Knox Bible

1

And now all the Israelites gathered in Silo, and set up the tabernacle that bore witness of the covenant, there in their own domain.

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But there were seven tribes of Israel which had not yet had their lands allotted to them;

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and to these Josue said, What, still hanging back, when the land promised by the Lord God of your fathers waits for you to occupy it?

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Choose out three men from each tribe, and let me send them to make a circuit of the country; they shall report to me what territory best suits the numbers of this tribe or that.

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The land must needs be divided up into seven portions, now that Juda is provided for in the south, and the descendants of Joseph further north.

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Come here to me, and let me cast lots between you in the Lord’s presence, when you have plotted the land that is left over;✻ it must be in seven divisions,

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no allowance made for the Levites, whose portion is the Lord’s priestly office, none for Gad, Ruben, and the separate half of Manasses, since the Lord’s servant Moses has already assigned them lands east of the Jordan.

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So the men appointed set out on their journey to make a survey of the land; at the end of it, they were to return with their report to Josue, and there, at Silo, in the Lord’s presence, the lots should be cast.

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To the camp at Silo, then, they returned, when they had made their survey and written down particulars of the sevenfold division in a book;

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and at Silo lots were cast in the Lord’s presence, and the seven tribes had their portions assigned to them.

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It was the clans of Benjamin whose lot was drawn first; and the territory that fell to them lay between Juda and Joseph.

12

Their frontier began at the Jordan, and went northwards till it was north of Jericho, then climbed up westwards into the hills, till it reached the desert of Bethaven.

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It passed south of Luza (now Bethel), and so reached Ataroth-Addar, on the hill south of Lower Bethoron;

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here it altered its westward course and turned towards the mid-day sun, passing south along the ridge that faces Bethoron and so reaching Cariath-Baal, (or Cariathiarim), which belongs to Juda, This formed the western side of the territory, facing the sea.

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Then, along its southern edge the frontier began its seaward course,✻ reaching the Spring of Nephtoa;

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and so it went across to the side of the hill looking down on the Valley of the Sons of Ennom, at the southern end of the Valley of Raphaim. Thence it crossed to Geennom (the Valley of Ennom) on its southern or Jebusite side, and reached the Spring of Rogel.

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Now it bore northwards, through Ensemes, the Spring of the Sun,

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to the mounds near the Adommim slope; thence it passed on to Aben-Boen (the stone of Boen, son of Ruben), reaching lower ground there and at last coming down into the Jordan Valley.

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It went northwards again to Beth-Hagla, and finished at the northern bay of the Salt Sea, south of Jordan,

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so reaching its eastern limit.

Such was the compass of the territory granted to the clans of Benjamin.

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The cities it contained were Jericho, Beth-Hagla, Vale of Casis,

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Betharaba, Samaraim, Bethel,

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Avim, Aphara, Ophera,

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the Town of the Ammonites, Ophni, and Gabee, twelve cities in all;

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also Gabaon, Rama, Beroth,

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Mesphe, Caphara, Amosa,

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Recem, Jarephel, Tharela,

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Sela, Eleph, Jebus (or Jerusalem), Gabaath and Cariath, fourteen cities in all; with their dependent villages. All these belonged to the clans of Benjamin.