Question I. Why did the Judaic and Josephine tribes cast lots first of all, and receive [their] portion [first]?

The lot of these tribes came out, by the divine nod, before the others. First: because, as indeed it seems to Lyranus, these were worthier than the others. Second: because, as Abulensis says, the testament of the Patriarch Jacob (ch. 49) had insinuated this very thing. Third: because, as it seems to others, these were the first of all [to be] solicitous about receiving the inheritance, and had asked that the partition be instituted. Fourth: because, according to Masius, these tribes were of all the fittest [in] that they would be a guard to the camps clinging at Gilgal — on the south [side] indeed Judaea, but on the north the Josephine [tribe]. A fifth cause too can be added: [namely] that those two who alone, of so great a number of Israelites, had entered that land — the praised, great, and God-beloved Princes — led their origin from these tribes: from Judaea, Caleb; from the Josephic [tribes], Joshua. So, therefore, the Lord directed and governed the lot-urn, that those tribes should be sent first into possession to which — for the causes already said — the first [lots] seemed deservedly to be owed; but the last of these causes are all contained in the first, and are, as it were, a certain explanation of it.