Covenantal Real Estate: Benjamin's Peculiar Portion
Introduction: God in the Details
We come now in our study of Joshua to a section that causes many modern readers to quietly shut their Bibles and go look for something more "spiritual." We are confronted with a long, tedious list of geographical boundaries, of cities and villages, of borders that went up this hill and down that valley. It can feel like reading a surveyor's report or a property deed from three thousand years ago. What in the world are we supposed to do with this? What possible relevance could the border between Luz and Ataroth-addar have for a Christian living in the twenty-first century?
But we must resist this temptation to flatten the Scriptures. This impulse to skip the "boring" parts is a species of unbelief. It assumes that God, in His divine wisdom, somehow made a mistake and included a bunch of filler material in His holy Word. It assumes we know better than He does what is important. But our God is a God of glorious, intricate, and meaningful detail. The God who numbers the hairs on your head is the same God who drew the property lines for the tribe of Benjamin. If God put it in the book, it is there for our instruction, for our edification, and for our worship. God is in the details. And the details of this chapter reveal His covenant faithfulness, His sovereign ordering of history, and the very nature of the world He has made.
The distribution of the land is the climax of the exodus. It is the tangible fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham centuries before. God did not promise Abraham a vague, ethereal, spiritual feeling. He promised him land. Dirt. Real estate. And here, God is signing the deed. These chapters are not just geography; they are covenantal geography. Every border, every stone, every city is a testament to the fact that our God keeps His promises, down to the last square inch.
And we are looking here at the inheritance of Benjamin, the youngest son of Jacob, born of Rachel. This is a tribe with a fascinating and tumultuous history. They are small, fierce, and strategically located. Jacob's prophecy over Benjamin was that he would be a "ravenous wolf" (Gen. 49:27). And Moses's blessing was that he would be "the beloved of the LORD," who would "dwell in safety by Him" (Deut. 33:12). How do these two realities fit together? We see the answer in their geography. Benjamin's lot is a buffer zone, a hinge, a dangerous and glorious place to be, wedged right between the two most powerful tribes, Judah to the south and Joseph (Ephraim) to the north. And within its borders would lie some of the most significant real estate in human history, including the future capital city of Jerusalem. This is not random. God is setting the stage for everything that is to come.
The Text
Now the lot of the tribe of the sons of Benjamin came up according to their families, and the territory of their lot lay between the sons of Judah and the sons of Joseph. And their border on the north side was from the Jordan; then the border went up to the side of Jericho on the north and went up through the hill country westward, and it ended at the wilderness of Beth-aven. From there the border passed on to Luz, to the side of Luz (that is, Bethel) southward; and the border went down to Ataroth-addar, near the hill which lies on the south of lower Beth-horon. Then the border curved from there and turned round on the west side southward, from the hill which lies before Beth-horon southward; and it ended at Kiriath-baal (that is, Kiriath-jearim), a city of the sons of Judah. This was the west side. Then the south side was from the edge of Kiriath-jearim, and the border went out westward and went out to the fountain of the waters of Nephtoah. Then the border went down to the edge of the hill which is in the valley of Ben-hinnom, which is in the valley of Rephaim northward; and it went down to the valley of Hinnom, to the slope of the Jebusite southward, and went down to En-rogel. Then it curved northward and went out to En-shemesh and went out to Geliloth, which is opposite the ascent of Adummim, and it went down to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben. Then it continued to the side in front of the Arabah northward and went down to the Arabah. And the border passed on to the side of Beth-hoglah northward; and the border ended at the north bay of the Salt Sea, at the south end of the Jordan. This was the south border. Moreover, the Jordan was its border on the east side. This was the inheritance of the sons of Benjamin, according to their families and according to its borders all around.
Now the cities of the tribe of the sons of Benjamin according to their families were Jericho and Beth-hoglah and Emek-keziz, and Beth-arabah and Zemaraim and Bethel, and Avvim and Parah and Ophrah, and Chephar-ammoni and Ophni and Geba; twelve cities with their villages. Gibeon and Ramah and Beeroth, and Mizpeh and Chephirah and Mozah, and Rekem and Irpeel and Taralah, and Zelah, Haeleph and the Jebusite (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah, Kiriath; fourteen cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the sons of Benjamin according to their families.
(Joshua 18:11-28 LSB)
God Draws the Lines (vv. 11-20)
The first thing we are told is that the lot for Benjamin "came up." This was not a political negotiation. This was a sovereign act of God, determined by the casting of lots before the Lord at Shiloh. God Himself is the surveyor. And He places Benjamin in a very particular, and very precarious, position: "between the sons of Judah and the sons of Joseph."
"Now the lot of the tribe of the sons of Benjamin came up according to their families, and the territory of their lot lay between the sons of Judah and the sons of Joseph." (Joshua 18:11)
This is the central fact of Benjamin's existence. They are the buffer state. Judah was the tribe of the scepter, the royal line. Joseph, represented by his sons Ephraim and Manasseh, was the tribe of the birthright, powerful and numerous. The history of Israel would be largely defined by the tension, rivalry, and occasional unity between these two power centers. And Benjamin is right in the middle of it all. This is a place of great danger and great privilege. It is the place where friction will occur, but it is also the place where union must be forged. When the kingdom eventually splits, it will be along this very fault line. To be a Benjamite is to live on the frontier, on the seam of the nation.
The verses that follow (12-20) are a meticulous description of these boundaries. It is God's cartography. He goes from the Jordan River in the east, up through the rugged hill country west of Jericho, past Bethel, down past Beth-horon, over to Kiriath-jearim, and then along the notorious valley of Hinnom just south of the Jebusite city. It is a compact, tough, defensible territory. It controlled the main east-west and north-south travel routes. To control Benjamin was to control the heart of the land.
Notice the precision. God does not deal in vague generalities. He deals in specifics. He cares about hills and stones and valleys. This is a profound statement against any kind of Gnosticism that would devalue the material world. God made this world, He loves it, He is redeeming it, and He parcels it out with loving care. Our faith is not an abstract philosophy; it is rooted in history and geography, in real places and real events. The valley of Hinnom (Gehenna) was not just a theological concept; it was a literal place on the southern border of Benjamin that you could go and see. And its later association with fire and judgment was rooted in the child sacrifice that would one day defile it. Place matters to God.
This detailed description is a divine property deed. It is God's way of saying, "This is yours. I have given it to you. No one can take it from you, and you must not surrender it." The land is a gift, but it is also a stewardship. The boundaries are not suggestions; they are commands. To respect these boundaries is to respect the God who drew them. To move a boundary marker was a serious crime in Israel because it was an act of theft not just against your neighbor, but against God's established order.
Cities of the Ravenous Wolf (vv. 21-28)
After defining the borders of the territory, the text lists the cities within that territory. This is not just an appendix; it is a catalog of future battlegrounds, future glories, and future shames.
"Now the cities of the tribe of the sons of Benjamin according to their families were Jericho and Beth-hoglah... Bethel... Gibeon... Ramah... Mizpeh... the Jebusite (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah..." (Joshua 18:21-28 LSB)
Think of the history contained in this list. Jericho, the first city to fall. Bethel, where Jacob dreamed of the ladder to heaven. Gibeon, the city that deceived Joshua but was spared. Ramah, where Rachel would weep for her children. Gibeah, which would become the site of a horrific crime that nearly led to Benjamin's extinction in the book of Judges, and would later be the hometown of Israel's first king, Saul. And most significantly, "the Jebusite," which is Jerusalem.
At this point in the story, Jerusalem was still a pagan fortress, a Jebusite stronghold. It sat right on the border between Benjamin and Judah. And though it is listed here as a city of Benjamin, it would not be conquered until the time of David, a man of Judah. David, the king from the south, would conquer the city and make this Benjamite real estate the capital of all Israel, uniting the northern and southern tribes. God's placement of Jerusalem within Benjamin's lot, on the very border of Judah, was a geographical prophecy of the unity that would one day be forged there under the Davidic king.
This is where the two prophecies over Benjamin meet. The tribe's fierce, wolf-like nature (Gen. 49:27) would be on full display in their later history, both for terrible evil (Judges 19-21) and for valiant fighting. Think of Ehud, the left-handed Benjamite assassin who delivered Israel. Think of Saul, the warrior king. And think of the Apostle Paul, a Benjamite who, before his conversion, ravenously devoured the church, and after his conversion, spent that same wolf-like intensity in dividing the spoils of the gospel throughout the Roman empire.
But it is also here, in this land, that the "beloved of the LORD shall dwell in safety by him" (Deut. 33:12). The Lord would place His own temple in Jerusalem, on the edge of Benjamin's land. God Himself would "dwell between his shoulders." The place of greatest danger, the buffer zone, the frontier, would become the place of God's own glorious presence. The security of Benjamin would not ultimately depend on their strategic hills or their fighting prowess, but on the presence of Yahweh in their midst.
Our Covenantal Inheritance
So what does this ancient property survey mean for us? It means everything. Because the land was never just about the land. It was always a type, a shadow, a down payment of a much greater inheritance.
The promise to Abraham was not just for a tract of land in the Middle East. Paul tells us that Abraham was promised that he would be "the heir of the world" (Romans 4:13). The physical land was the first installment of a promise that would ultimately encompass the entire globe. The meek, Jesus says, will inherit not just the land, but the earth (Matthew 5:5). Our inheritance in Christ is not a disembodied, spiritual existence in the clouds, but a resurrected life in a renewed heaven and a renewed earth. God's redemptive plan is cosmic in its scope. He is not abandoning the material world; He is reclaiming all of it.
Just as God drew the boundaries for Benjamin, so He has drawn the boundaries for our lives (Acts 17:26). He has given each of us a particular place, a particular family, a particular set of gifts and responsibilities. This is our inheritance, our plot of land to steward for His glory. We are to be faithful in the specific, concrete geography of our own lives. We are not to covet our neighbor's lot, but to faithfully cultivate our own.
And like Benjamin, Christians are often placed in the buffer zone, between the great warring powers of this world. We live on the frontier between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. It is a place of tension and conflict. But it is also the place of greatest opportunity. It is on this frontier that the battle is waged and the spoils of victory are won.
Most importantly, Benjamin's inheritance points us to our true capital city, the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22). The earthly city, located on that volatile border between Judah and Benjamin, was but a shadow of the true city of God. And in that city, there is no need for a temple, "for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple" (Rev. 21:22). Our security, like Benjamin's, does not lie in our own strength, but in the fact that God Himself has chosen to dwell with us. The promise of Deuteronomy 33:12 is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the beloved Son, in whom we, the beloved of the Lord, now dwell in perfect safety. He is our inheritance, He is our stronghold, and He is the one who has secured for us a portion that can never be taken away, an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.