The Cities of Judah
20 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families. 21 The farthest cities of the tribe of the children of Judah toward the border of Edom in the South were Kabzeel, Eder, Jagur, 22 Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah, 23 Kedesh, Hazor, Ithnan, 24 Ziph, Telem, Bealoth, 25 Hazor Hadattah, Kerioth Hezron (also called Hazor), 26 Amam, Shema, Moladah, 27 Hazar Gaddah, Heshmon, Beth Pelet, 28 Hazar Shual, Beersheba, Biziothiah, 29 Baalah, Iim, Ezem, 30 Eltolad, Chesil, Hormah, 31 Ziklag, Madmannah, Sansannah, 32 Lebaoth, Shilhim, Ain, and Rimmon. All the cities are twenty-nine, with their villages. 33 In the lowland, Eshtaol, Zorah, Ashnah, 34 Zanoah, En Gannim, Tappuah, Enam, 35 Jarmuth, Adullam, Socoh, Azekah, 36 Shaaraim, Adithaim and Gederah (or Gederothaim); fourteen cities with their villages. 37 Zenan, Hadashah, Migdal Gad, 38 Dilean, Mizpah, Joktheel, 39 Lachish, Bozkath, Eglon, 40 Cabbon, Lahmam, Chitlish, 41 Gederoth, Beth Dagon, Naamah, and Makkedah; sixteen cities with their villages. 42 Libnah, Ether, Ashan, 43 Iphtah, Ashnah, Nezib, 44 Keilah, Achzib, and Mareshah; nine cities with their villages. 45 Ekron, with its towns and its villages; 46 from Ekron even to the sea, all that were by the side of Ashdod, with their villages. 47 Ashdod, its towns and its villages; Gaza, its towns and its villages; to the brook of Egypt, and the great sea with its coastline. 48 In the hill country, Shamir, Jattir, Socoh, 49 Dannah, Kiriath Sannah (which is Debir), 50 Anab, Eshtemoh, Anim, 51 Goshen, Holon, and Giloh; eleven cities with their villages. 52 Arab, Dumah, Eshan, 53 Janim, Beth Tappuah, Aphekah, 54 Humtah, Kiriath Arba (also called Hebron), and Zior; nine cities with their villages. 55 Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Jutah, 56 Jezreel, Jokdeam, Zanoah, 57 Kain, Gibeah, and Timnah; ten cities with their villages. 58 Halhul, Beth Zur, Gedor, 59 Maarath, Beth Anoth, and Eltekon; six cities with their villages. 60 Kiriath Baal (also called Kiriath Jearim), and Rabbah; two cities with their villages. 61 In the wilderness, Beth Arabah, Middin, Secacah, 62 Nibshan, the City of Salt, and En Gedi; six cities with their villages. 63 As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah couldn’t drive them out; but the Jebusites live with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.
More than a hundred towns are entered on Judah's roll, district by district — and the roll ends on the one name honesty required: Jerusalem, not taken.
This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families.
What follows is the longest town list in the book — well over a hundred names, filed by district: the Negev's south Joshua 15:21–32, the lowland Shephelah in its clusters Joshua 15:33–44, the Philistine coast claimed on paper Joshua 15:45–47, the hill country Joshua 15:48–60, and the wilderness by the Salt Sea Joshua 15:61–62. The roll reads as promise-keeping in its most granular form. Every name is a place where particular families would terrace slopes, dig cisterns, bury their dead, and keep Passover — the oath to Abraham Genesis 15:18–21 cashed out at the resolution of villages.
And the roll is seeded with the nation's future. Beersheba of the patriarchs' wells Joshua 15:28 Genesis 21:31; Ziklag, one day David's outlaw base Joshua 15:31 1 Samuel 27:6; Libnah and Lachish of the recent campaign Joshua 15:39 Joshua 10:29–32; En Gedi by the sea, where David will spare Saul in a cave Joshua 15:62 1 Samuel 24:1–7; and among the hill towns, almost lost in its cluster, Bethlehem's district — the registry quietly holding the address of Ruth's field, David's sheepfolds, and the manger Ruth 1:19 1 Samuel 16:1 Micah 5:2. Scripture's lists are the seedbeds of its stories; the towns are enrolled here so that everything later has somewhere to happen.
As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah couldn’t drive them out; but the Jebusites live with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.
The chapter ends on its one confessed failure, and the editorial courage of the placement should be felt: a hundred-town triumph roll closes with couldn't. Jerusalem — burned once by Judah in a raid Judges 1:8, held again by Jebusites within sight of Judah's border Joshua 15:8 — stays unconquered through the whole era of the judges, until David takes the stronghold and gives the nation its capital 2 Samuel 5:6–9. The book's honesty about the gap between deed and possession Joshua 13:1 is stamped on its proudest chapter, and the unfinished item is the most important address in the Bible: the city God was reserving, as it turned out, for another chapter of the story.
held with reason What this mark means