THE PROMISED LAND - WHO GOT WHAT

Map of Israel, showing land allocated to the Twelve Tribes

'A Land of Milk and Honey':

• milk, meaning there were good pastures for milk-producing animals like goats and sheep
• honey, meaning there were plenty of flowering plants, ie there was fertile land suitable for cultivation.

WHO WERE THE TRIBES?

The original House of Joseph, described at the end of the Book of Genesis, was becoming divided into two groups named after his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Joshua's task, given to him by Moses, was to find land for them.

The clans were already grouped together into more or less separate tribes.

Gradually (not at once, since the ancient Song of Deborah names only ten tribes), these tribes split into ten, eleven, then twelve, named after Joseph, his full brother Benjamin (their mother was the beautiful but unhappy Rachel; her story is at BIBLE WOMEN: RACHEL) and nine of his half-brothers:

• the sons of the homely but fertile Leah: Levi, Simeon, Reuben, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun
• the sons of the servant woman/concubine Bilhah: Dan and Naphtali
• and Gad and Asher, the sons of Zipah, also a serving woman/concubine.

The story of this fruitful but complicated marriage is at BIBLE PEOPLE: RACHEL

The twelfth tribe would be the Tribe of Levi, the family group to which Moses had belonged. It was a special priestly tribe excluded from the territorial distribution.

Michelangelo, Sistine chapel, Jacob with Rachel and Leah

HOW THEY SETTLED IN THE LAND

Despite the violence and drama of the Book of Joshua, the settlement of Israel was probably a gradual process. In Joshua 13:1, Yahweh comments, when Joshua is already old, that 'much of the country remains to be occupied.' In the words of the psalmist, 'the people were few in the land, they wandered as strangers in the land of Canaan.' (Psalm 105:12)

In contrast, the Bible tells a story of relentless warfare between the Israelites and hostile Canaanites whose land they were trying to take over. But much of this story may be due to later feelings of hostility between the two groups, as the priests of both groups battled for power.

Historians now think that the initial settlement was largely peaceful. Conflict was the exception rather than the rule.

Why do they think this?

First of all, the Israelite herdsmen moved into largely uninhabited or sparsely populated country.

Secondly, when they were among the settled plains dwellers, they seem often to have reached some sort of accommodation, and even begun to settle down themselves. The story of the rape of Dinah, in which the Israelite herdsmen slaughter the townspeople, was recorded because it was exceptional, and not the norm.