Joshua 13 · a question people ask
"The children of Israel didn’t drive out the Geshurites, nor the Maacathites" (13:13). Was that a failure?
The verse doesn't say why, and it passes no judgment. It only reports: "Nevertheless the children of Israel didn’t drive out the Geshurites, nor the Maacathites: but Geshur and Maacath live within Israel to this day" (13:13). In Deuteronomy the same two peoples mark the edge of the east: Jair "took all the region of Argob, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites" (Deuteronomy 3:14), and here the east includes "the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites" (13:11). The book goes on to note others who stayed, each in its own words: the Jebusites, whom "the children of Judah couldn’t drive… out" (15:63); the Canaanites in Gezer, whom "They didn’t drive out" (16:10); and in cities of Manasseh, where "the Canaanites would dwell in that land" (17:12). Near the end Joshua warns Israel about "these nations, these that remain among you" (23:7): if Israel holds fast to them, "they shall be a snare and a trap to you" (23:13). The book doesn't say more about Geshur and Maacath than 13:13.
The verses
“and Gilead, and the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan to Salecah;”
“Nevertheless the children of Israel didn’t drive out the Geshurites, nor the Maacathites: but Geshur and Maacath live within Israel to this day.”
“Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called them, even Bashan, after his own name, Havvoth Jair, to this day.)”
“As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah couldn’t drive them out; but the Jebusites live with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.”