The Living Bible (74 page)

Joshua
14

The conquered lands of Canaan were allotted to the remaining nine and a half tribes of Israel. The decision as to which tribe would receive which area was decided by throwing dice
*
before the Lord, and he caused them to turn up in the ways he wanted. Eleazar the priest, Joshua, and the tribal leaders supervised the lottery.

    
^3-4
 (Moses had already given land to the two and a half tribes on the east side of the Jordan River. The tribe of Joseph had become two separate tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim, and the Levites were given no land at all, except cities in which to live and the surrounding pasturelands for their cattle.
⁵
 So the distribution of the land was in strict accordance with the Lord’s directions to Moses.)

    
⁶
 
The Land Given to Caleb:
A delegation from the tribe of Judah, led by Caleb, came to Joshua in Gilgal.

    
“Remember what the Lord said to Moses about you and me when we were at Kadesh-barnea?” Caleb asked Joshua.
⁷
 “I was forty years old at the time, and Moses had sent us from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land of Canaan. I reported what I felt was the truth,
⁸
 but our brothers who went with us frightened the people and discouraged them from entering the Promised Land. But since I had followed the Lord my God,
⁹
 Moses told me, ‘The section of Canaan you were just in shall belong to you and your descendants forever.’

    
¹⁰
 “Now, as you see, from that time until now the Lord has kept me alive and well for all these forty-five years since crisscrossing the wilderness, and today I am eighty-five years old.
¹¹
 I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent us on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then!
¹²
 So I’m asking that you give me the hill country that the Lord promised me. You will remember that as spies we found the Anakim living there in great, walled cities, but if the Lord is with me, I shall drive them out of the land.”

    
^13-14
 So Joshua blessed him and gave him Hebron as a permanent inheritance because he had followed the Lord God of Israel.
¹⁵
 (Before that time Hebron had been called Kiriath-arba, after a great hero of the Anakim.)

    
And there was no resistance from the local populations as the Israelis resettled the land.

Joshua
15

The Land Given to the Tribe of Judah
(as assigned by sacred lot): Judah’s southern boundary began at the northern border of Edom, crossed the wilderness of Zin, and ended at the northern edge of the Negeb.
^2-4
 More specifically, this boundary began at the south bay of the Dead Sea, ran along the road going south of Mount Akrabbim, on into the wilderness of Zin to Hezron (south of Kadesh-barnea), and then up through Karka and Azmon, until it finally reached the brook of Egypt, and along that to the Mediterranean Sea.

    
⁵
 The eastern boundary extended along the Dead Sea to the mouth of the Jordan River.

    
The northern boundary began at the bay where the Jordan River empties into the Salt Sea,
⁶
 crossed to Beth-hoglah, then proceeded north of Beth-arabah to the stone of Bohan (son of Reuben).
⁷
 From that point it went through the valley of Achor to Debir, where it turned northwest toward Gilgal, opposite the slopes of Adummim on the south side of the valley. From there the border extended to the springs at En-shemesh and on to En-rogel.
⁸
 The boundary then passed through the valley of Hinnom, along the southern shoulder of Jebus (where the city of Jerusalem is located), then west to the top of the mountain above the valley of Hinnom, and on up to the northern end of the valley of Rephaim.
⁹
 From there the border extended from the top of the mountain to the spring of Nephtoah, and from there to the cities of Mount Ephron before it turned northward to circle around Baalah (which is another name for Kiriath-jearim).
^10-11
 Then the border circled west of Baalah to Mount Seir, passed along to the town of Chesalon on the northern shoulder of Mount Jearim, and went down to Beth-shemesh. Turning northwest again, the boundary line proceeded past the south of Timnah to the shoulder of the hill north of Ekron, where it bent to the left, passing south of Shikkeron and Mount Baalah. Turning again to the north, it passed Jabneel and ended at the Mediterranean Sea.

    
¹²
 The western border was the shoreline of the Mediterranean.

    
¹³
 
The Land Given to Caleb:
The Lord instructed Joshua to assign some of Judah’s territory to Caleb (son of Jephunneh), so he was given the city of Arba (also called Hebron), which had been named after Anak’s father.
¹⁴
 Caleb drove out the descendants of the three sons of Anak: Talmai, Sheshai, and Ahiman.
¹⁵
 Then he fought against the people living in the city of Debir (formerly called Kiriath-sepher).

    
¹⁶
 Caleb said that he would give his daughter Achsah to be the wife of anyone who would go and capture Kiriath-sepher.
¹⁷
 Othniel (son of Kenaz), Caleb’s nephew, was the one who conquered it, so Achsah became Othniel’s wife.
^18-19
 As she was leaving with him, she urged him to ask her father for an additional field as a wedding present.
*
She got off her donkey to speak to Caleb about this.

    
“What is it? What can I do for you?” he asked.

    
And she replied, “Give me another present! For the land you gave me is a desert. Give us some springs too!” Then he gave her the upper and lower springs.

    
²⁰
 So this was the assignment of land to the tribe of Judah:

    
^21-32
 The cities of Judah which were situated along the borders of Edom in the Negeb, namely: Kabzeel, Eder, Jagur, Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah, Kedesh, Hazor, Ithnan, Ziph, Telem, Bealoth, Hazor-hadattah, Kerioth-hezron (or, Hazor), Amam, Shema, Moladah, Hazar-gaddah, Heshmon, Beth-pelet, Hazar-shual, Beer-sheba, Biziothiah, Baalah, Iim, Ezem, Eltolad, Chesil, Hormah, Ziklag, Madmannah, Sansannah, Lebaoth, Shilhim, Ain, and Rimmon. In all, there were twenty-nine of these cities with their surrounding villages.

    
^33-36
 The following cities situated in the lowlands were also given to Judah: Eshtaol, Zorah, Ashnah, Zanoah, En-gannim, Tappuah, Enam, Jarmuth, Adullam, Socoh, Azekah, Shaaraim, Adithaim, Gederah, and Gederothaim. In all, there were fourteen of these cities with their surrounding villages.

    
^37-44
 The tribe of Judah also inherited twenty-five other cities with their villages:
*
Zenan, Hadashah, Migdal-gad, Dilean, Mizpeh, Joktheel, Lachish, Bozkath, Eglon, Cabbon, Lahmam, Chitlish, Gederoth, Beth-dagon, Naamah, Makkedah, Libnah, Ether, Ashan, Iphtah, Ashnah, Nezib, Keilah, Achzib, and Mareshah.

    
⁴⁵
 The territory of the tribe of Judah also included all the towns and villages of Ekron.
⁴⁶
 From Ekron the boundary extended to the Mediterranean and included the cities along the borders of Ashdod with their nearby villages;
⁴⁷
 also the city of Ashdod with its villages, and Gaza with its villages as far as the brook of Egypt; also the entire Mediterranean coast from the mouth of the brook of Egypt on the south to Tyre on the north.

    
^48-62
 Judah also received these forty-four cities in the hill country with their surrounding villages:
*
Shamir, Jattir, Socoh, Dannah, Kiriath-sannah (or Debir), Anab, Eshtemoh, Anim, Goshen, Holon, Giloh, Arab, Dumah, Eshan, Janim, Beth-tappuah, Aphekah, Humtah, Kiriath-arba (or, Hebron), Zior, Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Juttah, Jezreel, Jokdeam, Zanoah, Kain, Gibeah, Timnah, Halhul, Beth-zur, Gedor, Maarath, Beth-anoth, Eltekon, Kiriath-baal (also known as Kiriath-jearim), Rabbah, Beth-arabah, Middin, Secacah, Nibshan, The City of Salt, and En-gedi.

    
⁶³
 But the tribe of Judah could not drive out the Jebusites who lived in the city of Jerusalem, so the Jebusites live there among the people of Judah to this day.

Joshua
16

The Southern Boundary of the Tribes of Joseph
(Ephraim and the half-tribe of Manasseh): This boundary extended from the Jordan River at Jericho through the wilderness and the hill country to Bethel. It then went from Bethel to Luz, then on to Ataroth, in the territory of the Archites; and west to the border of the Japhletites as far as Lower Beth-horon, then to Gezer and on over to the Mediterranean.

    
^5-6
 
The Land Given to the Tribe of Ephraim:
The eastern boundary began at Ataroth-addar. From there it ran to Upper Beth-horon, then on to the Mediterranean Sea. The northern boundary began at the Sea, ran east past Michmethath, then continued on past Taanath-shiloh and Janoah.
⁷
 From Janoah it turned southward to Ataroth and Naarah, touched Jericho, and ended at the Jordan River.
⁸
 The western half of the northern boundary
*
went from Tappuah and followed along Kanah Brook to the Mediterranean Sea.
⁹
 Ephraim was also given some of the cities in the territory of the half-tribe of Manasseh.
¹⁰
 The Canaanites living in Gezer were never driven out, so they still live as slaves among the people of Ephraim.