Joshua 14:4

For the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim,.... For the birthright being forfeited by Reuben, was given to Joseph, who had the double portion, the privilege of the firstborn; by

For the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim: therefore they gave no part unto the Levites in the land, save cities to dwell in, with their suburbs for their cattle and for their substance.

Were two tribes, i.e. had the double portion, or the portion of two tribes, ,2, and therefore though Levi was excluded, there remained nine tribes and a half, was said , to be provided for in Canaan.

Joshua 14:4 For the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim: therefore they gave no part unto the Levites in the land, save cities to dwell [in], with their suburbs for their cattle and for their substance.Ver. 4. For the children of Joseph were two tribes.] And so both Joseph had a double portion, the privilege of the firstborn which Reuben had forefeited, and the number of twelve tribes was made up, notwithstanding the Levites were not reckoned. The Papists, to make up the number of ten commandments, when they have cashiered the second, as making utterly against their image worship, divide the last into two; so loath are heretics to have their asses’ ears seen. But Paul, who knew better than any of them the analysis of the law, calleth that last "the commandment," not commandments.

XIV. FOURTH OF THE BOOK. OF THE ON THE WEST OF JORDAN TO NINE TRIBES AND A HALF (Joshua 14-19, inclusive). (1) And these are the countries which . . . Eleazar . . . and Joshua . . . distributed.—Here we enter upon the record of the third portion of Joshua’s great work. He had (1) to bring Israel over Jordan; (2) to conquer the land; (3) to divide it among the tribes. Eleazar . . . and Joshua.—Not Joshua and Eleazar, observe. This is in strict accordance with the law of Moses, and the form of government which he was ordered to establish in Israel, to continue after his death. See Numbers 27, where, in answer to Moses prayer for a shepherd in Israel, the Lord says, “Take thee Joshua (here a figure of the great “Shepherd, the stone of Israel”), and lay thine hand upon him; and (Numbers 27:21) he (Joshua) shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim before the Lord; at his (Eleazar’s) word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he (Joshua) and all the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation.” (Comp. also Deuteronomy 17:9 : “Thou shalt come unto the priests (at the place which the Lord shall choose), and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment.”) In these passages we see delineated the nature of the government established in Israel by Moses, to continue until there was a king. The priest had the legislative authority, the executive power rested with the judge. Of these judges, Joshua stands first; those who followed, until Samuel, held the same relation to the priest. Joshua was also a prophet. Samuel (a prophet likewise) established a third power in the constitution, and made the supreme executive power continuous and hereditary, giving to Israel a form of government by prophet, priest, and king. For the present, however, Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun (the answer to Moses’ prayer for a shepherd) were the rulers. “To lead them out and to bring them in” was what Moses asked that the shepherd of Israel might do. Joshua had led them out to victory; he was now to bring in each of the tribes into the home that the Lord had chosen for it in the promised land. And the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel.—These men are all named in Numbers 34:16-28 : one from every tribe, in addition to Eleazar and Joshua. The names were then given by God to Moses, as the narrative states in Numbers 34:16-19. But is it not remarkable that before the land was conquered, in view of all the battles that were to be fought before it could be divided, the names of the men who were to divide it should be revealed? Man could not have arranged it so.

Verse 4. The children of Joseph were two tribes] This was ascertained by the prophetic declaration of their grandfather Jacob, Genesis 48:5-6; and as Levi was taken out of the tribes for the service of the sanctuary, one of these sons of Joseph came in his place, and Joseph was treated as the first-born of Jacob, in the place of Reuben, who forfeited his right of primogeniture. With their suburbs for their cattle] For the meaning of this passage the reader is referred to Clarke's note on "Numbers 35:6".

4. For the children of Joseph] There would have been only eight tribes and a half left, but the two sons of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, had been adopted by Jacob as his sons (Genesis 48:5), and were reckoned as tribes, and therefore there were still nine tribes and a half to receive their inheritance. therefore they gave] Rather, and they gave. The repetition of these statements respecting the Levites is not due “to the redundancy of the Semitic style,” but is intended to shew the reader that the instructions left by Moses (Numbers 18:20; Numbers 35:2) had been literally and exactly fulfilled. with their suburbs] i. e. pasture-ground within the precincts of the cities, or certain districts round them in which their cattle might graze. These “pasture-grounds,” rendered by Bunsen “commons,” and in Switzerland called All-menden, are incorrectly translated in our version “suburbs,” from the Vulgate suburbana; “suburbis of hem to hous beestis and his feeld beestis to be fed,” Wyclif.

4. Joseph… two tribes — So making up the twelve tribes without reckoning the tribe of Levi, who were to have no allotment, but were to be scattered among the tribes as judicial and ecclesiastical