Yosua 18:25-26

18:25 Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth, 18:26 Mizpah, Kephirah, Mozah,

Yosua 18:28

18:28 Zelah, Haeleph, the Jebusite city ¹  (that is, Jerusalem), ²  Gibeah, and Kiriath – a total of fourteen cities and their towns. ³  This was the land assigned to the tribe of Benjamin ⁴  by its clans.

Yosua 18:1

The Tribes Meet at Shiloh

18:1 The entire Israelite community assembled at Shiloh and there they set up the tent of meeting. ⁵  Though they had subdued the land, ⁶ 

1 Samuel 10:26

10:26 Even Saul went to his home in Gibeah. With him went some brave men whose hearts God had touched.

Yesaya 10:29

10:29 They went through the pass,

spent the night at Geba.

Ramah trembled,

Gibeah of Saul ran away.

Hosea 5:8

The Prophet’s Declaration of Judgment

5:8 Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah!

Sound the trumpet in Ramah!

Sound the alarm in Beth Aven! ⁷ 

Tremble in fear, ⁸  O Benjamin!

[18:28]  ¹ tn The word “city” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[18:28]  ² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[18:28]  ³ tn The structure of this list presents problems. In v. 28 no conjunction appears before “Haeleph” or “Kiriath” in the Hebrew text. This suggests they should be compounded with the preceding names, yielding “Zelah Haeleph” and “Gibeah Kiriath” respectively. This results in a list of only twelve cities, however, while the summary statement (v. 28) gives the number fourteen. One should note, however, that the city lists in chap. 15 do not consistently use the conjunction before the name of each city. See also Josh 19:7, where no conjunction appears before “Rimmon,” but the summary assumes that Ain and Rimmon are distinct.

[18:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “This is the inheritance of the sons of Benjamin.”

[18:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “the tent of assembly.”

[18:1]  sn On the tent of meeting see Exod 33:7-11.

[18:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the land was subdued before them.”

[5:8]  ⁷ sn See the note on the place name Beth Aven in 4:15.

[5:8]  ⁸ tc The MT reads the anomalous אַחֲרֶיךָ בִּנְיָמִין (’akharekha binyamin, “behind you, O Benjamin”), a reading followed by many English versions. The LXX reads ἐξέστη (exesth) which might reflect an alternate textual tradition of הַחֲרִדוּ בִּנְיָמִין (hakharidu binyamin, “Tremble in fear, O Benjamin”); the verb form would be a Hiphil imperative 2nd person masculine plural from חָרַד (kharad, “to tremble, be terrified”; BDB 353 s.v. חָרַד). For discussion of this textual problem, see D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 5:236.