World English Bible · Entering the land
Joshua 18
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The whole of the assembled themselves together at , and set up the there. The land was subdued before them. 2Seven tribes remained among the , which had not yet divided their . said to the , "How long will you neglect to go in to possess the land, which , the of your fathers, has given you? Appoint for yourselves three men from each tribe. I will send them, and they shall arise, walk through the land, and describe it according to their ; then they shall come to me. They shall divide it into seven portions. Judah shall live in his borders on the south, and the shall live in their borders on the north. You shall survey the land into seven parts, and bring the description here to me; and I will cast lots for you here before our . However, the have no among you; for the priesthood of is their . Gad, , and the half-tribe of have received their east of , which the gave them." The men arose and went. commanded those who went to survey the land, saying, "Go walk through the land, survey it, and come again to me. I will cast lots for you here before in ." The men went and passed through the land, and surveyed it by cities into seven portions in a book. They came to to the camp at . cast lots for them in before . There divided the land to the according to their divisions. The lot of the tribe of the children of came up according to their families. The border of their lot went out between the children of Judah and the children of . Their border on the north quarter was from . The border went up to the side of on the north, and went up through the hill country westward. It ended at of Beth . The border passed along from there to , to the side of (also called ), southward. The border went down to , by the mountain that lies on the south of the lower. The border extended, and turned around on the west quarter southward, from the mountain that lies before southward; and ended at Kiriath (also called ), a city of the children of Judah. This was the west quarter. The south quarter was from the farthest part of . The border went out westward, and went out to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah. The border went down to the farthest part of the mountain that lies before the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is in the valley of northward. It went down to the , to the side of the southward, and went down to . It extended northward, went out at En , and went out to Geliloth, which is opposite the ascent of Adummim. It went down to the stone of Bohan the son of . It passed along to the side opposite the northward, and went down to the . The border passed along to the side of Beth northward; and the border ended at the north bay of , at the south end of . This was the south border. 20 was its border on the east quarter. This was the of the children of , by the borders around it, according to their families. Now the cities of the tribe of the children of according to their families were , Beth , Emek Keziz, Beth , Zemaraim, , Avvim, Parah, , , , and ; twelve cities with their villages. , , , , , Mozah, 27, Irpeel, Taralah, Zelah, Eleph, the (also called ), Gibeath, and Kiriath; fourteen cities with their villages. This is the of the children of according to their families.
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Entering the land, 1250 BC to 1200 BC ›
Israel crossing into Canaan and contending with fortified city-states, each with its own king, in a land Egypt had recently dominated and was now losing its grip on.
- The collapse
- The whole eastern Mediterranean is coming apart. Within about fifty years the Hittite empire falls, its capital burns, the Mycenaean palaces are destroyed, Ugarit is wiped out mid-correspondence, and Egypt is fighting for its life against seaborne invaders. Nobody fully knows why. Drought, earthquake, migration, and the failure of interlocking trade are all in the explanation.
- Egypt
- Still strong enough to record a victory over a people called Israel on a stone monument around 1207 BC, the earliest mention of the name outside the Bible. But Egyptian control of Canaan is slipping, and within a generation it is gone.
- Canaan
- Not a country but dozens of walled towns, each with its own king, its own god, and its own quarrel with the next valley. This is why the book of Joshua reads as a list of kings rather than a war with a nation.
- Further afield
- Iron is beginning to replace bronze across the region, partly because the tin trade that made bronze possible has broken down. The Olmec are building San Lorenzo. The Zhou are about to overthrow the Shang in China.