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Joshua

About this book
Chapter 18

1 The entire Israelite community assembled at Shiloh and there they set up the tent of meeting.⁠ Though they had subdued the land, 2 seven Israelite tribes had not been assigned their allotted land. 3 So Joshua said to the Israelites: “How long do you intend to put off occupying the land the Lord God of your ancestors has given you? 4 Pick three men from each tribe. I will send them out to walk through the land and make a map of it for me. 5 Divide it into seven regions. Judah will stay in its territory in the south and the family of Joseph in its territory in the north. 6 But as for you, map out the land into seven regions and bring it to me. I will draw lots for you here before the Lord our God.⁠ 7 But the Levites will not have an allotted portion among you, for their inheritance is to serve the Lord. Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have already received their allotted land east of the Jordan, which Moses the Lord’s servant assigned them.” 8 When the men started out, Joshua told those going to map out the land, “Go, walk through the land, map it out, and return to me. Then I will draw lots for you before the Lord here in Shiloh.” 9 The men journeyed through the land and mapped it and its cities out into seven regions on a scroll. Then they came to Joshua at the camp in Shiloh. 10 Joshua drew lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord and divided the land among the Israelites according to their allotted portions.⁠ 11 The first lot belonged to the tribe of Benjamin by its clans. Their allotted territory was between Judah and Joseph. 12 Their northern border started at the Jordan, went up to the slope of Jericho on the north, ascended westward to the hill country, and extended to the wilderness of Beth Aven. 13 It then crossed from there to Luz, to the slope of Luz to the south (that is, Bethel), and descended to Ataroth Addar located on the hill that is south of lower Beth Horon. 14 It then turned on the west side southward from the hill near Beth Horon on the south and extended to Kiriath Baal (that is, Kiriath Jearim), a city belonging to the tribe of Judah. This is the western border. 15 The southern side started on the edge of Kiriath Jearim and extended westward to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah. 16 The border then descended to the edge of the hill country near the Valley of Ben Hinnom located in the Valley of the Rephaites to the north. It descended through the Valley of Hinnom to the slope of the Jebusites to the south and then down to En Rogel. 17 It went northward, extending to En Shemesh and Geliloth opposite the Pass of Adummim, and descended to the Stone of Bohan son of Reuben. 18 It crossed to the slope in front of the rift valley to the north and descended into the rift valley. 19 It then crossed to the slope of Beth Hoglah to the north and ended at the northern tip of the Salt Sea at the mouth of the Jordan River. This was the southern border. 20 The Jordan River bordered it on the east. These were the borders of the land assigned to the tribe of Benjamin by its clans. 21 These cities belonged to the tribe of Benjamin by its clans: Jericho, Beth Hoglah, Emek Keziz, 22 Beth Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, 23 Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, 24 Kephar Ammoni, Ophni, and Geba—a total of 12 cities and their towns. 25 Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth, 26 Mizpah, Kephirah, Mozah, 27 Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah, 28 Zelah, Haeleph, the Jebusite city (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah, and Kiriath—a total of fourteen cities and their towns. This was the land assigned to the tribe of Benjamin by its clans.

Texts in conversation

Compare Joshua 18:1 and Jeremiah 7:12

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Joshua is described setting up the tabernacle at Shiloh, Israel's first holy place. Jeremiah later points to Shiloh’s ruins to warn Jerusalem that God destroyed that sanctuary once and will do the same to the temple if the people keep sinning.

Passages

Joshua 18:1

Hebrew Bible
1 The entire Israelite community assembled at Shiloh and there they set up the tent of meeting. Though they had subdued the land, 2 seven Israelite tribes had not been assigned their allotted land. 3 So Joshua said to the Israelites: “How long do you intend to put off occupying the land the Lord God of your ancestors has given you?
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Joshua

Jeremiah 7:12

Hebrew Bible
11 Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own is to be a hideout for robbers? You had better take note! I have seen for myself what you have done! says the Lord. 12 So, go to the place in Shiloh where I allowed myself to be worshiped in the early days. See what I did to it because of the wicked things my people Israel did. 13 You also have done all these things, says the Lord, and I have spoken to you over and over again. But you have not listened! You have refused to respond when I called you to repent! 14 So I will destroy this temple that I have claimed as my own, this temple that you are trusting to protect you. I will destroy this place that I gave to you and your ancestors, just like I destroyed Shiloh.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jeremiah

References

... I read the poem as making a sharp distinction between the destiny of the Shiloh sanctuary and the destiny of the Jerusalem Temple. Jeremiah (Jeremiah 7:12-14; 26:6, 9) used Shiloh as an example of what would happen to a legitimate sanctuary if the people sinned. He equated the sanctuary at Shiloh with the Temple in Jerusalem because he wanted to equate the fate of Shiloh with the fate of the Jerusalem Temple. The equation is explicit in the wording of Jeremiah 7:12: 'my place that is in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at first' — note the application to Shiloh of the Deuteronomic phrase designating the Temple. But our psalmist does not want to equate the Jerusalem Temple with the Shiloh sanctuary, because to do so in the post-destruction era would remove all hope of its restoration. The sanctuary at Shiloh, after all, was long gone, never to rise again. ...
Adele Berlin, “Psalms and the Literature of Exile,” in Psalms and the Literature of Exile, ed. Peter W. Flint and Patrick D. Miller (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 78–79.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Joshua 18:1 and Jeremiah 7:12

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