Joshua 18

The whole congregation of the people of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the Tent of Meeting there. The land had been subdued before them. There remained seven tribes among the people of Israel whose inheritance had not yet been divided. Joshua said to the people of Israel, “How long will you delay going in to possess the land the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has given you? Choose three men from each tribe, and I will send them out. They must rise, walk through the land, write a description of it according to their inheritances, and return to me. They must divide it into seven portions. Judah will remain in its territory in the south, and the house of Joseph will remain in its territory in the north. You must describe the land in writing in seven portions and bring the description here to me. Here I will cast lots for you before the LORD our God. For the Levites have no portion among you, because the priesthood of the LORD is their inheritance. Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan to the east, which Moses, the servant of the LORD, gave them.” So the men rose and went. Joshua commanded those going to describe the land in writing, “Go, walk through the land, describe it in writing, and return to me. Here at Shiloh I will cast lots for you before the LORD.” The men went and passed through the land. They wrote a description of it by cities in seven portions in a book and came to Joshua at the camp in Shiloh. Joshua cast lots for them at Shiloh before the LORD, and there Joshua divided the land among the people of Israel according to their divisions. The lot came up for the tribe of the descendants of Benjamin according to their clans. The territory of their allotment lay between the descendants of Judah and the descendants of Joseph. Their northern border began at the Jordan. The border went up along the northern side of Jericho, went up westward through the hill country, and ended in the wilderness of Beth-aven. From there the border passed on to Luz, along the southern side of Luz, that is, Bethel. The border went down to Ataroth-addar, on the hill south of Lower Beth-horon. The border curved and turned south along the western side, from the hill facing Beth-horon on the south, and ended at Kiriath-baal, that is, Kiriath-jearim, a city of the descendants of Judah. This was the western side. The southern side began at the edge of Kiriath-jearim. The border went out westward and went out to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah. The border went down to the edge of the hill facing the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, at the northern end of the Valley of Rephaim. It went down through the Valley of Hinnom along the southern side of the Jebusite city and went down to En-rogel. It curved northward and went out to En-shemesh, then went out to Geliloth, opposite the ascent of Adummim. It went down to the stone of Bohan son of Reuben, passed along the northern slope facing the Arabah, and went down into the Arabah. The border passed along the northern side of Beth-hoglah and ended at the northern bay of the Salt Sea, at the southern end of the Jordan. This was the southern border. The Jordan bounded it on the eastern side. This was the inheritance of the descendants of Benjamin, with its surrounding borders, according to their clans. The cities of the tribe of the descendants of Benjamin according to their clans were Jericho, Beth-hoglah, Emek-keziz, Beth-arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, Chephar-ammoni, Ophni, and Geba—twelve cities with their villages; Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth, Mizpeh, Chephirah, Mozah, Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah, Zela, Eleph, the Jebusite city, that is, Jerusalem, Gibeah, and Kiriath—fourteen cities with their villages. This was the inheritance of the descendants of Benjamin according to their clans.

Rights and attribution