EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries
Joshua 18:1-28
Come in, and receive God’s promises!
Joshua
Brian Rowlands
Maps to help you to study this book are on the Internet at www.easyenglish.info.Chapter 18
v1 All the *Israelites met together at Shiloh. There they erected the *Tent of Meeting. They now ruled all the land. v2 But Joshua still had not given to 7 *tribes a part of the land for themselves.
v3 Joshua said to them, ‘The *Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you the land. You should not wait any longer before you take it.’ v4 Choose three men from each *tribe. I will send them to look at all the land. And they shall see what it is like. They must say what they find in each part. Then they must come back to me. v5 You must make it into 7 parts. Judah must stay in its land to the south. Joseph’s people must remain in their land in the north. v6 You must write down what each of the 7 parts is like. Then I will choose which part to give to each *tribe. I will ask God for help when I do this. I will use *lots to decide. v7 The *Levites will not have any of the 7 parts of the land. This is because their part is to serve the *Lord God. And Gad, Reuben and half the *tribe of Manasseh already have land on the east side of the river Jordan. Moses, the servant of the *Lord, gave it to them.’
v8 The men that they had chosen started on their way to describe the land. ‘Go and look at the land. Write down what you find’, Joshua told them. ‘Then come back to me in Shiloh. I will use the *lots in front of the *Lord here.’ v9 So the men left and they went all through the land. They wrote in a book about each town. They wrote about each of the 7 parts of the land. Then they went back to their tents in Shiloh where Joshua was. v10 At Shiloh, Joshua stood in front of the *Lord. He used the *lots to decide which part of the land each *tribe should have.
Verse 1 See Joshua 3:1-4 above for notes on the *Tent of Meeting. Moses told the *Israelites to *worship God in one main place. He told them to put the *Tent of Meeting in this place. (The *ark of the *Lord was inside the *Tent of Meeting.)
Now, the *Israelites had settled in the land. They erected the *Tent of Meeting. This showed that God was living with his people. Shiloh was near the middle of the *promised land. No one lived very far away from the *Tent of Meeting. Everyone could go there easily.
God is never far from anyone. David said, ‘I do not know where I could go to escape from you. There is no place that I could I go to get away from you’ (Psalms 139:7). When Paul was talking to the people at Athens, he said, ‘God is not far from anyone’ (Acts 17:27). We can always pray to him, wherever we are.
The *Tent of Meeting stayed at Shiloh until David moved it to Jerusalem. Solomon built a permanent building for the *ark. This building was called the *temple.
Verses 2, 3 There were still 7 *tribes who did not have their own land. Joshua told them that God had given them the land. They had to take it for themselves.
Christians are often like this. God has given us everything that we need. We must accept what God has done for us. We must accept what God has given to us.
Verses 4-6, 8-10 This was a new idea. The people helped Joshua. They wrote down the names of the places that Joshua had not given to anyone. Joshua asked for God’s help.
Verse 7 Chapter 21 tells us more about the *Levites.
v11 The *lot showed that the first part of the land was for Benjamin. Each family received its own land. Their land was between the land that Joshua gave to the *tribes of Judah and Joseph.
v12 The north side of their land began at the river Jordan. Then it went up the hills north of Jericho. From there, it went west into the hills, to the desert of Beth Aven. v13 The edge of their land went on to the south of Luz (that is Bethel) to Ataroth Addar. That is on the hill south of Lower Beth Horon.
v14 The edge of their land went south from this hill. It went along the west side to Kiriath Baal (that is Kiriath Jearim). This town belonged to Judah’s people. This was the west edge of Benjamin’s land.
v15 The south edge went from the edge of Kiriath Jearim to the waters of Nephtoah. v16 Then it went to the edge of the hill across the Valley of Ben Hinnom. This was north of the Valley of Rephaim. It continued down the Hinnom valley south of the Jebusite city to En Rogel.
v17 Then it went north to En Shemesh. It went on to Geliloth, opposite the valley of Adummim. Then it went to the stone of Bohan, son of Reuben. v18 It continued to the north of Beth Arabah down into the Arabah. v19 Then it went north of Ben Hoglah to the north end of the Salt Sea. This was at the south end of the river Jordan. This was the south edge of Benjamin’s land.
v20 The Jordan was the west edge of their land.
These are the edges of the land that Joshua gave to the families of the *tribe of Benjamin.
Verses 11-20 Joshua gave this land to the *tribe of Benjamin. Benjamin was a small *tribe. The land that Joshua gave to them was small. It was only five miles from north to south and about 20 miles from east to west. It was between the land that Joshua gave to the *tribes of Judah and Ephraim.
Their land surrounded Jerusalem city. It was very important land.
v21 These are the cities that Joshua gave to the *tribe of Benjamin:
• Jericho, Beth Hoglah, Emek Keziz,
• v22 Beth Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel,
• v23 Avvim, Parah, Ophrah,
• v24 Kephar, Ammoni, Ophni and Geba.
There were 12 towns and their villages.
He also gave to them:
• v25 Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth,
• v26 Mizpah, Kephirah, Mozah,
• v27 Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah,
• v28 Zelah, Haeleph, the Jebusite city (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah and Kiriath.
These were 14 towns and their villages.
Joshua gave these cities to the families of Benjamin’s *tribe, to live in.
Verses 21-27 This is a list of all the towns that Joshua gave to the *tribe of Benjamin. Their towns included Jericho, Bethel and Jerusalem. These were important towns. Jericho was the first town that the *Israelites defeated. King David made his capital in Jerusalem. They killed Jesus on a cross outside Jerusalem.
Israelites ~ people from Israel. They are also called Hebrews and Jews.Israel ~ all the people born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children; the people that God chose; or, the land that the Israelites lived in.
Jew ~ a person who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children. It is also a name for one of the Israelites.
tribe ~ the whole family of one of Jacob’s 12 sons.
Lord ~ a name for God in the Bible. The original language of the Old Testament is called Hebrew. In the Hebrew language, there are two words that we translate as ‘Lord’. The Hebrew word ‘ADONAI’ means that God rules. God is our master. The Hebrew word ‘YHWH’ means that God never changes. God is always God.
Old Testament ~ the first part of the Bible, which the writers wrote before the life of Jesus.
'lot, lots ~ a method to choose something by chance, or with God’s help.Levite ~ a person from the tribe of Levi. God chose them to work for him. They taught God’s law.
tribe ~ the whole family of one of Jacob’s 12 sons.
worship ~ to love and to praise God more than anyone else. But some people worship false gods, instead of the real God.
ark ~ the ark of the Lord, the ark of God or the ark of God’s promise; the Bible also calls it the ark of the Covenant (or agreement). It was a wooden box with gold all over the outside and inside. The Israelites kept the ark in the house of the Lord and only the high priest could see it. It is also called the ark of promise of the Lord of all the earth.
Lord ~ a name for God in the Bible. The original language of the Old Testament is called Hebrew. In the Hebrew language, there are two words that we translate as ‘Lord’. The Hebrew word ‘ADONAI’ means that God rules. God is our master. The Hebrew word ‘YHWH’ means that God never changes. God is always God.
covenant ~ an agreement between two people; or, an agreement between God and a person or people; or, an agreement between groups of people.
Israelites ~ people from Israel. They are also called Hebrews and Jews.
high priest ~ the most important priest.
Old Testament ~ the first part of the Bible, which the writers wrote before the life of Jesus.
Israel ~ all the people born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children; the people that God chose; or, the land that the Israelites lived in.
Jew ~ a person who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children. It is also a name for one of the Israelites.
temple ~ a special building where people worship God. The Israelites would later build their own temple in Jerusalem. At the time of the Book of Joshua, they used the Tent of Meeting instead.
worship ~ to love and to praise God more than anyone else. But some people worship false gods, instead of the real God.
Israelites ~ people from Israel. They are also called Hebrews and Jews.
Tent of Meeting ~ a special tent where God met with his people.
Israel ~ all the people born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children; the people that God chose; or, the land that the Israelites lived in.
Jew ~ a person who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children. It is also a name for one of the Israelites.