Joshua 18:1-10

International Children’s Bible

The Rest of the Land Divided

18 All of the Israelites gathered together at Shiloh. There they set up the Meeting Tent. The Israelites controlled that country. They had defeated all the enemies there. ² But there were still seven tribes of Israel that had not yet received the land God had promised them.

³ So Joshua said to the Israelites: “Why do you wait so long to take your land? The Lord, the God of your fathers, has given this land to you. ⁴ So each tribe should choose three men. I will send them out to study the land. They will describe in writing the land their tribe wants as its share. Then they will come back to me. ⁵ They will divide the land into seven parts. The people of Judah will keep their land in the south. The people of Joseph will keep their land in the north. ⁶ But you should divide the land into seven parts. Describe the seven parts in writing. Then bring what you have written to me. We will let the Lord our God decide which tribe will get which land. ⁷ But the Levites do not get any part of these lands. They are priests, and their work is to serve the Lord. Gad, Reuben and the eastern half-tribe of Manasseh have received the land promised to them. They are on the east side of the Jordan River. Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave it to them.”

⁸ So the men who were chosen started into the land. Their plan was to describe it in writing and take it back to Joshua. Joshua told them, “Go and study the land. Describe it in writing. Then come back to me. Then I will ask the Lord to choose the land you should get. We will do this here in Shiloh.” ⁹ So the men left and went into the land. They studied it and described it in writing for Joshua. They studied each town. They saw that the land had seven parts. They described it in writing and then came back to Joshua. He was still at the camp at Shiloh. ¹⁰ Then Joshua asked the Lord to help. He threw lots to choose the lands that should be given to each tribe.