Study Desk

The Mediterranean Sea was the western border. So the land of Judah was inside these four borders. The families of Judah lived in this area.

The Lord had commanded Joshua to give Caleb son of Jephunneh part of the land in Judah. So Joshua gave Caleb the land God had commanded. Joshua gave him the town of Kiriath Arba, that is, Hebron. (Arba was the father of Anak.)

Othniel was the son of Caleb's brother Kenaz. Othniel defeated that city, so Caleb gave his daughter Acsah to Othniel to be his wife.

Acsah answered, "Give me a blessing. You gave me dry desert land in the Negev. Please give me some land with water on it." So Caleb gave her what she wanted. He gave her the upper and lower pools of water in that land.

The army of Judah was not able to force out the Jebusites living in Jerusalem. So today there are still Jebusites living among the people of Judah in Jerusalem.

So the people of Manasseh and Ephraim got their land. (Manasseh and Ephraim were sons of Joseph.)

But the Ephraimites were not able to force the Canaanites to leave the town of Gezer. So the Canaanites still live among the Ephraimites today, although they did become slaves of the Ephraimites.

Then land was given to the tribe of Manasseh. Manasseh was Joseph's first son. Manasseh's first son was Makir, the father of Gilead. Makir was a great soldier, so the areas of Gilead and Bashan were given to his family.

The daughters went to Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and all the leaders. The daughters said, "The Lord told Moses to give us land the same as our male relatives." So Eleazar obeyed the Lord and gave the daughters some land, just like their uncles.

So the tribe of Manasseh had ten areas of land west of the Jordan River and two more areas of land, Gilead and Bashan, on the other side of the Jordan River.

So these women from the tribe of Manasseh got land the same as the men. The land of Gilead was given to the rest of the families of Manasseh.

The people of Manasseh were not able to defeat those cities. So the Canaanites continued to live there.

Then Joshua said to the people of Joseph, the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, "You have many people and you are very strong, so you should get more than one share of the land.

So Joshua said to the Israelites, "Why do you wait so long to take your land? The Lord , the God of your ancestors, has given this land to you.

So each of your tribes should choose three men. I will send them out to study the land. They will describe that land, and then they will come back to me.

So the men who were chosen went to look at the land and write down what they saw. Joshua told them, "Go through the land and describe it in writing. Then come back to me at Shiloh. I will throw lots and let the Lord decide how you will share the land."

So the men went into the land. As they walked through it, they wrote down what they saw. They listed all the cities and divided the land into seven parts. Then they went back to Joshua at Shiloh.

The Jordan River was the eastern border. So this was the land that was given to the tribe of Benjamin. These were the borders on all sides.

They also got all the fields around the cities as far as Baalath Beer (Ramah in the Negev). So this was the area that was given to the tribe of Simeon. Each family got its land.

Simeon's share of land was within the area that Judah got. The people of Judah had more land than they needed, so the people of Simeon got part of their land.