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Joshua 21:17

in Joshua 21

And from the tribe of Benjamin they gave them Gibeon, Geba,

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

And out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with its suburbs, Geba with its suburbs,

KJV

And out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with her suburbs, Geba with her suburbs,

This verse in Joshua 21

Commentary

3 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

And they gave out of

on Joshua 21:9-19

Hebron goes to the priests as a city of refuge, and verse 12 keeps Caleb's grant of Joshua 14:13 intact by giving him the fields and the villages while the walled town becomes Levite ground. Anathoth in verse 18 is where Solomon banishes Abiathar in 1 Kings 2:26 and where Jeremiah comes from in Jeremiah 1:1, so two of the sharpest turns in the history of the priesthood happen in a town listed here without comment. Gibeon heads the Benjamin group at verse 17, the town that deceived Joshua in chapter 9 and was bound to serve the house of God, and the tabernacle itself stands there in 1 Chronicles 16:39. The parallel list at 1 Chronicles 6:54-81 differs in several names, which Albert Barnes treats as variant forms and copyists' slips rather than a different grant.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

And out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with her suburbs,.... See Gill on Jos 18:25; from which came the Gibeonites. Geba with her suburbs. Of which See Gill on Jos 18:24.

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

they gave . . . these cities which are here mentioned by name--It was overruled by the unerring providence of the Divine Lawgiver that the cities of the priests lay within the territories of Judah and Benjamin. This was a provision, the admirable wisdom and propriety of which were fully manifested on the schism that took place in the reign of Rehoboam.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

The words behind it

10 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וּמִמַּטֵּ֣הand from [the] tribe of

    umimatehH4294252 times

  • בִנְיָמִ֔ןBenjamin

    vinyaminH1144166 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • גִּבְע֖וֹןGibeon

    givonH139138 times

  • וְאֶת־and <obj.>

    veetH85310935 times

  • מִגְרָשֶׁ֑הָpasture lands its

    migrashehaH4054119 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • גֶּ֖בַעGeba

    geva'H1387

  • וְאֶת־and <obj.>

    veetH85310935 times

  • מִגְרָשֶֽׁהָ׃pasture lands its

    migrashehaH4054119 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Joshua 9:3

    But the people of Gibeon, having heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai,

    it leads to

    • Joshua 10:2

      So Adoni-zedek and his people were greatly alarmed, because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities; it was larger than Ai, and all its men were mighty.

    • Joshua 9:17

      So the Israelites set out and on the third day arrived at their cities—Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim.

    • 2 Samuel 21:1–2

      During the reign of David there was a famine for three successive years, and David sought the face of the LORD. And the LORD said, “It is because of the blood shed by Saul…

  • Through

    1 Chronicles 6:60

    And from the tribe of Benjamin they were given Gibeon, Geba, Alemeth, and Anathoth, together with their pasturelands. So they had thirteen cities in all among their families.

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 1:1

      These are the words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests in Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin.

    • Jeremiah 37:12

      Jeremiah started to leave Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to claim his portion there among the people.

    • 1 Kings 2:26

      Then the king said to Abiathar the priest, “Go back to your fields in Anathoth. Even though you deserve to die, I will not put you to death at this time, since you carried…

    • Joshua 21:17–18

      And from the tribe of Benjamin they gave them Gibeon, Geba,

    • 1 Samuel 13:3

      Then Jonathan attacked the Philistine outpost at Geba, and the Philistines heard about it. So Saul blew the ram’s horn throughout the land, saying, “Let the Hebrews hear!”

Where this verse is studied

On this page

About Joshua

The Walls of Jericho Fall Down, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Walls of Jericho Fall Down, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).