Joshua 1:15

15. Until the Lord have given Observe how early Joshua inculcates the idea of national unity. Perhaps he already had forebodings of the alienation of the eastern from the western tribes, in consequence of the deep trench of the Jordanic valley, the modern Ghor. It is an historic fact that this geographic insulation caused the eastern tribes to cherish a national feeling far less intense than that which animated their western brethren. Reuben, “unstable as water,” (Genesis 49:4,) in consequence of his separation from the main body of the nation became a roving Bedouin tribe.