Joshua 15:1-51

The Assignment of the Territory

It has been noticed that there are many incidental features in this narrative which point to a contemporary document. Thus in the lot of Judah we have a full description, both of the frontier-lines (Joshua 15:1-12), and also of the chief cities contained within them (Joshua 15:21-62): and the same is true of Benjamin (Joshua 18:11-28). But these are the tribes which seem to have conquered their territory soonest and most completely. Ephraim and Manasseh, on the contrary, have only their boundaries mentioned without any list of cities (16). As a matter of fact, the children of Joseph seem to have had more difficulties with the Canaanites (Joshua 17:12, Joshua 17:16, cp. Judges 1:27); than had Judah and Benjamin. Again, Simeon (Joshua 19:1-9) and Dan (Joshua 19:40-48) have no boundaries mentioned, only cities, because they originally settled in the territory of Judah and Benjamin. Finally, the accounts of the territory of the remaining tribes, Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali (Joshua 19:10-39), are defective, as is natural if at the date when the document was originally drawn up, these territories were not yet completely conquered: cp. Judges 1:30-33. But if the document be strictly contemporary, it must be regarded as closing with Joshua 19:46.