After distributing land to the Judah tribe, the next in line were the Manasseh and Ephraim tribes, sons of Joseph. 

Summary

Chapters 16 and 17 provide a detailed contour of the land given to the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim. Unlike chapter 15, however, chapters 16 and 17 did not list all the cities to be inherited to tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. 

In addition, the author highlighted the episode of five Zelophedad’s daughters and how they inherited land. The land distributions to these two tribes concluded with a slightly heated conversation between the sons of Joseph and Joshua over the size of inherited land. These two events will be the focus of this post. 

Zelophedad’s Five Daughters (Joshua 17:3-6)

This is a notable event that Joshua deliberately recorded in the land distribution to the tribe of Manasseh. Let’s take a closer look. 

Five daughters of Zelophedad came before Eleazor the priest and before Joshua to remind them of Moses’s command to give them an inheritance (land) although Zelophedad had no sons (Joshua 17:3-4). Joshua and Eleazor honored the command given by the LORD through Moses to ensure the families preserve their father’s name.

This special request by Zelophedad’s five daughters was brought up, first, in Numbers 27, about 7 to 8 years before Joshua 16-17, right after the second census took place to number the total men for the second-generation Israelites. Subsequently, the LORD commanded Moses to assign inherited land according to the number of families (Numbers 27:1-2). Because the census counted only males who were 20 years or older at that time, Zelophedad’s household, with no sons and Zelophedad having passed away in the wilderness, would receive no inheritance. Five daughters, spotting this “gap” in the land inheritance procedure, brought up the issue immediately to Moses and asked for a possession to preserve their father’s name. Because this was an unprecedented case, Moses brought this case to the LORD (Numbers 27:5) and the LORD agreed with the five daughters’ logical request and complemented the “gap” in the land inheritance process to account for special situations if the family had no sons (Numbers 27:6-11). 

From this Zelophedad’s daughters’ request and subsequent grant, I would like to draw out three specific insights. First, humility in the Israel leadership led by Moses. When he received this request, Moses did not automatically dismiss their request in a male-dominated world that time. Because of the unprecedented nature of this case, Moses brought the case before the LORD and was willing to totally submit to the guidance of the LORD – and he did. The next leaders, Joshua and Eleazor the priest did not hesitate to honor this command. The Israel community had quality leadership back to back to obey the LORD’s command.  

Second, very related to the first point, Moses and the leadership must have created a safe environment for anyone, including minorities, such as women, aliens and others, to speak up. Moses was described as the most humble leader (Numbers 12:3) and If the top leader had shown humility in leadership, the rest of the leadership was very likely as well. Under this kind of open environment, the Israelites must have felt comfortable to speak up to be heard in a just manner. This could have facilitated five daughters of Zelophedad to boldly point out a potential “gap” in the land distribution process without any fear. 

Third, I would like to pose a question. Was there a gap in the law of the LORD? Why didn’t the LORD ensure that the “original” law of Moses addressed the situation of families with no sons in the land inheritance process? Although the Bible does not provide an explicit answer, the LORD may have allowed this “gap” to test the Israel leadership and increase awareness of this potential “gap” to the whole community. From this event, the people of Israel would be aware of this exceptional situation and the rights to inherit would be equally applied to daughters as well. Indeed, God shows no favoritism. 

Sons of Joseph and Sons of Judah

The second notable episode was the conversation between the sons of Joseph and Joshua. As the sons of Judah drew near to speak with Joshua (Joshua 14:6), so did the sons of Joseph drew near to Joshua (Joshua 17:14) in this chapter. However, that’s where the similarity between the Judah Tribe and two tribes of Joseph ends. Please refer to the table below to compare and contrast two tribes on how they viewed the land to be conquered.  

	Sons of Joseph	Sons of Judah
Source of Confidence	Their number and the fact that they are blessed by the LORD (Josh 17:14)	The LORD their God. The promise of the LORD to give the land which the foot of the Israelites trod upon (Josh 14:10-11)
Obstacles	Canaanites have chariots fitted with iron in both Beth Shean and the Valley of Jezreel (Josh 17:16)	Anakites and their large, fortified cities (Josh 14:12)
Attitude	We cannot do it because of the obstacles ! (Josh 17:16)	Despite obstacles, we can overcome (Josh 14:12)
Main Point	The hill country is not enough for us (give us easier land) – Give us more land! (Josh 17:16)	We will drive them out with the help of the LORD (Josh 14:12)

The main attitude difference between the Judah tribes and two tribes of Joseph stemmed from the different degrees of acknowledging the presence of the LORD their God. When Caleb came to Joshua, he cited the promise of the LORD. Based on the promise of the LORD, Caleb and Judah expressed their confidence in victory with the LORD in driving out large, fortified cities of Anakites. In contrast, the sons of Joseph demonstrated the entitlement mentality ( Josh 17:14) that they deserved more land because they are blessed by the LORD. Despite obstacles like fortified cities of Anakites, Caleb showed the courage to surely drive them out with the help of the LORD (Joshua 14:12). The sons of Joseph complained that because of iron chariots by the inhabitants, they would not be able to expand their territories (Joshua 17:16). Noticeably, the LORD God was absent in the conversation from the sons of Joseph, but the LORD God was the central force in Caleb’s and the Judah tribe’s confidence. What a difference between the two!

Joshua did not seem to be pleased with the request of the sons of Joseph. Although Joshua was part of the Ephraim tribe (second son of Joseph), he did not grant any land, and told them that they themselves needed to take the initiative to clear the forest and develop extra land –  and they were dismissed. 

Lessons

Five daughters of Zelophadad were brave. Moses, Joshua, and Eleazor were all leaders of humility to listen to their request attentively and granted it. LIkewise, Jesus, our Lord, has created a safe environment for us to pray and plead before Him. 

The heated conversation between the sons of Joseph and Joshua reminded me of John F. Kennedy’s famous speech: “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can for your country.” 

Just swap “your country” with “your God.”