Joshua 18:12-28

18:12 Their northern border started at the Jordan, went up to the slope of Jericho ¹  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), ²  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 ³  of Judah. This is the western border. ⁴  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. 18:17 It went northward, extending to En Shemesh and Geliloth opposite the Pass ⁵  of Adummim, and descended to the Stone of Bohan son of Reuben. 18:18 It crossed to the slope in front of the Arabah to the north and descended into the Arabah. 18:19 It then crossed to the slope of Beth Hoglah to the north and ended at the northern tip of the Salt Sea ⁶  at the mouth of the Jordan River. ⁷  This was the southern border. 18:20 The Jordan River borders it on the east. These were the borders of the land assigned to the tribe of Benjamin by its clans. ⁸ 

18:21 These cities belonged to the tribe ⁹  of Benjamin by its clans: Jericho, ¹⁰  Beth Hoglah, Emek Keziz, 18:22 Beth Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, ¹¹  18:23 Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, 18:24 Kephar Ammoni, Ophni, and Geba – a total of twelve cities and their towns.

18:25 Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth, 18:26 Mizpah, Kephirah, Mozah, 18:27 Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah, 18:28 Zelah, Haeleph, the Jebusite city ¹²  (that is, Jerusalem), ¹³  Gibeah, and Kiriath – a total of fourteen cities and their towns. ¹⁴  This was the land assigned to the tribe of Benjamin ¹⁵  by its clans.

¹ map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.

² map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

³ tn Heb “sons,” here referring to the tribe.

⁴ tn Or “side.”

⁵ tn Or “ascent.”

⁶ sn The Salt Sea is another name for the Dead Sea.

⁷ tn Heb “to the tongue of the Salt Sea to the north, to the end of the Jordan to the south.” The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity (also in the following verse).

⁸ tn Heb “This was the inheritance of the sons of Benjamin by its borders round about, by their clans.”

⁹ tn Heb “the sons,” here referring to the tribe.

¹⁰ map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.

¹¹ map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

¹² tn The word “city” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

¹³ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁴ tn The structure of this list presents problems. In v. 28 no conjunction appears before “Haeleph” or “Kiriath” in the Hebrew text. This suggests they should be compounded with the preceding names, yielding “Zelah Haeleph” and “Gibeah Kiriath” respectively. This results in a list of only twelve cities, however, while the summary statement (v. 28) gives the number fourteen. One should note, however, that the city lists in chap. 15 do not consistently use the conjunction before the name of each city. See also Josh 19:7, where no conjunction appears before “Rimmon,” but the summary assumes that Ain and Rimmon are distinct.

¹⁵ tn Heb “This is the inheritance of the sons of Benjamin.”