Joshua 17 - New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition 2021(NRSVUE)

Joshua 17The Other Half-Tribe of Manasseh (West)

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12Judg 1.27, 28Yet the Manassites could not take possession of those towns, but the Canaanites continued to live in that land.

13Josh 16.10But when the Israelites grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor but did not utterly drive them out.

The Tribe of Joseph Protests

14 Num 26.34, 37 The tribe of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, “Why have you given me but one lot and one portion as an inheritance, since we are a numerous people, whom all along the Lord has blessed?”

15And Joshua said to them, “If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest and clear ground there for yourselves in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you.”

16Judg 1.19; 4.3The tribe of Joseph said, “The hill country is not enough for us, yet all the Canaanites who live in the plain have chariots of iron, both those in Beth-shean and its villages and those in the Valley of Jezreel.”

17Then Joshua said to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, “You are indeed a numerous people and have great power; you shall not have one lot only,

18but the hill country shall be yours, for though it is a forest, you shall clear it and possess it to its farthest borders, for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron and though they are strong.”