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WHEN Moses was taken away from among men, in the manner already described,
and when all the solemnities belonging to the mourning for him were finished,
and the sorrow for him was over, Joshua commanded the multitude to get
themselves ready for an expedition. He also sent spies to Jericho to discover
what forces they had, and what were their intentions; but he put his camp
in order, as intending soon to pass over Jordan at a proper season. And
calling to him the rulers of the tribe of Reuben, and the governors of
the tribe of Gad, and [the half tribe of] Manasseh, for half of this tribe
had been permitted to have their habitation in the country of the Amorites,
which was the seventh part of the land of Canaan, 1
he put them in mind what they had promised Moses; and he exhorted them
that, for the sake of the care that Moses had taken of them who had never
been weary of taking pains for them no, not when he was dying, and for
the sake of the public welfare, they would prepare themselves, and readily
perform what they had promised; so he took fifty thousand of them who followed
him, and he marched from Abila to Jordan, sixty furlongs.
1 The Amorites were one of the seven nations of Canaan. Hence Reland is willing to suppose that Josephus did not here mean that their land beyond Jordan was a seventh part of the whole land of Canaan, but meant the Arnorites as a seventh nation. His reason is, that Josephus, as well as our Bible, generally distinguish the land beyond Jordan from the land of Canaan; nor can it be denied, that in strictness they were all fercot: yet after two tribes and a half of the twelve tribes came to inherit it, it might in a general way altogether be well included under the land of Canaan, or Palestine, or Judea, of which we have a clear example here before us in Josephus, whose words evidently imply, that taking the whole land of Canaan, or that inhabited by all the twelve tribes together, and parting it into seven parts, the part beyond Jordan was in quantity of ground one seventh part of the whole. And this well enough agrees to Reland's own map of that country, although this land beyond Jordan was so peculiarly fruitful, and good for pasturage, as the two tribes and a half took notice, Numbers 32:1, 4, 16, that it maintained about a fifth part of the whole people.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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