Joshua 18

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

The land divided at Shiloh

¹ Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled at Shiloh, and they set up the tent of meeting there; and the land was subdued before them. ² But there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes who had not yet divided their inheritance.

³ So Joshua said to the children of Israel, "How long will you be slack about going in to take possession of the land which Yahweh, the Elohim of your fathers, has given you? ⁴ Choose for yourselves three men from each tribe, and I will send them; they shall arise and walk through the land, and write a description of it according to their inheritance, and come back to me. ⁵ They shall divide it into seven portions. Judah shall stay in its territory on the south, and the house of Joseph shall stay in their territory on the north. ⁶ You shall write a description of the land in seven portions and bring it here to me, and I will cast lots for you here before Yahweh our Elohim. ⁷ For the Levites have no portion among you, for the priesthood of Yahweh is their inheritance. And Gad, Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan on the east, which Moses the servant of Yahweh gave them."

⁸ So the men arose and went; and Joshua commanded those who went to write a description of the land, saying, "Go and walk through the land and write a description of it, and come back to me; and I will cast lots for you here before Yahweh in Shiloh." ⁹ So the men went and passed through the land, and wrote a description of it by cities in seven portions in a book; and they came to Joshua at the camp at Shiloh. ¹⁰ And Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before Yahweh, and there Joshua divided the land to the children of Israel according to their divisions.

The inheritance of Benjamin

¹¹ The lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up by their clans, and the territory of their lot lay between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph. ¹² On the north side their border began at the Jordan; then the border went up to the slope north of Jericho, and went up through the hill country westward, and it ended at the wilderness of Beth-aven. ¹³ From there the border passed on toward Luz, to the slope of Luz southward, that is, Bethel; then the border went down to Ataroth-addar, on the hill that lies south of Lower Beth-horon. ¹⁴ Then the border was drawn and turned around on the west side southward from the hill that faces Beth-horon on the south, and it ended at Kiriath-baal, that is, Kiriath-jearim, a city of the children of Judah. This was the west side. ¹⁵ The south side began at the edge of Kiriath-jearim, and the border went out westward and went out to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah. ¹⁶ Then the border went down to the edge of the mountain that faces the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is at the north end of the Valley of Rephaim; and it went down the Valley of Hinnom to the slope of the Jebusites on the south, and went down to En-rogel. ¹⁷ Then it was drawn on the north and went out to En-shemesh, and went out to Geliloth, which is opposite the ascent of Adummim, and went down to the Stone of Bohan the son of Reuben; ¹⁸ and it passed on to the slope opposite the Arabah northward, and went down to the Arabah. ¹⁹ Then the border passed on to the slope of Beth-hoglah northward; and the border ended at the northern bay of the Salt Sea, at the south end of the Jordan. This was the southern border. ²⁰ And the Jordan was its border on the east side. This was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin, by its borders all around, by their clans.

The cities of Benjamin

²¹ Now the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin by their clans were Jericho, Beth-hoglah, Emek-keziz, ²² Beth-arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, ²³ Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, ²⁴ Chephar-ammoni, Ophni and Geba: twelve cities with their villages; ²⁵ Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth, ²⁶ Mizpeh, Chephirah, Mozah, ²⁷ Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah, ²⁸ Zelah, Haeleph, Jebus, that is, Jerusalem, Gibeath and Kiriath: fourteen cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the children of Benjamin by their clans.

Notes

• 18:1 Shiloh lay in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Bethel (Judges 21:19), and is usually identified with Khirbet Seilun; it remained Israel's central sanctuary through the days of the judges, until the ark was taken in battle (1 Samuel 4). "Set up" is a form of shakan, "to dwell," the verb Jeremiah 7:12 uses when Yahweh calls Shiloh the place where He first made His name dwell. "The land was subdued" uses kavash, the verb of Numbers 32:22, "and the land is subdued before Yahweh."
• 18:6 The lots were cast "before Yahweh," at the tent of meeting, so the division of the land was received as God's own decision and not as a human choice (compare Proverbs 16:33, "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from Yahweh"). The verb here, yarah, "to throw," is the root from which torah, "instruction," is commonly derived.
• 18:16 Here the border runs just south of Jerusalem, along the Valley of Hinnom, so the city itself lies on Benjamin's side, next to Judah (Joshua 15:8, 63). En-rogel is commonly identified with the spring now called Bir Ayyub, below the City of David. In later times the Valley of Hinnom gave its name to Gehenna.
• 18:28 The Hebrew reads literally "the Jebusite, that is, Jerusalem," naming the city by its people (Judges 19:10 calls it Jebus). The count of fourteen comes out when Zelah and Haeleph, and Gibeath and Kiriath, are counted as separate towns, though some read either pair as a single name. The Greek Septuagint has one name here, Gabaothiarim (Gibeath-jearim), and counts thirteen cities, so many connect Kiriath with Kiriath-jearim, which verse 14 counts to Judah.

Joshua 17 · Joshua 19

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