Joshua 19:24-31--The Inheritance for Asher

Joshua 19:24-31
English Standard Version
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The Inheritance for Asher
24 The fifth lot came out for the tribe of the people of Asher according to their clans. 25 Their territory included Helkath, Hali, Beten, Achshaph, 26 Allammelech, Amad, and Mishal. On the west it touches Carmel and Shihor-libnath, 27 then it turns eastward, it goes to Beth-dagon, and touches Zebulun and the Valley of Iphtahel northward to Beth-emek and Neiel. Then it continues in the north to Cabul, 28 Ebron, Rehob, Hammon, Kanah, as far as Sidon the Great. 29 Then the boundary turns to Ramah, reaching to the fortified city of Tyre. Then the boundary turns to Hosah, and it ends at the sea; Mahalab, Achzib, 30 Ummah, Aphek and Rehob—twenty-two cities with their villages. 31 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the people of Asher according to their clans—these cities with their villages.

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The tribe of Asher is going to receive the fifth allotment of six that were to be chosen by lot.  There territory is listed here along with their cities and boundaries.  This land to the far north would go as far as Tyre and Sidon and it would touch Mount Carmel, a mountain used to have a contest between the Baals and the LORD, the God of Israel, in 1 Kings 18.  They received many cities and villages with their inheritance.

This land would be taken over by the Gentiles in the time of Jesus and would be called the land of Phoenicia.  This passage that I will quote from Mark 7 is about we hear of this area in the time of Jesus.


Mark 7:24-31
English Standard Version
24 And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. 25 But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.” 29 And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

​31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.
(The Decapolis is another Gentile area in the Trans-Jordan area where East Manasseh used to reside.  I'll post both maps today--the allotments to the Twelve Tribes as well as Land at the time of the Macabees (the post-Exilic period right before the rule of the Romans, which is a different map I'll show later).  Notice how the northern ten tribes no longer maintained their ancestral territories and they have ceded some of their northern, eastern and southern borders to the Gentiles and let nations like Moab that had once been driven out back into the Land.

The last tribal allotment that we will talk about next time is for the tribe of Dan, a tribe that is mostly known for its apostacy and leading the northern ten tribes to worship idols.