Joshua 17:14

"And the children of Joseph spake unto Joshua, saying, Why has thou given me but one lot and one part for an inheritance, seeing I am a great people, forasmuch as hitherto Jehovah hath blessed me. And Joshua said unto them, If thou be a great people get thee up to the forest and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and that of the Rephaim; since the hill-country of Ephraim is too narrow for thee. And the children of Joseph said, The hill-country is not enough for us: and all the Canaanites that dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both they who are in Bethshean and its towns, and they who are in the valley of Jezreel. And Joshua spake unto the house of Joseph, even to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, "Thou art a great people, and hast great power; thou shalt not have one lot only: but the hill-country shall be thine; for though it is a forest, thou shalt cut it down, and the goings out thereof shall be thine; for thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong."

Joshua himself was a Josephite, but if his kinsfolk thought to intimidate him by a demand for more land, they certainly were frustrated. The great heart of the plain of Esdraelon had already been assigned them, that being the richest part of Palestine, but they called it "one lot." Joshua corrected that "slander" by saying, "It is not `one lot only' (Joshua 17:17). Behold it includes all that territory in the hill-country and that vast forest that you should cut down!" Joshua said, in effect, "Oh yes, of course you are a great people! Get up and prove it by driving out the Canaanites!"

In this arrogant presumption of the Josephites, "Again we have a sign of that deep undercurrent of consistency which underlies our history, and is a guarantee of its authenticity."[20] As Dummelow said, "This throws light on the character of the children of Joseph. It shows the spirit of self-aggrandizement and self-importance."[21] Furthermore, it shows their willingness to torture the facts. "We are a great people ..." This was hardly borne out by the facts. "The census of Numbers 26 shows that they were not greatly more numerous than the single tribe of Judah; and half of them had already been settled east of Jordan; the remainder could hardly have been any stronger than the Danites or the Issacharites."[22] Woudstra stated that, "Some of the other tribes were actually more numerous."[23]

"The plain of Jezreel ..." (Joshua 17:16). "This is also called the plain of Esdraelon, the great fertile plain of central Palestine; it extended from Carmel on the west to the hills of Gilboa, little Hermon, and Tabor on the east, a distance of full sixteen miles, with a breadth of about twelve miles."[24]

"The hill-country shall be thine; for though it is a forest, thou shalt cut it down ... (Joshua 17:18)." This reveals that the Josephites had two options: (1) a vast forested area of the hill-country assigned to them, an area which, according to Rea, "was vacant in 1400 B.C.,"[25] and which required only that the land be cleared and inhabited, or (2) drive out the Canaanites who occupied that powerful string of cities along the Esdraelon! The Josephites rejected: (1) on the basis that it took alot of hard work to clear the land! And they rejected (2) on the basis that the Canaanites possessed superior military equipment, the chariots. They had no right to reject either of these options.

As regards the first option, they were simply too lazy to do it, and, as regards the second option, "They saw only the chariots of iron, not the lush pastures and farmlands of the valley of Jezreel (Esdraelon), which was theirs by right of promise and which Joshua urged them to take. What a contrast was their lack of faith to the bold, intrepid spirit of Caleb (Numbers 13:30; Joshua 14:6-15)."[26] Plummer was correct in the affirmation that the only reason the Josephites did not drive out the Canaanites and thus possess their possessions, "was that they did not trust in God, but preferred an unworthy compromise with neighbors who, however rich in warlike material, were sunk in sensuality and sloth."[27]