Joshua 18

Since no people groups were fighting against the Israelites any longer, they were able to meet together. They gathered at the city of Shiloh, and there they set up the tent where they worshiped God.

Now seven of the Israelite tribes had not yet occupied any land. \*

Joshua said to the people of those seven tribes, “God, the God whom your ancestors worshiped, has promised to give to you land. So you should not delay going into that land and occupying it.

Choose three men from each of your seven tribes. I will send them out to explore the parts of the land that no tribe has occupied yet. They are to write a description of seven different regions that will become the territories of your seven tribes. Then they are to bring the description back to me. \*

They will divide the remaining land into seven parts. The tribe of Judah will keep its land in the south, and the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh will keep their land in the north.

But in their report, the men from the seven tribes should describe how we can divide the remaining land into seven parts. They will bring the report to me. Then, while God our God is watching, I will cast lots to decide which part should be assigned to each tribe. \*

But I will not assign any land to the tribe of Levi. Instead, their reward is to be God’s priests. And the tribes of Gad and Reuben and half of the tribe of Manasseh have already received land on the east side of the Jordan River. Moses, God’s servant, gave it to them.” \*

When the men the tribes had chosen got ready to leave, Joshua told them, “Go and explore the land. Then write a report of what you have seen and bring it back to me. Then, while God is watching, I will cast lots here at Shiloh to determine what area each tribe will receive.”

So the men left and walked through the land that no tribe had yet occupied. Then they described in a scroll each of the seven parts into which they would divide the land. They listed the cities in each part of the land. Then they returned to Joshua, who was still at Shiloh. \*

{Joshua read their report. Then,} while God was watching, he cast lots at Shiloh to decide which parts of the land would belong to each of the seven Israelite tribes. \*

The lot selected the clans of the tribe of Benjamin to receive the first part of the land. This part was between the territory of the tribe of Judah and the territory of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.

Its northern border started at the Jordan River and extended west, along the northern side of Jericho, into the hill country. From there the border extended farther west to the wilderness near Beth Aven. \*

From there it extended to Luz and went south of that city. (People now call that city Bethel). From there it went down to Ataroth Addar, which is on the hill south of Lower Beth Horon.

Then, from the hill opposite the south side of the city of Beth Horon, the western side of the border turned and extended south to Kiriath Baal. (People now call that town Kiriath Jearim. People from the tribe of Judah live there.) That was the western border. \*

The southern border of their land started near Kiriath Jearim and extended west to the springs of Nephtoah.

From there, it extended down to the bottom of the hill near the Valley of Ben Hinnom, on the north side of the Valley of the Raphaites. The border then extended down along the Hinnom Valley, south of the city where the Jebusites lived, to En Rogel. \*

From there the border went north to En Shemesh and continued to Geliloth near the hill of Adummim. Then it extended to the big stone that Reuben’s son Bohan set up.

From there the border extended to the northern edge of Beth Arabah and down into the plain along the Jordan. \*

From there, it extended east to the northern edge of Beth Hoglah and ended at the north end of the Sea of Salt, where the Jordan River flows into that sea. That was the boundary on the south.

The Jordan River was the eastern boundary. These were the borders all round the territory of the clans of the tribe of Benjamin. \*

In the eastern part of their territory, the clans of the tribe of Benjamin lived in these cities: Jericho, Beth Hoglah, Emek Keziz,

Beth Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel,

Avvim, Parah, Ophrah,

Kephar Ammoni, Ophni, and Geba. The people of Benjamin lived in these 12 cities and their villages. \*

In the western part of their territory, the people of Benjamin lived in these cities: Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth,

Mizpah, Kephirah, Mozah,

Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah,

Zelah, Haeleph, Jebus (the city where the Jebusites lived, which people now call Jerusalem), Gibeah, and Kiriath. The people of Benjamin lived in these 14 cities and their villages. The clans of the tribe of Benjamin received this land and these cities as a permanent possession. \*