In the spring of 1400 b.c., aged commanders roll heavy limestone boulders into the hard dirt to mark tribal borders. The dry wind off the Arabah valley bakes the barren ridges of Canaan. Thirty years of continuous marching and siege warfare have left the tribal soldiers exhausted. Ultimate consolation arrives through a direct command from the Lord God of Israel to stop fighting and divide the conquered dirt.
Joshua stands old and stiff with years. The Lord tells him that vast tracts of Philistine and Sidonian territory remain unconquered. Nine tribes and one half tribe need permanent land to grow barley and graze cattle. Moses already assigned the eastern plateaus to Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh before he died. The tribe of Levi receives no dirt or farmland. The meat and grain offerings presented to God serve as their sole payment and livelihood.
A boundary stone is a heavy tool of civil law that turns wild frontier into taxable pasture. Men will fight harder for a surveyed acre with a recorded name than for a boundless wilderness. The borders drawn across these hills establish property rights that survive the death of the soldiers who conquered the ground. Even the unconquered valleys are assigned by lot so the next generation knows where to direct their plows and swords.
A man never truly owns a piece of earth until he knows exactly where his neighbors' fences end.
The division of the eastern plateaus established agricultural property lines that defined territorial trade routes for the next eight hundred years. The ancient borders carved into the rock outlived the kingdoms that built them.