The dividing of Canaan stops in this chapter, and the last name written into the record is Joshua’s own. This Joshua 19 summary and study guide follows the six tribes who drew the final lots at Shiloh, and the one town the man who assigned everyone else’s home asked for.
Table of Contents
Setting the Stage
God told Abraham He would give this land to his descendants (Genesis 12:7). Centuries later that family came out of Egypt, crossed the Jordan, and took most of Canaan under Joshua. Then God told him he was old and much of the land was still unclaimed, so the dividing had to begin anyway (Joshua 13:1).
Judah, Ephraim and half of Manasseh took their portions, and the work stalled. Israel moved the camp and the tent of worship to Shiloh, and Joshua asked the seven tribes still without land why they were so slow to go and take it (Joshua 18:1-3). Surveyors walked what was left and wrote it down, the first of the seven lots fell to Benjamin, and Joshua 19 opens with the second.
Comprehensive Joshua 19 Summary
At Shiloh, in front of the tent where Israel worshipped, Eleazar the priest and Joshua cast the last six lots. Simeon came out second, and his portion was cut out of Judah’s, because Judah had been given more ground than the tribe could use. Thirteen towns in the dry south went to Simeon, then four more, and no borders were drawn around any of them. From the first day of the division, Simeon lived inside another tribe’s land.
The next four lots fell in the north. Zebulun took the low hills of Galilee, sitting across the trade roads without reaching the sea. Issachar took the Jezreel Valley, some of the most fertile ground in Canaan.
Asher took the coast from Carmel north past Tyre toward Sidon. Naphtali took the high country above the Sea of Galilee, with nineteen fortified towns holding the northern door.
Dan drew last and drew the hardest ground, the plain west of Benjamin, pressed up against the Philistines. The chapter lists Dan’s towns and then says the coast went out from them. They could not keep what they had been given. So the Danites marched north instead, took a town called Leshem with the sword, settled in it, and put their ancestor’s name on it.
With every tribe housed, Israel turned to the man who had done the housing. Joshua asked for one city, Timnath-serah, in the rough hills of Ephraim, and Israel gave it to him because God had said they should.
He rebuilt it and lived there. Then the record closes. The priest, the commander and the heads of the families had finished dividing the country.
One Word Summary
- Finished: the chapter’s last line says the dividing of the land is done.
- Allotted: every portion in it arrives by lot rather than by choice.
- Last: the leader is served after every tribe.
In One Sentence
At Shiloh, Joshua and Eleazar cast the last six lots for Simeon, Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali and Dan, and once every tribe had a home Israel gave Joshua the one town he asked for, Timnath-serah, which he rebuilt and settled in.
Theme of Joshua 19
Joshua 19 is about a promise carried all the way down to the last village. God had said He would give this land, and the chapter spends fifty-one verses proving it in towns and boundary lines instead of in a sentence.
Two ideas run alongside that one. What God gives still has to be held, which is where Dan loses ground. And the man who hands out the inheritance takes his own portion last, which is where the chapter ends.
Joshua 19 Outline
- Joshua 19:1-9: Simeon draws the second lot and receives seventeen towns inside Judah’s territory, because Judah’s portion was larger than the tribe needed.
- Joshua 19:10-16: Zebulun draws the third lot, with borders running from Sarid past Chisloth-tabor and Gittah-hepher to the valley of Jiphthah-el.
- Joshua 19:17-22: Issachar draws the fourth lot, from Jezreel and Shunem east to Tabor and the Jordan.
- Joshua 19:23: The writer closes Issachar’s portion with its towns and villages.
- Joshua 19:24-31: Asher draws the fifth lot along the coast from Carmel past Tyre to Achzib, twenty-two towns in all.
- Joshua 19:32-39: Naphtali draws the sixth lot in the north, including the fortified towns of Hazor, Kedesh and Chinnereth.
- Joshua 19:40-46: Dan draws the seventh lot, from Zorah and Eshtaol west to the coast opposite Japho.
- Joshua 19:47-48: Dan loses ground it had been given, marches north, takes Leshem with the sword and renames it Dan.
- Joshua 19:49-51: Israel gives Joshua the city he asked for, Timnath-serah, and the dividing of the land at Shiloh is finished.
Observations from Joshua 19
The Lot Falls Seven Times (Joshua 19:1, 10, 17, 24, 32, 40, 51)
The word “lot” carries this chapter. Six of the seven mark an allotment, second through seventh, and the last one governs the whole chapter from the closing verse: “divided for an inheritance by lot in Shiloh before the LORD” (Joshua 19:51). Strip out the town names and a count is what remains: lot two, lot three, lot four, lot five, lot six, lot seven, and then a line saying the counting is over. Read that way, the chapter is a count that arrives at an ending.
Simeon and Dan Are Given Towns and No Borders (Joshua 19:1-9, 40-48)
Zebulun, Asher and Naphtali all have their edges traced, corner by corner, and Issachar’s border is followed to the Jordan. Simeon and Dan get lists of towns and nothing else.
Those are also the two tribes whose land does not stay theirs: Simeon’s portion sits inside Judah’s from the start, and Dan’s is taken away. A boundary is what tells a tribe where its ground ends and what it has to hold. The chapter draws no line around either of these two, and neither of them keeps its ground.
Dan Is the Only Tribe Left Without a Total (Joshua 19:48)
Every other allotment closes with a number: Simeon thirteen and four, Zebulun twelve, Issachar sixteen, Asher twenty-two, Naphtali nineteen. Dan’s ends with the towns uncounted. The chapter counts what every other tribe received. For the one tribe that could not hold what it received, the counting stops.
Ordinary Town Names That Come Back Later (Joshua 19:5, 13, 18, 41)
Ziklag goes to Simeon in verse 5, and David is living in it when the Amalekites burn it (1 Samuel 30:1). Gath-hepher sits on Zebulun’s border in verse 13, and Jonah is born there (2 Kings 14:25). Verse 18 gives Issachar both Jezreel, where Ahab took Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kings 21), and Shunem, where a woman kept a room for Elisha (2 Kings 4:8-10).
Zorah and Eshtaol open Dan’s list in verse 41, and Samson’s father lives in Zorah while the Spirit of God first stirs Samson between the two towns (Judges 13:2, 25). Anna the prophetess belonged to Asher, the tribe of verses 24 to 31, and she was still waiting in the temple when Jesus was carried in as a baby (Luke 2:36-38). The names look like filing. They are addresses the Bible keeps coming back to.
Mount Tabor Stands on Three Different Borders (Joshua 19:12, 22, 34)
Zebulun’s line runs to Chisloth-tabor, Issachar’s border reaches Tabor, and Naphtali’s turns west to Aznoth-tabor. One hill is the fixed point three tribes were measured from. In a chapter where most place names appear once and are never heard from again, this is the landmark holding the northern map together.
Difficult Verses Explained
What Does Joshua 19:47 Mean by Dan’s Coast Going Out Too Little for Them?
It means Dan lost the land it had been given. The words “too little” were added by the King James translators and stand in no Hebrew manuscript, so the verse is describing a loss rather than a shortage. The Hebrew says the coast of the children of Dan went out from them, using the same wording Moses uses of property leaving an owner’s hands in the year of jubilee (Leviticus 25:28-33).
Judges names who pushed them out: “the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain: for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley” (Judges 1:34). The Amorites pushed Dan up into the hills and would not let them back down into the flat country that had been assigned to them.
Why Does Joshua 19:34 Say Naphtali’s Border Reached Judah?
The verse says Naphtali’s line reached “to Judah upon Jordan toward the sunrising,” which is puzzling because several tribes lay between Naphtali and Judah. Bible teachers have offered a few answers. The oldest Greek translation leaves the word Judah out altogether.
Others hold that a town named Judah stood near the upper Jordan and is meant here. Others read it as a note that the river connected the two tribes for trade. Scripture does not settle it. What the verse does make clear is the border itself: Naphtali ran along the Jordan on its eastern side.
Why Does Joshua 19:6 Say Thirteen Cities When Fourteen Are Named?
Because two of the names belong to one place. Verse 2 reads “Beer-sheba, or Sheba,” which is the writer noting a second name for a single town, and 1 Chronicles 4:28 lists Simeon’s cities without Sheba at all. That leaves thirteen, exactly as the verse says.
Similar gaps appear at verse 15, where twelve cities are announced and five are named, and at verse 30, where twenty-two are announced and more names than that are listed. Ancient copies of these lists differ from one another, and most Bible teachers hold that some names dropped out of one list and that a few border towns were counted under two tribes.
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Common Misunderstandings
- The Bethlehem in verse 15 is not the Bethlehem where Jesus was born. Zebulun’s Bethlehem lay in Galilee, several miles from Nazareth. Micah’s prophecy names the Judean town, “Beth-lehem Ephratah” (Micah 5:2), and the Gospels keep the two apart.
- Dan’s move north was not an expansion. Several summaries of this chapter treat Leshem as extra ground Dan added to its inheritance. Verse 47 puts it the other way round: the Danites went north because they had lost what they were given. Judges 18 tells the same conquest at length and says the people of Leshem were living at peace, off the trade routes, with nobody to come to their aid (Judges 18:27-28).
Christ Connection
Two of the tribes in this chapter are named again centuries later, in a prophecy about light. Assyria came through this northern country and carried off Galilee and all the land of Naphtali (2 Kings 15:29). Isaiah looked at that same ground and said: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (Isaiah 9:1-2).
People living where death casts its shadow would see daylight. Matthew quotes those verses and names the moment they came true: “And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet” (Matthew 4:13-14). Matthew locates the Saviour by the tribal names handed out in this chapter, which is why a page of boundary lines matters.
The end of the chapter points the same direction. Joshua divided the whole country and took nothing until every family was settled, then received one town from the hands of the people he had served. Jesus said the road to first place runs through last place: “If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all” (Mark 9:35). Paul says Christ walked that road all the way down, taking “the form of a servant” and becoming “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:7-8).
He took the lowest place and stayed there until He had died for us. Joshua’s last-place portion echoes that pattern rather than fulfilling it, and Hebrews makes the sharper point: the rest Joshua handed out in this chapter was not the final one, because “there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God” (Hebrews 4:8-9). A better rest is still ahead.
When, Where, and Why
- When: Late in Joshua’s life, near the end of the conquest, likely around the fourteenth century before Christ. Joshua was already “old and stricken in years” when the dividing began (Joshua 13:1), and he outlived this chapter by long enough to give two farewell charges (Joshua 23 to 24).
- Where: Shiloh, in the hill country of Ephraim, where Israel had just set up the tent of worship (Joshua 18:1). Every lot in this chapter is cast at its door. The land being handed out runs from the Negev desert in the south to the borders of Tyre and Sidon in the north.
- Why: The writer is closing a case. Chapters 13 through 19 exist to show that God gave Israel the land He promised, tribe by tribe and town by town, and this chapter is where the giving is finished. What follows is not more land but what Israel is to do with it: the cities of refuge and then the towns for the Levites, which the lessons from Joshua 21 work through.
Key Verses
“Out of the portion of the children of Judah was the inheritance of the children of Simeon: for the part of the children of Judah was too much for them: therefore the children of Simeon had their inheritance within the inheritance of them.”
Joshua 19:9
This is the one verse in the chapter that explains itself, and what it records is the largest tribe in Israel handing part of its own portion back the moment the surplus was clear.
“When they had made an end of dividing the land for inheritance by their coasts, the children of Israel gave an inheritance to Joshua the son of Nun among them.”
Joshua 19:49
The people gave; Joshua did not take. Caleb had asked for his portion at the very front of the distribution (Joshua 14:6-15), so the two men who believed God’s report in the wilderness stand at either end of the record, Caleb in the south and Joshua in the north.
“According to the word of the LORD they gave him the city which he asked, even Timnath-serah in mount Ephraim: and he built the city, and dwelt therein.”
Joshua 19:50
He chose rough hill country in his own tribe, the same kind of ground he had told Ephraim to go up and clear when they complained their portion was too small (Joshua 17:14-18). He asked for the same hard clearing he had told other people to do.
“These are the inheritances, which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel, divided for an inheritance by lot in Shiloh before the LORD, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. So they made an end of dividing the country.”
Joshua 19:51
Three parties sign this off together, and the last clause is the verdict on everything from chapter 13 onward. Seven chapters of surveying end in one plain sentence.
Key Lessons from Joshua 19
- Judah gave back part of its own inheritance as soon as it was clear the portion was larger than the tribe needed (Joshua 19:9).
- A tribe can be handed ground by God and still fail to keep it, as Dan did when the Amorites drove them off the plain (Joshua 19:47).
- When assigned ground proves hard to hold, the pull is toward easier ground elsewhere, which is the road the Danites took north to Leshem (Joshua 19:47).
- Joshua asked for one town after settling everyone else, and it was in poor enough shape that he had to build it before he could live in it (Joshua 19:50).
- God’s part in the promise was finished at Shiloh while Israel’s part, holding the land, was still ahead of them (Joshua 19:51).
To go deeper into the lessons from this chapter, read our full study: Lessons from Joshua 19.
Bible Study Questions
- Read Joshua 19:1-9. What reason does verse 9 give for Simeon receiving land inside Judah’s territory, and what does Judah’s response show about the tribe?
- Six of the seven lots in this chapter are numbered rather than chosen. What does casting lots at the door of the tabernacle say about who decided where each family lived?
- Compare Joshua 19:47 with Judges 1:34. What actually happened to Dan’s allotment, and how does the chapter word it?
- The Danites solved a hard assignment by going somewhere easier. Where are you tempted to trade difficult ground God has given you for ground that costs less?
- Read Joshua 19:49-50. Why does it matter that Israel gave Joshua his city rather than Joshua taking it?
- Isaiah 9:1-2 and Matthew 4:13-16 name Zebulun and Naphtali, two of the tribes settled in this chapter. What does that say about the value of a list of towns?
- Verse 51 says they made an end of dividing the country, though much of it was still unconquered. What is the difference between what God had finished and what Israel still had to do?
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the tribe of Dan not listed in Revelation 7?
Scripture does not say. Revelation 7:5-8 seals twelve thousand from each of twelve tribes and Dan is absent, with Manasseh named in its place. Bible teachers have suggested reasons, usually pointing to the idol worship that began at Dan in Judges 18:30-31 and continued when Jeroboam set up a golden calf there (1 Kings 12:29). Those are explanations offered by teachers, not statements made by the passage itself.
Where is Timnath-serah today?
Most Bible geographers place it at Khirbet Tibnah, in the hill country north-west of Jerusalem. Judges 2:9 calls the same town Timnath-heres and puts it north of the hill of Gaash. Joshua was buried there (Joshua 24:30), and rock-cut tombs at the site have long been associated with him by local tradition.
What happened to the tribe of Simeon after the land was divided?
Simeon lost its separate identity inside Judah over the generations that followed, which is what Jacob had said would happen (Genesis 49:7). Simeon was the smallest tribe at the second wilderness census (Numbers 26:14) and the only tribe Moses left out of his farewell blessing (Deuteronomy 33). Yet Simeonites were still expanding for pasture in Hezekiah’s day (1 Chronicles 4:39-43), and Revelation 7:7 seals twelve thousand of them.
What does it mean that the land was divided by lot?
A lot was a small object thrown to settle a decision, and Israel used it here to take the choice out of human hands. Proverbs 16:33 states the point plainly: “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.” The throw looks random, and God decides the outcome. Not one tribe in Joshua 19 is recorded arguing about its portion.
Why does Joshua 19 list so many town names?
Because a promise is proved in detail. What God swore to Abraham arrives here as ordinary property, and the names are what a kept promise looks like once surveyors write it down. The list is also a working record: Israel needed to know where one tribe’s ground ended and the next began, and later readers could check the claim against places they knew.
Joshua 19, The Full Text (KJV)
Read the full chapter below for reference.
1 And the second lot came forth to Simeon, even for the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families: and their inheritance was within the inheritance of the children of Judah.
2 And they had in their inheritance Beer-sheba, or Sheba, and Moladah,
3 And Hazar-shual, and Balah, and Azem,
4 And Eltolad, and Bethul, and Hormah,
5 And Ziklag, and Beth-marcaboth, and Hazar-susah,
6 And Beth-lebaoth, and Sharuhen; thirteen cities and their villages:
7 Ain, Remmon, and Ether, and Ashan; four cities and their villages:
8 And all the villages that were round about these cities to Baalath-beer, Ramath of the south. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families.
9 Out of the portion of the children of Judah was the inheritance of the children of Simeon: for the part of the children of Judah was too much for them: therefore the children of Simeon had their inheritance within the inheritance of them.
10 And the third lot came up for the children of Zebulun according to their families: and the border of their inheritance was unto Sarid:
11 And their border went up toward the sea, and Maralah, and reached to Dabbasheth, and reached to the river that is before Jokneam;
12 And turned from Sarid eastward toward the sunrising unto the border of Chisloth-tabor, and then goeth out to Daberath, and goeth up to Japhia,
13 And from thence passeth on along on the east to Gittah-hepher, to Ittah-kazin, and goeth out to Remmon-methoar to Neah;
14 And the border compasseth it on the north side to Hannathon: and the outgoings thereof are in the valley of Jiphthah-el:
15 And Kattath, and Nahallal, and Shimron, and Idalah, and Bethlehem: twelve cities with their villages.
16 This is the inheritance of the children of Zebulun according to their families, these cities with their villages.
17 And the fourth lot came out to Issachar, for the children of Issachar according to their families.
18 And their border was toward Jezreel, and Chesulloth, and Shunem,
19 And Haphraim, and Shihon, and Anaharath,
20 And Rabbith, and Kishion, and Abez,
21 And Remeth, and En-gannim, and En-haddah, and Beth-pazzez;
22 And the coast reacheth to Tabor, and Shahazimah, and Beth-shemesh; and the outgoings of their border were at Jordan: sixteen cities with their villages.
23 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Issachar according to their families, the cities and their villages.
24 And the fifth lot came out for the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families.
25 And their border was Helkath, and Hali, and Beten, and Achshaph,
26 And Alammelech, and Amad, and Misheal; and reacheth to Carmel westward, and to Shihor-libnath;
27 And turneth toward the sunrising to Beth-dagon, and reacheth to Zebulun, and to the valley of Jiphthah-el toward the north side of Beth-emek, and Neiel, and goeth out to Cabul on the left hand,
28 And Hebron, and Rehob, and Hammon, and Kanah, even unto great Zidon;
29 And then the coast turneth to Ramah, and to the strong city Tyre; and the coast turneth to Hosah; and the outgoings thereof are at the sea from the coast to Achzib:
30 Ummah also, and Aphek, and Rehob: twenty and two cities with their villages.
31 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families, these cities with their villages.
32 The sixth lot came out to the children of Naphtali, even for the children of Naphtali according to their families.
33 And their coast was from Heleph, from Allon to Zaanannim, and Adami, Nekeb, and Jabneel, unto Lakum; and the outgoings thereof were at Jordan:
34 And then the coast turneth westward to Aznoth-tabor, and goeth out from thence to Hukkok, and reacheth to Zebulun on the south side, and reacheth to Asher on the west side, and to Judah upon Jordan toward the sunrising.
35 And the fenced cities are Ziddim, Zer, and Hammath, Rakkath, and Chinnereth,
36 And Adamah, and Ramah, and Hazor,
37 And Kedesh, and Edrei, and En-hazor,
38 And Iron, and Migdal-el, Horem, and 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 and their villages.
40 And the seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families.
41 And the coast of their inheritance was Zorah, and Eshtaol, and Ir-shemesh,
42 And Shaalabbin, and Ajalon, and Jethlah,
43 And Elon, and Thimnathah, and Ekron,
44 And Eltekeh, and Gibbethon, and Baalath,
45 And Jehud, and Bene-berak, and Gath-rimmon,
46 And Me-jarkon, and Rakkon, with the border before Japho.
47 And the coast of the children of Dan went out too little for them: therefore the children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem, and took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and possessed it, and dwelt therein, and called Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their father.
48 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families, these cities with their villages.
49 When they had made an end of dividing the land for inheritance by their coasts, the children of Israel gave an inheritance to Joshua the son of Nun among them:
50 According to the word of the LORD they gave him the city which he asked, even Timnath-serah in mount Ephraim: and he built the city, and dwelt therein.
51 These are the inheritances which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel, divided for an inheritance by lot in Shiloh before the LORD, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. So they made an end of dividing the country.
