The Scattered Inheritance: Finding Our Place in Judah Text: Joshua 19:1-9
Introduction: God's Precise Providence
We live in an age that despises details. We want the big picture, the executive summary, the tweetable version of the truth. Consequently, when the modern Christian, accustomed to this kind of intellectual fast food, comes to a passage like Joshua 19, his eyes tend to glaze over. We have lists of names, cities that are now dust, and boundaries that have long since been erased. It feels like reading an ancient land registry. And so, we are tempted to skip over it, to get to the "good parts," the stories with more obvious action.
But in doing so, we make a grave error. We treat the Word of God as though it has filler material, as though the Holy Spirit was just trying to meet a word count. This is not just a mistake; it is an insult to the divine Author. Every word of God is pure, and every detail is pregnant with meaning. These lists are not divine throat-clearing. They are demonstrations of God's meticulous faithfulness. He promised this land to Abraham centuries before, and now we see Him delivering on that promise, down to the last village and well. This is the God who has numbered the hairs on your head, and He certainly knows the boundaries of the tribes of His people.
In this particular allotment, the one for the tribe of Simeon, we have a striking lesson in covenantal cause and effect. We see the long arm of a patriarchal prophecy reaching across generations to find its precise fulfillment. We see a story of sin, judgment, and a strange, embedded mercy. This is not just about real estate. This is about the character of God, the consequences of sin, and the way God weaves even His judgments into the grand tapestry of redemption that culminates in the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
The Text
Then the second lot came out for Simeon, for the tribe of the sons of Simeon according to their families, and their inheritance was in the midst of the inheritance of the sons of Judah. So they had as their inheritance Beersheba or Sheba and Moladah, and Hazar-shual and Balah and Ezem, and Eltolad and Bethul and Hormah, and Ziklag and Beth-marcaboth and Hazar-susah, and Beth-lebaoth and Sharuhen; thirteen cities with their villages; Ain, Rimmon and Ether and Ashan; four cities with their villages; and all the villages which were around these cities as far as Baalath-beer, Ramah of the Negev. This was the inheritance of the tribe of the sons of Simeon according to their families. The inheritance of the sons of Simeon was taken from the portion of the sons of Judah, for the share of the sons of Judah was too large for them; so the sons of Simeon received an inheritance in the midst of Judah’s inheritance.
(Joshua 19:1-9 LSB)
A Prophecy Fulfilled (v. 1)
We begin with the summary statement that governs the entire passage.
"Then the second lot came out for Simeon, for the tribe of the sons of Simeon according to their families, and their inheritance was in the midst of the inheritance of the sons of Judah." (Joshua 19:1)
The lot is cast, and the decision is from the Lord (Prov. 16:33). This is not a game of chance; it is an act of worship, a way of submitting the distribution to the direct will of God. And what is God's will for Simeon? That their inheritance would be an island, entirely surrounded by the inheritance of Judah. They receive no independent, contiguous territory of their own. They are absorbed, enveloped, and contained within the borders of their brother tribe.
To understand why, we must turn back the clock several hundred years to the deathbed of Jacob. As the patriarch is blessing his sons, he comes to Simeon and Levi, and his words are not a blessing but a curse. Recalling their murderous rage at Shechem (Genesis 34), he says, "Simeon and Levi are brothers; their swords are implements of violence... Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; and their wrath, for it is cruel. I will disperse them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel" (Gen. 49:5, 7).
Here in Joshua, we see this prophecy coming to pass with breathtaking precision. Levi, as we know, was scattered throughout all the tribes as the priestly tribe, receiving cities but no landed inheritance. And here, Simeon is likewise scattered, not throughout all of Israel, but scattered into the portion of Judah. Their tribal identity is being dissolved. Their defining sin was a violent, clannish rage, a destructive unity. God's judgment is to break that unity apart. The punishment fits the crime. God is always faithful to His word, whether it is a word of promise or a word of judgment.
Cities, Not a Country (vv. 2-8)
The text then gives us a list of the cities Simeon received.
"So they had as their inheritance Beersheba or Sheba and Moladah, and Hazar-shual and Balah and Ezem, and Eltolad and Bethul and Hormah, and Ziklag and Beth-marcaboth and Hazar-susah, and Beth-lebaoth and Sharuhen; thirteen cities with their villages; Ain, Rimmon and Ether and Ashan; four cities with their villages..." (Joshua 19:2-7)
This is not just a list for the sake of historical record. It emphasizes the nature of their inheritance. They get pockets of land, designated cities, but not a "country." They are tenants in Judah's land. This scattering had a long-term effect. The tribe of Simeon gradually faded from prominence. In the census in Numbers 1, they were a respectable 59,300 strong. By the second census in Numbers 26, after the judgment at Baal-peor in which many Simeonites were involved, they had dwindled to just 22,200, the smallest of all the tribes. By the time of David, they are mentioned, but they are not a major player. In Deuteronomy 33, when Moses blesses the tribes, Simeon is not even mentioned. And in Revelation 7, in the listing of the 144,000, Simeon is there, but the point here in Joshua is that their earthly inheritance was fractured because of their sin.
This is a standing warning to us. Corporate sin has corporate consequences. A church, a family, or a nation that gives itself over to a defining sin, like the fierce anger of Simeon, will find itself scattered, its inheritance diminished, its influence fractured. God is not mocked. What we sow, we shall also reap.
The Mechanism of Judgment and Mercy (v. 9)
The final verse explains the logistics of this arrangement, and in it, we see both the mechanics of God's sovereignty and a glimmer of His grace.
"The inheritance of the sons of Simeon was taken from the portion of the sons of Judah, for the share of the sons of Judah was too large for them; so the sons of Simeon received an inheritance in the midst of Judah’s inheritance." (Joshua 19:9)
How did God fulfill His ancient prophecy? He did it through a very practical problem. Judah had too much land. They were blessed with an abundance, a super-sized portion. And so, the solution was simple: carve out a piece for Simeon from Judah’s surplus. God works through means. His sovereign decree does not float down from the sky detached from reality. He weaves it into the fabric of ordinary providence. Judah's blessing becomes the vehicle for Simeon's curse.
But we must see the mercy here as well. Simeon is scattered, yes. But where are they scattered? They are placed inside the territory of the royal tribe. They are absorbed into the lineage from which the Messiah, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, would come. This is a severe mercy. They are disciplined, but they are not cast out entirely. They lose their distinct inheritance, but they are given a place within the inheritance of the king. Their only hope, their only future, is now tied inextricably to Judah.
The Gospel for the Scattered
This entire account is a picture of the gospel for people like us. By our sin, we are all like Simeon. Our natural inheritance is to be scattered. Sin fractures our lives, our relationships, our minds. It breaks us apart and leaves us with no coherent territory to call our own. We are spiritually homeless, dispersed by the curse of our own fierce and cruel rebellion against God.
What is God's solution? It is not to give us our own plot of land that we can somehow manage on our own. No, the solution is Judah. God, in His mercy, has provided an inheritance for us, but it is not our own. It is "in the midst of the inheritance of the sons of Judah."
Our inheritance is in Jesus Christ, the King from Judah. We do not get a separate peace with God, a separate righteousness, or a separate heaven. All that we have, we have only because we are found "in Him" (Eph. 1:3-4). We are absorbed into His inheritance. His portion was "too large for Him" in a glorious sense. The blessing and righteousness He possessed was an infinite surplus, and so from His abundance, an inheritance is carved out for us, the scattered and the undeserving.
The curse on Simeon was to be scattered. The blessing of the gospel is to be gathered. As Jesus said, "He who does not gather with Me scatters" (Matt. 12:30). In our natural state, we are scattered. But in Christ, we who were far off are brought near. We who had no inheritance are given a place within the King's country. We lose our old, fractured identity, and we are given a new one in Him. We are no longer defined by our Simeon-like anger or our sin, but by our position in Judah's son.
So do not despise these lists and boundaries. In them, we see the faithfulness of God to His every word. We see the consequences of sin. And we see a beautiful picture of our salvation. Our only hope is to have our portion not on our own, but to be found by grace in the midst of the inheritance of the King.