Joshua 17:3 - Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

Joshua 17:3

The Other Half-Tribe of Manasseh (West)

1 There was also a lot for the tribe of Manasseh, for he was the ^afirstborn of Joseph: namely for ^bMachir the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, because he was a man of war; therefore he was given ^cGilead and Bashan.

2 And there was a lot for ^athe rest of the children of Manasseh according to their families: ^bfor the children of Abiezer, the children of Helek, ^cthe children of Asriel, the children of Shechem, ^dthe children of Hepher, and the children of Shemida; these were the male children of Manasseh the son of Joseph according to their families.

3 But ^aZelophehad the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but only daughters. And these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

4 And they came near before ^aEleazar the priest, before Joshua the son of Nun, and before the rulers, saying, ^b“The Lord commanded Moses to give us an¹ inheritance among our brothers.” Therefore, according to the commandment of the Lord, he gave them an inheritance among their father’s brothers.

5 Ten shares fell to ^aManasseh, besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, which were on the other side of the Jordan,

6 because the daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance among his sons; and the rest of Manasseh’s sons had the land of Gilead.

7 And the territory of Manasseh was from Asher to ^aMichmethath, that lies east of Shechem; and the border went along south to the inhabitants of En Tappuah.

8 Manasseh had the land of Tappuah, but ^aTappuah on the border of Manasseh belonged to the children of Ephraim.

Commentaries:

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

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Joshua 17:1-6

LOT OF MANASSEH. (Joshua 17:1-6)

There was also a lot for the tribe of Manasseh—Ephraim was mentioned, as the more numerous and powerful branch of the family of Joseph (Genesis 48:19-20); but Manasseh still retained the right of primogeniture and had a separate inheritance assigned.

Machir—his descendants.

the father of Gilead—Though he had a son of that name (Numbers 26:29; Numbers 27:1), yet, as is evident from the use of the Hebrew article, reference is made, not to the person, but the province of Gilead. "Father" here means lord or possessor of Gilead. This view is confirmed by the fact that it was not Machir, but his descendants, who subdued Gilead and Bashan (Numbers 32:41; Deuteronomy 3:13-15). These Machirites had their portion on the east side of Jordan. The western portion of land, allotted to the tribe of Manasseh, was divided into ten portions because the male descendants who had sons consisted of five families, to which, consequently, five shares were given; and the sixth family, namely, the posterity of Hepher, being all women, the five daughters of Zelophehad were, on application to the valuators, endowed each with an inheritance in land (see on Numbers 27:4).

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Joshua 17:1-6

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