Commentary - Joshua 15:61-62

Bird's-eye view

At first glance, a passage like this one can seem like little more than an ancient property survey, a dusty list of forgotten towns. We are tempted to skim over it, looking for the narrative action or the explicit theological treatise. But to do so is to miss the point entirely. The Word of God is not filled with extraneous packing material. Every word is God-breathed, and that includes the property lines of Judah. These verses are a concrete, dirt-under-the-fingernails testimony to the absolute, exhaustive faithfulness of God. He did not promise Israel a vague, ethereal "good place." He promised them this land, with these borders, and these cities. This list is the divine deed of ownership being read aloud.

What we have here is a record of God making good on His word. He is not a God of generalizations, but a God of intricate, glorious specifics. He knows the number of hairs on your head, and He knows the names of the towns in the wilderness of Judah. The allotment to Judah, the tribe of the promised King, is being detailed for us, and even the most desolate places are included. This is a reminder that God's dominion is total. The gospel is not just for the pleasant parts of our lives, but for the wilderness parts as well. The King's territory extends everywhere, and His claim is absolute.

Outline

Context In Joshua

We are in the thick of the land distribution. The conquest phase, with its major battles at Jericho, Ai, and against the southern and northern coalitions, is largely complete (Joshua 6-12). Now, under Joshua's leadership, the nation of Israel is transitioning from a conquering army to a settled people. This section (Joshua 13-21) is the practical outworking of God's covenant promise to Abraham centuries before. It is the methodical, deliberate, and sometimes tedious process of assigning each tribe its inheritance.

Judah, as the preeminent tribe from which the Messiah would come, receives its allotment first and in great detail. This chapter meticulously traces its borders and lists its cities, grouped by geographical region. Our text deals with the sixth and final district listed for Judah: the wilderness. This is significant. The inheritance is not just the fertile hill country or the coastal plain. It includes the rugged, arid, and seemingly inhospitable places. God's gift is complete, covering every square inch of the promised territory.

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

Joshua 15:61

In the wilderness: Beth-arabah, Middin and Secacah,

The verse begins by defining the region: "In the wilderness." The wilderness in Scripture is a place of immense theological weight. It is the anti-Eden, the place of testing, judgment, and wandering. It is where Israel was disciplined for forty years. It is where our Lord was driven by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil. It is a place of desolation, wild beasts, and scarcity. And yet, it is here that God stakes a claim. The inheritance of Judah, the royal tribe, extends deep into this territory. This is not an oversight. It is a declaration that God's sovereignty does not stop where the fertile land ends. He is Lord over the wasteland just as much as He is Lord over the garden. His grace is sufficient for the hard places, the lonely places, the wilderness places in our own lives.

The first city named is Beth-arabah, which means "house of the desert." The name itself reinforces the point. God is establishing a household, a place of settled order, right in the heart of the desolation. This is what God does. He brings order out of chaos, and life out of death. The gospel takes root in the wilderness of our fallen hearts. The other two cities, Middin and Secacah, are obscure to us now. Their exact locations are debated by archaeologists. But their obscurity to us does not mean they were obscure to God. He knew them then and He knows them now. This is a quiet rebuke to our pride. We think that if something is not known to us, it must not be important. But God's economy is different. He is the God of the forgotten hamlet, the God of the small place. He records their names here as a permanent testimony that nothing and no one is forgotten in His covenant.

Joshua 15:62

and Nibshan and the City of Salt and Engedi; six cities with their villages.

The list continues with three more cities. Nibshan is another name whose location is lost to us, another reminder of God's meticulous attention to details we have long since forgotten. Then we have the "City of Salt." This name is wonderfully evocative, located as it was near the Dead Sea, or the Salt Sea. Salt speaks of judgment and barrenness, reminding us of Lot's wife and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which took place in this very region. God is granting His people territory that bears the scars of His ancient wrath against sin. This is a sobering gift. It is a reminder that the land is held by grace, and that the judgment that fell on the Canaanites could just as easily fall on Israel if they turn from the covenant. But salt is also a preservative, a symbol of the covenant itself. Jesus calls us the salt of the earth. So here, in the City of Salt, we have a picture of both the terrible holiness of God and the preserving power of His covenant faithfulness.

Finally, we have Engedi. This is a name we recognize. Engedi is a famous oasis, a place of springs and life in the midst of the desert. It is where David hid from Saul in the caves, and where he showed mercy to his pursuer. By including Engedi, the list moves from the obscure to the renowned, from the place of judgment to the place of refuge and life. It shows the full texture of God's provision. He gives not just the arid ground, but the oasis as well. He provides for His people in the wilderness.

The verse concludes with a summary: "six cities with their villages." The number itself is not the main point, but the completeness it signifies. And notice the final phrase: "with their villages." God's gift is not just a handful of fortified outposts. It is the entire social fabric. The inheritance includes the small, unnamed villages where ordinary people would live, raise families, and work the land. God is concerned with the whole of life, not just the major centers of power. The kingdom of God comes to the villages as well as the cities. This is a comprehensive, all-encompassing grant from the hand of a faithful God.

Application

So what does an ancient list of towns in the Judean desert have to do with us? Everything. First, it is a powerful testimony to the reliability of God's Word. God keeps His promises, and He does so down to the last detail. The God who promised this specific land to Abraham's descendants is the same God who promised a Savior to the world, and who has promised us an eternal inheritance that will not fade.

Second, this passage reminds us that God's claim extends to the wilderness parts of our lives. We all have them. The dry seasons, the times of testing, the areas of our lives that feel barren and unproductive. This list shows us that God includes the wilderness in the inheritance. He does not abandon us there; He meets us there, and He gives us places of refuge, oases like Engedi, in the midst of the trial. He is sovereign over our struggles, and He is working His purposes out even in the most desolate circumstances.

Finally, this list points us to our greater Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who has conquered our enemies and secured for us a permanent inheritance, a heavenly city. The detailed accounting of Judah's land is a shadow of the glorious reality that awaits us. In Christ, every promise of God is "Yes" and "Amen." We are citizens of a kingdom, and our names are written in a book. Just as God knew every city and village of Judah, He knows each of His children by name. This ancient list is therefore a comfort and an encouragement. It is a black-and-white record of a promise kept, giving us every reason to trust the promise-keeper with our lives, our futures, and our eternal souls.