Joshua Chapter 18 |
1The whole community of the Israelite people assembled at Shiloh, and set up the Tent of Meeting there. The land was now under their control; 2but there remained seven tribes of the Israelites which had not yet received their portions. 3So Joshua said to the Israelites, “How long will you be slack about going and taking possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has assigned to you? 4Appoint three men of each tribe; I will send them out to go through the country and write down a description of it for purposes of apportionment, and then come back to me. 5They shall divide it into seven parts—Judah shall remain by its territory in the south, and the house of Joseph shall remain by its territory in the north.— 6When you have written down the description of the land in seven parts, bring it here to me. Then I will cast lots for you here before the Lord our God. 7For the Levites have no share among you, since the priesthood of the Lord is their portion; and Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received the portions which were assigned to them by Moses the servant of the Lord, on the eastern side of the Jordan.”
8The men set out on their journeys. Joshua ordered the men who were leaving to write down a description of the land—“Go, traverse the country and write down a description of it. Then return to me, and I will cast lots for you here at Shiloh before the Lord.”
9So the men went and traversed the land; they described it in a document, town by town, in seven parts, and they returned to Joshua in the camp at Shiloh. 10Joshua cast lots for them at Shiloh before the Lord, and there Joshua apportioned the land among the Israelites according to their divisions.
11The lot of the tribe of the Benjaminites, by their clans, came out first. The territory which fell to their lot lay between the Judites and the Josephites. 12The boundary on their northern rim began at the Jordan; the boundary ascended to the northern flank of Jericho, ascended westward into the hill country and ran on to the Wilderness of Beth-aven. 13From there the boundary passed on southward to Luz, to the flank of Luz—that is, Bethel; then the boundary descended to Atroth-addar [and] to the hill south of Lower Beth-horon. 14The boundary now turned and curved onto the western rim; and the boundary ran southward from the hill on the south side of Beth-horon till it ended at Kiriath-baal—that is, Kiriath-jearim—a town of the Judites. That was the western rim. 15The southern rim: From the outskirts of Kiriath-jearim, the boundary passed westward and ran on to the fountain of the Waters of Nephtoah. 16Then the boundary descended to the foot of the hill by the Valley of Ben-hinnom at the northern end of the Valley of Rephaim; then it ran down the Valley of Hinnom along the southern flank of the Jebusites to En-rogel. 17Curving northward, it ran on to En-shemesh and ran on to Geliloth, facing the Ascent of Adummim, and descended to the Stone of Bohan son of Reuben. 18It continued northward to the edge of the Arabah and descended into the Arabah. 19The boundary passed on to the northern flank of Beth-hoglah, and the boundary ended at the northern tongue of the Dead Sea, at the southern end of the Jordan. That was the southern boundary. 20On their eastern rim, finally, the Jordan was their boundary. That was the portion of the Benjaminites, by their clans, according to its boundaries on all sides.
21And the towns of the tribe of the Benjaminites, by its clans, were: Jericho, Beth-hoglah, Emek-keziz, 22Beth-arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, 23Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, 24Chephar-ammonah, Ophni, and Geba—12 towns, with their villages. 25Also Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth, 26Mizpeh, Chephirah, Mozah, 27Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah, 28Zela, Eleph, and Jebus—that is, Jerusalem—Gibeath [and] Kiriath: 14 towns, with their villages. That was the portion of the Benjaminites, by their clans.