Joshua 13–21

Land Still to Be Taken

13When Joshua was very old, the Lord said to him, “Joshua, you have grown old, but there is still much land for you to take. ²This is what is left: the regions of Geshur and of the Philistines; ³the area from the Shihor River at the border of Egypt to Ekron in the north, which belongs to the Canaanites; the five Philistine leaders at Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron; the Avvites, ⁴who live south of the Canaanite land; ⁵the Gebalites, and the area of Lebanon east of Baal Gad below Mount Hermon to Lebo Hamath.

⁶“The Sidonians are living in the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth Maim, but I will force all of them out ahead of the Israelites. Be sure to remember this land when you divide the land among the Israelites, as I told you.

⁷“Now divide the land among the nine tribes and West Manasseh.”

Dividing the Land

⁸East Manasseh and the tribes of Reuben and Gad had received their land. The Lord’s servant Moses had given them the land east of the Jordan River. ⁹Their land started at Aroer at the Arnon Ravine and continued to the town in the middle of the ravine, and it included the whole plain from Medeba to Dibon. ¹⁰All the towns ruled by Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in the city of Heshbon, were in that land. The land continued to the area where the Ammonites lived. ¹¹Gilead was also there, as well as the area where the people of Geshur and Maacah lived, and all of Mount Hermon and Bashan as far as Salecah. ¹²All the kingdom of Og king of Bashan was in the land. Og was one of the last of the Rephaites, and in the past he ruled in Ashtaroth and Edrei. Moses had defeated them and had taken their land. ¹³Because the Israelites did not force out the people of Geshur and Maacah, they still live among the Israelites today.

¹⁴The tribe of Levi was the only one that did not get any land. Instead, they were given all the burned sacrifices made to the Lord, the God of Israel, as he had promised them.

¹⁵Moses had given each family group from the tribe of Reuben some land: ¹⁶Theirs was the land from Aroer near the Arnon Ravine to the town of Medeba, including the whole plain and the town in the middle of the ravine; ¹⁷Heshbon and all the towns on the plain: Dibon, Bamoth Baal, and Beth Baal Meon, ¹⁸Jahaz, Kedemoth, Mephaath, ¹⁹Kiriathaim, Sibmah, Zereth Shahar on the hill in the valley, ²⁰Beth Peor, the hills of Pisgah, and Beth Jeshimoth. ²¹So that land included all the towns on the plain and all the area that Sihon king of the Amorites had ruled from the town of Heshbon. Moses had defeated him along with the leaders of the Midianites, including Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba. All these leaders fought together with Sihon and lived in that country. ²²The Israelites killed many people during the fighting, including Balaam of Beor, who tried to use magic to tell the future. ²³The land given to Reuben stopped at the shore of the Jordan River. So the land given to the family groups of Reuben included all these towns and their villages that were listed.

²⁴This is the land Moses gave to the tribe of Gad, to all its family groups: ²⁵the land of Jazer and all the towns of Gilead; half the land of the Ammonites that went as far as Aroer near Rabbah; ²⁶the area from Heshbon to Ramath Mizpah and Betonim; the area from Mahanaim to the land of Debir; ²⁷in the valley, Beth Haram, Beth Nimrah, Succoth, and Zaphon, the other land Sihon king of Heshbon had ruled east of the Jordan River and continuing to the end of Lake Galilee. ²⁸All this land went to the family groups of Gad, including all these towns and their villages.

²⁹This is the land Moses had given to East Manasseh. Half of all the family groups in the tribe of Manasseh were given this land: ³⁰The land started at Mahanaim and included all of Bashan and the land ruled by Og king of Bashan; all the towns of Jair in Bashan, sixty cities in all; ³¹half of Gilead, Ashtaroth, and Edrei, the cities where Og king of Bashan had ruled. All this went to the family of Makir son of Manasseh, and half of all his sons were given this land.

³²Moses had given this land to these tribes on the plains of Moab across the Jordan River east of Jericho. ³³But Moses had given no land to the tribe of Levi because the Lord, the God of Israel, promised that he himself would be the gift for the Levites.

14Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the leaders of all the tribes of Israel decided what land to give to the people in the land of Canaan. ²The Lord had commanded Moses long ago how he wanted the people to choose their land. The people of the nine-and-a-half tribes threw lots to decide which land they would receive. ³Moses had already given the two-and-a-half tribes their land east of the Jordan River. But the tribe of Levi was not given any land like the others. ⁴The sons of Joseph had divided into two tribes—Manasseh and Ephraim. The tribe of Levi was not given any land. It was given only some towns in which to live and pastures for its animals. ⁵The Lord had told Moses how to give the land to the tribes of Israel, and the Israelites divided the land.

Caleb’s Land

⁶One day some men from the tribe of Judah went to Joshua at Gilgal. Among them was Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite. He said to Joshua, “You remember what the Lord said at Kadesh Barnea when he was speaking to the prophet Moses about you and me. ⁷Moses, the Lord’s servant, sent me to look at the land where we were going. I was forty years old then. When I came back, I told Moses what I thought about the land. ⁸The other men who went with me frightened the people, but I fully believed the Lord would allow us to take the land. ⁹So that day Moses promised me, ‘The land where you went will become your land, and your children will own it forever. I will give you that land because you fully believed in the Lord, my God.’

¹⁰“Now then, the Lord has kept his promise. He has kept me alive for forty-five years from the time he said this to Moses during the time we all wandered in the desert. Now here I am, eighty-five years old. ¹¹I am still as strong today as I was the day Moses sent me out, and I am just as ready to fight now as I was then. ¹²So give me the mountain country the Lord promised me that day long ago. Back then you heard that the Anakite people lived there and the cities were large and well protected. But now with the Lord helping me, I will force them out, just as the Lord said.”

¹³Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him the city of Hebron as his own. ¹⁴Hebron still belongs to the family of Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite because he had faith and obeyed the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁵(In the past it was called Kiriath Arba, named for Arba, the greatest man among the Anakites.)

After this there was peace in the land.

Land for Judah

15The land that was given to the tribe of Judah was divided among all the family groups. It went all the way to the Desert of Zin in the far south, at the border of Edom.

²The southern border of Judah’s land started at the south end of the Dead Sea ³and went south of Scorpion Pass to Zin. From there it passed to the south of Kadesh Barnea and continued past Hezron to Addar. From Addar it turned and went to Karka. ⁴It continued to Azmon, the brook of Egypt, and then to the Mediterranean Sea. This was the southern border.

⁵The eastern border was the shore of the Dead Sea, as far as the mouth of the Jordan River.

The northern border started at the bay of the sea at the mouth of the Jordan River. ⁶Then it went to Beth Hoglah and continued north of Beth Arabah to the stone of Bohan son of Reuben. ⁷Then the northern border went through the Valley of Achor to Debir where it turned toward the north and went to Gilgal. Gilgal is across from the road that goes through Adummim Pass, on the south side of the ravine. The border continued to the waters of En Shemesh and stopped at En Rogel. ⁸Then it went through the Valley of Ben Hinnom, next to the southern side of the Jebusite city (which is called Jerusalem). There the border went to the top of the hill on the west side of Hinnom Valley, at the northern end of the Valley of Giants. ⁹From there it went to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah and then it went to the cities near Mount Ephron. There it turned and went toward Baalah, which is called Kiriath Jearim. ¹⁰At Baalah the border turned west and went toward Mount Seir. It continued along the north side of Mount Jearim (also called Kesalon) and came to Beth Shemesh. From there it went past Timnah ¹¹to the hill north of Ekron. Then it turned toward Shikkeron and went past Mount Baalah and continued on to Jabneel, ending at the sea.

¹²The Mediterranean Sea was the western border. Inside these borders lived the family groups of Judah.

¹³The Lord had commanded Joshua to give Caleb son of Jephunneh part of the land in Judah, so he gave Caleb the town of Kiriath Arba, also called Hebron. (Arba was the father of Anak.) ¹⁴Caleb forced out the three Anakite families living in Hebron: Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak. ¹⁵Then he left there and went to fight against the people living in Debir. (In the past Debir had been called Kiriath Sepher.) ¹⁶Caleb said, “I will give Acsah, my daughter, as a wife to the man who attacks and captures the city of Kiriath Sepher.” ¹⁷Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s brother, captured the city, so Caleb gave his daughter Acsah to Othniel to be his wife. ¹⁸When Acsah came to Othniel, she told him to ask her father for a field.

So Acsah went to her father. When she got down from her donkey, Caleb asked her, “What do you want?”

¹⁹Acsah answered, “Do me a special favor. Since you have given me land in southern Canaan, also give me springs of water.” So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.

²⁰The tribe of Judah got the land God had promised them. Each family group got part of the land.

²¹The tribe of Judah got all these towns in the southern part of Canaan near the border of…