John Calvin Commentary Joshua 13:1

"Now Joshua was old and well stricken in years; and Jehovah said unto him, Thou art old and well stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed." — Joshua 13:1 (ASV)

Now Joshua was old, etc. Since we have seen above that the land was pacified by the subjugation of thirty-one kings, it is probable that some cessation now took place for the purpose of resting from their fatigues, lest the people should be worn out by continual service.

Nor could that justly be blamed, provided they rested only for a time and continued always intent on the goal set before them. But lest that intermission, which was given for the purpose of recruiting new vigor, might prove an occasion of sloth, the Lord employs a new stimulus to urge them to proceed.

For He orders the whole inheritance to be divided into tribes, and the whole line of the Mediterranean coast which was possessed by the enemy to be put into the lot. A division of this kind might indeed seem absurd and ludicrous, even a complete mockery, since they were dealing among themselves with the property of others just as if it had been their own.

But the Lord ordained it so for the best of reasons.

1. They might have cast away the hope of the promise and been content with their present state. Indeed, even though after the lot was cast they had full security for all that God had promised, they, by their own cowardice, discredited His words as far as it was in their power. Nor was it due to any merit of theirs that His truthfulness did not remain diminished and damaged. The allocation by lot must therefore have been for them a pledge of certain possession, in order to keep them always ready for it.

2. Those who happened to have their portion assigned in an enemy’s country, since they were living meanwhile as strangers on precarious hospitality beyond their own inheritance, must have acted like a kind of taskmasters, spurring on the others. And it surely implied excessive stupor to neglect and abandon what had been divinely assigned to them.

We now see why the whole land needed to be divided by lot, and each tribe’s territory allocated. It was also necessary that this should be done while Joshua was alive, because after his death the Israelites would have been less inclined to obedience, for none of his successors possessed sufficient authority for the execution of so difficult a task.

Moreover, as God had already commanded by the mouth of Moses that it be done, if Joshua had not performed the task committed to him, the whole work might have been ruined when the lawful minister was removed.

Although the exact time is not stated, it is still probable that because there was no hope of the people taking up arms again to extend their boundaries while Joshua remained alive, he then initiated the division of the land. He did this as if, by a solemn attestation, he were proclaiming and promising that the distribution would certainly be carried into effect, because the truth of God could not fail due to the death of any man.