Joshua Gives Out the Rest of the Land

¹After Israel had captured the land, they met at Shiloh and set up the sacred tent.[#18.1 Or “meeting tent.”]

²There were still seven tribes without any land,

^3-4-5-6-7so Joshua told the people:

⁸Just before the men left camp, Joshua repeated their orders: “Explore the land and write a description of it. Then come back to Shiloh, and I will find out from the Lord how to divide the land.”

⁹The men left and went across the land, dividing it into seven regions. They wrote down a description of each region, town by town, and returned to Joshua at the camp at Shiloh.

¹⁰Joshua found out from the Lord how to divide the land, and he told the tribes what the Lord had decided.

Benjamin's Land

¹¹Benjamin was the first tribe chosen to receive land. The region for its clans lay between the Judah tribe on the south and the Joseph tribes on the north.[#18.11 See the note at 17.14.]

¹²Benjamin's northern border started at the Jordan River and went up the ridge north of Jericho, then on west into the hill country as far as the Beth-Aven Desert.

^13-14From there it went to Luz, which is now called Bethel. The border ran along the ridge south of Luz, then went to Ataroth-Orech and on as far as the mountain south of Lower Beth-Horon. At that point it turned south and became the western border. It went as far south as Kiriath-Baal, a town in Judah now called Kiriath-Jearim.[#18.13,14 One ancient translation; Hebrew “Ataroth-Addar.”]

¹⁵Benjamin's southern border started at the edge of Kiriath-Jearim and went east to the ruins and on to Nephtoah Spring.[#18.15 One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.]

¹⁶From there it went to the bottom of the hill at the northern end of Rephaim Valley. The other side of this hill faces Hinnom Valley, which is on the land that slopes south from Jerusalem. The border went down through Hinnom Valley until it reached Enrogel.[#18.16 Hebrew “the Jebusite town.”]

¹⁷At Enrogel the border curved north and went to Enshemesh and on east to Geliloth, which is across the valley from Adummim Pass. Then it went down to the Monument of Bohan, who belonged to the Reuben tribe.[#18.17 Probably another name for Gilgal.; #18.17 See the note at 15.6.]

¹⁸The border ran along the hillside north of Beth-Arabah, then down into the Jordan River valley.[#18.18 One ancient translation (see also the border description in 15.6); Hebrew “the northern hillside overlooking the Jordan River valley.”]

¹⁹Inside the valley it went south as far as the northern hillside of Beth-Hoglah. The last section of the border went from there to the northern end of the Dead Sea, at the mouth of the Jordan River.[#18.19 One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.]

²⁰The Jordan River itself was Benjamin's eastern border.

These were the borders of Benjamin's tribal land, where the clans of Benjamin lived.

^21-22-23-24One region of Benjamin's tribal land had twelve towns with their surrounding villages. Those towns were Jericho, Beth-Hoglah, Emek-Keziz, Beth-Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, Chephar-Ammoni, Ophni, and Geba.

^25-26-27-28In the other region there were the following 14 towns with their surrounding villages: Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth, Mizpeh, Chephirah, Mozah, Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah, Zelah, Haeleph, Gibeah, Kiriath-Jearim, and Jerusalem, which is also called Jebusite Town.[#18.25-28 One ancient translation; Hebrew “Kiriath.”]

These regions are the tribal lands of Benjamin.