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Meeting at Shiloh, allotting land for the rest of the tribes
18
📚And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there. And the land was subdued before them.
18:1 The tabernacle, the tent of meeting, was set up at Shiloh which remained the principal holy place throughout the time of the Judges. Shiloh was located in the territory of Ephraim about 16 kilometers north of Bethel and about twice that distance from Jerusalem. The tabernacle remained in Shiloh until the time of Samuel. Note on the tent of meeting at Ex 25:8. The land as a whole had been conquered but it had to be claimed by the individual tribes and settled.⚜
2 And seven tribes remained among the children of Israel which had not yet received their inheritance.
3 📚And Joshua said to the children of Israel, “How long will you be slack in going to possess the land, which the LORD God of your fathers has given you? 4 📚Appoint from among yourselves three men for each tribe, and I will send them out; and they will rise and go throughout the land and write a description of it according to their inheritance, and come back to me. 5 📚And they shall divide it into seven parts. Judah is to stay in their borders in the south, and the house of Joseph is to stay in their borders in the north. 6 📚So you shall write a description of the seven divisions of the land, and bring the description here to me, so that I may cast lots for you here before the LORD our God. 7 📚But the Levites are to have no portion among you; for the priesthood of the LORD is their inheritance. And Gad and Reuben, and half the tribe of Manasseh, have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan on the east, which the LORD’s servant Moses gave them”.
18:7 Josh 13:33; Num 18:20; Deut 18:1-6. The priests and Levites had the greatest inheritance of them all.⚜
8 📚And the men arose and went away. Joshua had given orders to those who went to write a description of the land, saying, “Go and walk through the land, and write a description of it, and come back to me, so that I may cast lots for you before the LORD here in Shiloh”.
9 📚And the men went and passed through the land and wrote a description of it by cities in seven divisions in a book and came back to Joshua to the camp at Shiloh. 10 📚And Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the LORD, and there Joshua apportioned the land to the children of Israel according to their divisions.
18:10 The division of the land was begun at Gilgal (Josh 13:7), and was then continued at Shiloh where land was allotted to the remaining seven tribes (v 2).⚜
11 📚And the lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families. And the territory of their lot came between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph. 12 📚And their border on the north was from the Jordan; and the border went up by the side of Jericho on the north and continued up through the mountains to the west; and its end was at the wilderness of Beth-Aven. 13 📚And the border went on from there toward Luz, at the side of Luz, which is Bethel, to the south; and the border went down to Ataroth-Adar, near the hill that rises to the south of Lower Beth-Horon. 14 📚And the border was drawn from there and went around the edge of the sea on the south, from the hill that rises before Beth-Horon on the south. And its end was at Kirjath-Baal, which is Kirjath-Jearim, a city of the children of Judah. This was the western side.
15 📚And the south side was from the end of Kirjath-Jearim, and the border went on to the west and continued to the well of the waters of Nephtoah; 16 📚and the border came down to the end of the mountain that rises before the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is in the Valley of the Giants on the north, and went down to the valley of Hinnom to the southern side of Jebusi, and descended to En-Rogel. 17 📚And it was drawn from the north, and went on to En-Shemesh, and continued toward Geliloth, which is opposite the ascent of Adummim, and went down to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben, 18 📚and proceeded along toward the side opposite the Arabah on the north and went down to the Arabah; 19 📚and the border continued along by the side of Beth-Hoglah on the north; and the end of the border was at the north bay of the Salt Sea 📖 at the southern end of Jordan. This was the southern boundary.
20 And the Jordan was its border on the eastern side. This was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin, by its surrounding boundaries, according to their families.
21 📚Now the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin according to their families were Jericho and Beth-Hoglah and the valley of Keziz, 22 📚and Beth-Arabah and Zemaraim and Bethel, 23 📚and Avim and Parah and Ophrah, 24 📚and Kephar-Haammonai and Ophni and Gaba; twelve cities with their villages; 25 📚Gibeon and Ramah and Beeroth, 26 📚and Mizpeh and Kephirah and Mozah, 27 and Rekem and Irpeel and Taralah, 28 📚and Zelah, Eleph and Jebusi, which is Jerusalem, Gibeath and Kirjath; fourteen cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to their families.