The Daily Audio Bible

Land for the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh

16 This is the land that Joshua gave to the descendants of Joseph.^[a] Their land went from the Jordan River at Jericho, and from there it went through the desert into the hills of Bethel.

² The south border of their land went from Bethel, to Luz, and then to the land of the Arkites at Ataroth. ³ It continued to the west, to the land of the Japhletites as far as lower Beth Horon and Gezer. The border ended at the sea.

⁴ Joshua gave this land to Manasseh and Ephraim, the sons of Joseph. It was for them and their descendants.

Land for Ephraim's tribe

⁵ Joshua gave this land to the tribe of Ephraim, clan by clan:

The border of their land went from Ataroth Addar in the east to Beth Horon. ⁶ Then it continued west to the sea, with Micmethath on the north side of the border. East of Micmethath, the border went past Taanath Shiloh on the east and then to Janoah. ⁷ From there it went to Ataroth and Naarah and past Jericho to the Jordan River. ⁸ From Tappuah, the border continued to the west, to the stream of Kanah. From there, it continued to the sea.

That is the land that Joshua gave to the families of the tribe of Ephraim. ⁹ They also received some towns and villages that were in Manasseh's land. ¹⁰ But the tribe of Ephraim did not chase out the Canaanite people who lived in Gezer. Canaanite people still live there with the people of Ephraim, but they have to work as their slaves.

Land for Manasseh's tribe

17 This is the land that Manasseh's tribe received. Manasseh was Joseph's firstborn son. Manasseh's firstborn son was Makir. He was the father of Gilead. Makir's descendants were brave soldiers. Because of that, Moses had already given Gilead and Bashan to them, east of the Jordan River. ² The other families of Manasseh received land on the west side of the Jordan. They were the descendants of Abiezer, Helek, Asriel, Shechem, Hepher and Shemida. They were all sons of Manasseh, and leaders of their clans.

³ Zelophehad, son of Hepher, son of Gilead, son of Makir, son of Manasseh, had no sons. He had only daughters. Their names were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah. ⁴ They went to see Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the leaders. They said, ‘The Lord told Moses to give us part of the land. We must have land like the sons of other families.’ Joshua agreed and he gave land to them, like the other families. ⁵ That is why Manasseh's tribe received ten parts of the land, as well as Gilead and Bashan on the east side of the Jordan. ⁶ The daughters of Manasseh received some land, as well as his sons. They gave the land of Gilead to the other families of Manasseh.

⁷ The border of Manasseh's land went from Asher to Micmethath, east of Shechem. It went south to include En Tappuah. ⁸ Manasseh received the land near Tappuah, but the town of Tappuah belonged to the tribe of Ephraim. ⁹ The border of Manasseh's land went down to Kanah valley and along its north side to the Mediterranean Sea. Some towns on the south of that valley belonged to Ephraim, but they were in Manasseh's land. ¹⁰ Ephraim's land was south of the river, and Manasseh's land was to the north. Manasseh's west border was the Mediterranean Sea. Asher's land was on the north side of Manasseh's land. Issachar's land was on the east side. ¹¹ Some towns that were in the lands of Issachar and Asher belonged to Manasseh. They were Beth Shan, Ibleam and the people who lived in Dor, Endor, Taanach, and Megiddo. They included the villages near those towns. ¹² But the men of Manasseh could not chase out the people who lived in those cities. So the Canaanite people continued to live there. ¹³ When the Israelites became stronger, they made the Canaanites work for them as slaves. But they never completely chased the Canaanites out from those towns.

Joseph's descendants ask for more land

¹⁴ Joseph's descendants asked Joshua, ‘Why have you given only one part of the land for us to live in? The Lord has blessed us with many children, so there are many people in our tribe.’

¹⁵ Joshua said to them, ‘Because there are so many of you, you may take more land. If the hill country of Ephraim is too small for you, move into the forest that belongs to the Perizzites and the Rephaites. Cut down trees there to make a place to live.’

¹⁶ They replied, ‘The hill country is certainly not big enough for us. But the Canaanites who live in Beth Shan and its villages, and in the valley of Jezreel, have iron chariots.’

¹⁷ Joshua said to the men from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, ‘You have very many strong men who can fight. I will give you more land than the part that you have already received. ¹⁸ You may take the whole of the hill country as your land. You can cut down the trees of the forests and live there. It is true that the Canaanites are strong fighters and they have iron chariots. But you will be strong enough to chase them out.’

Joshua gives land to the other tribes

18 All the Israelite people met together at Shiloh.^[b] There they put up the Tent of Meeting. They now ruled the whole land. ² But there were still seven tribes that Joshua had not yet given a part of the land for themselves.

³ Joshua said to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you the land. How much longer will you wait before you take it? ⁴ Choose three men from each tribe. I will send them to look at the whole land, to see what it is like. They must describe each part and then bring a report back to me. ⁵ You must make it into seven parts. Judah's tribe will keep the land in the south. Joseph's two tribes will keep their land in the north.^[c] Divide the rest of the land into seven parts. ⁶ See what the land is like and describe each of the seven parts. Bring your report to me. Then I will use lots to choose which tribe should receive each part of the land. The Lord our God will decide this. ⁷ The Levites will not have any land of their own. Their gift from the Lord is to serve him. Gad, Reuben and half the tribe of Manasseh already have their land on the east side of the Jordan River. The Lord's servant, Moses, gave it to them.’

⁸ Before the men left, Joshua said to them, ‘Go and look carefully at the land. Describe what you see. Then bring your report back to me here in Shiloh. I will use lots so that the Lord decides how to share the land between you.’

⁹ So the men left and they travelled through the land. They described the land and each town and they wrote it in a book. They wrote about each of the seven parts of the land. Then they went back to Joshua at Shiloh, where the Israelites had put up their tents.

¹⁰ There at Shiloh, Joshua used lots to see how the Lord wanted to divide the land. He told each of the seven Israelite tribes which part of the land they would receive.

Land for Benjamin's tribe

¹¹ The first part of the land was for Benjamin's tribe, clan by clan. Their land was between the land that Joshua had already given to the tribes of Judah and Joseph.

¹² The north border of their land began at the Jordan River, and it went up the hills to the north of Jericho. From there it went west into the hills, to the desert of Beth Aven. ¹³ Then their border continued to the south of Luz (that is Bethel) and went down to Ataroth Addar. That is on the hill south of Lower Beth Horon.

¹⁴ From that hill, their west border went south to Kiriath Baal (that is Kiriath-Jearim). This town belonged to the people of Judah. That was the west border of Benjamin's land.

¹⁵ The south border went from the edge of Kiriath-Jearim to the springs of water at Nephtoah. ¹⁶ Then it went to the edge of the hill country, near Ben Hinnom valley. This was north of the Valley of the Rephaites. It continued down the Hinnom valley, south of the Jebusite city and then went on to En Rogel. ¹⁷ Then it went north to En Shemesh. It continued to Geliloth, opposite the valley of Adummim. Then it went to the great stone of Bohan, Reuben's son. ¹⁸ It continued to the north of Beth Arabah down into the Jordan Valley. ¹⁹ Then it went north of Ben Hoglah, to the north end of the Salt Sea, where the Jordan River ends. That was the south border of Benjamin's land.

²⁰ The east border of their land was the Jordan River.

Those are the borders of the land that Joshua gave to the families of Benjamin's tribe.

²¹ These are the cities that Joshua gave to the tribe of Benjamin:

Jericho, Beth Hoglah, Emek Keziz, ²² Beth Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, ²³ Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, ²⁴ Kephar, Ammoni, Ophni and Geba.

There were 12 towns and their villages.

²⁵ Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth, ²⁶ Mizpah, Kephirah, Mozah, ²⁷ Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah, ²⁸ Zelah, Haeleph, the Jebusite city (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah and Kiriath.

There were 14 towns and their villages.

Joshua gave these cities to Benjamin's tribe, for each clan to live in.

Zacchaeus meets Jesus

19 Jesus went into Jericho and he was walking through the city. ² There was a man there called Zacchaeus. He was a leader of the men who took taxes from people. He had become very rich. ³ He was trying to see who Jesus was. There was a big crowd there and he was a small man. So he could not see Jesus. ⁴ He ran on in front of the crowd and he climbed up a tree. He could see Jesus more easily from the tree, because Jesus would walk along that way. ⁵ When Jesus came to the tree, he looked up at Zacchaeus. He said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down quickly. Today I must stay in your home.’

⁶ So Zacchaeus came down immediately and took Jesus into his home. He was very happy about this. ⁷ The people saw what had happened. They were not happy, and they were saying, ‘Jesus has gone to stay in the home of a man that does bad things.’

⁸ Later, Zacchaeus stood up in front of everyone. He said to the Lord Jesus, ‘Listen, Master! I will give half of all the things that I have to poor people. I may have taken too much money from some people. I will give back to them four times as much as I took from them wrongly.’

⁹ Jesus said to him, ‘Today God has saved people in this home. Now Zacchaeus also belongs to the family of Abraham. ¹⁰ I, the Son of Man, came to look for people who are far away from God. They are in danger and I have come to save them.’

Jesus tells a story about 10 servants

¹¹ While the people were still listening, Jesus told them a story. He did this because the people had wrong thoughts. He was now getting near to Jerusalem. So the people with him were thinking that God would begin to rule his people immediately.

¹² Jesus said to them, ‘An important man left his home and he travelled a long way to another country. There he would receive authority to rule his own country. After that, he would return home and he would be king. ¹³ Before he left, he asked ten of his servants to come to him. He gave each of them ten pounds of silver.^[a] “Use this money to get more money for me while I am away,” he said.^[b]

¹⁴ But the people who were living in his country did not like the man. So they sent some of their people to the foreign country with a message. They said, “We do not want this man to rule over us.”

¹⁵ Then the man returned home and he was now their king. He asked those ten servants to come to him. He had given them each some money. Now he wanted to know how much more money they had now. They should have bought things with it and then they should have sold those things again for more money.

¹⁶ The first servant came to him and said, “Master, your money has made ten more pounds for you.” ¹⁷ The king was happy and said to his servant, “You have done well. You are a good servant that I can trust. You have used a small amount of money well. So now you will rule over ten cities.”

¹⁸ The second servant came and said, “Master, your money has made five more pounds.” ¹⁹ The king replied, “You will rule over five cities.”

²⁰ Then another servant came. He said, “Master, here is your money. I put it away in a piece of cloth to keep it safe. ²¹ I did this because I was afraid of you. You tell people what they should do all the time. You take things that you did not work for. You take food from fields where you did not plant any seed.”

²² The king replied, “You are a very bad servant! I will use your own words to show you that you have done the wrong thing. You say that I tell people what they should do all the time. That I take things that I did not work for. That I take food from fields where I did not plant any seed. Did you know all that about me? ²³ Then you should have put my money into the bank. When I came home, I would have received my money back, with extra money.”

²⁴ Some other servants were standing near to their master. He said to them, “Take the money from this bad servant. Give it to the servant that has ten pounds.” ²⁵ “But, master,” they replied, “that servant has ten pounds already.”

²⁶ “Let me tell you this,” the king said. “Some people have received good things. They will all receive more. Some other people have nothing. Those people will lose even the little bit that they do have. ²⁷ Now I must punish these other people that did not want me to rule over them. Bring them here and kill them in front of me.” ’^[c]

This psalm is a song that the sons of Korah wrote.

God's holy city^[a]