Joshua 18: The tent at Shiloh, the survey of the land, and Benjamin's lot

In plain English: The whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered at Shiloh and set up the Tent of Meeting there. The land had been brought under their control (this Bible: subdued) before them.

Good to know: Here the Tent of Meeting is set up at Shiloh, and the rest of the land is divided there by lot (verses 8 to 10, and 19:51). Later books still speak of it: 1 Samuel 1:3 tells of a man who went up "from year to year to worship and to sacrifice" in Shiloh, and in Jeremiah 7:12 Yahweh speaks of "my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first".

The Hebrew word: "Subdued" is kabash, which the dictionary gives as "to tread down", "to conquer, subjugate". It is the word for "subdue" in Genesis 1:28: "fill the earth, and subdue it".

How it is translated: This Bible says "subdue" or a longer form in 6 of the 13 verses that use kabash.

In plain English: Seven tribes were left among the children of Israel that had not yet divided up their inheritance.

In plain English: Joshua said to the children of Israel, "How long will you hold back (literally: be slack) from going in to take the land that Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you?

In plain English: Choose for yourselves three men from each tribe. I will send them, and they will set off, walk through the land, and write a description of it (literally: write it) according to their inheritance. Then they are to come back to me.

In plain English: They are to divide it into seven portions. Judah will stay in its territory in the south, and the house of Joseph will stay in its territory in the north.

In plain English: You are to write a description of the land in seven portions and bring it here to me, and I will cast lots for you here before Yahweh our God.

The Hebrew word: "Lots" is goral, which the dictionary gives as "a pebble, i.e. a lot": see the note at 14:2.

Good to know: The text does not say how the lots were cast.

In plain English: But the Levites have no portion among you, because the priesthood of Yahweh is their inheritance. And Gad, Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance east of the Jordan, which Moses the servant of Yahweh gave them."

Good to know: The book says this in different words in different places: in 13:14 the offerings made by fire are Levi's inheritance, in 13:33 Yahweh himself is, and here Joshua says the priesthood is. Yahweh first says it to Aaron in Numbers 18:20: "I am your portion and your inheritance".

In plain English: So the men got up and went. Joshua commanded those who went to write a description of the land: "Go, walk through the land, write a description of it, and come back to me. I will cast lots for you here before Yahweh in Shiloh."

In plain English: The men went and passed through the land, and wrote it down town by town in seven portions in a book (or: on a scroll). Then they came to Joshua at the camp at Shiloh.

In plain English: Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before Yahweh. There Joshua divided the land among the children of Israel by their divisions.

In plain English: The lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up, family by family. The territory of their lot lay between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph.

In plain English: On the north side their border began at the Jordan. The border went up the slope north of Jericho, went up through the hill country westward, and ended at the wilderness of Beth Aven.

In plain English: From there the border passed to Luz, to the slope of Luz (also called Bethel) on the south. The border went down to Ataroth Addar, by the mountain south of Lower Beth Horon.

In plain English: Then the border turned on the west side southward, from the mountain that faces Beth Horon on the south, and ended at Kiriath Baal (also called Kiriath Jearim), a town of the children of Judah. This was the west side.

In plain English: The south side began at the edge of Kiriath Jearim. The border went out westward, to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah.

Good to know: Benjamin's south border in verses 15 to 19 names the same places as Judah's north border in 15:5 to 15:9, in the opposite order: Kiriath Jearim, Nephtoah, the valley of Hinnom, En Rogel, En Shemesh, the stone of Bohan, Beth Hoglah and the Salt Sea.

In plain English: The border went down to the edge of the mountain that faces the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is in the valley of Rephaim on the north. It went down the valley of Hinnom, to the slope of the Jebusite on the south, and down to En Rogel.

Good to know: The "valley of the son of Hinnom" is on Judah's border too, in 15:8. The note there tells how its name became the New Testament word Gehenna.

In plain English: It turned north, went out to En Shemesh, and on to Geliloth, which faces the ascent of Adummim. Then it went down to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben.

In plain English: It passed to the slope facing the Arabah on the north, and went down to the Arabah.

In plain English: The border passed to the slope of Beth Hoglah on the north, and it ended at the north bay of the Salt Sea, at the south end of the Jordan. This was the south border.

In plain English: The Jordan was its border on the east side. This was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin, by its borders all around, family by family.

In plain English: The towns of the tribe of the children of Benjamin, family by family, were Jericho, Beth Hoglah, Emek Keziz,

In plain English: Beth Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel,

In plain English: Avvim, Parah, Ophrah,

In plain English: Chephar Ammoni, Ophni and Geba: twelve towns with their villages.

In plain English: Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth,

In plain English: Mizpeh, Chephirah, Mozah,

In plain English: Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah,

In plain English: Zelah, Eleph, the Jebusite (also called Jerusalem), Gibeath and Kiriath: fourteen towns with their villages. This is the inheritance of the children of Benjamin, family by family.

Good to know: Jerusalem is named in Benjamin's list. In 15:63 the text says Judah could not drive out the Jebusites of Jerusalem, and Judges 1:21 says Benjamin did not drive them out either: "the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day".