Bible Commentaries
Joshua 19

Verses 1-51

Chapter 19

As you get into the nineteenth chapter, the second lot came forth and it was for the tribe of Simeon. Simeon became the southern most tribe in Israel. The area down around Kadesh-Barnea and desert area, a vast desert area Beersheba, and up almost to Hebron. But that whole southern part was the lot that Simeon received.

Now if you were of the tribe of Simeon you may have thought that you got a bum deal because it's pretty much desert and wilderness area down there. But there is one nice advantage; it's sure nice in the wintertime. It's sort of like Palm Springs in the wintertime. When we go over to Israel now, if we have a day, say, planned to tour through Jerusalem, we wake up in the morning and it's cold and raining, we'll head down to Beersheba, and we'll take the tour through Beersheba, because it's always so nice and beautiful and warm down there in the wintertime. So we sort of when we're over there remain flexible according to the weather, we tour. When the days are nice in Jerusalem, then we tour Jerusalem. If the weather gets bad there, we can always know that we can go down to Beersheba and find great weather, because you only get a little more than an inch of rain in that area down there, we go to Masada and Beersheba and it makes a neat day of it, but it is pretty desolate, pretty barren. It was up until of course just recently in the redevelopment of the land, the Jews have channeled now the Jordan River and up above, or up at the area of the Galilee, and they have brought the Jordan River all the way down to this vast area. Now the thing is like the San Joaquin Valley or Imperial Valley. It's really a tremendous farm area down there because of the irrigation now that they have developed through the water from the Sea of Galilee.

The third lot [in verse ten] came up for the children of Zebulun ( Joshua 19:10 ):

And they received the area of the valley of Megiddo, and up in that area up there. So Zebulun was in that vast valley that goes from Haifa on back towards Mount Gilboa.

The fourth lot came up and it was for the tribe of Issachar, [in verse seventeen and they received the area south of the Sea of Galilee]. The fifth lot came out for the children of Asher [in verse twenty-four and they received that beautiful coastal area from Haifa on up to Sidon] ( Joshua 19:17 , Joshua 19:24 ).

So the area that includes Acco and that neat beautiful area along the Mediterranean there, extremely beautiful area.

In the thirty second verse,

The sixth lot came out for Naphtali, [and they received the area around the Sea of Galilee] ( Joshua 19:32 ).

Really here's one area I wouldn't mind living at all. The Sea of Galilee is one of the most beautiful places, I love-I can understand why Jesus spent most of His ministry at the Sea of Galilee. It would-it's almost equivalent to spending your ministry in Hawaii or something. It's just a neat, beautiful area. Even to the present time it is not really highly developed. Boy, if you had a house there on the Sea of Galilee with a ski boat, oh would you ever have a fabulous set up. It's just so beautiful. This was given to the tribe of Naphtali.

So there was always, of course, the farming on the hillside along the Sea of Galilee, good water supply, and just a beautiful place indeed. The weather is quite nice there, it does get warm in the summertime, but you are six hundred feet below sea level. So, in that pocket it stays pretty warm, but it is tremendously fertile land and great agricultural area.

The seventh lot came out for the tribe of Dan ( Joshua 19:40 ).

In verse forty. Dan was given the area known as the Hula Valley, which is the upper Jordan before it gets to the Sea of Galilee. It is that valley with the Golan on the right, and the Lebanese mountains on the left, and they went clear on up to the Mount Hermon area. In fact, the city of Dan is just, oh, three miles from the base of Mount Hermon. You're on the foothills there. The city of Dan again was just a fabulously beautiful city, because you had this beautiful river coming by. You've never seen anything in Hawaii that is any more beautiful than the sights around the Tel, what they called Tel-Dan or the ruins of the city of Dan over there. So the upper Jordan River area, the Hula Valley was given unto Dan.

Now verse forty-nine,

When they had made an end of dividing the land for the inheritance by their coasts, the children of Israel gave an inheritance unto Joshua: According to the word of the Lord they gave him the city which he asked, even Timnathserah in mount Ephraim: and he built the city, and dwelt there. And 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 ( Joshua 19:49-51 )

So they divided out the land and they finally gave a city to Joshua, inasmuch as he was the leader, in the area of mount Ephraim. Which means that it was in the area of the center part of the land, where the ancient city of Samaria or Shechem is and that general area is known as Mount Ephraim. An area that is beautiful with the many, many fruit trees, the terraced hillsides, and the fertile valleys right in the heart of the land and a beautiful place indeed.

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