Joshua 18

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

The Territories of the Remaining Tribes

18 Then the whole congregation of the people of Israel assembled at Shiloh, and set up the tent of meeting there; the land lay subdued before them.

² There remained among the people of Israel seven tribes whose inheritance had not yet been apportioned. ³ So Joshua said to the people of Israel, “How long will you be slack to go in and take possession of the land, which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you? ⁴ Provide three men from each tribe, and I will send them out that they may set out and go up and down the land, writing a description of it with a view to their inheritances, and then come to me. ⁵ They shall divide it into seven portions, Judah continuing in his territory on the south, and the house of Joseph in their territory on the north. ⁶ And you shall describe the land in seven divisions and bring the description here to me; and I will cast lots for you here before the Lord our God. ⁷ The Levites have no portion among you, for the priesthood of the Lord is their heritage; and Gad and Reuben and half the tribe of Manas′seh have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan eastward, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave them.”

⁸ So the men started on their way; and Joshua charged those who went to write the description of the land, saying, “Go up and down and write a description of the land, and come again to me; and I will cast lots for you here before the Lord in Shiloh.” ⁹ So the men went and passed up and down in the land and set down in a book a description of it by towns in seven divisions; then they came to Joshua in the camp at Shiloh, ¹⁰ and Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord; and there Joshua apportioned the land to the people of Israel, to each his portion.

The Territory of Benjamin

¹¹ The lot of the tribe of Benjamin according to its families came up, and the territory allotted to it fell between the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Joseph. ¹² On the north side their boundary began at the Jordan; then the boundary goes up to the shoulder north of Jericho, then up through the hill country westward; and it ends at the wilderness of Beth-a′ven. ¹³ From there the boundary passes along southward in the direction of Luz, to the shoulder of Luz (the same is Bethel), then the boundary goes down to At′aroth-ad′dar, upon the mountain that lies south of Lower Beth-hor′on. ¹⁴ Then the boundary goes in another direction, turning on the western side southward from the mountain that lies to the south, opposite Beth-hor′on, and it ends at Kir′iath-ba′al (that is, Kir′iath-je′arim), a city belonging to the tribe of Judah. This forms the western side. ¹⁵ And the southern side begins at the outskirts of Kir′iath-je′arim; and the boundary goes from there to Ephron,^[a] to the spring of the Waters of Nephto′ah; ¹⁶ then the boundary goes down to the border of the mountain that overlooks the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is at the north end of the valley of Reph′aim; and it then goes down the valley of Hinnom, south of the shoulder of the Jeb′usites, and downward to En-ro′gel; ¹⁷ then it bends in a northerly direction going on to En-she′mesh, and thence goes to Geli′loth, which is opposite the ascent of Adum′mim; then it goes down to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben; ¹⁸ and passing on to the north of the shoulder of Beth-arabah^[b] it goes down to the Arabah; ¹⁹ then the boundary passes on to the north of the shoulder of Beth-hoglah; and the boundary ends at the northern bay of the Salt Sea, at the south end of the Jordan: this is the southern border. ²⁰ The Jordan forms its boundary on the eastern side. This is the inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin, according to its families, boundary by boundary round about.

²¹ Now the cities of the tribe of Benjamin according to their families were Jericho, Beth-hoglah, Emek-ke′ziz, ²² Beth-arabah, Zemara′im, Bethel, ²³ Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, ²⁴ Che′phar-am′moni, Ophni, Geba—twelve cities with their villages: ²⁵ Gibeon, Ramah, Be-er′oth, ²⁶ Mizpeh, Chephi′rah, Mozah, ²⁷ Rekem, Irpeel, Tar′alah, ²⁸ Zela, Ha-eleph, Jebus^[c] (that is, Jerusalem), Gib′e-ah^[d] and Kir′iath-je′arim^[e]—fourteen cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin according to its families.