them if they are indeed leading Israel astray, still they wisely send a delegation to make sure this is really what is going on.17. "'Is the crookedness of Peor--for which until today we are [still] not purified (when there was a blow on the congregation of YHWH)--too small for us This is the very situation that Pin'has had put a stop to, and the incident at which YHWH recognized him as a man after His own heart, and now he is facing another situation that appears similar to him. Still not purified: They felt that all the punishments that had come in the intervening time had still not atoned for the severity of that slap in YHWH's face. Or they may have just felt that if this was being done, Israel had obviously still not learned our lesson, even though "all the men who followed Ba'al of Peor" had been destroyed at that time. (Deut. 4:3)18. "'that you would turn back today from [following] after YHWH? And what will take place is [that] you may rebel against YHWH today, and tomorrow He will be full of wrath toward the whole congregation of Israel! Though they tried to separate themselves from these apparent rebels, they recognized that they could not remain at rest if their brothers were doing the wrong thing, because all of Israel has to pay the price if the whole is not in line.19. "'But if in fact the land of your inheritance is defiled, cross over for yourselves to the Land of YHWH's possession, where the dwelling place of YHWH remains, and be given a holding among us! But do not be rebellious toward YHWH or revolt against us by building for yourselves an altar besides the altar of YHWH our Elohim! They make a very selfless offer: "If the land where you live is the problem and you simply cannot follow YHWH over there, then we will share our space and make room for you. Just do not make YHWH angry! We have experienced that and we do not want any part of Israel to be destroyed!" But having all of Israel live on the west side of the Yarden was the original plan anyway, so everyone had made space than was originally promised and dimishing their share of the inheritance if it was the only way their brothers would be able to remain united with them in serving YHWH alone would not have been unfair to anyone.20. "'Didn't Akhan the son of Zerakh indeed act treacherously in regard to what was devoted to destrucion, and there came wrath upon the whole congregation of Israel? And he was not the only man to perish in his guilt.'" They recognized that if any part of Israel sinned, all of them were liable to be the recipients of YHWH's wrath, as 36 innocent men had died for that one man's sin They recalled earlier recorded precedents that addressed what they thought was going on. They took the proper approach, but turned out to have had a wrong assumption: 21. Then the descendants of Re'uven, the descendants of Gad, and the half-tribe of Menashe answered and told the heads of the thousands of Israel, 22. "YHWH is the El of Elohim; the El of Elohim is YHWH! He knows and Israel must be aware. If [we did this] in rebellion or in treachery against YHWH, [then] do not spare us this day. 23. "[If we] built an altar for ourselves to turn back from [following] after YHWH or to make an ascending offering or grain tribute go up on it or carry out slaughterings of peace-offerings, YHWH Himself will demand it! 24. "But we [swear that we] have done this out of anxious concern for a reason, saying, 'Tomorrow your children may say to our children, "What do you have to do with YHWH, the Elohim of Israel? 25. "'"Because YHWH has put a border between us and you, O sons of Re'uven and sons of Gad--the Yarden! You have no share in YHWH!" And your children would [thus] cause our children to stop fearing YHWH.' This shows evidence of how they considered land-features like rivers to be natural borders and that they were respected as such. Notice that they do not include Menashe, because they were placed there as shepherds over the other two tribes there, and had not voluntarily taken that land. Having the other half of the tribe within Israel proper would make it less likely to be dissociated from the rest of Israel, since the whole tribe would not be divided from them.26. "So we said, 'Let us prepare ourselves to build the altar'--not for ascend-offering and not for slaughter, It should have been clear that it was not for slaughter and offering, since it was not in the land belonging to the tribes across the Yarden and they would not have been able to do so without the notice of the tribe on whose land it was, though it would have been visible from their side as well.27. "because it is a witness between us and you and our generations after us to work out the service of YHWH in His presence by our ascending-offerings, our slaughterings, and our peace-offerings, so that tomorrow your children will not tell our children, 'You have no share in YHWH!' The evidence of the rest of Israel's concern at this time should have assured them that their fears, which had prompted them to do something so easily misunderstood, were unfounded. It may not have been the most profitable thing to do for that reason, but it was permissible according to Torah, for there had been many other altars built for the sake of witness by the patriarchs and Moshe himself. (Gen. 12:8; 13:18; 26:25; 33:20; 35:7; Ex. 17:15) It was also wise to consider those who came after them. A problem more significant than that of the altar being built was the fact that they were even living across the river, because they had asked for it for the sake of their wealth--though they did have"much cattle" to deal with somehow, and this did provide a buffer between Israel proper and other nations. But the altar was on the west side of the Yarden (v. 10), and thus was as much for the sake of those on that side of the Yarden as for those who were moving back to the other side. If their brothers were to say, "You are no longer our brothers", they would have something to point to in order to remind them that they were indeed connected.28. "And we said, 'So it shall be [that] when they may say to us and to our generations tomorrow, we can say, "Consider the similarity to the altar of YHWH which our ancestors made--not for ascending offering and not for slaughter; rather, it is a witness between us and you."' Similarity to: or pattern, construction, or model of. David made Shlomo a model so he would build the Temple the way he had seen it in a vision, and Y'hezq'el was told to let the House of Israel measure this type of "pattern" of the Temple (43:10) since we have not seen the real one in nearly 3,000 years, yet we need to know how it functions in order to return.29. "It would be a sacrilege for us to rebel against YHWH and turn away from [following] after YHWH to build an altar for ascending-offering, grain-tribute, or slaughter besides the altar of YHWH our Elohim that is the presence of His dwelling-place!" They already knew it would be rebellion to change the pattern that YHWH had given in the Torah simply to fit their situation. They knew they could not build a whole new sanctuary (as Yarav'am tried to do later). They had no illusion that they could draw near in ways not prescribed by YHWH, whether I regard to location or manner. Today, however, this is done all the time by people who think they are therefore pleasing YHWH! They say He knows their heart, but what is in the heart comes out in our words and actions (Prov. 23:7; Mat. 12:34), and we can judge one's heart by its fruit, since it often deceives even its owner. (Yirmeyahu 17:9). They are even illegal altars by which returning Israel, let alone the Church, tries to draw near. The place of worship is the Tent of the Assembly; individuals cannot change the rules. 30. When Pin'has the priest, the leaders of the congregation, and the heads of the thousands of Israel who were with him heard the words that the descendants of Re'uven, the descendants of Gad, and the descendants of Menashe had spoken, it was appropriate in their eyes. 31. So Pin'has the son of El'azar the priest told the descendants of Re'uven, the descendants of Gad, and the descendants of Menashe, "Today we recognize that YHWH is among us, because you have not betrayed YHWH with this treacherous act. That being the case, you have recovered the descendants of Israel from the hand of YHWH. Recovered: not only was all Israel proven to be free from any cause for wrath; these people who in all fairness inquired about their brothers' motive, rather than killing first and asking questions later, spared themselves from spilling innocent blood and thus being liable to His wrath. It should also prevent sin in later generations. 32. Then Pin'has the son of El'azar the priest and the leaders returned from [being] with the descendants of Re'uven and the descendants of Gad, [coming] out of the land of Gil'ad to the descendants of Israel in the land of Kanaan, and brought word back to them, 33. and the word was pleasing in the eyes of the descendants of Israel, so the descendants of Israel blessed Elohim and no longer talked about going up against them into battle to ruin the land in which the descendants of Re'uven and the descendants of Gad were dwelling. 34. Thus the descendants of Re'uven and the descendants of Gad proclaimed in regard to the altar that it was a witness between us that YHWH is the Elohim.
They have been in the Land for approximately 30 years including the time of conquest. But "many days after" has a prophetic sense as well. It is speaking of the "latter days". This word for "after" is an anomaly to the Greek-oriented mind. It means both "behind" and "later", which we tend to think of as ahead of us. But if we think of time as a spiral rather than a straight line, it makes sense that "what has been is what will be", as Shlomo said in Qoheleth. A circle is continuous, with a wedge even cut into whatever it is constructed of so that the beginning and the end overlap, occupying the same space, rather than starting up again after it stops. As on a circular race track, as a car passes you, it is already coming up behind you again, for there are many laps. Moshe redeemed Israel once; Yeshua will do so as well. It is the same place on the race track but on a later lap. Most prophecies in Hebrew are given in the "perfect" tense, which we tend to think of as past, but this indicates the certainty of what YHWH promises, for it is stated as if it were already accomplished, for it has taken place once; when Y'hoshua was old, YHWH established the Kingdom. Rest is only promised if we walk before YHWH in accordance with His Torah, loving our neighbors as ourselves. Contrary to Christian doctrine, His promises are not free; we have no right to claim His rest if we are not walking in His covenant. If we try to collect our "pay" without fulfilling our side of the contract, we are simply thieves. And do not ask for rest when it is time to ask for discipline and strength to do the work. It is detrimental to think the Kingdom will come suddenly by magic; we cannot be slack about our part in bringing it about, even if everyone else is, because someone has to start somewhere. Do not wait for the rest to start. But once we get the first spark going, we can enter into that part of the rest. The term for rest here means to settle down (used of Noakh's ark in Gen. 8:4) and remain quiet (used of YHWH's resting on the first Sabbath in Ex. 20:11). The Sabbath is a time of settledness that YHWH ordained, and is a picture of the Kingdom. Ararat, the mountain on which the ark rested, means "curse reversed", and this is part of YHWH's promise in regard to the Kingdom. After David finished reconquering the Land and enemies round about, Shlomo had this same type of rest. (1 Kings 5:2ff) We are told that there was neither adversary nor evil experience at that time. The word for adversary is satan--giving Yochanan the authority to tell us that haSatan will be bound during the Kingdom. (Rev. 20:2-3) But these enemies were their close neighbors; we must not imagine that we can have a broader peace until we make peace among Israelites. Sometimes we have to start by fighting fellow Israelites--those who do not uphold the Torah--as the Maccabees did. They killed off the traitors first, for true peace cannot come through compromise. It must be built on truth. Once we all have the Kingdom as our priority, we can have peace with one another.2. Y'hoshua called for all Israel--for its elders, its heads, its judges, and its recording-officers--and told them, "I have grown old; I have entered into the days, "All" Israel here is actually explained to mean the leaders who represent all of its segments. Our later Yeshua never made it to old age, but this account gives us a more complete picture showing that there is still more to take place. Entered into the days: an idiom for being advanced in years, but it bespeaks the hope of resurrection, for he is already approaching those "latter days" long afterward that are spoken of in verse 1. This is thus a prophecy of Yeshua coming the second time.3. "and you have seen all that YHWH your Elohim did to all these nations because of your presence, because YHWH your Elohim was the one fighting for you. 4. "Look, I have caused these remaining nations to fall to you as an inheritance [to flow down to] your branches--from the Yarden, with all the nations that I have cut off, and the Great Sea, the place the sun goes [down]. Caused to fall to you: i.e., left them as your responsibility to conquer. There are still more laps to run around the "race track". Now we are nearing the last lap, butthis is the most dangerous, with the rubber wearing thin on the tires and the gasoline running low. If we do not make it this time, we will not arrive at the finish line. Branches: or tribes. There are many parallels here to Yeshayahu 2:2-3, in which the nations remaining during the Kingdom flow up to Yerushalayim, and from there goes forth the Torah. By tradition, the Garden of Eden is directly above Yerushalayim, but it is like a reflection in a pond, with the Tree of Life "hanging down", so that the life in the trunk would "flow down to the branches" as seen here, paralleling the Torah going forth from Yerushalayim to all the tribes.5. "And YHWH your Elohim Himself will drive them out from your presence and will dispossess them from before you, and you will take possession of their Land, as YHWH your Elohim had promised you. 6. "So be very firm about guarding and carrying out all that is written in the document of Moshe's instruction, to avoid turning from it [to the] right or the left, Be very firm: literally, keep a firm grip. The ways of the Hebrew are like gymnast's rings. If we see through Greek glasses, we will see them as straight bars, and will miss getting the grip and fall down.7. "so as not to enter into these remaining nations--those that are with you. And neither bring to remembrance the names of their elohim, nor swear by them, nor serve them, nor bow yourselves down to them, Enter into: i.e., go in among, be counted among, become part of. Yeshua told us not to go into the way of the Gentiles when carrying out His mission. We must not be thrown off course by thinking we have to conquer the world, or by learning their ways (Yirmeyahu 10). Doing so would grieve the Holy Spirit--that is, the spirit of being separate, set apart. (Yeshayahu 63:10-11) This is a separateness we are not used to, but we must embrace it all the more because it was our ancestors who preferred to be friendly to their "neighbors" more than they wanted to follow YHWH. We must bend over backwards to make reparation for their sin. We are living in the fruit of their actions; we are still suffering from the fact that we are not yet in the Kingdom. He said to make students, not converts. If we focus on caring for one another, we will start a fire that cannot help but be seen and draw others to it. If we refuse to recognize YHWH's enemies as ours as well, he will count us among His enemies--a frightening thought indeed, even if it is on a small scale! Bring to remembrance: can simply mean to mention. Many of the names substituted for YHWH's actually come from the names of the local deities in the places to which Israel has been exiled. We must divest ourselves of these false substitute names for YHWH. They are one way by which His Name is brought to nothing--which is forbidden even in the Ten Commandments. (Ex. 20:7)8. "because you must stick closely with YHWH your Elohim, as you have done up till this day, Stick closely to: or pursue "hard on the heels of", catch up with, and stay with; none of these is possible if we are going after other objects of worship.9. "since YHWH has dispossessed from your presence great and vast nations, and as for you, not a man has remained standing in your presence up till this day. 10. "One man of you will put a thousand to flight, because YHWH your Elohim is the one who Himself wages war for you. This is based on a similar promise to Moshe. (Lev. 26:8)11. "So be very much on your guard for your appetites, to be committed to YHWH your Elohim, We must both see ourselves as separate from the nations and be separate from them. Be committed to: or simply, love. This is something we need to do in order to demonstrate our love for Him. It is not just a matter of the heart. If we say, "He knows I love Him", but continue to act contrary to His commands, we are liars. (Yoch. 14:24; 1 Yochanan 2:4) He knows our hearts the same way everyone else does--through our actions. If we had to choose one or the other, it would be better to take the actions, for the heart will follow when they become habitual. Show Him love in the way He wants to be loved. Not eating a pork chop demonstrates love for Him better than going to church on Sunday, which is a convenient way some human being dreamed up. Build a hedge to ensure that you will properly love Him. Moshe put some of his spirit of strength into Y'hoshua, and now Y'hoshua is passing some of his spirit on to Israel simply by telling us to be strong. Yeshua similarly breathed on His disciples and gave them of the Spirit of Being Set-Apart, and they did pass it on to us; is that what we are passing on to the next generation?12. "because if you turn away at all and stick closely with what is left of these nations who remain among you and intermarry with them or enter in with them or they with you, Intermarry: literally, become daughter's husbands to one another.13. "know for sure that YHWH your Elohim will not continue to dispossess these nations from before you, and they will become a snare and a trap for you, something that pierces your sides and barbs in your eyes until you vanish off this valuable Land that YHWH your Elohim has given you. Since we did not guard this command, Yeshua had to have His side pierced by another nation to restore us to what we should have remained in. Barbs: or thorns. This warning does not just apply to the Land of Israel, but to any ground YHWH gives us--anywhere He allows us to overcome. We must preserve our gains. If we refuse to make His enemies our own, He will not treat them as our enemies either, and will abandon us to our own wishes so we learn the lesson the hard way.14. "Here I myself am going today in the way of the whole earth, and you know with all your heart and with all your soul that not one word has failed of any of the excellent things that YHWH your Elohim has said about you; all of it has come about for you. Not one word of it has failed! Going: Y'hoshua left no successor because Israel has been delivered to its Land. He will not take them any further. It is now up to them to rise to the challenge of "packing their own lunch", for Y'hoshua will no longer be there to spoon-feed them. They should no longer need another babysitter, but when there is a strong leade at the top, the followers tend to become atrophied. The same holds true for us; Yeshua has done His part; now it is our turn. Failed: literally, fallen down or been allowed to drop. He brings us through many confusing things that tempt us to doubt, but this is how we know He is real. Do not expect Him to deliver you in the way you imagined. The way to overcome fear is to remember what YHWH has done for Israel--and even in your own life. Remember the times you know it was He who was aiding you, because you could not have arrived on the other side of the flood any other way. This is important, because we have a job to do, and there is no time for worry, doubt, or despair.15. "But it will turn out that, just as every pleasant thing that YHWH has promised you has come upon you, likewise YHWH will bring upon you every disagreeable word until He causes you to be annihilated from upon this fine Land that YHWH your Elohim has given you If we will not accept being separated unto Him or understand that the place He has brought you to is the right one, He will bring a curse for every one of the many blessings He has brought.16. "when you transgress the covenant of YHWH your Elohim which He commanded you, having gone off and served other elohim and bowed yourselves down to them. Then YHWH's nostrils will be kindled on you, and you will quickly disappear from upon the fine Land that He has given you. Transgress: literally, cross over from, leave one's territory, emigrate from, go outside the boundaries within which He has put you, pass away from into other hands. This does not always mean finding golden calves to bow down to. There are plenty of things within the realm of His blessings that can get us sidetracked enough. Compare Leviticus 26: Here are the blessings, here are the curses, just as Moshe has told you; nothing has changed although the Land has been taken. And this book is about you as well; you just come around later on the same "race track". So keep the Land hedged about and guarded from whatever is not the Kingdom.
Sh'khem is the place between the mountain of blessing and the mountain of curses, so they would be reminded vividly of the time they had all called out both sides of the promises to one another years before this. This is one reason Y'hoshua assembled them here rather than at Shiloh, where the Tabernacle now sat. Note that, unlike the last assembly he called, this time he includes more than just the leaders. He calls the whole nation together. This is because everyone is to be held accountable for what he is about to say, and every Israelite is to live in a way appropriate for one who might one day become a leader. As Y'hoshua prepares to die, he must trust these leaders with both the authority and responsibility to keep Israel on track, but every individual in the community is also to take responsibility to do right, not expecting others to bear his weight unless he is bearing his own share of the weight as well. When judgment comes, it comes on the whole household. But if each one is guarding the Torah, no one has an impossible burden to bear. We have all been given skills and tools, so we must develop them and not lie around in laziness.2. Then Y'hoshua said to all the people, "This is what YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, says: 'Ages ago your ancestors lived across the River--Therakh, the father of Avraham and the father of Nakhor--and they served other elohim. Y'hoshua has been a charismatic warlord--a picture of Yeshua on His return--but now he is placing the emphasis on YHWH, whose kingdom is to be administered by the priesthood, not by men of war. Though "all Scripture is inspired by YHWH and is profitable…" (2 Tim. 3:16), we can only call it "YHWH's Word" when we have a direct quote from Him, as we do here. Many of the other parts are accurate historical accounts, people's wise advice or opinions, or even authoritative commands for those under their jurisdiction at the time. But here we have YHWH's own viewpoint about the things He has done. He is reminding Israel that they are part of a series of covenants, and of where they had come from before these. Because their ancestors--and ours--were idolaters, there was latent idol-worship in them--and in us (especially those from the Northern Kingdom, whose idolatry has been much more recent). At this point the idolatry lay dormant, hidden, and inactive, and the faith of Avraham that is also latent within each of his descendants had the upper hand. But either is always a possibility for us, and today the latter is again finally beginning to outweigh the former, but do not imagine the paganism is no longer there. Yeshua came to show us how to make the latent covenant visible, obvious, and active, and how to keep the idolatry nothing more than a possibility. In each situation, we have to choose which one we will allow to rise up in us. We need to feed the covenant and starve out the paganism. A tree is known by its fruit, so we have to manifest the right part of our heritage.3. "'So I took your ancestor--Avraham--from across the River, and had him walk through the whole Land of Kanaan, and caused his seed to increase, and gave him Yitzhaq, Took: seized and acquired, rather than receiving passively. Actually he was not yet Avraham at this point, but YHWH actively laid hold on him, pulled him away from his idolatrous roots, and turned him into Avraham. If he had not responded, he would have received only what his fathers had, and their sins would have continued to affect him. But because he submitted to this, left behind his former inheritance and acquired new souls, he broke that cycle. Like Avraham, our immediate ancestors were idolaters, but he chose the older covenant--the one with Shem, his righteous ancestor further back, and we must do the same. We have an advantage he did not have. We have the Scripture to verify what is YHWH's voice; He just had to learn to recognize the voice he had first heard, after none of his father's idols ever spoke to him when he called on them--or, as tradition says, smashed them to pieces! YHWH from then on saw him as always having been Avraham. In the same way, once we enter His covenant, we are Israel, and it is as if we had always been on that same path. What came before us on the same road now applies to us as well. This is what Sha'ul was referring to when he said YHWH had taken us out of Adam and put us into the Messiah. (1 Korinthians 15:20-49) His history becomes ours, rather than Adam's. (Romans 5:12-19; 8:2-9) Caused his seed to increase: This sounds as if he was less capable of procreation prior to this point, though he did father Yishma'el before Yitzhaq. Though he was not the son chosen to carry on the covenant, his birth still opened the door for more people of the world to come into the covenant of Avraham, even if not of Israel. Yet once Israel was born, it was as if Israel had always been, because Israel was YHWH's intent since the beginning. "What has been is what will be." (Qoheleth/Eccles. 1:9) Since he surrendered to being taken out, YHWH rewarded him with this son in return. We too have been snatched out of the world and out of Christianity. Yitzhaq means "laughter". Once we learn that resisting YHWH is futile, we surrender more quickly to what He is taking us out of--or what He is taking out of us--and the sooner we can be rewarded with fruitfulness, and we laugh at how much better off we are without the unnecessary weights around our ankles.4. "'and to Yitzhaq I gave Yaaqov and Esau, and I gave Esau the mountains of Seir to take possession of, while Yaaqov and his sons went down to Egypt. The man of the field (which Yeshua says represents the world) who serves his own belly is given the inheritance first. The righteous son had many trials and much hard labor before receiving his part, but he received that which was closest to the Father's heart. What comes easily is just the lot of the worldly son, and it is not worth having. What we have to fight for and be in bondage for is the true Land that we should be earnestly desiring.5. "'And I sent Moshe and Aharon and struck Egypt in its innermost part the way I did, and afterward I brought you out. 6. "'When I brought your ancestors out from Egypt, and you entered into the sea. Then the Egyptians chased after your ancestors with chariots and warhorses [into the] Reed Sea. This seems backwards to say He brought them out, then to say He brought their ancestors out. But in the sense described in the note on verse 3, when we come out of whatever we are serving, YHWH also delivers our fathers; we represent them, and their line is redeemed. (Compare Psalm 22:29-30) They need to be delivered from the same bondage we were brought from. When Israel completely returns to YHWH, those who were righteous at a time when they were in the minority will still receive the benefits. But we cannot honor our parents by staying in bondage when YHWH is calling us out, even if our parents remain in bondage and want us to stay there with them. What brings them the most honor is having their children do what is right, even if they themselves choose not to take that same step. And, in another sense, the audience to which Y'hoshua was speaking directly had indeed been present in the Reed Sea, because they were still within their ancestors at the time. (Compare 1 Korinthians 10:1; Hebrews 7:5-10)7. "'When they cried out to YHWH, He put concealing darkness between you and the Egyptians and caused the sea to come over him and cover him up, and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. When you had remained in the wilderness many days, 8. "'then I brought you into the land of the Emorite[s] who lived across the Yarden. When they fought with you, I handed them over to you and dispossessed their land, and was causing them to be annihilated from your presence. 9. "'Then Balaq the son of Tzippor, the king of Moav, rose up and made war on Israel, and sent for and summoned Bilaam the son of Beor to make you more lightly esteemed. 10. "'But I was not willing to listen to Bilaam, and he blessed you greatly, and I rescued you out of his hand. 11. "'Then you crossed the Yarden and came to Y'rikho, and the owners of Y'rikho--the Emorite, the Prizzite, the Kanaanite, the Khittite, the Girgashite, the Khiwite, an dthe Y'vusite--made war against you, but I handed them over to you. 12. "'Now I had sent the hornet ahead of you, and driven them out from before you--both Emorite kings--not by your sword and not by your bow. 13. "'And I have given you a Land for which you had not grown weary with labor, and cities that you had not build, and you have settled into them. You are eating of vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant.' From verses 3 through 13, we see a lot of verbs attributed to YHWH. He wants us to recognize how active He has been in Israel. It is not just our history or our doing; He has been the critical factor. And He is active in us individually, even through what we see as negative. Give Him credit for both, because once we admit that, as much as we would like to be, we are not in charge of where our lives are going, our problems become His responsibility, and He is much better able than we are to take care of them. There is great freedom in that. If we surrender to His taking away, He will give back something better. (v. 3) However, we cannot attibute any slackness on our part to Him!14. "So now, stand in dreadful awe of YHWH, and serve Him with integrity and faithfulness, and turn away from elohim that your ancestors served across the River and in Egypt, and work [for] YHWH. Turn away from: or, put away. Again, though they were not actively involved in idolatry at this point, they could not assume the battle was won. This penchant to worship anything besides YHWH could rise up in them at any time, and even without physical idols we can be serving false elohim like security, emotion, or the most ancient of all, fertility--and self. How do we put them away? By putting all our energy into serving Him.15. "But if it is displeasing in your eyes to serve YHWH, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve as subjects, whether [it is] the elohim that your ancestors served on the other side of the River, or the elohim of the Emorites, in whose land you are dwelling. But I myself and my household will serve YHWH! Displeasing: or simply, evil. It sounds preposterous at fisrt glance that anyone would consider it "evil" to serve YHWH. But with all the places Yeshua's words have been misread and taking either too far or out of context, the Torah flies directly in the face of most of the prevailing definitions of today. Consider Deut. 7. Many would find the concept simply of killing one's enemies to be evil. And killing even their babies? Such a "hate crime"! Destroying their property? Disrespecting their philosophies? Not compromising with those of other religions? How wicked! Not letting our children around theirs? Such bigotry! An eye for an eye? How barbaric! Considering those outside of Israel irrelevant to our decisions? Surrendering self? Yet "self-actualiziation" is considered the highest goal. So the idea is not so far-fetched after all. No Christmas trees? No easter eggs? If our hearts are not right, His ways do seem evil. Yet Yeshayahu says, ""Woe to those who avow that what is bad is right, and say that what is appropriate is evil, who put 'darkness' for light and 'light' for darkness, who define bitter as 'sweet' and sweet as 'bitter'." (5:20) We cannot be Yeshua's students if set a lower standard than He does. His standards for admission are very high: giving lower priority to self and even to our families than to His plans. Today this would sound like a cult. It was no different then; Y'hoshua anticipated this, so he said that if they could not give the highest priority to YHWH and His people, they might as well go serve something else and be honest about it. Y'hezq'el (Ezekiel) echoes this: If you want to go on profaning His name by serving other philosophies, you are free to do so, but you must leave His presence. Though they were the chosen people, they still had to choose. (Compare 1 Kings 18:20ff) But even if everyone else chose to fall away, Y'hoshua had made his choice. Note that there is no option to not be servants. We were a nation of slaves, and were delivered by another; this obligates us to Him if we are to be honorable. They had to be under someone, and the choices were either the masters their ancestors had been connected to--spiritual rulers which were set in place over different lands to prevent total anarchy among men. These would be the default underrulers under whose jurisdiction their children would fall--or, they could be joined directly to the Creator and bypass the "middlemen", the option Y'hoshua wanted to take since this was one step less removed from the Garden of Eden. YHWH did not want the lesser rulers trespassing on what was most valuable to Him, so within its boundaries, He has no respect at all for them. My household: like the one he foreshadows, Y'hoshua's wife and children are never mentioned anywhere else, but this hints at the probability that he had them.16. Then the people replied and said, "A profane, wounding thing it would be to abandon YHWH and serve other elohim! When Y'shua also gave His students the opening to leave like so many others were when He scandalized them, they, too, gave the only reasonable answer: "Where else can we go? You alone have the words of eternal life!" (Yochanan 6:63ff)17. "Because YHWH our Elohim is the one who has brought us and our ancestors up out of the land of Egypt, out of the slave-quarters, and who has done in our sight these great signs and has watched over us on thje whole journey on which we have walked and among all the peoples through whose midst we have passed. 18. "And YHWH has driven out all the peoples--even the Emorites--who dwelt in the Land before us. We, too, will serve YHWH, because He is our Elohim!"
He either does not quite trust them, thinking they do not quite understand the stakes, or is using reverse psychology in an effort to prod them to rise to the challenge.20. "Since you will abandon YHWH and serve foreign elohim, He will turn back and cause you injury and finish you off after He had treated you well." I.e., this is not a game; just because He has provided you with many benefits, do not imagine He will not make it hurt if you turn your back on Him.
22. So Y'hoshua told the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves because you have chosen YHWH for yourselves as the one to serve." And they said, "Witnesses [we are]." Against yourselves: or, in/among yourselves. Our word must be kept (Num. 30:2), even vows made hastily when we were in trouble (Psalm 66:13) or at an emotionally-intense time like this one, so we must always guard what we say.23. "So now, turn away from the foreign elohim that are among you, and incline your hearts to YHWH, the Elohim of Israel."
25. So Y'hoshua cut a covenant for the people on that day, and appointed for it a prescribed boundary and court procedure at Sh'khem. This foreshadows the renewed covenant the latter Yeshua cut with those who had just said, "We will follow you no matter what; we will even die for you!"26. When Y'hoshua had written these words on the document of the Torah of Elohim, he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was within YHWH's set-apart place. Having a grove of trees planted by the altar is against Torah (Deut. 16:21), but at this time the Tabernacle was at Shiloh, so this "set-apart place", though the same word for "sanctuary", is apparently a reference to either the city of refuge that was Sh'khem in its entirety, or possibly the premises of the "historical site" of the altar Avraham had built (Gen. 12:6-7) and/or the oak where Yaaqov had buried all the idols his family had brought with them from their old homeland. (Gen. 35:4) This would fit very well with the reason Y'hoshua had brought them there, reminding them of what was still buried within the "land" of their own hearts, and warning them to leave it untouched:27. And Y'hoshua said to all the people, "Look here! This stone will be among us [to serve] as a witness, because it has heard all of YHWH's sayings that He has spoken with us, and it will be among you as a witness lest you act deceitfully, [disappointing and failing] your Elohim." I.e., I have spent my whole life serving you, but if you do not keep walking forward with me, you will end up as one of those we must run over in the process of keeping the Land pure.28. Then Y'hoshua sent the people away, each to his inherited property.
Y'hoshua's life was ten years shorter than that of Moshe, giving Yeshua authority to say "a student is not above his master." (Mat. 10:24; Luqa 6:40)30. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-Serakh [portion of the sun], which is in the mountains of Efrayim, north of the mountain of Gaash [shaking]. 31. And Israel served YHWH all the days of Y'hoshua and all the days of the elders who prolonged the days of Y'hoshua, and who were familiar with all the acts of YHWH, which He had accomplished for Israel. Prolonged the days: i.e., outlived him, but extended his remembrance by virtue of their association with him in the memories of all Israel.32. And the bones of Yoseyf, which the descendants of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, they [had] buried in Sh'khem in the smooth part of the field that Yaaqov had bought from the sons of Khamor, the father of Sh'khem, for 100 coins, and they came to belong to the descendantys of Yoseyf as an inherited possession. Verses 29 through 33 were probably appended by Pin'has to bring closure to what he thought were "loose ends" Y'hoshua had not finished writing about. They are not necessarily in chronological order. I.e., they had probably not waited until this time to bury Yoseyf, though his body was probably carried away with its enitie stone sarcophagus, if a group of eleven sarcophagi with another one missing that have been found at Sukkoth in Egypt were indeed those of the twelve patriarchs. (Only Yoseyf's was taken back to the Land from what we can find in Scripture.) However, the juxtaposition of these two events does prefigure the fact that it was the death of Yeshua that allowed the members of Yoseyf's body to return to their homeland. And Y'hoshua, an Efrayimite, was the descendant of Yoseyf, whose remains were yet another witness to Israel of YHWH's faithfulness and thus further motivation to continue serving Him.33. Then El'azar the son of Aharon died, and they buried him on the hill of Pin'has his son, which he had given him in the mountains of Efrayim. The cities given to the Q'hathites within Efrayim are listed in 21:20-26, but El'azar should have inherited land in either Yehudah, Shim'on, or Binyamin. (21:4) Since Sh'khem was one of the cities of refuge, it could be that since manslayers were to live there until the high priest died, the high priest would have had a burial plot near this city, which was within Efrayim's territory. Now indeed any manslayers who had already needed to run here for refuge were free to go back home. Pin'has himself would now be the high priest. The story continues in the Book of Judges...
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The mountain [range]: scarcely two miles west of Y'rikho (see photo) is the front range of the plateau from which the Great Rift Valley split off and sank during the S'dom and Ghamorah catastrophe. At this point it is relatively easy to ascend, and is in the opposite direction from the fords to which she sent the pursuers. Being hidden for three days makes them a picture of Yahshua, our forerunner, whom death could not hold. But two unnamed men on a mountain remind us of Moshe and Eliyahu, whom Yahshua met on a mountain (Mat. 17). They represent the Torah and the prophets, and most specifically, the restoration of all things. (17:11) Not just the spirit of restoration, as important as that is, but the actualizing of it. They are the forerunners of Yahshua's return. So then who is the harlot who heard of YHWH in some sense before they arrived, who have become intimate with Moshe and Eliyahu who came to rescue her, and who received their message? The answer is in Yirmeyahu 3:6-15. It is the house of Israel, who even more than Yehudah will receive well-qualified teachers after she admits her error and repents. 
Rise early: Following in the footsteps of Avraham (Gen. 19:27; 21:14; 22:3), Yitzhaq (Gen. 26:31), Yaaqov (Gen. 28:18), Moshe (Ex. 8:20; 24:4), and as Elqanah and Hannah (1 Shmu'el 1:19) and David (1 Shmu'el 17:20) would do later, Y'hoshua rose early to do YHWH's business, even when it was something difficult He asked of them. But the term really means to shoulder a burden. He took up the weight of the day in the morning. This showed eagerness and commitment. He did not wait until the day was halfway gone or take care of other interests of his own first. That would be a form of idolatry. He got to His work as quickly as he could. The reason we get up each day should be consciously to do YHWH's will. Is there any profit for the Kingdom in the things we plan to do? Yahshua also warned us to take up the burden of only one day at a time. (Mat. 6:34) Worrying about tomorrow is a pagan act, because is it another form of worshipping that which is really nothing, like an idol. We wait until this day to bear this day's burden. The root word for "covenant" means to cut, so there will be pain, but the truth that will set us free at the other end will make it bearable. But a burden also need not mean something distasteful. Starting the day with prayer and reading YHWH's word can help us focus properly on YHWH's priorities. As the last place they camped before their staging-point, "the Acacias" symbolizes a place of preparation to enter the Land. Meaning "sticks" (you can see why from the photo of an acacia tree), its name implies that it is a place where we recognize that we are the "sticks" (Y'hezq'el 37:15-28) that form the whole House of Israel--that it is made up of many, and it is not just about myself. Here Pin'khas had established justice in Israel when we had committed harlotry with the elohim of Moav. For most people this unfaithfulness to YHWH consisted merely of eating with those people. As those whose name proclaimed that they were "from the Father", this symbolizes being tempted to fall in love again with Christianity again, as we may if we settle down at this pleasant stopping-place instead of continuing to long for the Promised Land. It is no longer our job to go after them on their territory if all of Israel is camped nearby where they can easily come join us. We can be content with our present situation if we are on the road toward His Land, but only when we reach Yerushalayim, the place where the first letter of Shaddai is written onto the topography, should we say, "Dai!" (enough!) and be satisfied to rest at last. Here at the Acacias, those who made up the army of Israel had been counted. Here Moshe had proclaimed Y'hoshua's authority, established the offerings and the laws about vows, confirmed YHWH's festival calendar, defeated Midyan, the people of strife. (Num. 25-32) These are the things we must again accomplish before we can leave the place of our preparation to enter the Land again. We have to see ourselves as in this same place again. Setting out from here meant the place had served its purpose, and was to be left behind for something better. His covenant does not change--it is carved in stone--but the place of walking it out moves often. Though we might have fought tooth and nail to establish the progress we made at this place, if we stayed when YHWH's presence moved on, it would become just another dry, dusty museum of a denomination. They stopped one more time--at the Yarden, which means "going down". It even terminates at the lowest point on the earth's surface. There will be low points before we cross over--tests to make sure we are strong enough for what lies ahead of us. But the lowest places are where the most water is, and just beyond them is Home. Every time we encounter a low place, we should go to the water--symbolic of the Word of YHWH. YHWH's strength is most fully known when we are weakest. (2 Cor. 12:9) Lodged: or spent the night, though it actually turned out to be three nights. This was such a significant moment that they could not rush into it. They were not merely preparing for a battle, as momentous as that would be. There is much symbolism in the crossing of the Yarden, but on the literal level, it meant they were entering holy ground, and many of the commands YHWH had given (which began with "When you have come into the Land which YHWH will give you…" ) would now begin to be applicable and binding on them. They were now responsible to higher standards, and there would be less grace. They needed to pause to reflect on the implications of this, recognize what they were getting into, and be sure they were ready. 
Ascent: though actually they were descending as he chased them back down the way they had come up. This is still one of the best routes through these dizzyingly-high mountains today. (See photo.) Beyth-Horon means "place of the great cave or hollow", possibly referring to the pass itself. The Maccabees also won a great battle against the Greeks here.