John Calvin Commentary Joshua 13:15

"And Moses gave unto the tribe of the children of Reuben according to their families." — Joshua 13:15 (ASV)

Concerning the passage And Moses gave unto the tribe..., and so on, what he seemed to have stated with sufficient clarity, he now follows up more fully in detail. This was done not only so that the reading might incite the people to gratitude—with the divine goodness recorded in public documents and, so to speak, constantly before their eyes—but also so that each person might enjoy his inheritance without harassment and quarreling.

For we know how ingenious human greed is in devising pretexts for litigation, so that no one can possess his right in safety unless a plain and clear definition of his right makes it impossible to call it into question.

That country had been given without casting lots. It was therefore open to others to object that the just proportion had not been maintained, and that the inequality needed to be corrected.

Therefore, so that no inopportune dispute might ever disturb the public peace, the boundaries were everywhere fixed by God's authority, and disputes of every kind were removed by establishing landmarks.

God does not by one single expression merely assign the whole kingdom of Sihon to the tribe of Reuben; instead, He traces their outermost boundary from Aroer to the banks of the Arnon. Thus, making an entire circuit, He narrows or expands their territory so as not to leave the possession of a single acre ambiguous. Moreover, how useful this exact delineation was can be learned from secular history, where we frequently encounter not only resentment-causing but also destructive disputes among neighbors regarding their boundaries.

We may add that the care the Lord graciously undertook in providing for His people, and in fostering mutual peace among them, demonstrates His truly fatherly love, since He omitted nothing that might contribute to their tranquility. Indeed, if such provision had not been made so early, they might have been consumed by internal quarrels.

I again ask my readers to excuse me if I do not strive painstakingly in describing the location of towns, and am not even particular about names. Indeed, I will readily allow those names, which it was considered appropriate to leave as proper nouns in Hebrew, to be treated as adaptable words and altered sufficiently to give them a Latin form.

It is noteworthy that when the land of the Midianites is mentioned, the princes who ruled over it are called "Satraps of Sihon." This informs us that they shared in the same overthrow because they had involved themselves in an unjust war and belonged to the government of Sihon, a declared enemy.

And to make it still clearer that they perished justly, it is recounted that among the slain was Balaam, by whose tongue they (the Midianites) had attempted to wound the Israelites more severely than by a thousand swords. This is as if to say that in that slaughter, the Israelites found the very banner of hostility under which those enemies had declared themselves at open war with them.

When it is said that "the Jordan was a boundary, and a boundary," to prevent useless repetition, we should interpret this to mean that the Jordan was their boundary according to its full extent and limits.