20 “The west side shallbe the Great Sea, from the southern boundary until one comes to a point opposite Hamath. This is the west side.
21 “Thus you shall adivide this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel.
22 It shall be that you will divide it by alot as an inheritance for yourselves, band for the strangers who dwell among you and who bear children among you. cThey shall be to you as native-born among the children of Israel; they shall have an inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.
23 And it shall be that in whatever tribe the stranger dwells, there you shall give him his inheritance,” says the Lord God.
to the strangers—It is altogether unprecedented under the old covenant, that "strangers" should have "inheritance" among the tribes. There would not be room locally within Canaan for more than the tribes. The literal sense must therefore be modified, as expressing that Gentiles are not to be excluded from settling among the covenant-people, and that spiritually their privileges are not to be less than those of Israel (Romans 10:12; Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 3:6; Colossians 3:11; Revelation 7:9-10). Still, "sojourneth," in Ezekiel 47:23, implies that in Canaan, the covenant people are regarded as at home, the strangers as settlers.
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