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Joshua 17 · a question people ask

Couldn't they drive the Canaanites out, or didn't they?

In the text

The chapter uses both kinds of words, and a promise. First, "the children of Manasseh couldn’t drive out the inhabitants of those cities" (17:12). Then, once Israel "had grown strong", they "put the Canaanites to forced labor, and didn’t utterly drive them out" (17:13). And at the end Joshua tells the house of Joseph, "you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong" (17:18). Judges says of the same cities, "Manasseh didn’t drive out" (Judges 1:27), and of Judah in the valley, "he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron" (Judges 1:19), where the Hebrew has no separate word for could. The LORD had warned through Moses, "if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those you let remain of them will be like pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides" (Numbers 33:55), and the LORD had said, "Little by little I will drive them out from before you" (Exodus 23:30). Joshua 17 records what happened and what Joshua promised; it doesn't pass a verdict of its own on 17:12-13. Judges 2:1-3 records what the LORD's angel said to Israel afterwards.

The verses

“Yet the children of Manasseh couldn’t drive out the inhabitants of those cities; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land. When the children of Israel had grown strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, and didn’t utterly drive them out.”
Joshua 17:12-13 · World English Bible
“but the hill country shall be yours. Although it is a forest, you shall cut it down, and it’s farthest extent shall be yours; for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong.””
Joshua 17:18 · World English Bible
“The LORD was with Judah, and drove out the inhabitants of the hill country; for he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.”
Judges 1:19 · World English Bible
“Manasseh didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shean and its towns, nor Taanach and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land.”
Judges 1:27 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Joshua 17

Joshua 17: Not one lot only

Joshua 17 keeps a promise made in the wilderness: five sisters reminded Eleazar and Joshua, "The LORD commanded Moses to give us an inheritance", and got it (17:4). And when a numerous people complained of one lot, Joshua gave them more, and the work to go with it: a forest to clear (17:15, 17:18), with the verb of "God created" in Genesis 1:1.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions