The Inheritance of the Tribes of Simeon and Zebulun

The past few chapters and posts have been describing each of the tribe's inheritance that was given to them by lot.  Continuing with that chronological Bible study:

(Joshua 19:1) And the second lot came forth to Simeon, for the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families, and their inheritance was within the inheritance of the children of Judah.

The second of the seven remaining lots that were cast after a break of some time went to Simeon.  It's interesting that a lot would be made within another lot, but Simeon's inheritance was within the inheritance of Judah.  This fulfilled prophecy of Jacob when he cursed Simeon's anger and speaking the words of the Lord, said He would divide and scatter Simeon in Israel.  It may have been decided that Judah's inheritance was much larger than its tribe needed, but the prophecy of God would be fulfilled whatever the reasoning.

(2) And they had in their inheritance Beersheba, or Sheba, and Moladah,

Simeon had in their inheritance the cities of Beersheba and Moladah, cities within the tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:26, 28).  I found this map of Simeon's tribe within the tribe of Judah at If I Walked With Jesus:

(3) And Hazar Shual, and Balah, and Ezem, (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.

They also had these cities, thirteen cities with their villages, which appear to be in the north and east of the territory of Simeon.

(7) Ain, Remmon, and Ether, and Ashan, four cities and their villages, (8) And all the villages 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.

Four more cities and their villages were within the tribe of Simeon, and I would have assumed they were in the south of Simeon by the description above.  However, the following copy of an 1840 map borrowed from Antico Gallery shows all these cities, but interestingly they are in different locations from the first map.  This shows the difficulty of identifying the exact locations of ancient cities and explains why sometimes the scriptures detailing these places don't make sense.  Places move or they don't exist anymore.  But these are details which don't affect the big picture in a Bible study.  We know all the cities mentioned above were within the tribe of Simeon at the time it was allotted to Simeon, as well as all the smaller villages around them.

(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.

As speculated above, indeed, the tribe of Simeon was placed within the tribe of Judah because Judah had much more land and many more cities than they could fill, and Simeon, being a small tribe, could easily exist within the area given them.

(10) And the third lot came up for the children of Zebulun according to their families, and the border of their inheritance was to Sarid.

The third lot of the seven remaining lots came up for the tribe of Zebulun.  This map borrowed from If I Walked With Jesus shows his small lot with its southern border near Sarid.

And this map used before from iBiblemaps.com shows the location of the tribe of Zebulun in relation to the other tribes:

(11) And their border went up toward the sea and Maralah and reached to Dabbasheth and reached to the river that is before Jokneam.

From Sarid in the south the border continued westward toward the Mediterranean Sea to Dabbasheth and a river that was before Jokneam, which appears to be the Kishon River in the map above.

(12) And turned from Sarid eastward toward the sunrising to the border of Chisloth Tabor and then goes out to Daberath and goes up to Japhia.

From Sarid in the south the border went eastward toward the Sea of Galilee to Daberath and a little beyond.  Zebulun was nestled between two great seas which fulfilled Jacob's prophecy that Zebulun would dwell by the sea and be a haven of ships (Genesis 49:13).

(13) And from there passed on along on the east to Gath Hepher, to Eth Kazin and goes out to Rimmon to Neah.

From the southwest corner the border went northward to Rimmon.

(14) And the border compassed it on the north side to Hannathon, and the outgoings of it are in the valley of Jiphthah El.

The language is difficult, but from the map, it appears that the northern border went around in the north and came back to Hannathon.  The original word that was translated as "compassed" was "sabab" and meant "revolve, surround," so the meaning seems to me that the northern portion of their land went in a big circle northward from Rimmon and back to Hannathon.

(15) And Kattath, and Nahallal, and Shimron, and Idalah, and Bethlehem, twelve cities with their villages.

These cities were included within the tribe of Zebulun.  Bethlehem within Zebulun is not the same place as Bethlehem in Judah where Christ was born.  Twelve cities with their villages were within the lot of Zebulun.  Since only five are mentioned in verse 15, as well as the fact that the western border was not described, some Biblical scholars have been led to think there may have been some text lost from the original manuscripts.

(16) This is the inheritance of the children of Zebulun according to their families, these cities with their villages.

Thus ended the description of the lot that fell to Zebulun.