Joshua 18

¹ The whole community of the Israelites assembled at Shiloh, and the Tent of Meeting was set up there; the whole country was now subdued and at their disposal.

² But among the Israelites there were still seven tribes left which had not received their inheritance.

³ Then Joshua said to them, ‘How much more time will you waste before taking possession of the land which Yahweh the God of your fathers has given to you?

⁴ Choose three men from each tribe, for me to send up and down the country so that they can make a survey with a view to its apportioning, and then come back to me.

⁵ They must divide the land into seven portions. Judah will remain in his territory to the south, and those of the House of Joseph will remain in their territory to the north.

⁶ You are to survey the land in seven sections and bring your findings to me here, so that I can cast lots for you before Yahweh our God.

⁷ For the Levites have no portion with the rest of you; the priesthood of Yahweh is to be their inheritance; and Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan eastwards, as Moses, Yahweh’s servant, gave it to them.’

⁸ The men set off. To those who were to survey the country Joshua gave this order: ‘Off you go, survey and map the whole country, and then come back here to me; I shall cast lots for you before Yahweh at Shiloh’.

⁹ So the men left, and went up and down the country, making a sevenfold list in writing of all the towns and bringing it back to Joshua in the camp at Shiloh.

¹⁰ Joshua cast lots for them before Yahweh at Shiloh, and there Joshua apportioned the land among the Israelites according to their groupings.

¹¹ One portion fell to the tribe of the sons of Benjamin according to their clans: their territory lay, as it proved, between that of the sons of Judah and the sons of Joseph.

¹² Their northern boundary began at the Jordan, climbed to the northern flank of Jericho, rose through the highlands westwards and ended at the wilderness of Beth-aven.

¹³ Thence it continued towards Luz, southwards to the flank of Luz, which is now Bethel; then downwards to Ataroth-addar, on the mountain south of Lower Beth-horon.

¹⁴ The boundary curved, and on the western side turned southward, from the mountain that faces Beth-horon from the south and ended at Kiriath-baal, which is now Kiriath-jearim, a city of the sons of Judah. This was the western side.

¹⁵ On the south side the boundary ran from the edge of Kiriath-jearim towards Gasin, emerged by the waters of the spring of Nephtoah,

¹⁶ continued to the skirts of the mountain facing the Vale of Ben-hinnom, north of the plain of the Rephaim, then down into the Vale of Hinnom, south of the flank of the Jebusite and reaching En-rogel.

¹⁸ then went on to Cheteph in sight of the Arabah and down to the Arabah and

¹⁹ then reached the flank of Beth-hoglah to the north. The boundary stopped at the northern bay of the Salt Sea, at the southern end of the Jordan. This was the southern border.

²⁰ The Jordan itself was the eastern border. Such was the inheritance of the sons of Benjamin, with the boundaries defining it.

²¹ The towns of the tribe of the sons of Benjamin, according to their clans, were Jericho, Beth-hoglah, Emek-keziz;

²² Beth-arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel;

²³ Avvim, Parah, Ophrah;

²⁴ Chephar-ammoni, Ophni, Geba: twelve towns and their villages.

²⁵ Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth;

²⁶ Mizpeh, Chephirah, Mozah;

²⁷ Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah;

²⁸ Zela Haeleph, Jerusalem, Gibeah and Kiriath: fourteen towns with their villages. This was the inheritance of the sons of Benjamin, according to their clans.