Joshua 16-20

Joshua 16

¹And the limit of the land marked out for the children of Joseph went out from Jordan at Jericho, at the waters of Jericho on the east, in the waste land, going up from Jericho through the hill-country to Beth-el;

²And it goes out from Beth-el to Luz, and on as far as the limit of the Archites to Ataroth;

³And it goes down to the west to the limit of the Japhletites, to the limit of Beth-horon the lower, as far as Gezer; ending at the sea.

⁴And the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their heritage.

⁵And the limit of the land of the children of Ephraim by their families was marked out in this way: the limit of their heritage to the east was Ataroth-addar, to Beth-horon the higher;

⁶The line goes out to the west at Michmethath on the north; then turning to the east to Taanath-shiloh, going past it on the east of Janoah;

⁷And from Janoah down to Ataroth, and to Naarah, and touching Jericho, it goes on to Jordan.

⁸From Tappuah the line goes on to the west to the river of Kanah; ending at the sea. This is the heritage of the children of Ephraim by their families;

⁹Together with the towns marked out for the children of Ephraim in the heritage of Manasseh, all the towns with their unwalled places.

¹⁰And the Canaanites who were living in Gezer were not forced out; but the Canaanites have been living among Ephraim, to this day, as servants, doing forced work.

Joshua 17

¹And this was the part marked out for the tribe of Manasseh, because he was the oldest son of Joseph. As for Machir, the oldest son of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, because he was a man of war he had Gilead and Bashan.

²And as for the rest of the children of Manasseh, their heritage was given to them by families; for the children of Abiezer, and for the children of Helek, and for the children of Asriel, and for the children of Shechem, and for the children of Hepher, and for the children of Shemida: these were the male children of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, by their families.

³But Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but only daughters; and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

⁴And they came before Eleazar the priest, and Joshua, the son of Nun, and before the chiefs, saying, The Lord gave orders to Moses to give us a heritage among our brothers: so in agreement with the orders of the Lord he gave them a heritage among their father's brothers.

⁵And ten parts were given to Manasseh, in addition to the land of Gilead and Bashan, which is on the other side of Jordan;

⁶Because the daughters of Manasseh had a heritage among his sons, and the land of Gilead was the property of the other sons of Manasseh.

⁷And the limit of Manasseh's land was from Asher to Michmethath, which is before Shechem; the line goes on to the right hand, to the people of En-tappuah.

⁸The land of Tappuah was the property of Manasseh; but Tappuah on the edge of Manasseh was the property of the children of Ephraim.

⁹And the limit goes down to the stream Kanah, to the south of the stream: these towns were Ephraim's among the towns of Manasseh; Manasseh's limit was on the north side of the stream, ending at the sea:

¹⁰To the south it is Ephraim's, and to the north it is Manasseh's, and the sea is his limit; and they are touching Asher on the north, and Issachar on the east.

¹¹In Issachar and Asher, Manasseh had Beth-shean and its daughter-towns, and Ibleam and its daughter-towns, and the people of Dor and its daughter-towns, and the people of En-dor and its daughter-towns, and the people of Taanach and its daughter-towns, and the people of Megiddo and its daughter-towns, that is, the three hills.

¹²But the children of Manasseh were not able to make the people of those towns go out; but the Canaanites would go on living in that land.

¹³And when the children of Israel had become strong, they put the Canaanites to forced work, in place of driving them out.

¹⁴Then the children of Joseph said to Joshua, Why have you given me only one part and one stretch of land for my heritage? For through the blessing given to me by the Lord up to now, I am a great people.

¹⁵Then Joshua said to them, If you are such a great people, go up into the woodlands, clearing a place there for yourselves in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, if the hill-country of Ephraim is not wide enough for you.

¹⁶And the children of Joseph said, The hill-country is not enough for us: and all the Canaanites living in the valley have iron war-carriages, those in Beth-shean and its towns as well as those in the valley of Jezreel.

¹⁷Then Joshua said to the children of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, You are a great people, and have great power: you are not to have one property only,

¹⁸For the hill-country of Gilead will be yours ... the woodland and cut down ... its outskirts will be yours ... get the Canaanites out, for they have iron war-carriages ... strong.

Joshua 18

¹And all the meeting of the children of Israel came together at Shiloh and put up the Tent of meeting there: and the land was crushed before them.

²But there were still seven tribes among the children of Israel who had not taken up their heritage.

³Then Joshua said to the children of Israel, Why are you so slow to go in and take up your heritage in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?

⁴Take from among you three men from every tribe; and I will send them to go through the land and make a record of it for distribution as their heritage; then let them come back to me.

⁵And let them make division of it into seven parts: let Judah keep inside his limit on the south, and let the children of Joseph keep inside their limit on the north.

⁶And you are to have the land marked out in seven parts, and come back to me with the record; and I will make the distribution for you here by the decision of the Lord our God.

⁷For the Levites have no part among you; to be the Lord's priests is their heritage; and Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh have had their heritage on the east side of Jordan, given to them by Moses, the servant of the Lord.

⁸So the men got up and went; and Joshua gave orders to those who went, to make a record of the land, saying, Go up and down through the land, and make a record of it and come back here to me, and I will make the distribution for you here by the decision of the Lord in Shiloh.

⁹So the men went, travelling through the land, and made a record of it by towns in seven parts in a book, and came back to Joshua to the tent-circle at Shiloh.

¹⁰And Joshua made the distribution for them in Shiloh by the decision of the Lord, marking out the land for the children of Israel by their divisions.

¹¹And the first heritage came out for the tribe of Benjamin by their families: and the limit of their heritage went between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph.

¹²And their limit on the north was from the Jordan, and the line goes up to the side of Jericho on the north and through the hill-country to the west, ending at the waste land of Beth-aven.

¹³And from there the line goes south to Luz, to the side of Luz (which is Beth-el), then down to Ataroth-addar, by the mountain to the south of Beth-horon the lower.

¹⁴And the limit is marked as coming round to the south on the west side from the mountain which is south of Beth-horon, and ending at Kiriath-baal (which is Kiriath-jearim), a town of the children of Judah: this is the west part.

¹⁵And the south part is from the farthest point of Kiriath-jearim, and the line goes out to the west to the fountain of the waters of Nephtoah:

¹⁶And the line goes down to the farthest part of the mountain facing the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is on the north of the valley of Rephaim: from there it goes down to the valley of Hinnom, to the side of the Jebusite on the south as far as En-rogel;

¹⁷And it goes to En-shemesh and on to Geliloth, opposite the way up to Adummim, and it goes down to the stone of Bohan, the son of Reuben;

¹⁸And it goes on to the side facing the Arabah to the north, and down to the Arabah;

¹⁹And on to the north side of Beth-hoglah, ending at the north inlet of the Salt Sea at the south end of Jordan; this is their limit on the south.

²⁰And the limit of the east part is the Jordan. This is the heritage of the children of Benjamin, marked out for their families by these limits on all sides.

²¹And the towns of the children of Benjamin, given to them in the order of their families, are Jericho and Beth-hoglah and Emek-kezziz

²²And Beth-arabah and Zemaraim and Beth-el

²³And Avvim and Parah and Ophrah

²⁴And Chephar-Ammoni and Ophni and Geba; twelve towns with their unwalled places;

²⁵Gibeon and Ramah and Beeroth

²⁶And Mizpeh and Chephirah and Mozah

²⁷And Rekem and Irpeel and Taralah

²⁸And Zela, Eleph and the Jebusite (which is Jerusalem), Gibeath and Kiriath; fourteen towns with their unwalled places. This is the heritage of the children of Benjamin by their families.

Joshua 19

¹And the second heritage came out for the tribe of Simeon by their families; and their heritage was in the middle of the heritage of the children of Judah.

²And they had for their heritage Beer-sheba and Shema and Moladah

³And Hazar-shual and Balah and Ezem

⁴And Eltolad and Bethul and Hormah

⁵And Ziklag and Beth-marcaboth and Hazar-susah

⁶And Beth-lebaoth and Sharuhen; thirteen towns with their unwalled places;

⁷Ain, Rimmon, and Ether and Ashan; four towns with their unwalled places;

⁸And all the unwalled places round about these towns as far as Baalath-beer-ramah to the south. This is the heritage of the tribe of Simeon by their families.

⁹The heritage of Simeon was taken out of Judah's stretch of land, for Judah's part was more than they had need of, so the heritage of the children of Simeon was inside their heritage.

¹⁰And the third heritage came out for Zebulun by their families; the limit of their heritage was as far as Sarid;

¹¹And their limit goes up to the west to Maralah, stretching to Dabbesheth, and to the stream in front of Jokneam;

¹²Then turning east from Sarid to the limit of Chisloth-tabor, it goes out to Daberath, and up to Japhia;

¹³And from there it goes on east to Gath-hepher, to Eth-kazin; ending at Rimmon which goes as far as Neah;

¹⁴And the line goes round it on the north to Hannathon, ending at the valley of Iphtah-el;

¹⁵And Kattath and Nahalal and Shimron and Idalah and Beth-lehem; twelve towns with their unwalled places.

¹⁶This is the heritage of the children of Zebulun by their families, these towns with their unwalled places.

¹⁷For Issachar the fourth heritage came out, for the children of Issachar by their families;

¹⁸And their limit was to Jezreel and Chesulloth and Shunem

¹⁹And Hapharaim and Shion and Anaharath

²⁰And Rabbith and Kishion and Ebez

²¹And Remeth and En-gannim and En-haddah and Beth-pazzez;

²²And their limit goes as far as Tabor and Shahazimah and Beth-shemesh, ending at Jordan; sixteen towns with their unwalled places.

²³This is the heritage of the tribe of the children of Issachar by their families, these towns with their unwalled places.

²⁴And the fifth heritage came out for the tribe of Asher by their families.

²⁵And their limit was Helkath and Hali and Beten and Achshaph

²⁶And Alammelech and Amad and Mishal, stretching to Carmel on the west and Shihor-libnath;

²⁷Turning to the east to Beth-dagon and stretching to Zebulun and the valley of Iphtah-el as far as Beth-emek and Neiel to the north; on the left it goes as far as Cabul

²⁸And Ebron and Rehob and Hammon and Kanah, to great Zidon;

²⁹And the limit goes round to Ramah and the walled town of Tyre and Hosah, ending at the sea by Heleb and Achzib;

³⁰And Ummah and Aphek and Rehob; twenty-two towns with their unwalled places.

³¹This is the heritage of the tribe of the children of Asher by their families, these towns with their unwalled places.

³²For the children of Naphtali the sixth heritage came out, for the children of Naphtali by their families;

³³And their limit was from Heleph, from the oak-tree in Zaanannim, and Adami-hannekeb and Jabneel, as far as Lakkum, ending at Jordan;

³⁴And turning west to Aznoth-tabor, the limit goes out from there to Hukkok, stretching to Zebulun on the south, and Asher on the west, and Judah at Jordan on the east.

³⁵And the walled towns are Ziddim, Zer, and Hammath, Rakkath, and Chinnereth

³⁶And Adamah and Ramah and Hazor

³⁷And Kedesh and Edrei and En-Hazor

³⁸And Iron and Migdal-el, Horem and Beth-anath and Beth-shemesh; nineteen towns with their unwalled places.

³⁹This is the heritage of the tribe of the children of Naphtali by their families, these towns with their unwalled places.

⁴⁰For the tribe of Dan by their families the seventh heritage came out;

⁴¹And the limit of their heritage was Zorah and Eshtaol and Ir-shemesh

⁴²And Shaalabbin and Aijalon and Ithlah

⁴³And Elon and Timnah and Ekron

⁴⁴And Eltekeh and Gibbethon and Baalath

⁴⁵And Jehud and Bene-berak and Gath-rimmon;

⁴⁶And on the west was ... opposite Joppa.

⁴⁷(But the limit of the children of Dan was not wide enough for them; so the children of Dan went up and made war on Leshem and took it, putting it to the sword without mercy, and they took it for their heritage and made a place for themselves there, giving it the name of Leshem-dan, after the name of their father, Dan.)

⁴⁸This is the heritage of the tribe of the children of Dan by their families, these towns with their unwalled places.

⁴⁹So the distribution of the land and its limits was complete; and the children of Israel gave Joshua, the son of Nun, a heritage among them;

⁵⁰By the orders of the Lord they gave him the town for which he made request, Timnath-serah in the hill-country of Ephraim: there, after building the town, he made his living-place.

⁵¹These are the heritages which Eleazar the priest and Joshua, the son of Nun, and the heads of families of the tribes of the children of Israel gave out at Shiloh, by the decision of the Lord, at the door of the Tent of meeting. So the distribution of the land was complete.

Joshua 20

¹And the Lord said to Joshua,

²Say to the children of Israel, Let certain towns be marked out as safe places, as I said to you by the mouth of Moses,

³So that any man who in error and without design has taken the life of another, may go in flight to them: and they will be safe places for you from him who has the right of punishment for blood.

⁴And if anyone goes in flight to one of those towns, and comes into the public place of the town, and puts his cause before the responsible men of the town, they will take him into the town and give him a place among them where he may be safe.

⁵And if the one who has the right of punishment comes after him, they are not to give the taker of life up to him; because he was the cause of his neighbour's death without designing it and not in hate.

⁶And he is to go on living in that town till he has to come before the meeting of the people to be judged; (till the death of him who is high priest at that time:) then the taker of life may come back to his town and to his house, to the town from which he had gone in flight.

⁷So they made selection of Kedesh in Galilee in the hill-country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (which is Hebron) in the hill-country of Judah.

⁸And on the east side of Jordan at Jericho, they made selection of Bezer in the waste land, in the table-land, out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.

⁹These were the towns marked out for all the children of Israel and for the man from a strange country living among them, so that anyone causing the death of another in error, might go in flight there, and not be put to death by him who has the right of punishment for blood till he had come before the meeting of the people.