Day 62: Joshua 13-15
The Remaining Land, the Tribal Inheritances, and Caleb’s Claim
Joshua 13
1 Now Joshua was old and well advanced in years. Yahweh said to him, “You are old and well advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to be possessed.
2 “This is the land that remains: all the regions of the Philistines, and all the Geshurites; 3 from the Shihor, which is before Egypt, even to the border of Ekron northward, which is counted to the Canaanites; the five lords of the Philistines: the Gazites, and the Ashdodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avvites, 4 on the south; all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that belongs to the Sidonians, to Aphek, to the border of the Amorites; 5 and the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal Gad under Mount Hermon to the entrance of Hamath; 6 all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon even to Misrephoth Maim, even all the Sidonians. I myself will drive them out from before the children of Israel. Only allot it to Israel for an inheritance, as I have commanded you.
7 “Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh.”
8 With him the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond the Jordan eastward, even as Moses the servant of Yahweh gave them: 9 from Aroer that is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the plain of Medeba to Dibon; 10 and all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, to the border of the children of Ammon; 11 and Gilead, and the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan to Salecah; 12 all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei (the same was left of the remnant of the Rephaim), for Moses struck these and drove them out. 13 Nevertheless the children of Israel didn’t drive out the Geshurites, nor the Maacathites; but Geshur and Maacath lived in the middle of Israel to this day.
14 Only he gave no inheritance to the tribe of Levi. The offerings of Yahweh, the God of Israel, made by fire are their inheritance, as he said to them.
15 Moses gave to the tribe of the children of Reuben according to their families. 16 Their border was from Aroer that is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the plain by Medeba; 17 Heshbon and all its cities that are in the plain; Dibon, and Bamoth Baal, and Beth Baal Meon, 18 and Jahaz, and Kedemoth, and Mephaath, 19 and Kiriathaim, and Sibmah, and Zereth Shahar on the mount of the valley, 20 and Beth Peor, and the slopes of Pisgah, and Beth Jeshimoth, 21 and all the cities of the plain, and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses struck, with the chiefs of Midian, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, the princes of Sihon, who lived in the land. 22 The children of Israel also killed Balaam the son of Beor, the diviner, with the sword, among the rest of their slain. 23 The border of the children of Reuben was the bank of the Jordan. This was the inheritance of the children of Reuben according to their families, the cities and their villages.
24 Moses gave to the tribe of Gad, to the children of Gad, according to their families. 25 Their border was Jazer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon, to Aroer that is before Rabbah; 26 and from Heshbon to Ramath Mizpeh, and Betonim; and from Mahanaim to the border of Debir; 27 and in the valley, Beth Haram, and Beth Nimrah, and Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon, the Jordan being the border of it, to the uttermost part of the sea of Chinnereth beyond the Jordan eastward. 28 This is the inheritance of the children of Gad according to their families, the cities and their villages.
29 Moses gave an inheritance to the half-tribe of Manasseh. It was for the half-tribe of the children of Manasseh according to their families. 30 Their border was from Mahanaim, all Bashan, all the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, and all the villages of Jair, which are in Bashan, sixty cities. 31 Half Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, the cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were for the children of Machir the son of Manasseh, for half the children of Machir according to their families.
32 These are the inheritances which Moses distributed in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan at Jericho, eastward. 33 But to the tribe of Levi Moses gave no inheritance. Yahweh, the God of Israel, is their inheritance, as he said to them.
Joshua 14
1 These are the inheritances which the children of Israel took in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers’ households of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed to them, 2 by the lot of their inheritance, as Yahweh commanded by Moses, for the nine tribes, and for the half-tribe. 3 For Moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes and the half-tribe beyond the Jordan; but to the Levites he gave no inheritance among them. 4 For the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim. They gave no portion to the Levites in the land, except cities to dwell in, with their pasture lands for their livestock and for their possessions. 5 As Yahweh commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did; and they divided the land.
6 Then the children of Judah came near to Joshua in Gilgal. Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know the thing that Yahweh spoke to Moses the man of God concerning me and concerning you in Kadesh Barnea. 7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of Yahweh sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land. I brought him word again as it was in my heart. 8 Nevertheless my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; but I wholly followed Yahweh my God. 9 Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have wholly followed Yahweh, my God.’
10 “Now, behold, Yahweh has kept me alive, as he said, these forty-five years, from the time that Yahweh spoke this word to Moses, while Israel wandered in the wilderness. Now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. 11 As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me. As my strength was then, even so is my strength now for war, and to go out and to come in. 12 Now therefore give me this hill country, of which Yahweh spoke on that day; for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, and cities great and fortified. It may be that Yahweh will be with me, and I shall drive them out, as Yahweh said.”
13 Joshua blessed him; and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. 14 Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed Yahweh, the God of Israel. 15 Now the name of Hebron before that was Kiriath Arba, which was the greatest man among the Anakim.
Then the land had rest from war.
Joshua 15
1 The lot for the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families was to the border of Edom, even to the wilderness of Zin southward, at the uttermost part of the south. 2 Their south border was from the uttermost part of the Salt Sea, from the bay that looks southward; 3 and it went out southward of the ascent of Akrabbim, and passed along to Zin, and went up by the south of Kadesh Barnea, and passed along by Hezron, and went up to Addar, and turned toward Karka; 4 and it passed along to Azmon, and went out at the brook of Egypt; and the border ended at the sea. This shall be your south border.
5 The east border was the Salt Sea, even to the end of the Jordan. The border of the north quarter was from the bay of the sea at the end of the Jordan. 6 The border went up to Beth Hoglah, and passed along by the north of Beth Arabah; and the border went up to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben. 7 The border went up to Debir from the valley of Achor, and so northward, looking toward Gilgal, that is before the ascent of Adummim, which is on the south side of the river. The border passed along to the waters of En Shemesh, and ended at En Rogel. 8 The border went up by the valley of the son of Hinnom to the side of the Jebusite (the same is Jerusalem) on the south; and the border went up to the top of the mountain that is before the valley of Hinnom westward, which is at the uttermost part of the valley of Rephaim northward. 9 The border extended from the top of the mountain to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah, and went out to the cities of Mount Ephron; and the border extended to Baalah (the same is Kiriath Jearim); 10 and the border turned about from Baalah westward to Mount Seir, and passed along to the side of Mount Jearim on the north (the same is Chesalon), and went down to Beth Shemesh, and passed along by Timnah; 11 and the border went out to the side of Ekron northward; and the border extended to Shikkeron, and passed along to Mount Baalah, and went out at Jabneel; and the border ended at the sea.
12 The west border was to the shore of the great sea, and its border. This is the border around the children of Judah according to their families.
13 He gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh a portion among the children of Judah, according to the commandment of Yahweh to Joshua, even Kiriath Arba, named after the father of Anak (the same is Hebron). 14 Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak: Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak. 15 He went up from there against the inhabitants of Debir. Now the name of Debir before that was Kiriath Sepher. 16 Caleb said, “He who strikes Kiriath Sepher, and takes it, to him I will give Achsah my daughter as wife.”
17 Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it; and he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife. 18 When she came to him, she persuaded him to ask her father for a field. She dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said, “What do you want?”
19 She said, “Give me a blessing; because you have set me in the land of the South, give me also springs of water.”
So he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
20 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families.
21 The farthest cities of the tribe of the children of Judah toward the border of Edom in the South were Kabzeel, and Eder, and Jagur, 22 and Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah, 23 and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Ithnan, 24 Ziph, and Telem, and Bealoth, 25 and Hazor Hadattah, and Kerioth Hezron (the same is Hazor), 26 Amam, and Shema, and Moladah, 27 and Hazar Gaddah, and Heshmon, and Beth Pelet, 28 and Hazar Shual, and Beersheba, and Biziothiah, 29 Baalah, and Iim, and Ezem, 30 and Eltolad, and Chesil, and Hormah, 31 and Ziklag, and Madmannah, and Sansannah, 32 and Lebaoth, and Shilhim, and Ain, and Rimmon: all the cities are twenty-nine, with their villages.
33 In the lowland: Eshtaol, and Zorah, and Ashnah, 34 and Zanoah, and En Gannim, Tappuah, and Enam, 35 Jarmuth, and Adullam, Socoh, and Azekah, 36 and Shaaraim, and Adithaim, and Gederah, and Gederothaim; fourteen cities with their villages.
37 Zenan, and Hadashah, and Migdal Gad, 38 and Dilean, and Mizpeh, and Joktheel, 39 Lachish, and Bozkath, and Eglon, 40 and Cabbon, and Lahmam, and Kitlish, 41 and Gederoth, Beth Dagon, and Naamah, and Makkedah; sixteen cities with their villages.
42 Libnah, and Ether, and Ashan, 43 and Iphtah, and Ashnah, and Nezib, 44 and Keilah, and Achzib, and Mareshah; nine cities with their villages.
45 Ekron, with its towns and its villages; 46 from Ekron even to the sea, all that were by the side of Ashdod, with their villages. 47 Ashdod, its towns and its villages; Gaza, its towns and its villages; to the brook of Egypt, and the great sea with its coastline.
48 In the hill country: Shamir, and Jattir, and Socoh, 49 and Dannah, and Kiriath Sannah (the same is Debir), 50 and Anab, and Eshtemoh, and Anim, 51 and Goshen, and Holon, and Giloh; eleven cities with their villages.
52 Arab, and Dumah, and Eshan, 53 and Janim, and Beth Tappuah, and Aphekah, 54 and Humtah, and Kiriath Arba (the same is Hebron), and Zior; nine cities with their villages.
55 Maon, Carmel, and Ziph, and Juttah, 56 and Jezreel, and Jokdeam, and Zanoah, 57 Kain, Gibeah, and Timnah; ten cities with their villages.
58 Halhul, Beth Zur, and Gedor, 59 and Maarath, and Beth Anoth, and Eltekon; six cities with their villages.
60 Kiriath Baal (the same is Kiriath Jearim), and Rabbah; two cities with their villages.
61 In the wilderness: Beth Arabah, Middin, and Secacah, 62 and Nibshan, and the City of Salt, and En Gedi; six cities with their villages.
63 As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah couldn’t drive them out; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.
Scripture: World English Bible (WEB), public domain.
