Deeper Commentary
Jos 18:1 The whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled
themselves together at Shiloh and set up the Tent of Meeting there. The
land was subdued before them-
The later context here is the setting up of the tabernacle at Shiloh,
and "the land" in view could be the area around Shiloh.
The command to subject the animals in Eden [the land promised to Abraham?] corresponds to later commands to subject the tribes living in the land (Gen. 1:28 = Num. 32:22,29; Josh. 18:1). The “fear and dread” of humans which fell on the animals after the flood is clearly linkable with the “fear and dread” which was to come upon the inhabitants of Canaan due to the Israelites (Gen. 9:2 = Dt. 1:21; 3:8; 11:25). This all suggests that Eden is to be understood as the land promised to Abraham; for that is the focus of the Biblical record, right from early Genesis.
But the Hebrew for "subdued" specifically means to be put under
tribute. One reason why Israel failed to drive out the tribes, and thereby lost
the Kingdom, was simply because they wanted to take tribute from them
(Josh. 17:13). Ez. 7:19 defines “silver and gold” as Israel’s
stumblingblock- moreso than idols. They just so loved wealth. The men of
Bethshemesh looked into the ark to see if there were any more jewels left
in it (1 Sam. 6:19 cp. 6,15); they trampled upon the supreme holiness of
God in their crazed fascination with wealth.
Jos 18:2 Seven tribes remained among the children of Israel, which had not
yet been assigned their inheritance-
Those tribes had settled down where they found good land and were
lazy to go any further in possessing the Kingdom. Perhaps the reference
here is not to be read as meaning that their actual territory wasn't
defined, but rather that the individual families within their tribes
hadn't been assigned their inheritances- because the tribes just hadn't
taken or even moved into their territory.
Jos 18:3 Joshua said to the children of Israel, How long will you delay
possession of the land, which Yahweh the God of your fathers has given
you?-
Ecc. 9:20 teaches the sober fact that in the grave there is nothing,
nothing at all, no work, no thought; and so now is the day in which to
labour with all our heart in the thing we put our hands to. We may
apprehend all this intellectually, and yet there is an inherent, clinging
laziness which lurks within our nature. One simple reason why Israel
failed to inherit the Kingdom in the time of Joshua / Judges was that they
were simply "slack" (AV), lazy, to drive out the tribes (Josh. 18:3; the same
word is used in Ex. 5:8 regarding how the Egyptians perceived them to be
lazy; and also s.w. Prov. 18:9). See on :25. They were happy to receive tribute from
them (see on :1), and to enjoy what blessings they received. They were satisficers,
not men of principle or mission; not real bond slaves. And for this, God
rejected them and they never really inherited the Kingdom prepared for
them.
Jos 18:4 Appoint for yourselves three men from each tribe. I will send
them, and they shall go through the land, and describe it according to
their inheritance; and they shall come to me-
This could be read as a lack of faith in the promise that the Angel
had brought Israel "forth out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had
espied for them" (Ez. 20:6). Or perhaps this sending out of spies was
another concession to human weakness, in God's eagerness that they should
by all means come to possess the Kingdom.
Jos 18:5 They shall divide it into seven portions. Judah shall live in his
borders on the south, and the house of Joseph shall live in their borders
on the north-
The points of the compass were relative to where they then were at
Shiloh.
Jos 18:6 You shall survey the land into seven parts, and bring the
description here to me; and I will cast lots for you here before Yahweh
our God-
Here again we see God recalculating the inheritance He had originally
planned for them, because they lacked the faith or interest to take what
had been made potentially possible for them. But God makes concessions to
human weakness, and allowed them to inherit in other areas. He is
similarly flexible with His people today.
"Before Yahweh" may refer to the tabernacle which had been set up at Shiloh.
Jos 18:7 For the Levites have no portion among you; for the priesthood of
Yahweh is their inheritance. Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh
have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan eastward, which Moses
the servant of Yahweh gave them-
The Levites had no material inheritance because "the
sacrifices of Yahweh the God of Israel... are his inheritance... Yahweh God
of Israel was their inheritance" (Josh. 13:14,33; Num. 18:20; Dt. 10:9;
18:2). Notice how "Yahweh" is put for what is sacrificed to Him. His very existence is an
imperative to sacrifice to Him, despising all material advantage in doing
so. Job comments that to make gold our hope and wealth our confidence is
to deny “the God that is above” (Job 31:24,28). To trust in material
wealth is effectively to proclaim ourselves atheists.
Jos 18:8 The men arose and went. Joshua commanded those who went to survey
the land saying, Go walk through the land, survey it, and come again to
me. I will cast lots for you here before Yahweh in Shiloh-
When Joshua told the spies “Go and walk through the land…” (Josh.
18:8), they ought to have perceived that he was asking them to walk in the
faith of Abraham- to believe that this land truly had been promised to
them, as his seed.
Jos 18:9 The men passed through the land, and recorded it by cities into
seven portions in a book. They came to Joshua to the camp at Shiloh-
See on Ex. 32:32. To be blotted out of the book God had written may
have been understood by Moses as asking for him to be excluded from an
inheritance in the promised land; for later, a ‘book’ was written
describing the various portions (Josh. 18:9). The connection is made
explicit in Ez. 13:9: “…neither shall they be written in the writing of
the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel”. To
be blotted out of the book meant to not enter the land (surely Ezekiel is
alluding to Moses’ experience). If Israel were to be blotted out there and
then in the wilderness, then Moses wanted to share this experience.
Jos 18:10 Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before Yahweh. There Joshua
divided the land to the children of Israel according to their divisions-
We wonder however whether this idea actually worked. For he was
seeking to encourage them to possess the Kingdom on the basis of
encouraging descriptions of the land. But detailed knowledge will not of
itself motivate. A love of God and desire to manifest Him is what will
motivate us to enter the Kingdom, and not merely detailed knowledge about
it.
"Shiloh" means "rest", and we therefore see here how Joshua attempted
to give Israel "rest". But Hebrews is clear that he didn't
succeed in giving them "rest" as intended, and the potentials were all
transferred and reapplied to the Lord Jesus (Heb. 4:8).
Jos 18:11 The lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up
according to their families. The border of their lot went out between the
children of Judah and the children of Joseph-
The law of Moses reasons as if each family of Israel had a specific
inheritance which was not to be sold or moved outside the family. Hence
the sin of Ahab in obtaining Naboth's vineyard. It would seem that there
was some unrecorded list made of each family and which land they were to
be given. This looks forward to our very personal and unique inheritance
in God's Kingdom, possibly based around spiritual family units.
It has been suggested that "there were probably two urns, one of which contained the names of the seven tribes, and the other that of the seven portions".
Jos 18:12 Their border on the north quarter was from the Jordan. The
border went up to the side of Jericho on the north, and went up through
the hill country westward and ended at the wilderness of Beth Aven-
Beth Aven, house of iniquity, is the same as Bethel, which became
Beth Aven in prophetic thought after Jeroboam had set up the calf there.
The use of this name therefore suggests the book of Joshua was edited,
under Divine inspiration, at some far later point- probably during the
captivity (see on Josh. 1:1).
Jos 18:13 The border passed along from there to Luz, to the side of Luz
(the same is Bethel) southward. The border went down to Ataroth Addar, by
the mountain that lies on the south of Beth Horon the lower-
Although Luz was called Bethel (Gen. 35:6; Jud. 1:23), Josh. 16:2
implies a difference between them. Perhaps Luz was the city, and "Bethel"
refers specifically to the altar of Jacob there. But Keil suggests Bethel
refers to the "southern range of mountains belonging to Bethel, from which
the boundary ran out to the town of Luz, so that this town, which stood
upon the border, was allotted to the tribe of Benjamin (Josh. 18:22)".
Jos 18:14 The border extended, and turned around on the west quarter
southward, from the mountain that lies before Beth Horon southward; and
ended at Kiriath Baal (the same is Kiriath Jearim), a city of the children
of Judah. This was the west quarter-
There is no record at all of Israel's obedience to the commands to
destroy the local idols of the land, although the change of name of
Kiriath Baal (Josh. 15:60; 18:14) is evidence enough that there was some
local attempt to stamp out the name of Baal in that case. Instead the
historical record is full of evidence that they worshipped these gods.
Although the name of Baal Meon had been changed in Num. 32:38, by the time
of Josh. 13:17 the old name was still being used. Clearly Israel did not
detest idolatry as they ought to have done. Just as the names of idols
should not have passed the lips of Israel, so for us, the things of sexual
impurity are not to be named amongst us (Eph. 5:3). The allusion shows how
Paul understood such things to be the equivalent of idolatry in his day,
and that remains a fair interpretation even in our age.
Jos 18:15 The southern side began at the outskirts of Kiriath Jearim. The
border went out westward, and went out to the spring of the waters of
Nephtoah-
The description here matches that of the northern border of Judah
(Josh. 15:5-9). The boundaries of the seven tribal cantons now being
discussed may have been slightly recalculated, but the basic definitions
were as God had originally intended.
Jos 18:16 The border went down to the farthest part of the mountain
that lies before the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is in the valley
of the Rephaim northward. It went down to the valley of Hinnom, to the
side of the Jebusite southward, and went down to En Rogel-
‘Gehenna’ is the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew ‘Ge-ben-Hinnon’.
This was located near
Jos 18:17 It extended northward, went out at En Shemesh, and went out to
Geliloth, which is over against the ascent of Adummim. It went down to the
stone of Bohan the son of Reuben-
Jos 18:18 It passed along to the side over against the Arabah northward
and went down to the Arabah-
The boundary of Benjamin is that of the northern border of Judah
described in Josh. 15:5-9. But the description there moves from east to
west, but here from west to east.
Jos 18:19 The border passed along to the side of Beth Hoglah northward;
and the border ended at the north bay of the Salt Sea, at the south end of
the Jordan. This was the south border-
"Bay" is 'tongue', and the Dead Sea is described as having such a
tongue at each end of it, thus forming bays. It has been pointed out that there is no such surviving detailed
geographical description of any contemporary nation. This reflects the
extreme importance of the land of Israel to God. For it was and is to be
His Kingdom, and has a special significance to Him.
Jos 18:20 The Jordan was its border on the east quarter. This was the
inheritance of the children of Benjamin, boundary by boundary all around,
according to their families-
The law of Moses reasons as if each family of Israel had a specific
inheritance which was not to be sold or moved outside the family. Hence
the sin of Ahab in obtaining Naboth's vineyard. It would seem that there
was some unrecorded list made of each family and which land they were to
be given. This looks forward to our very personal and unique inheritance
in God's Kingdom, possibly based around spiritual family units.
Jos 18:21 Now the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin
according to their families were Jericho, Beth Hoglah, Emek Keziz-
The cities are described in two groups; 12 to the east, 14 to the
west.
Jos 18:22 Beth Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel-
Beth Arabah was a small settlement right out in the desert (Josh.
15:61; 18:22), therefore also called Arabah (Josh. 18:18). From such a
poor and obscure place there arose a man who was attracted to David's
cause (2 Sam. 23:31), just as the Lord calls all manner of unusual people
to Himself today. Zemaraim was in the territory assigned to Benjamin (Josh. 18:22), but
is located "in the hill country of Ephraim" in 2 Chron. 13:4.
Jos 18:23 Avvim, Parah, Ophrah-
Avvim may be Ai, called Aiath (Is. 10:28) and Aija (Neh. 11:31).
Ophrah is not that associated with Gideon, This was not the Ophrah of
Gideon, but the Ophrah which fell into Philistine hands of 1 Sam. 13:17.
The history of so many of these places reflects how the huge potential
possession was not realized by Israel, and wasted spiritual potential is
one of the most tragic features of the entire Divine-human encounter.
Jos 18:24 Chephar Ammoni, Ophni, and Geba; twelve cities with their
villages-
Geba is not the Gibeah of Saul as some suggest because this one is
one the east (:21). Meaning "height", Geba was a common name.
Jos 18:25 Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth-
Beeroth was one of the Gibeonite towns which made peace with Israel,
but here Benjamin is encouraged to possess it. The Gibeonites had agreed
to be servants to the Israelites, and by all accounts they kept that
agreement. But they remained living in their towns, such was the laziness
of Israel to possess what had been given to them. See on :3.
Jos 18:26 Mizpeh, Chephirah, Mozah-
Mizpeh was to become a significant holy place and point of gathering
for Israel (Jud. 20:1-3; 1 Sam. 7:5,6; 10:17; Jer. 40:6).
Jos 18:27 Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah-
These places are at best obscure or unknown to us today. We wonder
why we have these records.
Jos 18:28 Zelah, Eleph, the Jebusite (the same is Jerusalem), Gibeath, and
Kiriath; fourteen cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of
the children of Benjamin according to their families-
Benjamin's inheritance was roughly 26 miles in length by 12 in
breadth. But the small size was because of the huge fertility of the land
and its strong topographical nature. And likewise there is in all God's
gifts, in this life and eternally, a kind of compensation and equality.
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