⁵ tn Or “allotted.”

¹ tn Heb “and the allotted portions of Manasseh fell out ten.”

² tn Grk “the ones allotted,” referring to those God has given over to their care.

² tn Heb “Come up with me into our allotted land and let us attack the Canaanites.”

² sn “This land” refers to the trans-Jordanian lands allotted to these tribes.

¹ tn Heb “did not assign to them”; NASB, NRSV “had not allotted to them.”

¹ tn The expression “allotted by God” interprets the simple prepositional phrase in the text: “with/from God.”

² tn Heb “and the territory of their allotment went out between the sons of Judah and the sons of Joseph.”

¹ tn Heb “Joshua gave it to the tribes of Israel as a possession according to their allotted portions.”

³ tn Heb “and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their allotted portions by their tribes.”

² sn They have no allotment or inheritance with you. See note on the word “inheritance” in Deut 10:9.

¹ sn The tribe from which the Davidic prince would come is given the most prestigious allotment (see Gen 49:8-12).

¹ tc Heb “the portion of his inheritance.” The LXX and Smr add “Israel” and BHS suggests the reconstruction: “The Lord’s allotment is Jacob, the portion of his inheritance is Israel” (cf. NAB). While providing good parallelism, it destroys a fine chiastic structure: “allotment” (a), “his people” (b), “Jacob (b’), and “inheritance” (a’).

³ sn They retreated. This could refer to the northern tribes’ failure to conquer completely their allotted territory (see Judg 1), or it could refer generally to the typical consequence (military defeat) of their sin (see vv. 10-11).

¹ tn The parallel passage in Josh 21:17 adds “Gibeon and its pasturelands” (cf. NAB, NIV, NCV, NLT). The words “they were allotted” are supplied in the translation for both clarity and stylistic reasons.

¹ sn Aroer. Now known as ʿAraʾir on the northern edge of the Arnon river, Aroer marked the southern limit of Moab and, later, of the allotment of the tribe of Reuben (Josh 13:9, 16).

⁴ sn The word חֹק (khoq) probably means “allotted portion of food” as before, but some suggest it means the task that is allotted to the servants, meaning that the wise woman gets up early enough to give out the work assignments (Tg. Prov 31:15, RSV, NRSV, TEV, NLT). That is possible, but seems an unnecessary direction for the line to take. Others, however, simply wish to delete this last colon, leaving two cola and not three, but that is unwarranted.

¹ sn Levi has no allotment or inheritance. As the priestly tribe, Levi would have no land allotment except for forty-eight towns set apart for their use (Num 35:1-8; Josh 21:1-42). But theirs was a far greater inheritance, for the Lord himself was their apportionment, that is, service to him would be their full-time and lifelong privilege (Num 18:20-24; Deut 18:2; Josh 13:33).

¹ sn No one will assign you land in the Lord’s community. When judgment passes and the people are restored to the land, those greedy ones who disregarded the ancient land allotments will not be allowed to participate in the future redistribution of the land.

² sn The Lord is sovereign over the nations and has allotted each of them their lands. See Deut 2:5 (Edom); 2:9 (Moab); 2:19 (Ammon). He promised to restore not only his own people Israel to their land (Jer 32:37), but also Moab (Jer 48:47) and Ammon (Jer 49:6).