Instructions about Land Remaining to Be Conquered: 13:1 Joshua’s age, estimated as ninety to one hundred, provides the chronological setting for two sections of the book (13:1; 23:1–2). The issues of age and of unconquered land are introduced when the LORD said to him, “You are very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over” (lit. very much land remains to be possessed). God delivers first-person instructions to Joshua, a direct oracle, reminding him that possessing the land has not ended. In his old age Joshua must depend on others to complete the conquest.

13:2–6 Areas dominated by the Philistines (five southern coastal cities), the Canaanites (coastal areas south of Lebanon), an unknown group (Amorites?) east of the Jordan (area of Og and Sihon), and the Gebalite…