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The Twelve Tribes of Israel

Joshua 13–19 · the division of the land

    The Twelve Tribes of IsraelThe Settlement · c. 1400–1200 BC. The territories are hand-authored generalized polygons, not a surveyed line: no boundary map survives from the settlement, and Joshua 13-19 describes each tribe’s holding by landmark and neighbor rather than by coordinate. Simeon’s is drawn as the enclave inside Judah that Joshua 19:1 names it; the hill country Ephraim and Manasseh shared, with the pockets of Canaanite towns neither tribe actually cleared (17:12), is simplified into one clean edge between them. Dan is drawn at its first small allotment on the coastal plain (19:40-46), hemmed in by the Amorites (Judges 1:34); the later migration north to Laish, renamed Dan (Judges 18), is a story rather than a boundary and is not drawn as a second territory or a line joining the two — the town is marked at its northern site, the name most readers know. Levi held no territory, only scattered towns among the other eleven (Joshua 21), and is not shown. Philistia, Ammon, Moab and Phoenicia are named as the neighboring peoples the text sets the tribes against, not as Israelite ground. The six cities of refuge of Joshua 20:7-8 — Kedesh, Shechem, Hebron, Bezer, Ramoth-gilead and Golan — are ringed. Mahanaim is placed east of the Jordan north of the Jabbok, and Bezer and Golan at Umm al-Amad and Sahm el-Jaulan; those three identifications are disputed, as is Ramoth-gilead’s. Mt Hermon Mt Carmel Mt Ebal Mt Gerizim Mt Gilboa Mt Nebo JORDAN JUDAH SIMEON BENJAMIN DAN EPHRAIM MANASSEH MANASSEH ISSACHAR ZEBULUN ASHER NAPHTALI REUBEN GAD PHOENICIA AMMON MOAB PHILISTIA THE GREAT SEA CHINNERETH THE SALT SEA Jerusalem Shechem Shiloh Hebron Beersheba Dan (Laish) Bethel Hazor Kedesh Megiddo Beth-shean Joppa Gaza Ashkelon Lachish Heshbon Mahanaim Ramoth-gilead Ashtaroth Tyre Damascus Bezer Golan Chief townOther townCity of refugeSummitHighlandTribal borders are generalized 1001020304050MILES

    The Twelve Tribes of Israel

    The Settlement · c. 1400–1200 BC

    The territories are hand-authored generalized polygons, not a surveyed line: no boundary map survives from the settlement, and Joshua 13-19 describes each tribe’s holding by landmark and neighbor rather than by coordinate. Simeon’s is drawn as the enclave inside Judah that Joshua 19:1 names it; the hill country Ephraim and Manasseh shared, with the pockets of Canaanite towns neither tribe actually cleared (17:12), is simplified into one clean edge between them. Dan is drawn at its first small allotment on the coastal plain (19:40-46), hemmed in by the Amorites (Judges 1:34); the later migration north to Laish, renamed Dan (Judges 18), is a story rather than a boundary and is not drawn as a second territory or a line joining the two — the town is marked at its northern site, the name most readers know. Levi held no territory, only scattered towns among the other eleven (Joshua 21), and is not shown. Philistia, Ammon, Moab and Phoenicia are named as the neighboring peoples the text sets the tribes against, not as Israelite ground. The six cities of refuge of Joshua 20:7-8 — Kedesh, Shechem, Hebron, Bezer, Ramoth-gilead and Golan — are ringed. Mahanaim is placed east of the Jordan north of the Jabbok, and Bezer and Golan at Umm al-Amad and Sahm el-Jaulan; those three identifications are disputed, as is Ramoth-gilead’s.

    How these maps are made