Joshua 18 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Allotment of the Remaining Land

Jos 18:1Then 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.

Jos 18:2

Jos 18:2There remained among the people of Israel seven tribes whose inheritance had not yet been apportioned.

Jos 18:3

Jos 18:3So Joshua said to the people of Israel, “How long will you put off going in to take possession of the land, which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you?

Jos 18:4

Jos 18:4Provide three men from each tribe, and I will send them out that they may set out and go up and down the land. They shall write a description of it with a view to their inheritances, and then come to me.

Jos 18:5

Jos 18:5They shall divide it into seven portions. Judah shall continue in his territory on the south, and the house of Joseph shall continue in their territory on the north.

Jos 18:6

Jos 18:6And 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.

Jos 18:7

Jos 18:7The Levites have no portion among you, for the priesthood of the LORD is their heritage. And Gad and Reuben and half the tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan eastward, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave them.”

Jos 18:8

Jos 18:8So the men arose and went, and Joshua charged those who went to write the description of the land, saying, “Go up and down in the land and write a description and return to me. And I will cast lots for you here before the LORD in Shiloh.”

Jos 18:9

Jos 18:9So the men went and passed up and down in the land and wrote in a book a description of it by towns in seven divisions. Then they came to Joshua to the camp at Shiloh,

Jos 18:10

Jos 18:10and 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 Inheritance for Benjamin

Jos 18:11

Jos 18:11The lot of the tribe of the people of Benjamin according to its clans came up, and the territory allotted to it fell between the people of Judah and the people of Joseph.

Jos 18:12

Jos 18:12On 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-aven.

Jos 18:13

Jos 18:13From there the boundary passes along southward in the direction of Luz, to the shoulder of Luz (that is, Bethel), then the boundary goes down to Ataroth-addar, on the mountain that lies south of Lower Beth-horon.

Jos 18:14

Jos 18:14Then the boundary goes in another direction, turning on the western side southward from the mountain that lies to the south, opposite Beth-horon, and it ends at Kiriath-baal (that is, Kiriath-jearim), a city belonging to the people of Judah. This forms the western side.

Jos 18:15

Jos 18:15And the southern side begins at the outskirts of Kiriath-jearim. And the boundary goes from there to Ephron,[fn] to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah.

Jos 18:16

Jos 18:16Then 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 Rephaim. And it then goes down the Valley of Hinnom, south of the shoulder of the Jebusites, and downward to En-rogel.

Jos 18:17

Jos 18:17Then it bends in a northerly direction going on to En-shemesh, and from there goes to Geliloth, which is opposite the ascent of Adummim. Then it goes down to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben,

Jos 18:18

Jos 18:18and passing on to the north of the shoulder of Beth-arabah[fn] it goes down to the Arabah.

Jos 18:19

Jos 18:19Then 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.

Jos 18:20

Jos 18:20The Jordan forms its boundary on the eastern side. This is the inheritance of the people of Benjamin, according to their clans, boundary by boundary all around.

Jos 18:21

Jos 18:21Now the cities of the tribe of the people of Benjamin according to their clans were Jericho, Beth-hoglah, Emek-keziz,

Jos 18:22

Jos 18:22Beth-arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel,

Jos 18:23

Jos 18:23Avvim, Parah, Ophrah,

Jos 18:24

Jos 18:24Chephar-ammoni, Ophni, Geba—twelve cities with their villages:

Jos 18:25

Jos 18:25Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth,

Jos 18:26

Jos 18:26Mizpeh, Chephirah, Mozah,

Jos 18:27

Jos 18:27Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah,

Jos 18:28

Jos 18:28Zela, Haeleph, Jebus[fn] (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah[fn] and Kiriath-jearim[fn]—fourteen cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the people of Benjamin according to its clans.

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

(18:15)

See 15:9; Hebrew westward

(18:18)

Septuagint; Hebrew to the shoulder over against the Arabah

(18:28)

Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew the Jebusite

(18:28)

Hebrew Gibeath

(18:28)

Septuagint; Hebrew Kiriath

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For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.