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Context No. 34 of 4322 · Joshua

Context · Reflection

Joshua 19:32-39: in context

32The sixth lot came out for the children of Naphtali, even for the children of Naphtali according to their families. 33Their border was from Heleph, from the oak in Zaanannim, Adami-nekeb, and Jabneel, to Lakkum. It ended at the Jordan. 34The border turned westward to Aznoth Tabor, and went out from there to Hukkok. It reached to Zebulun on the south, and reached to Asher on the west, and to Judah at the Jordan toward the sunrise. 35The fortified cities were Ziddim, Zer, Hammath, Rakkath, Chinnereth, 36Adamah, Ramah, Hazor, 37Kedesh, Edrei, En Hazor, 38Iron, Migdal El, Horem, Beth Anath, and Beth Shemesh; nineteen cities with their villages. 39This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Naphtali according to their families, the cities with their villages.

The book of Joshua ends by dividing the land among the tribes, one allotment at a time. This is the sixth lot, drawn for Naphtali, in the north around the Sea of Galilee, which the text calls Chinnereth. The passage traces the border and then lists nineteen fortified towns with their villages.

Two names on the list carry weight. Hazor was the largest city in Canaan, and archaeologists digging at Tel Hazor have uncovered a huge Bronze Age city with a destruction layer of ash, the sort of evidence that keeps the debate about Israel's arrival in Canaan alive. Kedesh was set aside as a city of refuge, where a person who killed someone accidentally could flee and be safe from the victim's avenging family until a trial (Joshua 20:7). A mercy provision, written into the map.

This is the same kind of dry town list that opened the series, and it is doing the same work: turning a promise into an address, name by name. The map includes a place built specifically for people who have done something terrible by accident and need somewhere to go. When I lay out my own plans, do I leave any room in them for the person who has made a serious mistake?

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