Joshua 18

18 ¹ Then the whole community of the children of Israel gathered together at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there, for the land lay subdued before them. ² But there still remained among the children of Israel seven tribes who had not yet received their inheritance. ³ So Joshua said to the children of Israel, "How long will you hold back from going in to take possession of the land that our Father, the God of your fathers, has given you? ⁴ Appoint three men from each tribe, and I will send them out to survey the land and write a description of it for their inheritance; then let them come back to me. ⁵ They shall divide it into seven portions. Judah will stay within its territory in the south, and the house of Joseph will stay within their territory in the north. ⁶ You shall map out the land in seven portions and bring the description here to me, and I will cast lots for you here before our Father. ⁷ The Levites have no portion among you, for the priesthood of our Father is their inheritance. And Gad, Reuben, and half the tribe of Manasseh have already received their inheritance beyond the Jordan to the east, which Moses the servant of our Father gave them.

⁸ So the men arose and set out, and Joshua charged those who went to map the land: "Go and walk through the land, write a description of it, and return to me, and here I will cast lots for you before our Father in Shiloh."

⁹ So the men went and passed through the land, describing it city by city in seven portions in a scroll, and they came back to Joshua at the camp in Shiloh. ¹⁰ Then Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before our Father, and there Joshua divided the land among the children of Israel, allotting to each their portion.

The Father's Gift to Benjamin

¹¹ The lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families, and the territory of their lot fell between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph. ¹² On the north side their boundary began at the Jordan; it went up to the slope north of Jericho, then up through the hill country to the west, and ended at the wilderness of Beth-aven. ¹³ From there the boundary passed southward to Luz, to the slope of Luz (that is, Bethel), then went down to Ataroth-addar, on the hill that lies south of Lower Beth-horon. ¹⁴ Then the boundary curved and turned on the west side to the south, from the hill that faces Beth-horon on the south, and it ended at Kiriath-baal (that is, Kiriath-jearim), a city of the children of Judah. This was the west side. ¹⁵ The south side began at the outskirts of Kiriath-jearim, and the boundary went out westward to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah. ¹⁶ Then the boundary went down to the edge of the hill that faces the Valley of Ben-hinnom, at the north end of the Valley of Rephaim. It went down the Valley of Hinnom, to the southern slope of the Jebusites, and on down to En-rogel. ¹⁷ Then it bent toward the north, went out to En-shemesh, and continued to Geliloth, which is opposite the ascent of Adummim, and went down to the Stone of Bohan the son of Reuben. ¹⁸ It passed on to the slope opposite the Arabah to the north and went down into the Arabah. ¹⁹ The boundary passed on to the northern slope of Beth-hoglah and ended at the northern bay of the Salt Sea, at the southern end of the Jordan. This was the southern boundary. ²⁰ The Jordan formed its boundary on the east side. This was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin, by its surrounding borders, according to their families. ²¹ Now the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin, according to their families, were Jericho, Beth-hoglah, Emek-keziz, ²² Beth-arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, ²³ Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, ²⁴ Chephar-ammoni, Ophni, and Geba—twelve cities with their villages. ²⁵ Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth, ²⁶ Mizpeh, Chephirah, Mozah, ²⁷ Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah, ²⁸ Zela, Haeleph, the Jebusite city (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah, and Kiriath—fourteen cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to their families.