And the seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families.
The book was written in large part by Israel's leader Joshua when he was about eighty years old, after he had led Israel through the Jordan, and it records his work dividing the land and setting Israel in a fair way to conquer every foe and find the promised rest with the Captain of Jehovah's hosts present with him for victory. The verse belongs to the account in Joshua chapters 11-21 of the tribes receiving and settling their inheritance despite Israel's lack of faith and slowness, with chapter 21 affirming that God fulfilled all He had promised. In the division of the Promised Land the seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan, assigning its portion according to its families.
The verse contains one of seventy-six Old Testament uses of the Hebrew word goh-rahl translated lot. Lot is what in human speech is called chance, hazard, or fortune but in strictness is the determination of Providence, by which the fate or portion of one is determined, so that dividing the land by lot was providential direction rather than mere chance. In one use lot here means the outcome determined by casting and drawing lots, not the region or inherited territory itself. In another use it refers to the allotted portion itself, with the seventh lot assigning the territory to Dan, as an example of goh-rahl used for an allotment made by lot.
Taken together with all the other uses of lot, the verse proves that Daniel stands in his lot in the decisions of the judgment of the righteous dead, not in the lot of his inheritance at the end of the 1335 days. The inheritance thus allotted to Dan lay next to Philistine country, and Zorah, Samson's early home within that inheritance, was close to Philistine settlements.
The book was written in large part by Israel's leader Joshua when he was about eighty years old, after he had led Israel through the Jordan, and it records his work dividing the land and setting Israel in a fair way to conquer every foe and find the promised rest with the Captain of Jehovah's hosts present with him for victory. The verse belongs to the account in Joshua chapters 11-21 of the tribes receiving and settling their inheritance despite Israel's lack of faith and slowness, with chapter 21 affirming that God fulfilled all He had promised. In the division of the Promised Land the seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan, assigning its portion according to its families.
The verse contains one of seventy-six Old Testament uses of the Hebrew word goh-rahl translated lot. Lot is what in human speech is called chance, hazard, or fortune but in strictness is the determination of Providence, by which the fate or portion of one is determined, so that dividing the land by lot was providential direction rather than mere chance. In one use lot here means the outcome determined by casting and drawing lots, not the region or inherited territory itself. In another use it refers to the allotted portion itself, with the seventh lot assigning the territory to Dan, as an example of goh-rahl used for an allotment made by lot.
Taken together with all the other uses of lot, the verse proves that Daniel stands in his lot in the decisions of the judgment of the righteous dead, not in the lot of his inheritance at the end of the 1335 days. The inheritance thus allotted to Dan lay next to Philistine country, and Zorah, Samson's early home within that inheritance, was close to Philistine settlements.