In | Tribal Allotments in Joshua

Like genealogies in the Bible, these tribal allotment lists may seem a mere formality. For ancient Israelites, they were perhaps the most important part of the book. They determined not only where their homes would be, but also that of their sons and daughters, their grandchildren and great grandchildren and many more generations to come. Allotments were sacred, with significant economic consequences.

The allotments remind us that the Bible was not just a religious text, but also a civic charter. At this time, there was no city hall nor Temple to store records, titles or deeds. The words of this book would have been the only authoritative claims to the land. 

These exhaustive lists of tribal boundary lines are also a reminder that God keeps His promises. Every tribe in Israel, even the smallest and least significant, received an allotment. There was no Israelite who did not have a tangible and immediate claim on God’s fulfillment of His promises: 

So the Lord gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they possessed it and lived in it. And the Lord gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hand. Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.
Joshua 21:43-45 (NASB)

Finally, the allotments were a significant way for God to regulate Israel’s economic life to maintain an equitable equilibrium between the tribes, clans and families. One of the objectives in planting Israel in the Promised Land was to show the world a different way to live (Deuteronomy 4). That included life without the tyranny of courses (Deut 17:14ff)—something Israel unfortunately did not avoid (1 Kings 21). 

Reference: David M. Howard Jr., Joshua, 1999, pp. 316-317.