Joshua 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.

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

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?

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.

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 .

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 .

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.

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 .

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 ,

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 .

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 .

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 .

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 .

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 .

¹⁵And the southern side begins at the outskirts of Kiriath-jearim . And the boundary goes from there to Ephron , to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah .

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 .

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 ,

¹⁸and passing on to the north of the shoulder of Beth-arabah it goes down to the Arabah .

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 .

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 .

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

²²Beth-arabah , Zemaraim , Bethel ,

²³Avvim , Parah , Ophrah ,

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

²⁵Gibeon , Ramah , Beeroth ,

²⁶Mizpeh , Chephirah , Mozah ,

²⁷Rekem , Irpeel , Taralah ,

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