Today and tomorrow we will be studying Chapter 15 which tells us which part of the promised land was allotted to the tribe of Judah.
"The allotment for the tribe of Judah, according to its clans, extended down to the territory of Edom, to the Desert of Zin in the extreme south." (Joshua 15:1) The tribe of Judah is given the preeminence here by being the first to receive their land on the west side of the Jordan River. Judah was the fourth son of Jacob by his first wife Leah. Judah's older brothers Reuben, Simeon, and Levi disqualified themselves to be their father's chief heir who would receive the birthright. Judah therefore rose to the top spot, and just as a primary heir receives his inheritance first, the tribe of Judah receives their inheritance first. Judah was also the largest tribe of Israel. I'm inserting a map below that we will be using for the next several days to help ourselves picture how the promised land was divided up. The land given to the tribe of Judah is shown in the left lower portion of the map.
"Their southern boundary started from the bay at the southern end of the Dead Sea, crossed south of Scorpion Pass, continued on to Zin and went over to the south of Kadesh Barnea. Then it ran past Hezron up to Addar and curved around to Karka. It then passed along to Azmon and joined the Wadi of Egypt, ending at the Mediterranean Sea. This is their southern boundary." (Joshua 15:2-4)
"The eastern boundary is the Dead Sea as far as the mouth of the Jordan. The northern boundary started from the bay of the sea at the mouth of the Jordan, went up to Beth Hoglah and continued north to Beth Arabah to the Stone of Bohan son of Reuben." (Joshua 15:5-6) The Stone of Bohan was likely situated on the map at the top of the Dead Sea where the border of the tribe of Judah meets the border of the tribe of Reuben. Boundary stones were extremely important, so much so that King Solomon twice issued a warning in the book of Proverbs about moving one of these stones. "Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your ancestors." (Proverbs 22:28) "Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, for their Defender is strong; he will take up their case against you." (Proverbs 23:10) The Lord Himself warned the people twice in the book of Deuteronomy not to move a boundary stone. "Do not move your neighbor's boundary stone set up by your predecessors in the inheritance you receive in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess." (Deuteronomy 19:14) "Cursed is anyone who moves their neighbor's boundary stone." (Deuteronomy 27:17a)
Moving a boundary stone is stealing. Just as it's important in our day to have our property officially surveyed and to have the survey pins placed into the ground to mark the borders of our property, it was very important in ancient times to mark the boundary of each person's property and the boundary of each tribe's territory. If anyone moved a boundary stone it was the same as moving a survey pin in today's world. It breaks one of the ten commandments ("You shall not steal."), and it demonstrates a greedy heart and a callous disregard for the rights of others.
You and I may be unfamiliar with many of the places mentioned in the description of the territories of the promised land. It may seem as if this detailed description doesn't have much to do with us, sitting here in the United States today. But this detailed description of the borders of each tribe was extremely important to the ancient Israelites, just as having clear borders for each of the fifty states is important to us in our country.
After mentioning the Stone of Bohan, the author continues. "The boundary then went up to Debir from the Valley of Achor and turned north to Gilgal, which faces the Pass of Adummim south of the gorge. It continued along to the waters of En Shemesh and came out at En Rogel. Then it ran up the Valley of Ben Hinnom along the southern slope of the Jebusite city (that is Jerusalem). From there it climbed to the top of the hill west of the Hinnom Valley at the northern end of the Valley of Rephaim." (Joshua 15:7-8) The Rephaites were giants and in some translations of the Bible, in the King James Version for example, verse 8 refers to this valley as "the valley of the giants".
"From the hilltop the boundary headed toward the spring of waters of Nephtoah, came out at the towns of Mount Ephron and went down toward Baalah (that is, Kiriath Jearim). Then it curved westward from Baalah to Mount Seir, ran along the northern slope of Mount Jearim (that is, Kesalon), continued down to Beth Shemesh and crossed to Timnah. It went to the northern slope of Ekron, turned toward Shikkeron, passed along to Mount Baalah and reached Jabneel. The boundary ended at the sea. The western boundary is the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea. These are the boundaries around the people of Judah by their clans." (Joshua 15:9-12) We will see a number of the locations from today's text again because they will feature in several important Bible stories.
As we learned in Chapter 14, Caleb of the tribe of Judah was the first to be given his portion of the promised land. Tomorrow we will take a look at a personal story involving the family of Caleb and then we will conclude our chapter with a detailed list of the towns belonging to the tribe of Judah.
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