The whole community of Israelitesawhole community of Israelites Presumably the leaders, on the community’s behalf. assembled at Shiloh, and set up the Tent of Meeting there. The land was now under their control;
Word-by-Word Analysis
ויקהלו
157
כלעדת
524
בניישראל
603
שלה
335
וישכינו
402
שם
340
אתאהל
437
מועד
120
והארץ
302
נכבשה
377
לפניהם
215
Joshua 18:2
Gematria: 3576
ויותרובבניישראלאשרלאחלקואתנחלתםשבעהשבטים
but there remained seven tribes of the Israelites that had not yet received their portions.
So Joshua said to the Israelites, “How long will you be slack about going and taking possession of the land that the ETERNAL, the God of your ancestors, has assigned to you?
Appoint three representatives from each tribe; I will send them out to go through the country and write down a description of it for purposes of apportionment, and then come back to me.
They shall divide it into seven parts—Judah shall remain by its territory in the south, and the house of Joseph shall remain by its territory in the north.—
When you have written down the description of the land in seven parts, bring it here to me. Then I will cast lots for you here before the ETERNAL our God.
For the Levites have no share among you, since GOD’s priesthood is their portion; and Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received the portions that were assigned to them by Moses the servant of GOD, on the eastern side of the Jordan.”
The men set out on their journeys: Joshua ordered those who were leaving to write down a description of the land—“Go, traverse the country and write down a description of it. Then return to me, and I will cast lots for you here at Shiloh before GOD.”
So the men went and traversed the land; they described it in a document, town by town, in seven parts, and they returned to Joshua in the camp at Shiloh.
The lot of the tribe of the Benjaminites, by their clans, came out first. The territory that fell to their lot lay between the Judahites and the Josephites.
The boundary on their northern rim began at the Jordan; the boundary ascended to the northern flank of Jericho, ascended westward into the hill country and ran on to the Wilderness of Beth-aven.
From there the boundary passed on southward to Luz, to the flank of Luz—that is, Bethel; then the boundary descended to Atroth-addar [and] to the hill south of Lower Beth-horon.
The boundary now turned and curved onto the western rim; and the boundary ran southward from the hill on the south side of Beth-horon till it ended at Kiriath-baal—that is, Kiriath-jearim—a town of the Judahites. That was the western rim.
The southern rim: From the outskirts of Kiriath-jearim, the boundary passed westwardbwestward Emendation yields “eastward.” and ran on to the fountain of the Waters of Nephtoah.
Then the boundary descended to the foot of the hill by the Valley of Ben-hinnom at the northern end of the Valley of Rephaim; then it ran down the Valley of Hinnom along the southern flank of the Jebusites to En-rogel.
The boundary passed on to the northern flank of Beth-hoglah, and the boundary ended at the northern tongue of the Dead Sea, at the southern end of the Jordan. That was the southern boundary.
On their eastern rim, finally, the Jordan was their boundary. That was the portion of the Benjaminites, by their clans, according to its boundaries on all sides.
Zela, Eleph, and JebuscJebus Heb. “the Jebusite.”—that is, Jerusalem—Gibeath [and] Kiriath:dKiriath Emendation yields “and Kiriath-jearim.” 14 towns, with their villages. That was the portion of the Benjaminites, by their clans.