Listen, Jack, no malarkey! Here's the deal: Joshua 16 is all about the land that the Lord is giving to the half-tribe of Manasseh. They get a huge chunk of land that's east of the Jordan River, with some of the tribal boundaries given in detail. It's almost like the Lord is saying, "All right, Manasseh, this is your land. You folks better take care of it!" C'mon, man! My father used to say, "You take care of the land and it will take care of you!" And that's what these folks were doing!
So, we got the towns and the cities that the half-tribe of Manasseh took possession of, like Beth-shean and Taanach and Megiddo and Dor. And then we got the people that were living in those towns and cities, like the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. See here, Jack, these people had been living in these cities for a long time, like literally hundreds of years.
But then the Lord said to Manasseh, "I'm giving you this land, so you need to take it and make it your own." So, they did! They took these towns and cities, and they made them their own. And they drove out the Canaanites, and they made a covenant with the Gibeonites, and they got into some battles with the Philistines. I tell you what, it was an exciting time!
But then, the Lord said to Manasseh, "This is your land now. You need to take care of it." So, they did. They took the land and they made it their own. And they prospered in it. Or uh, you know, they did their best to, anyway.
So, that's Joshua 16. Not gonna happen that we're gonna see anything like that today! But my father used to say, "You take care of the land and it will take care of you." What was that? Excuse me, I think I'll take his word for it.