Joshua 18:28

18:28 Zelah, Haeleph, the Jebusite city ¹  (that is, Jerusalem), ²  Gibeah, and Kiriath – a total of fourteen cities and their towns. ³  This was the land assigned to the tribe of Benjamin ⁴  by its clans.

Joshua 18:1

The Tribes Meet at Shiloh

18:1 The entire Israelite community assembled at Shiloh and there they set up the tent of meeting. ⁵  Though they had subdued the land, ⁶ 

Joshua 10:2

10:2 All Jerusalem was terrified ⁷  because Gibeon was a large city, like one of the royal cities. It was larger than Ai and all its men were warriors.

¹ tn The word “city” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

² map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

³ 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.

⁴ tn Heb “This is the inheritance of the sons of Benjamin.”

⁵ tn Heb “the tent of assembly.”

⁶ tn Heb “and the land was subdued before them.”

⁷ tn This statement is subordinated to v. 1 in the Hebrew text, which reads literally, “When Adoni-Zedek…they feared greatly.” The subject of the plural verb at the beginning of v. 2 is probably the residents of Jerusalem.