Commentary - Joshua 17:14-18

Bird's-eye view

In this brief but potent exchange, the powerful tribes of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, come to Joshua with a complaint that is half-blessing and half-unbelief. They correctly identify that God has blessed them with great numbers, but they incorrectly conclude that their assigned inheritance is therefore insufficient. Their complaint reveals a carnal calculus; they are measuring their inheritance by what is easily possessed, not by what God has promised. Joshua, a wise and shrewd leader, turns their complaint back on them, transforming it from a grievance into a commission. He essentially agrees with their premise, "You are a great people," but draws a radically different conclusion: "Therefore, go take more land." He challenges them to see their numerousness not as a problem for their allotment, but as the God-given resource for conquering the remaining territory. The passage is a masterful lesson in leadership and a powerful exhortation against the kind of faithless complaining that sees obstacles, like forests and iron chariots, as final barriers rather than as opportunities for faithful conquest.

The core issue is a failure of vision. The sons of Joseph see the trees, but not the timber. They see the iron chariots, but not the God who drowns entire armies in the sea. Joshua calls them to stop looking at their circumstances through the lens of their own limitations and to start looking at their obstacles through the lens of God's power and promises. He calls them to take up the axe and the sword, to work and to war, and in so doing, to possess the fullness of their inheritance. It is a call to robust, muscular faith, the kind that takes God at His word and gets to work.

Outline

Context In Joshua

This passage occurs in the third major section of the book of Joshua, which deals with the allocation of the conquered land among the tribes of Israel (Josh. 13-21). The initial, large-scale military campaigns that broke the back of the Canaanite resistance are largely complete (Josh. 6-12). Now, the task is to divide the inheritance and for each tribe to take possession of its specific territory, which included mopping-up operations against remaining pockets of enemy resistance. The tribes of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, were descended from Joseph and had been given a double portion through Jacob's blessing. They were a large, powerful, and central force in Israel. Their complaint here is significant because it threatens to introduce a spirit of discontent and faithlessness right at the crucial moment of settlement. Joshua's response is therefore not just a private word to one family group; it is a public lesson for all of Israel on what it means to translate God's promises into lived reality through faith, courage, and hard work.

Key Issues

No Room for Whining Warriors

There is a kind of piety that loves to talk about God's blessings right up until the moment that those blessings require something of us. The sons of Joseph come to Joshua with their chests puffed out, "Yahweh has thus far blessed us," but their hands are in their pockets. Their blessing has become the ground of their complaint. This is the perennial temptation of the comfortable. We want the inheritance without the fight, the crown without the cross, the promised land without the giants or the iron chariots.

Joshua will have none of it. His response is pure godly wisdom. He does not dispute their premise; he embraces it and turns it into a sword. "You are numerous? Good. That means you have many hands to swing axes and wield swords. Get to it." Joshua understands that God's blessings are not pillows for us to rest on, but tools for us to work with. A large family is not a larger mouth to feed, but a larger army to field. God gives us strength, not so we can admire our biceps in the mirror, but so we can go tear down strongholds. The complaint of the Josephites is the whine of a people who have forgotten their calling. They were not called to receive a manicured estate, but to conquer a kingdom. Joshua reminds them who they are by telling them what they must do.

Verse by Verse Commentary

14 Then the sons of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, “Why have you given me only one lot and one portion for an inheritance, since I am a numerous people whom Yahweh has thus far blessed?”

The sons of Joseph begin with a truth wrapped in a complaint. It is true that they are a numerous people. It is true that Yahweh has blessed them. Jacob's prophecy over them was for them to grow into a multitude (Gen. 48:16). But notice how they frame it. Their blessing has become a burden in their eyes. Their question, "Why have you given me...?" is directed at Joshua, but it is a thinly veiled complaint against God's providence. They see their numbers as a problem that Joshua's division of land has failed to accommodate. They are thinking like consumers looking at a map, not like soldiers looking at a mission. They want their inheritance handed to them, fully cleared and ready for settlement. They have a theology of entitlement, not a theology of conquest.

15 And Joshua said to them, “If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest and clear a place for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the Rephaim, since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you.”

Joshua's reply is brilliant. He doesn't argue with their self-assessment. He takes their "since" and turns it into an "if...then" proposition that puts the responsibility squarely back on their shoulders. "If you are as great as you say you are, then act like it." He points them to the forest. A forest is an obstacle, to be sure. It requires hard work, sweat, and determination to clear. But a forest is also full of resources. It is potential waiting for an axe. Joshua is telling them that their inheritance is not just the land that is already clear, but also the land they have the capacity to subdue. He is calling them to create the space they need through their own God-given strength and numbers. He is telling them to stop complaining and start chopping.

16 And the sons of Joseph said, “The hill country is not enough for us, and all the Canaanites who live in the valley land have chariots of iron, both those who are in Beth-shean and its towns and those who are in the valley of Jezreel.”

Their response reveals the true nature of their problem. It is not really about space; it is about fear. They pivot from the problem of the forest to the problem of the Canaanites. The chariots of iron represent the pinnacle of Canaanite military technology. They were the ancient equivalent of tanks, formidable on the flat plains of the valley. This is the real reason they are complaining about their "one lot" in the hills. They don't want to go down into the valleys and face the enemy's strength. Their complaint about a lack of room is an excuse to cover their lack of faith. They see the obstacle as insurmountable. They have forgotten that the God who toppled the walls of Jericho is not intimidated by iron.

17 Then Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, saying, “You are a numerous people and have great power; you shall not have one lot only,

Joshua does not accept their excuse. Instead, he doubles down on his initial charge. He begins by affirming their identity again, but this time not as a conditional "if," but as a declarative statement: "You are a numerous people and have great power." He is reminding them of who God has made them to be. He is speaking faith into their fear. Then he agrees with their complaint, but not in the way they wanted. "You shall not have one lot only." He is telling them that their vision is too small. They were complaining about having only one lot, and Joshua says, "You are right, you shouldn't have just one lot. You are a great people, so go take more."

18 but the hill country shall be yours. For though it is a forest, you shall clear it, and to its farthest borders it shall be yours; for you shall dispossess the Canaanites, even though they have chariots of iron and even though they are strong.”

Here is the climax of Joshua's leadership. He gives them a direct command rooted in a firm promise. He addresses both of their excuses head-on. The forest? "You shall clear it." The strong Canaanites with their iron chariots? "You shall dispossess them." The outcome is not presented as a possibility but as a certainty. Notice the logic: the inheritance will be theirs for or because they will take it. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world, but faith swings an axe and a sword. Joshua commands them to act in accordance with God's promise and their own God-given strength. The chariots are iron, yes, but God's will is iron-er. Their strength is great, yes, but God's power is greater. He sends them away with a commission, not a coddling.

Application

We are all sons of Joseph. God has blessed his people in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. We are a numerous people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. And yet, how often do we come to God with the complaint that our "lot" is too small? How often do we look at the blessings God has given us and see them as a problem instead of a resource? We have been given great power in the gospel, and yet we look at the forests of cultural decay and the iron chariots of secular opposition, and we conclude that the task is too great.

Joshua's word to Joseph is God's word to the Church today. Stop whining. If you are who God says you are, then act like it. The obstacles before us, whether they are personal sins, relational difficulties, or cultural mountains, are not excuses for inaction. They are the very substance of our inheritance, waiting to be conquered. God has not promised us an easy road; He has promised us victory. He has given us the axe of His Word and the sword of the Spirit. The call is to get up, go out, and start clearing the forest. It is to engage the enemy, not counting the cost or the strength of his chariots, but trusting in the captain of our salvation, the greater Joshua, who has already secured the ultimate victory. Let us not be a people who complain about the size of our inheritance, but a people who by faith expand its borders to the farthest corners of the earth.