1. And all the children of Israel assembled together in Silo, and there they set up the tabernacle of the testimony; and the land was subdued before them. 2. But there remained seven tribes of the children of Israel, which as yet had not received their possessions. 3. And Joshua said to them: How long are you slack with indolence, and go not in to possess the land which the Lord the God of your fathers hath given you? 4. Choose of every tribe three men, that I may send them, and they may go about and compass the land, and mark it out according to the number of each multitude, and bring back to me what they have marked out. 5. Divide to yourselves the land into seven parts: let Juda be in his bounds on the south side, and the house of Joseph on the north. 6. Mark out the land in the midst between these into seven parts; and you shall come hither to me, that I may cast lots for you here before the Lord your God. 7. For there is no part among you for the Levites, but the priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance. And Gad and Ruben, and the half tribe of Manasse, had already received their possessions beyond the Jordan on the east side, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave them. 8. And when the men were risen up, to go to mark out the land, Joshua commanded them, saying: Go round the land, and mark it out, and return to me, that I may cast lots for you here before the Lord in Silo. 9. So they went; and surveying it, divided it into seven parts, writing [them] down in a book. And they returned to Joshua, to the camp in Silo. 10. And he cast lots before the Lord in Silo, and divided the land to the children of Israel into seven parts. 11. And the first lot came up [for] the children of Benjamin, by their families, that they should possess the land between the children of Juda and the children of Joseph. 12. And their border northward was from the Jordan: going along by the side of Jericho on the north side, and thence going up westward to the mountains, and reaching to the wilderness of Bethaven, 13. and passing along southward by Luza, which is Bethel; and it goeth down into Ataroth-addar, to the mountain which is on the south of the nether Beth-horon. 14. And it bendeth, going round toward
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the sea, at the south of the mountain which looketh toward Beth-horon to the southwest; and the outgoings thereof are into Cariath-baal, which is called also Cariath-iarim, a city of the children of Juda. This is [their] coast toward the sea, westward. 15. But on the south side the border goeth out from part of Cariath-iarim toward the sea, and cometh as far as the fountain of the waters of Nephtoa. 16. And it goeth down to that part of the mountain which looketh toward the valley of the children of Ennom, and is over against the north quarter, in the furthermost part of the valley of Raphaim. And it goeth down into Geennom (that is, the valley of Ennom) by the side of the Jebusite to the south, and cometh to the fountain of Rogel, 17. passing thence to the north, and going out to Ensemes, that is to say, the fountain of the sun; 18. and it passeth along as far as the hills that are over against [the ascent of] Adommim; and it goeth down to Abenboen, that is, the stone of Boen the son of Ruben; and it passeth on the north side to the champaign countries, and goeth down into the plain; 19. and it passeth by Beth-hagla to the north; and the outgoings thereof are toward the north bay of the most salt sea, at the south end of the Jordan, 20. which is its border on the east side. This is the possession of the children of Benjamin, by their borders round about, and their families. 21. And their cities were: Jericho, and Beth-hagla, and Vale-Casis, 22. Beth-araba, and Samaraim, and Bethel, 23. and Avim, and Aphara, and Ophera, 24. the town Emona, and Ophni, and Gabee: twelve cities, and their villages. 25. Gabaon, and Rama, and Beroth, 26. and Mesphe, and Caphara, and Amosa, 27. and Recem, Jarephel, and Tharela, 28. and Sela, Eleph, and Jebus (which is Jerusalem), Gabaath, and Cariath: fourteen cities, and their villages. This is the possession of the children of Benjamin, according to their families.
COMMENTARY
The parts of the chapter [are] nearly four. In the first, the manner of the assembly of the whole people at Shiloh is described (v. 1). In the second, the choosing and sending-out of the land-surveyors (from v. 2 to 10). In the third, the casting-of-lots (v. 10). In the fourth, the description of the Benjaminite lot (from v. 11 to the end). But in that assembly two [things] were chiefly treated. One, which pertained nearly and directly to religion — namely, concerning the moving of the Lord’s tabernacle. The other, which [pertained] to the polity, and the public usefulness of the people — concerning the drawing of the lots of the remaining inheritances. Happy the people in which this order of things flourishes — that the divine [things] be cared for first, [and] the human [things] afterward. “Seek,” said the Lord (Matt. 6, v. 33), “first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these [things] shall be added to you.” That most learned [man] of the Romans, Varro, relates (in Gellius, bk. 14, ch. 7) [that], in the Roman senate, [matters] of the divine were always treated before [those] of the human, and sacrifice [was] made to the Gods first. Excellently — if this religion had been applied to God, not to Demons. For otherwise the blessed life cannot be acquired, nor justice obtained, as St. Augustine shows (bk. 2 On the City of God, ch. 21): “There is no true justice,” he says, “except in that Commonwealth whose founder and ruler is CHRIST.” See also Pliny’s Panegyric.