Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Borders and the Foreigner's Inheritance
Ezekiel 47:13-23
13 The Lord Yahweh says: “This shall be the border by which you shall divide the land for inheritance according to the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph shall have two portions. · WEB
The boundaries are drawn and the tribes allotted, and then resident foreigners are given land as though they had been born in it.
The borders are traced in the manner of a survey — north from the great sea by Hamath and Zedad, east between Hauran and Damascus along the Jordan, south from Tamar to the waters of Meribah and the brook of Egypt, west the great sea. The land described is the territory promised to the fathers, and the allocation begins with a note that Joseph counts as two portions, which keeps the number at twelve after Levi is set apart.
What is said about the method is short: you shall divide this land to yourselves according to the tribes of Israel, by lot. Casting lots removes negotiation, and it removes the advantage of the strong sheep of chapter 34 who pushed the weak away from the pasture. The allotment in the next chapter runs in parallel strips across the land from east to west, each tribe given equal frontage, and that geometry is the same argument in another form.
The provision that follows is the most surprising sentence in the last nine chapters, and it comes without preamble. The land is divided to you and to the aliens who live among you, who will father children among you. Resident foreigners with families in the land receive a share. And the terms are stated twice so that they cannot be softened: Then they shall be to you as the native-born among the children of Israel. They shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.
Inheritance was the one thing a stranger could not have. The land was allotted by tribe and descent, and a foreigner could live in Israel, keep the law, and still own nothing that passed to his children. This verse ends that. And the closing clause makes it administrative rather than aspirational: In whatever tribe the stranger lives, there you shall give him his inheritance. The tribe he happens to be settled in is the tribe that provides it, out of its own portion.
That placement matters. Chapter 44 had barred foreigners uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh from the sanctuary, and a reader could take the vision to be closing ranks. Three chapters later the same vision hands a share of the promised land to the foreigner living in it. The two are consistent, and together they say what the qualification actually is. What excluded a man was never his ancestry.
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