Joshuachapter 18
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Key verse
Then the whole congregation of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the Tent of Meeting there. And though the land was subdued before them,
It stands in scene A of the chapter, verses 1 to 10.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The tent of meeting is set up at Shiloh, the land subdued before them, and seven tribes still have not taken their inheritance. Joshua's rebuke is one of the sharpest lines in the book: 'How long are ye slack to go in to possess the land, which Jehovah, the God of your fathers, hath given you?' Three men from each tribe are sent to walk the land, describe it in a book by cities in seven portions, and bring the survey back; Joshua casts lots for them before Jehovah at Shiloh. Benjamin's lot comes up first, wedged between Judah and Joseph, its border and twenty-six cities named.
Context
History · Joshua · Joshua overview
Where the chapter sits
Joshua 18 falls in Tribal allotments (chapters 13–22). The east-of-Jordan and west-of-Jordan inheritances; Levitical cities; cities of refuge; the altar of Ed and the east-tribe controversy.
Before it: Conquest campaigns, chapters 6–12. After it: Covenant renewal at Shechem, chapters 23–24.
The whole shape of Joshua→The world behind this chapter
Joshua 18The history
The whole congregation moves from Gilgal to Shiloh and sets up the tent of meeting there. Shiloh sits in a sheltered bowl in the central highlands, off the main road, defensible, and roughly central to the tribes. It stayed the sanctuary site for generations, until the ark was captured in the days of Eli.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
Joshua's rebuke is memorable: how long will you put off going in to take possession of the land the LORD has given you? Seven tribes had not moved. Settling new land is hard, dangerous work, and camp life at Gilgal with the fighting mostly over was comfortable by comparison.
The survey party is a real administrative procedure. Three men from each of the seven tribes walk the remaining land, describe it, and write it in a book, dividing it into seven portions. Written land registers were how property was managed in the ancient world; Egypt and Mesopotamia both kept them.
Then the lot is cast before the LORD at Shiloh over the written description. Survey first, then lot, human care in the measuring, God's hand in the assignment.
What it meant to them
The delay named here is the quiet failure of the book. Nothing was stopping them but inertia, and the text says so.
Benjamin's portion, drawn first, is a small strip between Judah and Ephraim containing Jericho, Bethel, Gibeon, and the Jebusite town that would become Jerusalem. First hearers would have noticed how much history was packed into the smallest allotment.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews & Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
A. The tent set up at Shiloh; seven tribes still waiting
1. (vv. 1-2)
Joshua 18:1, 3 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Joshua 18:1
“After all overt resistance was overcome, the tabernacle with its sacred contents was removed from its place of safety at Gilgal, in a corner of the land near the Jordan, to a central place, Shiloh, the modern Scilun, which is two or three miles east of the main road, and rather more than half way between Jerusalem and Nablous.”
Joshua 18:1
“There the allotment of the territory could be most conveniently made, north, south, east, and west, to the different tribes. But "the tabernacle of the congregation was also set up there," and its removal therefore must have been made or sanctioned by divine intimation (De 12:11).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Joshua 18:1
“Here the tabernacle continued for above three hundred years, even 'till Samuel's days, 1 Sam. i, 3. Shiloh was the name given to the Messiah in dying Jacob's prophecy.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Joshua 18:2, 1 voice
Joshua 18:2
“And there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes,.... Which were those of Benjamin, Simeon, Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Dan: which had not yet received their inheritance; and for which the lots were not cast.”
a.The tabernacle moves from Gilgal on the edge of the country to Shiloh in the middle of it, and it stays there until the ark is carried out and lost at 1 Samuel 4. Scripture uses the ruin of that place as an argument twice afterward, at Jeremiah 7:12 where the hearers are sent to look at what became of it, and at Psalm 78:60 where God forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh. The same verse says the land was subdued before them, while 13:1 in this book says there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed, and seven of the twelve tribes are still without a portion.
2. (vv. 3-7)
Joshua 18:3, 2 voices
Joshua 18:3
“This backwardness probably arose from the indisposition of the people to abandon the nomad life in which they had been born and bred, and to settle in fixed abodes, and perhaps also from a dislike of the exterminating warfare incidental to a complete dispossessing of the Canaanites.”
Joshua 18:3
“How long are you slack - This slackness is supposed to arise from an opinion of the impossibility of making any regular distribution of the parts, 'till the whole were more exactly surveyed, which accordingly is here done.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Joshua 18:4, 1 voice
Joshua 18:4
“Three men for each tribe - Probably meaning only three from each of the seven tribes who had not yet received their inheritance. It is likely that these twenty-one men were accompanied by a military guard, for without this they might have been easily cut off by straggling parties of the Canaanites. They shall - describe it - It is likely they were persons well acquainted with geography and mensuration, without which it would have been impossible for them to have divided the land in the way necessary on this occasion.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua 18:5, 1 voice
Joshua 18:5
“Judah shall abide - on the south, and the house of Joseph - on the north - Joshua does not mean that the tribe of Judah occupied the south, and the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh the north of the promised land; this was not the fact: but being now at Shiloh, a considerable way in the territory of Ephraim, and not far from that of Judah, he speaks of them in relation to the place in which he then was.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua 18:6, 1 voice
Joshua 18:6
“Before the Lord - That is, before the ark or tabernacle, that God may be witness and judge, and author of the division, that each may be contented with his lot, and that your several possessions may be secured to you as things sacred.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Joshua 18:7, 1 voice
Joshua 18:7
“The priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance - We have already seen that the priests and Levites had the sacrifices, oblations tithes, first-fruits, redemption-money of the firstborn, etc., for their inheritance; they had no landed possessions in Israel; the Lord was their portion.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
a.Joshua rebukes his own people for slowness rather than for rebellion, and it is the one place in the book where he does. Barnes reads the delay as reluctance to give up the camp life these men were born into and to face the fighting that settling the land would still cost. The method Joshua sets is a written description first and a lot afterward, three men out of each of the seven tribes, so the division runs by survey and by lot together. Verse 7 repeats what Numbers 18:20 gave the Levites, that the priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance, so no eighth portion is cut.
3. (vv. 8-10)
Joshua 18:9, 2 voices
Joshua 18:9
“And described it in a book - This as far as I can recollect, is the first act of surveying on record. These men and their work differed widely from those who had searched the land in the time of Moses; they went only to discover the nature of the country, and the state of its inhabitants; but these went to take an actual geographical survey of it, in order to divide it among the tribes which had not yet received their portions.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua 18:9
“This was no light task to undertake. It required learning and intelligence which they or their instructors had, in all probability, brought with them out of Egypt. Accordingly, JOSEPHUS says that the survey was performed by men expert in geometry.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Joshua 18:10, 2 voices
Joshua 18:10
“Therefore we must believe that also here, in imitation of these things, Scripture relates that lots are drawn by Jesus [Joshua], and the inheritance for each of the tribes is determined by divine dispensation; and that in this casting of lots, through the ineffable providence and foreknowledge of God, a model of the future inheritance in heaven is dimly sketched.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 23.4patristic
Joshua 18:10
“Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord--before the tabernacle, where the divine presence was manifested, and which associated with the lot the idea of divine sanction.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
a.Twenty one men walk the country and write it down by cities into seven parts in a book, which Clarke calls the first act of surveying on record. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown cite Josephus for the claim that the work was done by men expert in geometry, and the learning behind it would have come out of Egypt. The lot is then cast at Shiloh before the ark, the method Numbers 26:55 laid down, and Proverbs 16:33 states why a lot settled a question in Israel. The survey takes out the guesswork and the lot takes out the favour, so nothing in the division rests on Joshua's own preference.
B. Benjamin's lot, wedged between Judah and Joseph
1. (vv. 11-20)
Joshua 18:11, 3 voices
Joshua 18:11
“And the lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families,.... This was the first lot of the seven that came up; it was but a small lot, and therefore called "little Benjamin", Psa 68:27; but the land was very pleasant and fruitful.”
Joshua 18:11
“See the marginal references. There are many indications found in this and the next chapter that the text is in great disorder, and many of the places are still unknown. Jos 18:14 And compassed the corner ... - Render “and turned on the west side southward.” The meaning is, that at lower Beth-horon the northern boundary-line of Benjamin curved round and ran southward - Beth-horon being its extreme westerly point. Jos 18:21 The “Valley of Keziz,” or “Emek-Keziz,” is perhaps the “Wady el Kaziz,” at no great distance east of Jerusalem.”
Joshua 18:11
“And the children of Joseph - Wherein we see the wisdom of Divine Providence, this being the only place in which that prophecy, Deut. xxxiii, 12, could have been accomplished.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Joshua 18:12, 1 voice
Joshua 18:12
“The wilderness of Beth-aven - This was the same as Beth-el; but this name was not given to it till Jeroboam had fixed one of his golden calves there. Its first name signifies the house of God; its second, the house of iniquity.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua 18:14, 1 voice
Joshua 18:14
“And the border was drawn thence,.... From Bethhoron: and compassed the corner of the sea southward; it is hard to say what sea is meant, or what by it.”
Joshua 18:16, 2 voices
Joshua 18:16
“And the border came down,.... In the description of the border of Judah, hereabout, it is said to go up, Jos 15:5; because there, as Jarchi observes, the measure was from east to west, but here from west to east: to the end of the mountain that lieth before the valley of the son of Hinnom; this south border of Benjamin is the same with the north border of Judah; and the same places are mentioned in the description of the one as of the other, see Jos 15:”
Joshua 18:16
“To the side of Jebusi - The mountain of Zion, that was near Jerusalem; for Jebusi, or Jebus, was the ancient name of this city.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua 18:17, 2 voices
Joshua 18:17
“And was drawn from the north,.... Turning northward, and looking that way from the west to the east: and went forth to Enshemesh; or the fountain of the sun, see Jos 15:7, and went forth toward Geliloth; called Gilgal, Jos 15:7, which is over against the going up to Adummim; a place between Jerusalem and Jericho, see Jos 15:7, and descended to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben; see Jos 15:6.”
Joshua 18:17
“En-shemesh - The fountain of the sun; a proof of the idolatrous nature of the ancient inhabitants of this land. Geliloth - As the word signifies borders or limits, it is probably not the proper name of a place: And went forth towards the Borders which are over against the ascent to Adummim.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua 18:18, 1 voice
Joshua 18:18
“And passed along toward the side over against Arabah northward,.... The same with Betharabah, Jos 15:6; and so it is called here in the Greek version: and went down unto Arabah; the same as before, and included it, for it is mentioned among the cities of this tribe, Jos 18:22.”
Joshua 18:19, 1 voice
Joshua 18:19
“The north bay of the Salt Sea - As the word לשון leshon signifies the tongue, it may here refer to the point of the Dead or Salt Sea. Of these tongues or points it had two, one on the north, and the other on the south.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua 18:20, 1 voice
Joshua 18:20
“And Jordan was the border of it on the east side,.... It had Jordan on the east, Dan on the west, Judah on the south, and Joseph or Ephraim on the north: this was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin, by the coasts thereof round about, according to their families; this is the general description of the limits of this tribe, the particular cities in it follow.”
a.Benjamin draws the first of the seven lots and gets a strip between Judah on the south and Joseph on the north, which sets Rachel's two sons beside each other and answers Deuteronomy 33:12, where the beloved of the Lord dwells between his shoulders. The southern line here is the northern line of Judah from 15:5-9 traced in the opposite direction, with the same landmarks in reverse order: the stone of Bohan, the going up to Adummim, En-rogel and the valley of the son of Hinnom. Barnes holds that the text of this chapter and the next is in disorder and that many of the places named can no longer be located, which is worth stating rather than passing over. The portion is the smallest of the seven, and it holds the Jordan fords, Jericho, and the ground Jerusalem stands on.
C. Benjamin's cities, Jebus among them
1. (vv. 21-28)
Joshua 18:22, 1 voice
Joshua 18:22
“And Betharabah,.... Of the first of these; see Gill on Jos 15:6, and Zemaraim; one of the sons of Canaan was named Zemira, Gen 10:18; by whom this city Zemaraim might be built, or however have its name given it, in memory of him; there was a mountain of this name in the tribe of Ephraim, near to which this city might be, 2Ch 13:4. and Bethel; of the last of these; see Gill on Jos 7:2.”
Joshua 18:23, 1 voice
Joshua 18:23
“And Avim, and Parah,.... Of the two first of these we read nowhere else: and Ophrah is not the same with Ophrah in Jdg 6:11; that belonged to the tribe of Manasseh, but rather that which was in the land of Shuah, 1Sa 13:17. Jerom calls this place Aphrah, in the tribe of Benjamin, and says (o), in his time there was a village called Effrem, five miles from Bethel to the east, which very probably is the same with this. (o) De loc. Heb. fol. 88. H.”
Joshua 18:24, 1 voice
Joshua 18:24
“And Chepharhaammonai, and Ophni,.... Of the two first of these no mention is made elsewhere: and Gaba is the same with Gibeah, a well known place, because of the foul fact committed there, which had like to have been the ruin of this tribe, Jdg 19:14; and for being the native place of King Saul, hence called "Gibeah of Saul", 1Sa 11:4; it was about six or seven miles from Jerusalem; see Gill on Hos 5:8; twelve cities with their villages; which agrees with the account of them.”
Joshua 18:25, 2 voices
Joshua 18:25
“Gibeon,.... Gibeon is the place from whence the Gibeonites came, who deceived Joshua, Jos 9:3. Jerom says (p), in his time there was a village shown of this name, four miles from Bethel to the east, near Ramah, next mentioned: and Ramah, which Jerom relates (q) was six miles from Aelia or Jerusalem to the north, against Bethel.”
Joshua 18:25
“Gibeon - See before, Jos 10:1-14 (note). This place is famous for the confederacy of the five kings against Israel, and their miraculous defeat. Ramah, a place about six or eight miles north of Jerusalem. Beeroth, i.e., wells; one of the four cities which belonged to the Gibeonites, who made peace with the Israelites by stratagem. See Jos 9:3-15.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua 18:26, 2 voices
Joshua 18:26
“And Mizpeh,.... Frequent mention is made of Mizpeh in Scripture; according to Fuller (t), it was about eight miles from Gibeah; it was near Ramathon, which Josephus says (u) was forty furlongs from Jerusalem: and Chephirah was one of the cities subject to Gibeon, Jos 9:17. and Mozah; there was a place called Motza, near to Jerusalem, where they used to go to get willows at the feast of tabernacles (w). (t) Pisgah-Sight, B. 2. c. 12. p. 209. (u) Antiqu. l. 8. c. 12. sect. 3. (w) Misn. Succah, c. 4. sect. 5.”
Joshua 18:26
“And Mizpeh - This place is celebrated in the sacred writings. Here the people were accustomed to assemble often in the presence of the Lord, as in the deliberation concerning the punishment to be inflicted on the men of Gibeah, for the abuse of the Levite’s wife. Jdg 20:1-3. Samuel assembled the people here to exhort them to renounce their idolatry, 1Sa 7:5, 1Sa 7:6. In this same place Saul was chosen to be king, 1Sa 10:”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua 18:28, 1 voice
Joshua 18:28
“And Zelah - This was the burying-place of Saul, Jonathan, and the family of Kish. See 2Sa 21:14. Jebusi, which is Jerusalem - We often meet with this name, and it is evident that it was the ancient name of Jerusalem, which was also called Salem; and was probably the place in which Melchizedek reigned in the days of Abraham; though some think a different place is meant; for that there was another place of the same name, is evident from Joh 3:”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
a.Jericho heads Benjamin's city list, the town Joshua cursed at 6:26, and 1 Kings 16:34 records that curse falling on Hiel of Bethel generations later. Gibeon, Chephirah and Beeroth are three of the four Gibeonite towns of chapter 9, so the men Joshua swore to spare end up living inside this tribe's inheritance. Gaba at verse 24 and Gibeath at verse 28 are Gibeah, the town of Judges 19 and 20 that nearly cost Benjamin its existence and later the home of Saul at 1 Samuel 11:4; Mizpeh at verse 26 is where Israel gathers to judge that crime at Judges 20:1. Verse 28 places Jebusi, which is Jerusalem, in Benjamin's list, while 15:63 records Judah failing to drive the Jebusites out and Judges 1:21 records Benjamin failing, and both accounts stand as written.
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Joshua 18. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 23.4.