Josué 18

Describing the rest of the land at Shiloh

¹The whole congregation of the Israelites gathered at Shiloh, and there they pitched the tent of meeting. The land now lay subdued before them. ²But among the Israelites there were still seven tribes that had not been given their inheritance. ³So Joshua said to the Israelites, “How long will you hold back from going in to take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has given you? ⁴Choose three men from each tribe, and I will send them out. They are to set out and go through the land, write a description of it with a view to dividing it as their inheritance, and then come back to me. ⁵They are to divide it into seven portions. Judah will keep its territory in the south, and the house of Joseph will keep theirs in the north. ⁶You are to describe the land in seven portions and bring the description here to me. Then here, before the LORD our God, I will cast lots for you. ⁷The Levites have no portion among you, because the priesthood of the LORD is their inheritance. And Gad, Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh already have their inheritance east of the Jordan, the land that Moses the servant of the LORD gave them.” ⁸So the men set out. As they were going to describe the land, Joshua gave them this command: “Go through the land, write a description of it, and come back to me. Then here in Shiloh, before the LORD, I will cast lots for you.” ⁹The men went and traveled through the land. They described it town by town in seven portions, writing it in a scroll, and came back to Joshua at the camp in Shiloh. ¹⁰Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh in the presence of the LORD, and there he divided the land among the Israelites, giving each tribe its portion.

The land of Benjamin

¹¹The first lot came up for the tribe of Benjamin, clan by clan. The territory that fell to them lay between the people of Judah and the people of Joseph. ¹²On the north side their border started at the Jordan. It goes up the slope north of Jericho, climbs westward through the hill country and comes out at the wilderness of Beth-aven.^{a 13}From there the border passes on toward Luz, along the southern slope of Luz (that is, Bethel), and goes down to Ataroth-addar, on the hill that lies south of Lower Beth-horon. ¹⁴Then the border bends and turns south along the western side, from the hill that faces Beth-horon on the south, and ends at Kiriath-baal (that is, Kiriath-jearim), a town belonging to the people of Judah. This is the western side. ¹⁵The southern side starts from the edge of Kiriath-jearim. The border goes out westward and on to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah.^{b 16}The border then goes down to the foot of the hill facing the Valley of Ben-hinnom, at the north end of the Valley of Rephaim. It runs down the Valley of Hinnom along the southern slope of the Jebusite city and down to En-rogel. ¹⁷From there it bends northward and goes out to En-shemesh, then on to Geliloth, which is opposite the Ascent of Adummim, and goes down to the Stone of Bohan son of Reuben. ¹⁸It passes on to the northern slope opposite the Arabah and goes down into the Arabah.^{c 19}The border passes on to the northern slope of Beth-hoglah and ends at the northern bay of the Dead Sea, where the Jordan flows into it at the south. This is the southern border.^{d 20}The Jordan forms its boundary on the east. This was the inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin, clan by clan, with its borders on every side. ²¹The towns of the tribe of Benjamin, clan by clan, were these: Jericho, Beth-hoglah, Emek-keziz, ²²Beth-arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, ²³Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, ²⁴Kephar-ammonah, Ophni and Geba, twelve towns and their villages.^{e 25}Then Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth, ²⁶Mizpeh, Chephirah, Mozah, ²⁷Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah, ²⁸Zelah, Haeleph, Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah and Kiriath, fourteen towns and their villages. This was the inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin, clan by clan.^fg