The Last Lot, and Joshua's Own City
32 The sixth lot came out for the children of Naphtali, even for the children of Naphtali according to their families. 33 Their border was from Heleph, from the oak in Zaanannim, Adami-nekeb, and Jabneel, to Lakkum. It ended at the Jordan. 34 The border turned westward to Aznoth Tabor, and went out from there to Hukkok. It reached to Zebulun on the south, and reached to Asher on the west, and to Judah at the Jordan toward the sunrise. 35 The fortified cities were Ziddim, Zer, Hammath, Rakkath, Chinnereth, 36 Adamah, Ramah, Hazor, 37 Kedesh, Edrei, En Hazor, 38 Iron, Migdal El, Horem, Beth Anath, and Beth Shemesh; nineteen cities with their villages. 39 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Naphtali according to their families, the cities with their villages. 40 The seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families. 41 The border of their inheritance was Zorah, Eshtaol, Irshemesh, 42 Shaalabbin, Aijalon, Ithlah, 43 Elon, Timnah, Ekron, 44 Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Baalath, 45 Jehud, Bene Berak, Gath Rimmon, 46 Me Jarkon, and Rakkon, with the border opposite Joppa. 47 The border of the children of Dan went out beyond them; for the children of Dan went up and fought against Leshem, and took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and possessed it, and lived therein, and called Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their forefather. 48 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families, these cities with their villages. 49 So they finished distributing the land for inheritance by its borders. The children of Israel gave an inheritance to Joshua the son of Nun among them. 50 According to Yahweh’s commandment, they gave him the city which he asked, even Timnathserah in the hill country of Ephraim; and he built the city, and lived there. 51 These are the inheritances, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed for inheritance by lot in Shiloh before Yahweh, at the door of the Tent of Meeting. So they finished dividing the land.
Naphtali and Dan close the distribution, Dan's failure is entered in advance — and the commander takes his own small inheritance last of all Israel.
The sixth lot came out for the children of Naphtali, even for the children of Naphtali according to their families.
Naphtali takes the northern highlands — nineteen fortified cities including Hazor's burned mound and Kedesh of the refuges Joshua 19:35–38 Joshua 20:7 — completing Galilee's map. Then the seventh and last lot falls to Dan Joshua 19:40, and its entry carries the distribution's saddest sentence.
The border of the children of Dan went out beyond them; for the children of Dan went up and fought against Leshem, and took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and possessed it, and lived therein, and called Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their forefather.
Dan's allotted territory was choice — the fertile foothill corridor from Zorah toward Joppa Joshua 19:41–46 — and Dan could not hold it: the Amorites pressed the tribe into the hills Judges 1:34, and rather than contend for its lot, Dan sent spies north and fell on Leshem — Laish — a quiet people far from help Judges 18:7 Judges 18:27–28. The verse here compresses into an aside what the appendix of Judges narrates in full, stolen idols and hired priest included Judges 18:30–31. The lot was God's assignment; the migration was the tribe's substitution — the one allotment in the book exchanged rather than possessed, and the exchanged city became the northern kingdom's shrine of the golden calf 1 Kings 12:29–30. Where the other tribes under-possessed their portions, Dan alone walked away from his; the roll records both destinies without comment, Zorah at the list's head and the footnote of Leshem at its end.
49 So they finished distributing the land for inheritance by its borders. The children of Israel gave an inheritance to Joshua the son of Nun among them. 50 According to Yahweh’s commandment, they gave him the city which he asked, even Timnathserah in the hill country of Ephraim; and he built the city, and lived there.
Last of all Israel — after every tribe, clan, and complaining house of Joseph is seated — the commander receives his own portion: one city, in his tribe's rugged hills, which he has to build himself. Caleb, the other faithful spy, claimed his mountain first Joshua 14:12; Joshua takes his last — the two honest witnesses of Kadesh bracketing the whole distribution like a frame, and the man with power to take anything taking a modest ruin at the end of the queue. Scripture's picture of authority is rarely drawn more plainly: the leader eats last.
These are the inheritances, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed for inheritance by lot in Shiloh before Yahweh, at the door of the Tent of Meeting. So they finished dividing the land.
The closing formula returns to the opening one Joshua 14:1, now with the location added: at the door of the Tent of Meeting. Every acre in Israel was assigned at the sanctuary's threshold — the map of the nation drawn, lot by lot, in the presence of the God whose gift it was. So they finished: the word the surveys, complaints, and claims were all moving toward, and the ground on which the book's final audit will stand Joshua 21:43–45.
settled What this mark means