Joshua 18

The Last of the Land Is Divided

18The entire congregation of the Israelites^a assembled at Shiloh, and they set up there the tent of meeting, and the land was subdued before them.^{b 2}And seven tribes remained among the Israelites^c who had not been apportioned their inheritance. ³And Joshua said to the Israelites,^d “How long^e will you be slack about going to take possession of the land that Yahweh, the God of your ancestors,^f has given you? ⁴Provide three men from each tribe,^g and I will send them so that they may begin to go through the land and write a description of it according to their inheritance,^h and let them come to me. ⁵They will divide it among themselves into seven portions; Judah will maintain its borderⁱ from the south, and the house of Joseph will maintain its border^j from the north. ⁶Describe the land in seven divisions, and bring it to me here; I will cast lots for you here before Yahweh our God. ⁷The Levites among you have no portion, for their inheritance is the priesthood of Yahweh; Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh received their inheritance beyond the Jordan to the east, which Moses Yahweh’s servant gave to them.”

⁸And the men went immediately,^k and Joshua commanded the ones going to describe the land, saying, “Go and walk about through the land, write a description, and return to me, and here I will cast a lot for you before^l Yahweh at Shiloh.” ⁹And the men went and passed through the land, and they described^m the cities in seven divisions in a book; and they came to Joshua to the camp at Shiloh, ¹⁰and Joshua cast a lot for them at Shiloh beforeⁿ Yahweh, and there he divided the land for the Israelites,^o to each a portion.^p

The Allotment of Benjamin

¹¹And the allotment of the tribe of Benjamin came up according to their families, and the border of their allotment fell^q between the descendants^r of Judah and the descendants^s of Joseph. ¹²Their northern border began at the Jordan and went up to the slope of Jericho on the north and continued into the hill country to the west; it ends^t at the wilderness of Beth Aven. ¹³The border passes on from there to Luz, to the slope of Luz to the south (that is, Bethel); then the border goes down to Ataroth Addar to the mountain that is south of Lower Beth-Horon. ¹⁴Then the border changes direction and turns to the western side southward, from the mountain that is opposite^u Beth-Horon to the south. It ends^v at Kiriath Baal (that is, Kiriath Jearim), a town belonging to the descendants^w of Judah. This is the western side. ¹⁵The southern side begins on the outskirts of Kiriath Jearim, and the border continues to the west to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah; ¹⁶the border goes down to the foot^x of the mountain, which is opposite the Valley of Ben Hinnom,^y which is in the valley of Rephaim to the north; then it goes down the valley of Hinnom to the slope of the Jebusites^z to the south, and then it goes down to En Rogel. ¹⁷It changes direction from the north, and it continues to En Shemesh; it goes out to Geliloth, which is opposite the ascent of Adummim, and it goes down to the stone of Bohan, son of Reuben. ¹⁸It passes on to the slope opposite the Arabah^a to the north, and it goes down to the Arabah.^{b 19}The border passes on to the slope of Beth-hoglah to the north and ends^c at the north bay of the Salt Sea^d at the south end of the Jordan. This is the southern border. ²⁰The Jordan forms its border on the eastern side. This is the inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin, its borders that surrounds them, according to their families.

²¹Now the towns of the tribes of the descendants^e of Benjamin, according to their families, were Jericho, Beth-hoglah, Emek Keziz, ²²Beth Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, ²³Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, ²⁴Kephar Ammoni, Ophni, and Geba; twelve cities and their villages.

²⁵Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth, ²⁶Mizpeh, Kephirah, Mozah, ²⁷Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah, ²⁸Zela, Haeleph, Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah, and Kiriath; fourteen cities and their villages. This is the inheritance of the descendants^f of Benjamin according to their families.