Joshua - Chapter 13

¹ Now Joshua had grown old and advanced in years. Yahweh said to him, 'You are now old and advanced in years, yet there is still a great deal of territory left to be taken possession of.

² This is all the territory left: 'All the districts of the Philistines and the whole country of the Geshurites;

³ from the Shihor, facing Egypt, to the frontier of Ekron in the north, is reckoned as Canaanite territory. The five rulers of the Philistines have their seats at Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron, respectively; the Avvites are in

⁴ the south. The entire territory of the Canaanites, and Mearah which belongs to the Sidonians, as far as Aphekah and as far as the frontier of the Amorites;

⁵ and then the country of the Gebalites with the entire Lebanon eastwards from Baal-Gad at the foot of Mount Hermon to the Pass of Hamath.

⁶ 'All who live in the highlands from the Lebanon to Misrephoth in the west -- all the Sidonians -- I myself shall dispossess before the Israelites. All you have to do is to distribute the territory as a heritage for the Israelites as I have ordered you.

⁷ The time has come to divide this territory as a heritage between the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh: from the Jordan as far as the Great Sea in the west, you must give it them; the Great Sea will be their limit.'

⁸ As regards the other half-tribe of Manasseh, this and the Reubenites and Gadites had already received their heritage, given them by Moses on the further, eastern side of the Jordan, the one which Moses, servant of Yahweh, had already given them:

⁹ The country onwards from Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Valley, with the town in the bottom of the valley and the entire tableland from Medeba to Dibon;

¹⁰ all the towns of Sihon king of the Amorites, who had reigned in Heshbon, to the frontier of the Ammonites;

¹¹ then Gilead and the territory of the Geshurites and Maacathites with the whole Hermon range and the whole of Bashan as far as Salecah;

¹² and in Bashan, the whole kingdom of Og, who had reigned in Ashtaroth and Edrei, and was the last of the survivors of the Rephaim. Moses had conquered and dispossessed these two kings.

¹³ The Israelites did not, however, dispossess either the Geshurites or the Maacathites, hence Geshur and Maacah survive inside Israel even today.

¹⁴ To the tribe of Levi alone no heritage was given; Yahweh, God of Israel, was his heritage, as he had told him.

¹⁵ Moses had given the tribe of the sons of Reuben a share by clans.

¹⁶ Thus, their territory was the entire tableland from Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Valley, with the town in the bottom of the valley, as far as Medeba,

¹⁷ Heshbon with all the towns on the tableland: Dibon, Bamoth-Baal, Beth-Baal-Meon,

¹⁸ Jahaz, Kedemoth, Mephaath,

¹⁹ Kiriathaim, Sibmah and, in the highlands of the Arabah, Zereth-Shahar;

²⁰ Beth-Peor, the watered foothills of Mount Pisgah, Beth-ha-Jeshimoth,

²¹ all the towns on the tableland and the entire kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, who had reigned in Heshbon; he had been defeated by Moses, and with him the princes of Midian, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba, vassals of Sihon, formerly living in the country.

²² As regards Balaam son of Beor, the soothsayer, the Israelites had put him to the sword with those whom they had killed.

²³ The boundary of the Reubenites was the Jordan and its territory. Such was the heritage of the sons of Reuben, by clans, with the towns and villages belonging to them.

²⁴ Moses had given the tribe of Gad, the sons of Gad, a share by clans.

²⁵ Their territory was Jazer, all the towns of Gilead, half the country of the Ammonites as far as Aroer facing Rabbah,

²⁶ and from Heshbon to Ramath-Mizpeh and Betonim; from Mahanaim as far as the territory of Lo-Debar,

²⁷ and in the valley: Beth-Haram, Beth-Nimrah, Succoth, and Zaphon -- the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon -- the Jordan and the territory running to the tip of the Sea of Chinneroth, on the further, eastern side of the Jordan.

²⁸ Such was the heritage of the sons of Gad, by clans, with their towns and villages belonging to them.

²⁹ Moses had given the half-tribe of Manasseh a share by clans.

³⁰ Their territory, starting from Mahanaim, was the whole of Bashan, the entire kingdom of Og king of Bashan, all the Encampments of Jair in Bashan: sixty towns.

³¹ Half of Gilead, with Ashtaroth, and Edrei, the royal cities of Og in Bashan, were allotted to the sons of Machir son of Manasseh, to half of the sons of Machir, by clans.

³² This was what Moses had conferred in heritage on the Plains of Moab on the further, eastern side of the Jordan opposite Jericho.

³³ To the tribe of Levi, however, Moses gave no heritage; Yahweh, God of Israel, was his heritage, as he had told him.

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