The writer grouped the towns in Judah according to that tribe's four districts. This part of Canaan contained four distinct regions: the southern Negev, the lowland plain (Shephelah), the mountains (hill country), and the desert.
15:21-32 The Negev (south land) formed a region between the more fertile parts of Judah to the north and the desert to the south. The writer listed four groups of towns: the first nine (vv. 21-23), the second five (vv. 24-25), the third nine (vv. 26-28), and the fourth 13 (vv. 29-32).
15:33-47 The Shephelah (lowland) was the area between the Coastal Plain to the west and the hill country of Judah to the east. The Negev lay to its south. The writer grouped the towns in this area also. He named 14 towns in the northern part of the Shephelah (vv. 33-36), 16 in the northwest (vv. 37-41), nine in the south (vv. 42-44), and three in the southwest (vv. 45-47).
15:48-60 Five groups of cities stood in the mountainous hill country of Judah north of the Negev, east of the Shephelah, and west of the wilderness of Judah. This area became home to a large number of Judahites. Eleven towns stood in the southwest section (vv. 48-51) and nine to the north of these (near Hebron, vv. 52-54). Ten more stood to the east of both former groups toward the desert wilderness (vv. 55-57), six to the north of Hebron (vv. 58-59), and two on Judah's northern border (v. 60).
15:61-62 The wilderness of Judah was the northeastern part of the tribal inheritance. It bordered the hill country to the west, the Dead Sea to the east, and the Negev to the south. Six cities occupied this area.
15:63 Even though the Israelites defeated the king of Jerusalem (10:1-27) they were not able to exterminate the Jebusites who lived there. This city remained an island of Canaanite domination on the northern border of the Judahites.
