Open English Translation JOS Chapter 18

18 Then all the Israelis assembled at Shiloh and set-up the sacred tent there. The battles over the land had stopped 2 but seven of their tribes hadn’t had their inheritances assigned yet. 3 Yehoshua asked the Israelis, “How much longer are you all going to put off capturing the land that your ancestors’ God Yahweh has given you? 4 Choose three men from each of those seven[fn] tribes and I’ll send them out to scout around and inspect the land and write descriptions of it in terms of potential allocations and bring it to me. 5 They can divide that land into seven parts. (Yehudah will maintain their territory in the south, and Yosef’s tribes in the north.) 6 You all should write descriptions of the seven parts and bring them here to me, and in front of our God Yahweh, I’ll throw dice for you to allocate them to the seven tribes. 7 However, the Levites don’t receive a portion, because their inheritance is Yahweh’s priesthood. Gad and Rueben and the Manashsheh half-tribe have already received their inheritance that Yahweh’s servant Mosheh allocated to them on the eastern side of the Yordan.

8 So the chosen men got ready to leave and Yehoshua instructed them, “Go and walk around that land and write a report and bring it back to me. Then I’ll throw dice for you all in front of Yahweh here in Shiloh.” 9 Then the men left and walked through the area, writing down their recommendations for dividing the seven portions according to the cities in the area, then they returned back to Yehoshua at the camp at Shiloh. 10 So Yehoshua threw dice for them at Shiloh in front of Yahweh, and so that land was allocated to those remaining seven tribes.

11 The tribe of Benyamin won the first draw and the area for their clans was between the land assigned to Yehudah and that assigned to Efraim and Manashsheh. 12 Their northern border went from the Yordan then to the northern side of Yericho and up into the hill country to the west, coming out in the wilderness at Beyt-Aven. 13 Then it went across towards Luz (now called Bethel) to the southern edge then downhill towards Atarot-Addar beside the hill south of lower Beyt-Horon. 14 Then the western border turned from that hill and went south, coming out at Kiriat-Baal (also called Kiriat-Yearim—a town belonging to Yehudah) thus forming the western side. 15 The southern border went west from Kiriat-Yearim to the spring at Neftoah, 16 then downhill to the Ben-Hinnon valley (in the valley of the Refaites to the north) then downhill to Hinnon valley to the edge of the Yebusites and downhill to En-Rogel. 17 Then it turned northward and went west to En-Shemesh and across to Gelilot opposite the Adummim pass, before going downhill to to the Stone of Bohan (Reuben’s son). 18 It extended over to the northern slope of the Yordan valley and then downhill into the actual valley. 19 It then went east to the northern slope of Beyt-Hoglah before coming out at the north end of the Dead Sea (also called the Salt Sea) where the Yordan river flows into it. That was the southern boundary 20 and the Yordan borders it on the east. Those were the borders of Benyamin’s descendants’ inheritance according to their clans.

21 The cities allocated to Benyamin’s descendants and their clans were: Yericho, Beyt-Hoglah, Emek-Keziz, 22 Beyt-Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, 23 Avvim, Parah, Ofrah, 24 Kefar-Ammoni, Ofni, and Geba—a total of twelve cities as well as their surrounding villages. 25 Also Gibeon, Ramah, Beerot, 26 Mizpah, Kefirah, Mozah, 27 Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah, 28 Zelah, Haelef, Yebus (now called Yerushalem), Gibeah, and Kiriat—a total of fourteen cities as well as their surrounding villages. Those were Benyamin’s descendants’ inheritance according to their clans.