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¹The entire Israelite community assembled at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there. The land had been subdued before them,

²but seven tribes among the Israelites were left who had not divided up their inheritance.

³So Joshua asked the Israelites, “How long will you delay going out to take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, gave you?

⁴Appoint for yourselves three men from each tribe, and I will send them out. They are to go and survey the land, write a description of it for the purpose of their inheritance, and return to me.

⁵Then they are to divide it into seven portions. Judah is to remain in its territory in the south and Joseph’s family in their territory in the north.

⁶When you have written a description of the seven portions of land and brought it to me, I will cast lots for you here in the presence of the LORD our God.

⁷But the Levites among you do not get a portion, because their inheritance is the priesthood of the LORD. Gad, Reuben, and half the tribe of Manasseh have taken their inheritance beyond the Jordan to the east, which Moses the LORD’s servant gave them.”

⁸As the men prepared to go, Joshua commanded them to write down a description of the land, saying, “Go and survey the land, write a description of it, and return to me. I will then cast lots for you here in Shiloh in the presence of the LORD.”

⁹So the men left, went through the land, and described it by towns in a document of seven sections. They returned to Joshua at the camp in Shiloh.

¹⁰Joshua cast lots for them at Shiloh in the presence of the LORD where he distributed the land to the Israelites according to their divisions.

¹¹The lot came up for the tribe of Benjamin’s descendants by their clans, and their allotted territory lay between Judah’s descendants and Joseph’s descendants.

¹²Their border on the north side began at the Jordan, ascended to the slope of Jericho on the north, through the hill country westward, and ended at the wilderness around Beth-aven.

¹³From there the border went toward Luz, to the southern slope of Luz (that is, Bethel); it then went down by Ataroth-addar, over the hill south of Lower Beth-horon.

¹⁴On the west side, from the hill facing Beth-horon on the south, the border curved, turning southward, and ended at Kiriath-baal (that is, Kiriath-jearim), a city of the descendants of Judah. This was the west side of their border.

¹⁵The south side began at the edge of Kiriath-jearim, and the border extended westward; it went to the spring at the Waters of Nephtoah.

¹⁶The border descended to the foot of the hill that faces Ben Hinnom Valley at the northern end of Rephaim Valley. It ran down Hinnom Valley toward the south Jebusite slope and downward to En-rogel.

¹⁷It curved northward and went to En-shemesh and on to Geliloth, which is opposite the Ascent of Adummim, and continued down to the Stone of Bohan son of Reuben.

¹⁸Then it went north to the slope opposite the Arabah and proceeded into the plains.

¹⁹The border continued to the north slope of Beth-hoglah and ended at the northern bay of the Dead Sea, at the southern end of the Jordan. This was the southern border.

²⁰The Jordan formed the border on the east side. This was the inheritance of Benjamin’s descendants, by their clans, according to its surrounding borders.

²¹These were the cities of the tribe of Benjamin’s descendants by their clans: Jericho, Beth-hoglah, Emek-keziz,

²²Beth-arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel,

²³Avvim, Parah, Ophrah,

²⁴Chephar-ammoni, Ophni, and Geba — twelve cities, with their settlements;

²⁵Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth,

²⁶Mizpeh, Chephirah, Mozah,

²⁷Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah,

²⁸Zela, Haeleph, Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah, and Kiriath  — fourteen cities, with their settlements. This was the inheritance for Benjamin’s descendants by their clans.

¹The second lot came out for Simeon, for the tribe of his descendants by their clans, but their inheritance was within the inheritance given to Judah’s descendants.

²Their inheritance included Beer-sheba (or Sheba ), Moladah,

³Hazar-shual, Balah, Ezem,

⁴Eltolad, Bethul, Hormah,

⁵Ziklag, Beth-marcaboth, Hazar-susah,

⁶Beth-lebaoth, and Sharuhen — thirteen cities, with their settlements;

⁷Ain, Rimmon, Ether, and Ashan — four cities, with their settlements;

⁸and all the settlements surrounding these cities as far as Baalath-beer (Ramah in the south ). This was the inheritance of the tribe of Simeon’s descendants by their clans.

⁹The inheritance of Simeon’s descendants was within the territory of Judah’s descendants, because the share for Judah’s descendants was too large. So Simeon’s descendants received an inheritance within Judah’s portion.

¹⁰The third lot came up for Zebulun’s descendants by their clans. The territory of their inheritance stretched as far as Sarid;

¹¹their border went up westward to Maralah, reached Dabbesheth, and met the brook east of Jokneam.

¹²From Sarid, it turned due east along the border of Chisloth-tabor, went to Daberath, and went up to Japhia.

¹³From there, it went due east to Gath-hepher and to Eth-kazin; it extended to Rimmon, curving around to Neah.

¹⁴The border then circled around Neah on the north to Hannathon and ended at Iphtah-el Valley,

¹⁵along with Kattath, Nahalal, Shimron, Idalah, and Bethlehem — twelve cities, with their settlements.

¹⁶This was the inheritance of Zebulun’s descendants by their clans, these cities, with their settlements.

¹⁷The fourth lot came out for the tribe of Issachar’s descendants by their clans.

¹⁸Their territory went to Jezreel, and included Chesulloth, Shunem,

¹⁹Hapharaim, Shion, Anaharath,

²⁰Rabbith, Kishion, Ebez,

²¹Remeth, En-gannim, En-haddah, and Beth-pazzez.

²²The border reached Tabor, Shahazumah, and Beth-shemesh, and ended at the Jordan — sixteen cities, with their settlements.

²³This was the inheritance of the tribe of Issachar’s descendants by their clans, the cities, with their settlements.

²⁴The fifth lot came out for the tribe of Asher’s descendants by their clans.

²⁵Their boundary included Helkath, Hali, Beten, Achshaph,

²⁶Allammelech, Amad, and Mishal and reached westward to Carmel and Shihor-libnath.

²⁷It turned eastward to Beth-dagon, reached Zebulun and Iphtah-el Valley, north toward Beth-emek and Neiel, and went north to Cabul,

²⁸Ebron, Rehob, Hammon, and Kanah, as far as greater Sidon.

²⁹The boundary then turned to Ramah as far as the fortified city of Tyre; it turned back to Hosah and ended at the Mediterranean Sea, including Mahalab, Achzib,

³⁰Ummah, Aphek, and Rehob — twenty-two cities, with their settlements.

³¹This was the inheritance of the tribe of Asher’s descendants by their clans, these cities with their settlements.

³²The sixth lot came out for Naphtali’s descendants by their clans.

³³Their boundary went from Heleph and from the oak in Zaanannim, including Adami-nekeb and Jabneel, as far as Lakkum, and ended at the Jordan.

³⁴To the west, the boundary turned to Aznoth-tabor and went from there to Hukkok, reaching Zebulun on the south, Asher on the west, and Judah at the Jordan on the east.

³⁵The fortified cities were Ziddim, Zer, Hammath, Rakkath, Chinnereth,

³⁶Adamah, Ramah, Hazor,

³⁷Kedesh, Edrei, En-hazor,

³⁸Iron, Migdal-el, Horem, Beth-anath, and Beth-shemesh — nineteen cities, with their settlements.

³⁹This was the inheritance of the tribe of Naphtali’s descendants by their clans, the cities with their settlements.

⁴⁰The seventh lot came out for the tribe of Dan’s descendants by their clans.

⁴¹The territory of their inheritance included Zorah, Eshtaol, Ir-shemesh,

⁴²Shaalabbin, Aijalon, Ithlah,

⁴³Elon, Timnah, Ekron,

⁴⁴Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Baalath,

⁴⁵Jehud, Bene-berak, Gath-rimmon,

⁴⁶Me-jarkon, and Rakkon, with the territory facing Joppa.

⁴⁷When the territory of the descendants of Dan slipped out of their control, they went up and fought against Leshem, captured it, and struck it down with the sword. So they took possession of it, lived there, and renamed Leshem after their ancestor Dan.

⁴⁸This was the inheritance of the tribe of Dan’s descendants by their clans, these cities with their settlements.

⁴⁹When they had finished distributing the land into its territories, the Israelites gave Joshua son of Nun an inheritance among them.

⁵⁰By the LORD’s command, they gave him the city Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim, which he requested. He rebuilt the city and lived in it.

⁵¹These were the portions that the priest Eleazar, Joshua son of Nun, and the family heads distributed to the Israelite tribes by lot at Shiloh in the LORD’s presence at the entrance to the tent of meeting. So they finished dividing up the land.

¹Then the LORD spoke to Joshua,

²“Tell the Israelites: Select your cities of refuge, as I instructed you through Moses,

³so that a person who kills someone unintentionally or accidentally may flee there. These will be your refuge from the avenger of blood.

⁴When someone flees to one of these cities, stands at the entrance of the city gate, and states his case before the elders of that city, they are to bring him into the city and give him a place to live among them.

⁵And if the avenger of blood pursues him, they must not hand the one who committed manslaughter over to him, for he killed his neighbor accidentally and did not hate him beforehand.

⁶He is to stay in that city until he stands trial before the assembly and until the death of the high priest serving at that time. Then the one who committed manslaughter may return home to his own city from which he fled.”

⁷So they designated Kedesh in the hill country of Naphtali in Galilee, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.

⁸Across the Jordan east of Jericho, they selected Bezer on the wilderness plateau from Reuben’s tribe, Ramoth in Gilead from Gad’s tribe, and Golan in Bashan from Manasseh’s tribe.

⁹These are the cities appointed for all the Israelites and the aliens residing among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there and not die at the hand of the avenger of blood until he stands before the assembly.