18:1 Then the whole congregation of the sons of Israel assembled at Shiloh, and set up the tent of meeting there; and the land was subdued before them.
18:2 But there remained among the sons of Israel seven tribes who had not divided their inheritance.
18:3 So Joshua said to the sons of Israel, “How long will you ①put off entering to take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you?
▷ ①Or show yourselves lax in
18:4 Provide for yourselves three men from ①each tribe so that I may send them, and that they may arise and walk through the land and write a description of it according to their inheritance; then they shall ②return to me.
▷ ①Lit the ②Lit come
18:5 And 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.
18:6 And you shall write a description of the land in seven divisions, and bring the description here to me. Then I will cast lots for you here before the LORD our God.
18:7 For the Levites have no portion among you, because the priesthood of the LORD is ①their inheritance. Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh also have received their inheritance eastward beyond the Jordan, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave them.”
▷ ①Lit his
18:8 Then 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 return to me; then I will cast lots for you here before the LORD in Shiloh.”
18:9 So the men went and passed through the land, and wrote a description of it by cities in seven divisions in a book; and they came to Joshua at the camp at Shiloh.
18:10 Joshua then cast lots for them in Shiloh before the LORD, and there Joshua divided the land for the sons of Israel according to their divisions.
18:11 Now the lot of the tribe of the sons of Benjamin came up according to their families, and the territory of their lot ①lay between the sons of Judah and the sons of Joseph.
▷ ①Lit went out
18:12 Their border on the north side was from the Jordan, then the border went up to the side of Jericho on the north, and went up through the hill country westward, and ①it ended at the wilderness of Beth-aven.
▷ ①Lit the goings out of it were
18:13 Then from there the border continued to Luz, to the side of Luz (that is, Bethel) southward; and the border went down to Ataroth-addar, near the hill which lies on the south of lower Beth-horon.
18:14 And the border changed direction from there and turned around on the west side southward, from the hill which lies opposite Beth-horon southward; and ①it ended at Kiriath-baal (that is, Kiriath-jearim), a city of the sons of Judah. This was the west side.
▷ ①Lit the goings out of it were
18:15 Then the south side was from the edge of Kiriath-jearim, and the border went westward and went to the fountain of the waters of Nephtoah.
18:16 Then the border went down to the edge of the hill which is ①in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, which is in the Valley of Rephaim northward; and it went down to the Valley of Hinnom, to the slope of the Jebusite southward, and went down to En-rogel.
▷ ①Lit on the face of
18:17 Then it turned northward and went to En-shemesh, and went to Geliloth, which is opposite the ascent of Adummim, and it went down to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben.
18:18 And it continued to the side in front of the Arabah northward, and went down to the Arabah.
18:19 Then the border continued to the side of Beth-hoglah northward; and the ①border ended at the north bay of the Salt Sea, at the south end of the Jordan. This was the southern border.
▷ ①Lit goings out of the border were
18:20 Moreover, the Jordan was its border on the east side. This was the inheritance of the sons of Benjamin according to their families, and according to its borders all around.
18:21 Now the cities of the tribe of the sons of Benjamin according to their families were Jericho, Beth-hoglah, and Emek-keziz,
18:22 Beth-arabah, Zemaraim, and Bethel,
18:23 Avvim, Parah, and Ophrah,
18:24 Chephar-ammoni, Ophni, and Geba; twelve cities with their villages.
18:25 Gibeon, Ramah, and Beeroth,
18:26 Mizpeh, Chephirah, and Mozah,
18:27 Rekem, Irpeel, and Taralah,
18:28 Zelah, Haeleph, the Jebusite city (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah, Kiriath; fourteen cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the sons of Benjamin according to their families.