Joshuachapter 18
28 verses · Joshua, by tradition · 15th or 13th century BC · History
Give out from among you three men for each tribe: and I will send them, and they shall rise, and go through the land, and describe it according to the inheritance of them; and they shall come again to me.
Introduction
Joshua, by tradition, History, Joshua Overview.
This chapter moves the centre of Israel's worship to Shiloh, in the hill country of Ephraim, where it stayed through the days of the judges. It stands in the book that tradition credits to Joshua. Its first hearers knew Shiloh as the sanctuary where Samuel later served as a boy. Seven tribes had still not received their land and were slow to go and take it. The chapter records a survey written in a book before the lots are cast. Listen for Joshua's question to the seven tribes. Then listen for the careful line of Benjamin's border, which runs between Judah and Joseph.
Context
- Who
- Seven tribes who had not yet claimed a portion, and a commander asking them why
- What
- The setting up of the tent of meeting at Shiloh, the survey of the remaining land, and the lot for Benjamin with its borders and towns.
- Where
- Shiloh in the hill country of Ephraim, and Benjamin's land between Judah and Ephraim, with Jericho, Bethel, Gibeon and Jerusalem among its towns.
- When
- About 1400 BC on the traditional dating, after the tent of meeting moved from Gilgal to Shiloh.
- Why
- To press the seven remaining tribes to take their land, and to divide it fairly by a written survey and the lot.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Joshua as the man conducting the division, and to the seven tribes still without land. Judah, Ephraim and Manasseh already had their portions, and Reuben, Gad and half Manasseh had theirs east of the river.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
It stands after the allotments of chapters 15 to 17 and before the six lots of chapter 19. The whole congregation moves from Gilgal on the edge of the country to Shiloh in the middle of it.
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 occasion is a rebuke. Joshua asks how long the seven tribes will put off going in to take possession, and it is the one place in the book where he charges his own people with slowness.
A first hearer knew that written land registers were how property was managed. Egypt and Mesopotamia both kept them, and the twenty one men who walk the country city by city and bring back a document are doing ordinary administrative work.
Such a hearer also knew what casting a lot before the LORD settled. Numbers 26:55 laid the method down and Proverbs 16:33 gives the reason it was trusted, so the survey took out the guesswork and the lot took out the favour.
The last thing a first hearer knew was how small Benjamin's strip was and how much stood inside it. Jericho, Bethel, Gibeon, Mizpeh, Gibeah and the Jebusite town that became Jerusalem are all in the smallest of the seven portions.
Significance
The delay named here is the quiet failure of the book. Nothing was stopping the seven tribes except their own inertia, and the text says so in Joshua's own words.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
First hearers were being told that settling new land was work, and that camp life at Gilgal with the fighting mostly over was the comfortable alternative they were choosing.
They were also being told that the division was honest. A man could look at the written survey and at the lot and see that Joshua had put his hand on neither.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The chapter opens with the tent of meeting set up at Shiloh, and Rashi reads that sentence as the turning point of the settlement. The tent is the one built in the wilderness, and he describes what it became at Shiloh, a stone structure below with curtains above and no roof, naming his source in the Talmud at Zevachim. He then sets the chronology: for fourteen years since the crossing the Tabernacle had stood at Gilgal, because conquering and dividing the land had left no time to settle it, and "Once they began settling in the land, they established a House of God" (Rashi on Joshua 18:1:1, the Metsudah Publications translation of 1997, CC-BY). On the second half of the verse he turns the order of cause around. The land had in fact not been fully taken, and the reading he gives is that once the Tabernacle stood, the conquest became easier (Rashi on Joshua 18:1:2).
Rashi's arithmetic keeps the division honest. Seven tribes remain, and he counts the five already provided for, Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh beyond the Jordan in the days of Moses, and Judah, Ephraim and the other half of Manasseh inside Canaan (Rashi on Joshua 18:2:1). The seven parts of the fifth verse he reads as covering both the land already conquered and the land still to be conquered (Rashi on Joshua 18:5:1), so the lot is cast over a promise as much as over a possession. The word Joshua uses for casting the lot Rashi glosses by the Song of the Sea, that he will throw it as one thrown into the sea (Rashi on Joshua 18:6:1), and the reproach in the third verse, that they are slack to go in, he glosses in one word as weak (Rashi on Joshua 18:3:1).
The boundary of Benjamin then becomes the site of the chapter's most consequential geography, because Jerusalem sits inside it. Rashi draws the northern line so that Jericho falls within Benjamin's portion (Rashi on Joshua 18:12:1), runs the western line down from the mountain south of Beth Horon (Rashi on Joshua 18:14:1), and fixes the southern line as the same line as Judah's northern one, noting that what is described as descending here is described as ascending there because the two lists run in opposite directions (Rashi on Joshua 18:15:1). At the last verse he counts the cities named in it as five, Zelah, Eleph and the Jebusite city which is Jerusalem, with Gibeath and Kiriath (Rashi on Joshua 18:28:1). Metzudat David makes the same identification from the other side of the line, reading the side of the Jebusites as the southern side and concluding, "If so then the Jebusites means Jerusalem, which was located in the inheritance of Benyamin" (Metzudat David on Joshua 18:16:3, Rabbi Mike Feuer's Jerusalem Anthology, CC-BY). This is the one kept note of Metzudat David in the whole run of 13 to 23, and it puts Jerusalem in Benjamin's territory rather than Judah's.
Radak and Metzudat David comment elsewhere in the chapter as well, and the corpus carries those refs with the reason that Sefaria holds no English version of them, so they stand cited and unquoted: Radak on Joshua 18:2:1, 18:7:1 and 18:8:1, and Metzudat David on Joshua 18:9:1, 18:10:1, 18:11:1, 18:17:1, 18:18:1 and 18:21:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries twenty nine rabbinic locators for this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. The Tabernacle at Shiloh draws the first group. On the opening verse the corpus holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 15:17:1, Midrash Tehillim 132:1, Seder Olam Rabbah 11:2 and Sifrei Devarim 65:2.
The casting of the lot draws the second, and it is the largest. On the sixth verse the corpus holds Bamidbar Rabbah 21:9 and Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 6:1. On the tenth, where Joshua casts lots before the LORD at Shiloh, it holds Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 6:3:2, Jerusalem Talmud Yoma 4:1:3, Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 9:2, Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 881:5 and Zevachim 119b:2. On the eleventh it holds Zevachim 54b:5 with Otzar Midrashim under Yaakov Our Father's Blessing to His Sons 17.
The boundary verses carry the rest. On the twelfth the corpus holds Bekhorot 55a:9, Ein Yaakov, Zevakhim 5:2, Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 9:1:3 and Yevamot 13b:6; on the fourteenth, Bamidbar Rabbah 4:20 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Zevachim 5:2; on the sixteenth, Jerusalem Talmud Orlah 1:2:5 and Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 24:1; on the twentieth, Bekhorot 55a:8 and Jerusalem Talmud Challah 4:4:8; on the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth, Bamidbar Rabbah 4:22 and Jerusalem Talmud Pesachim 2:4:9; and on the last verse, where Jerusalem is named, Bamidbar Rabbah 8:4, Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 13:1, Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair 1:37 and Shemot Rabbah 40:4. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Joshua 18:1:1 to 18:28:1, The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997, CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Joshua 18:16:3, Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology, CC-BY; and 18:9:1, 18:10:1, 18:11:1, 18:17:1, 18:18:1 and 18:21:1 cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Joshua 18:2:1, 18:7:1 and 18:8:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/joshua/18.json, the 29 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The tent set up at Shiloh; seven tribes still waiting
Joshua 18:1-2
The tabernacle moves from Gilgal on the edge of the country to Shiloh in its middle, and it stays there until the ark is lost at 1 Samuel 4. Jeremiah 7:12 and Psalm 78:60 later use the ruin of Shiloh as an argument. Verse 1 says "the land was subdued before them", yet 13:1 says much land remained, and seven tribes still have no portion.
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.”
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
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 18:1
“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
Five tribes already held land. Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh had theirs east of the Jordan, and Judah and Joseph received theirs in chapters 15 to 17, as Barnes counts them. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hold that the move to Shiloh had interrupted the casting of lots begun for Judah and Joseph.
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.”
Joshua 18:3-7
Joshua rebukes his own people for slowness rather than rebellion, the one place in the book where he does. Barnes reads the delay as reluctance to leave the camp life they were born into for the fighting that settlement would still cost. Three men from each tribe survey the land before the lot, and verse 7 leaves the Levites no portion, since "their inheritance is the priesthood of the LORD".
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
1 more voice on this verse
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.”
Three men from each of the seven tribes makes twenty-one surveyors, the number Barnes gives. Wesley explains the three as a check on both accuracy and honesty, since several men would report the size and quality of each portion. Clarke supposes they travelled with an armed guard.
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
Clarke reads south and north from where Joshua stood at Shiloh, a place well inside Ephraim and near Judah's border. The seven new portions would lie around and between these two blocks of land. Matthew Henry sees the arrangement guarding the tabernacle on both sides.
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
The surveyors draw the portions, and the lot assigns them. Wesley takes the presence of the LORD to mean before the ark at the tabernacle, with God as witness and author of the division. He adds that the aim was for each tribe to rest content with what it drew.
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
Clarke lists what the priesthood brought the Levites in place of fields: sacrifices, offerings, tithes, firstfruits and the redemption money of the firstborn. Chapter 21 still gives them towns to live in. The eastern grant to Gad, Reuben and half of Manasseh is the one Moses made at Numbers 32:33.
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
Joshua 18:8-10
The surveyors map the land city by city into seven portions, which Clarke calls the first act of surveying on record. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown cite Josephus that men skilled in geometry did the work. With the lot cast at Shiloh as Numbers 26:55 directed, the survey removes guesswork and the lot removes favour, so nothing rests on Joshua's own preference.
Barnes explains why the survey ran city by city: Joshua needed the towns listed to match each portion to the size of a tribe. Clarke sets these men beside the spies of Numbers 13:18, who were sent to see what the land was like. This party went to measure it and write it down.
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
1 more voice on this verse
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
according to their divisions: Gill describes two stages: the lot gave each tribe one of the seven portions, and the tribe then shared its portion among its clans and households. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that casting the lot before the tabernacle gave the result divine sanction. Origen read the scene as a sketch of the heavenly inheritance.
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
1 more voice on this verse
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
Benjamin's lot, wedged between Judah and Joseph
Joshua 18:11-20
Benjamin draws first and gets a strip between Judah and Joseph, setting Rachel's two sons side by side. The southern border is Judah's northern line from 15:5-9 traced in reverse, past En-rogel, the Ascent of Adummim and the Stone of Bohan. Barnes holds that the text of this chapter and the next is in disorder and that many places named can no longer be located.
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.”
2 more voices on this verse
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
the wilderness of Beth–aven: Benjamin's northern line runs from the Jordan past Jericho into the hills along the same course as Joseph's southern line at 16:1-2. Clarke takes Beth-aven, house of wickedness, as a later name for Bethel, house of God. Hosea 4:15 warns Israel against going up to Beth-aven.
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
From the ridge the line drops west toward the coastal plain, touching Ataroth-addar and Lower Beth-horon, which also mark Ephraim's edge at 16:3 and 16:5. Genesis 28:19 records that Bethel was earlier named Luz. Joshua chased the southern kings down this Beth-horon road at 10:10-11.
Barnes explains the turn: Lower Beth-horon is Benjamin's farthest point west, and there the line bends south. It ends at Kiriath-jearim, one of the Gibeonite towns of 9:17 and a mark on Judah's border at 15:9. The ark stayed there twenty years according to 1 Samuel 7:1-2.
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.”
Starting at the outskirts leaves the town itself to Judah, which is how verse 14 describes it. Yet verse 28 counts Kiriath-jearim among Benjamin's towns, so it sat on the seam between the two tribes. The Waters of Nephtoah mark Judah's line at 15:9 as well.
Joshua 18:15
“And the south quarter was from the end of Kirjathjearim,.... Where the western quarter ended: and the border went out on the west; not directly south, but somewhat westerly.”
Along this stretch the line runs below the Jebusite city, which Clarke identifies with Jerusalem and Mount Zion, so the city falls on Benjamin's side. The Valley of Hinnom later held Topheth, which Josiah defiled at 2 Kings 23:10 to end child sacrifice there. Adonijah held his feast at En-rogel in 1 Kings 1:9.
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
From En-rogel the line heads east toward the Jordan. Gill matches each point to Judah's line at 15:6-7, where Geliloth appears as Gilgal and the Ascent of Adummim lies between Jerusalem and Jericho. Clarke reads Geliloth as a common noun for borders and En-shemesh as the spring of the sun.
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.”
1 more voice on this verse
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
Beth-arabah stands on the line itself, and Gill notes that it is also counted among Benjamin's towns at verse 22. Judah's border passes north of it at 15:6, and Judah's wilderness list claims it at 15:62. A town claimed by both tribes marks the seam between them.
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.”
The word rendered bay means tongue, and Clarke explains that the Salt Sea had two such points, one at each end. Judah's southern border starts at the southern one at 15:2. Its eastern border runs up the sea to this northern point at 15:5.
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
The circuit of Benjamin's border is now complete. Gill sums up the frame: the Jordan on the east, Dan on the west, Judah on the south and Joseph on the north. Dan's lot is drawn later at 19:40, so the western neighbour is named from the last portion.
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.”
Benjamin's cities, Jebus among them
Joshua 18:21-28
Jericho heads Benjamin's list, the town Joshua cursed at 6:26, and 1 Kings 16:34 records the curse falling on Hiel of Bethel. Gibeon, Beeroth and Chephirah are Gibeonite towns from chapter 9, so the people Joshua swore to spare live inside this tribe. Verse 28 lists Jebus, which is Jerusalem, while 15:63 records Judah failing to drive out the Jebusites and Judges 1:21 records Benjamin failing.
Joshua 18:21
“Now the cities - Some of these cities have been mentioned before, and described; of others we know nothing but the name.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 18:21
“The testimony of Israel and the thrones of judgment do well together, Ps. cxxii. Some think there was an eye to the name of the place, Shiloh being the name by which the Messiah was known in dying Jacob's prophecy ( Gen. xlix.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The first group of twelve runs from the Jordan plain at Jericho and Beth-hoglah up to the ridge at Bethel. Gill links Zemaraim with Mount Zemaraim, where Abijah of Judah addressed Jeroboam and all Israel at 2 Chronicles 13:4. Bethel later received Jeroboam's golden calf at 1 Kings 12:29.
Gill finds Avvim and Parah nowhere else as towns. He places this Ophrah in Benjamin, the Ophrah toward which Philistine raiders headed at 1 Samuel 13:17, and keeps it apart from Gideon's Ophrah at Judges 6:11. Jerome, as Gill reports, knew a village five miles east of Bethel that may preserve the name.
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.”
Gill counts the names of verses 22-24 and finds that they agree with the total of twelve. Several lists in chapter 19 fail that test. Geba later marks the northern end of Judah's kingdom, since 2 Kings 23:8 has Josiah desecrating the high places from Geba to Beersheba.
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.”
A second group of fourteen towns begins here. Gibeon is the great high place where the LORD appeared to Solomon at 1 Kings 3:4-5. Ramah, which Clarke places six or eight miles north of Jerusalem, was Samuel's home at 1 Samuel 7:17.
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
Clarke traces Mizpeh through its later assemblies: Samuel gathered Israel there to confess their sin at 1 Samuel 7:5-6, and summoned the people there again before Saul was chosen at 1 Samuel 10:17. Gill connects Mozah with a Motza near Jerusalem. He cites the Mishnah for willows cut there at the Feast of Tabernacles.
Gill finds no other mention of these three towns. Barnes warns that many places in this chapter and the next can no longer be located, and these three belong to that number.
Joshua 18:27
“And Rekem, and Irpeel, and Taralah. Of these cities there is no mention made elsewhere.”
Clarke identifies Zelah as the place where Saul and Jonathan were buried in the tomb of Kish, recorded at 2 Samuel 21:14. Kiriath-jearim closes the list here and also stands among Judah's towns at 15:60. The two lists meet at that town.
How this psalm is built
The form: A narrative of assembly and rebuke, followed by a survey record and the boundary and city list of one tribe, as Clarke classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The survey, said three times | The order to walk the land and write it down is given at verse 4, repeated by Joshua at verse 8, and reported as done at verse 9. The same verbs return each time, so the method is stated, charged and discharged in six verses.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1810 to 1826, on Joshua 18:9. | Joshua 18:4, Joshua 18:8, Joshua 18:9 |
| The border traced in reverse | Benjamin's southern line in verses 15 to 19 is Judah's northern line from Joshua 15:5 to 9 walked the other way. The same landmarks fall in reverse order: the Stone of Bohan, the Ascent of Adummim, En-rogel and the Valley of Hinnom.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1863, on Joshua 18:11 to 20. | Joshua 18:15, Joshua 18:16, Joshua 18:17 |
| Two city groups, each with its own count | Verses 21 to 24 close on twelve cities with their villages, and verses 25 to 28 close on fourteen. The list is built as two blocks, each sealed by its own number, which is how the city lists of this book are shaped throughout.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Joshua 18:21 to 28. | Joshua 18:24, Joshua 18:28 |
The structure
10 more paragraphs on the patterns
Two halves with a hinge. Verses 1 to 10 are the assembly, the rebuke, the survey and the lot. Verses 11 to 28 are Benjamin's portion, given first as a traced border and then as two city lists.
The border is walked as a circuit: north side at verses 12 and 13, west side at verse 14, south side at verses 15 to 19. The east side takes one clause at verse 20, where the Jordan closes it.
Across the canon
Shiloh's later ruin becomes an argument twice in Scripture. Jeremiah 7:12 sends its hearers to look at what became of the place, and Psalm 78:60 says God forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh.
Verse 7 repeats what Numbers 18:20 gave the Levites, that the priesthood of the LORD is their inheritance, which is why no eighth portion is cut from the seven.
Benjamin's strip sets Rachel's two sons beside each other, and Deuteronomy 33:12 has the beloved of the LORD dwelling between his shoulders.
The city list is dense with later history. Jericho heads it, the town Joshua cursed at Joshua 6:26, and 1 Kings 16:34 records that curse falling on Hiel of Bethel. 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. Gibeah is the town of Judges 19 and 20 and later the home of Saul at 1 Samuel 11:4, and Mizpeh at verse 26 is where Israel gathers to judge that crime at Judges 20:1.
Verse 28 places Jebus, which is Jerusalem, in Benjamin's list, while Joshua 15:63 records Judah failing to drive the Jebusites out and Judges 1:21 records Benjamin failing. Both accounts stand as written.
In the New Testament
No New Testament writer quotes this chapter. Paul names himself of the tribe of Benjamin at Romans 11:1 and Philippians 3:5, so the portion drawn first here is the one he claims.
Keep studying
Studies1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1810 to 1826, on Joshua 18:9 and Albert Barnes.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 23.4 and The Berean Standard Bible, Joshua 18, with the verses cited in the note.