Reflections on Joshua 18

 

Joshua 18 (Contemporary English Version)

1. After Israel had captured the land, they met at Shiloh and set up the sacred tent.
2. There were still seven tribes without any land,
3. so Joshua told the people: The Judah tribe has already settled in its land in the south, and the Joseph tribes have settled in their land in the north. The tribes of Gad, Reuben, and East Manasseh already have the land that the LORD's servant Moses gave them east of the Jordan River. And the people of Levi won't get a single large region of the land like the other tribes. Instead, they will serve the LORD as priests. But the rest of you haven't done a thing to take over any land. The LORD God who was worshiped by your ancestors has given you the land, and now it's time to go ahead and settle there. Seven tribes still don't have any land. Each of these tribes should choose three men, and I'll send them to explore the remaining land. They will divide it into seven regions, write a description of each region, and bring these descriptions back to me. I will find out from the LORD our God what region each tribe should get.
4. (SEE 18:3)
5. (SEE 18:3)
6. (SEE 18:3)
7. (SEE 18:3)
8. Just 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."
9. The 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.
10. Joshua found out from the LORD how to divide the land, and he told the tribes what the LORD had decided.
11. Benjamin 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.
12. Benjamin'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. From 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.
14. (SEE 18:13)
15. Benjamin's southern border started at the edge of Kiriath-Jearim and went east to the ruins and on to Nephtoah Spring.
16. From 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.
17. At 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. The border ran along the hillside north of Beth-Arabah, then down into the Jordan River valley.
19. Inside 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.
20. The Jordan River itself was Benjamin's eastern border. These were the borders of Benjamin's tribal land, where the clans of Benjamin lived.
21. One 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.
22. (SEE 18:21)
23. (SEE 18:21)
24. (SEE 18:21)
25. In the other region there were the following fourteen 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. These regions are the tribal lands of Benjamin.
26. (SEE 18:25)
27. (SEE 18:25)
28. (SEE 18:25)

---

To this point the tribes of Judah, Ephraim, and half of Manasseh had received their portions of the land in addition to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the other half of Manasseh who had their portions east of the Jordan. This left seven tribes yet to receive their portions. Before completing the allotments to these remaining tribes, they took a break. Given their activities during this time the break no doubt lasted several months. Their first activity was to move the entire community from Gilgal near Jericho, where they first established camp after crossing into Canaan, to Shiloh which was more centrally located. There they set up the tabernacle where it was to remain until the time of Samuel.

Two contrasting statements are made in the first three verses of the chapter. In verse one, in reference to the move from Gilgal to Shiloh, it says that "the land had been subdued by them." This statement may have been intended to point out that it was safe for them to move into the central part of the country since it had been subdued. But then in verse three Joshua reproaches them for delaying to take possession of the land. This reproach was likely made to the tribes in regard to completing the task of clearing their territories of the remaining Canaanites. But was he addressing the first 2 1/2 tribes who had already received their allotments of land in Canaan but had not yet taken possession or the remaining seven tribes who were complacent about receiving their allotments? In either case, there seems to have been a reticents about breaking up the encampment of the whole community to go take possession of their individual tribal allotments. If this was the case, it is understandable. After all, living together in this large encampment of people was all they had known their whole lives. Furthermore, it is a natural inclination for any of us to want to remain together in a comfortable and familiar community rather than break away and set out to unfamiliar territory. But God had not brought them to this land of promise merely to remain a tight community living all together. He had given them the land and intended for them to possess all of it.

Having reproached them for not taking possession of the land, Joshua's next action during their break was to give instructions for each of the seven tribes yet to receive land to appoint three men from their tribes to go and survey the land that had not been allotted. These 21 men were to bring back a written description of the remaining seven portions of land.  When these men brought back their survey of the land, Joshua cast lots to continue the distribution of land and the first lot came up for the tribe of Benjamin who then received their apportionment of land.