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Texts -- Joshua 18:1-16 (NET)

Context
The Tribes Meet at Shiloh
18:1 The entire Israelite community assembled at Shiloh and there they set up the tent of meeting . Though they had subdued the land , 18:2 seven Israelite tribes had not been assigned their allotted land. 18:3 So Joshua said to the Israelites : “How long do you intend to put off occupying the land the Lord God of your ancestors has given you? 18:4 Pick three men from each tribe . I will send them out to walk through the land and make a map of it for me . 18:5 Divide it into seven regions . Judah will stay in its territory in the south , and the family of Joseph in its territory in the north . 18:6 But as for you , map out the land into seven regions and bring it to me. I will draw lots for you here before the Lord our God . 18:7 But the Levites will not have an allotted portion among you, for their inheritance is to serve the Lord . Gad , Reuben , and the half-tribe of Manasseh have already received their allotted land east of the Jordan which Moses the Lord’s servant assigned them.” 18:8 When the men started out , Joshua told those going to map out the land , “Go , walk through the land , map it out , and return to me. Then I will draw lots for you before the Lord here in Shiloh .” 18:9 The men journeyed through the land and mapped it and its cities out into seven regions on a scroll . Then they came to Joshua at the camp in Shiloh . 18:10 Joshua drew lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord and divided the land among the Israelites according to their allotted portions .
Benjamin’s Tribal Lands
18:11 The first lot belonged to the tribe of Benjamin by its clans . Their allotted territory was between Judah and Joseph . 18:12 Their northern border started at the Jordan , went up to the slope of Jericho on the north , ascended westward to the hill country , and extended to the desert of Beth Aven . 18:13 It then crossed from there to Luz , to the slope of Luz to the south (that is, Bethel ), and descended to Ataroth Addar located on the hill that is south of lower Beth Horon . 18:14 It then turned on the west side southward from the hill near Beth Horon on the south and extended to Kiriath Baal (that is, Kiriath Jearim ), a city belonging to the tribe of Judah . This is the western border . 18:15 The southern side started on the edge of Kiriath Jearim and extended westward to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah . 18:16 The border then descended to the edge of the hill country near the Valley of Ben Hinnom located in the Valley of the Rephaites to the north . It descended through the Valley of Hinnom to the slope of the Jebusites to the south and then down to En Rogel .

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Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

  • I. The conquest of the land chs. 1-12A. Preparations for entering Canaan chs. 1-21. God's charge to Joshua 1:1-92. Joshua's charge to Israel 1:10-183. The spying out of Jericho ch. 2B. Entrance into the land 3:1-5:121. Passag...
  • In one sense verses 1-9 are a preamble to the whole book. They contain the basic principles that were to guide Joshua and Israel so they could obtain all that God had promised their forefathers.1:1 The first word of the book ...
  • The writer referred to Canaan as "the land of the sons of Israel"first here in Scripture (v. 22). The Anakim were the mighty warriors that the 10 spies had feared (Num. 13:28). Israel destroyed most of these."The hardening of...
  • The writer identified 31 kings in the order in which Joshua defeated them."Many of the same names appear in the Amarna letters, thus confirming the historicity of our text."158"The description was not complete. Shechem is not...
  • Chapters 13-24 describe how Joshua divided the land and the results of that division. Many if not all the Israelite tribes did not conquer or control all the land allotted to them (15:63; 16:10; 17:12-13). The record of the a...
  • Eleazar the high priest, Joshua, and the heads of the tribes took the leadership in dividing this portion of the land (v. 1). These men determined the division of the land by casting lots (v. 2; 18:6). Apparently the casting ...
  • After the process of assigning land to the three tribes mentioned above, Israel's attention turned to relocating the tabernacle in a more central location (v. 1). God undoubtedly made the choice of Shiloh (lit. rest; cf. Deut...
  • Benjamin shared its territorial boundaries (vv. 11-20) with Judah on the south and Ephraim on the north. On the east the Jordan River formed Benjamin's border. On the west, about half way to the Mediterranean Sea, Israel's le...
  • Israel's leaders completed this division of the land at Shiloh, the new location of the tabernacle."The gift of the land brought blessings not only to the nation as a whole and to the individual tribes. It also brought blessi...
  • These verses conclude the account of the division of the land proper (chs. 13-21; cf. 1:2-6; 11:23). They bind the two parts of the second half of the book together. They form a theological conclusion to the entire book up to...
  • The main part of the second half of the Book of Joshua dealing with the division of the land ends with the appointment of the Levitical cities (chs. 13-21). The rest of the book deals with settlement in the land (chs. 22-24)....
  • The Book of Samuel covers the period of Israel's history bracketed by Samuel's conception and the end of David's reign. David turned the kingdom over to Solomon in 971 B.C.3David reigned for 40 and one-half years (2 Sam. 2:11...
  • The Philistines, as we have already seen in Judges, were Israel's primary enemy to the west at this time. Samson, too, fought the Philistines (Judg. 13-16).52There are about 150 references to the Philistines in 1 and 2 Samuel...
  • This message demonstrates a structure that is quite typical of many others in the Book of Jeremiah (cf. 11:1-17; 17:19-27; 34:8-22). First there is an explanation of Yahweh's will (word, law; vv. 1-7), then a description of I...
  • This is the sixth and last message that Ezekiel received from the Lord the night before the refugees reached the exiles with the message that Jerusalem had fallen (cf. 33:21-22). It too deals with God's plans for Israel in th...
  • The tribe of Dan was to receive the northernmost section of the Promised Land. The order of tribes from north to south, north of the sacred district, was Dan, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben and Judah--seven tribal...
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