18:1-3
The battles were almost at an end with “the country brought under their control”. However, seven of the tribes had yet to receive an inheritance. Joshua was not pleased with the situation, and was not pleased with the seven tribes, for the reason they had not received their inheritance yet was that they had not taken possession of it! There is an obvious parallel that can be drawn with the Christian life here. There are aspects of life that God has done His part, but we have failed to do our part. God does not have passive partners.
18:4-10
So Joshua gave the recalcitrant tribes instructions on what to do. These instructions were quite clear. The problem was not that the lands had not been conquered, but that the tribes hadn’t done anything about it. The Levites get their usual mention. The relevant tribes finally got on with the job, doing as Joshua had instructed them and the areas were allotted by lot.
18:11-19:51
We then get the allotments for the various tribes. The lists are not very exciting. There are only a couple of points of note (which I can see, which doesn't mean that there aren’t more). One is that part of the inheritance for Judah was given to Simeon. The other is that Joshua had his own allotment. Eleazar the priest and Joshua were in charge of assigning the land to the tribes (Num 34:17).
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