And Joshua said to them, “If you are a numerous people, go up by yourselves to the forest, and there clear ground for yourselves in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you.”
Here, I. The children of Joseph quarrel with their lot; if they had had any just cause to quarrel with it, we have reason to think Joshua would have relieved them, by adding to it, or altering it, which it does not appear he did.
Commenting on Joshua 17:14-18
And Joshua answered them,.... By retorting their own argument upon them: if thou be a great people; which he does not deny, as they were for numbers and power: then get thee up to the wood country; which was near them, and within their borders, and lay on hills and mountains, perhaps the mountains of Gilboa, and therefore are bid to go up: and cut...
THE CHILDREN OF JOSEPH ASK FOR ANOTHER LOT. (Jos 17:14-18) the children of Joseph spake unto Joshua--The two tribes join in laying a complaint before the leader, as to the narrow boundaries of their allotment and its insufficiency to be the residence of tribes so vastly increased. But Joshua's answer was full of wisdom as well as patriotism.
Commenting on Joshua 17:14-18