King James Version · Entering the land
Joshua 21
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Then came near the heads of the fathers of the unto the priest, and unto the son of , and unto the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the ; And they spake unto them at in the land of , saying, commanded by the hand of to give us cities to in, with the suburbs thereof for our cattle. And the gave unto the out of their , at the of , these cities and their suburbs. And the lot came out for the families of the : and the children of the priest, which were of the , had by lot out of the tribe of Judah, and out of the tribe of , and out of the tribe of , thirteen cities. And the rest of the children of had by lot out of the families of the tribe of , and out of the tribe of Dan, and out of the half tribe of , ten cities. And the children of had by lot out of the families of the tribe of , and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of , and out of the half tribe of in , thirteen cities. The children of by their families had out of the tribe of , and out of the tribe of Gad, and out of the tribe of , twelve cities. And the gave by lot unto the these cities with their suburbs, as commanded by the hand of . And they gave out of the tribe of the children of Judah, and out of the tribe of the children of , these cities which are here mentioned by name, Which the children of , being of the families of the , who were of the children of , had: for theirs was the first lot. And they gave them the city of of , which city is , in the hill country of Judah, with the suburbs thereof round about it. But the fields of the city, and the villages thereof, gave they to the son of for his possession. Thus they gave to the children of the priest with her suburbs, to be a for the slayer; and with her suburbs, And with her suburbs, and with her suburbs, And with her suburbs, and with her suburbs, And Ain with her suburbs, and with her suburbs, and with her suburbs; nine cities out of those two tribes. And out of the tribe of , with her suburbs, with her suburbs, with her suburbs, and with her suburbs; four cities. 19All the cities of the children of , the priests, were thirteen cities with their suburbs. And the families of the children of , the which remained of the children of , even they had the cities of their lot out of the tribe of . For they gave them with her suburbs in mount , to be a for the slayer; and with her suburbs, And Kibzaim with her suburbs, and with her suburbs; four cities. And out of the tribe of Dan, Eltekeh with her suburbs, Gibbethon with her suburbs, with her suburbs, –rimmon with her suburbs; four cities. And out of the half tribe of , Tanach with her suburbs, and –rimmon with her suburbs; two cities. 26All the cities were ten with their suburbs for the families of the children of that remained. And unto the children of , of the families of the , out of the other half tribe of they gave Golan in with her suburbs, to be a for the slayer; and Beesh–terah with her suburbs; two cities. And out of the tribe of , with her suburbs, Dabareh with her suburbs, with her suburbs, En–gannim with her suburbs; four cities. And out of the tribe of Asher, Mishal with her suburbs, with her suburbs, Helkath with her suburbs, and with her suburbs; four cities. And out of the tribe of , in with her suburbs, to be a for the slayer; and Hammoth–dor with her suburbs, and Kartan with her suburbs; three cities. 33All the cities of the according to their families were thirteen cities with their suburbs. And unto the families of the children of , the rest of the , out of the tribe of , with her suburbs, and Kartah with her suburbs, 35Dimnah with her suburbs, Nahalal with her suburbs; four cities. And out of the tribe of , with her suburbs, and Jahazah with her suburbs, 37Kedemoth with her suburbs, and Mephaath with her suburbs; four cities. And out of the tribe of Gad, in with her suburbs, to be a for the slayer; and with her suburbs, with her suburbs, with her suburbs; four cities in all. 40So all the cities for the children of by their families, which were remaining of the families of the , were by their lot twelve cities. All the cities of the within the possession of the were forty and eight cities with their suburbs. 42These cities were every one with their suburbs round about them: thus were all these cities. And gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they it, and dwelt therein. And gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their before them; all their into their hand. There failed not ought of any good thing which had spoken unto the ; all came to pass.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. 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.