Section 54 of 9015:20-63Joshua

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King James VersionJoshua 15:20-63

This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families.

And the uttermost cities of the tribe of the children of Judah toward the coast of Edom southward were Kabzeel, and Eder, and Jagur,

And Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah,

And Kedesh, and Hazor, and Ithnan,

Ziph, and Telem, and Bealoth,

And Hazor, Hadattah, and Kerioth, and Hezron, which is Hazor,

Amam, and Shema, and Moladah,

And Hazar-gaddah, and Heshmon, and Beth-palet,

And Hazar-shual, and Beer-sheba, and Bizjothjah,

Baalah, and Iim, and Azem,

And Eltolad, and Chesil, and Hormah,

And Ziklag, and Madmannah, and Sansannah,

And Lebaoth, and Shilhim, and Ain, and Rimmon: all the cities are twenty and nine, with their villages:

And in the valley, Eshtaol, and Zoreah, and Ashnah,

And Zanoah, and En-gannim, Tappuah, and Enam,

Jarmuth, and Adullam, Socoh, and Azekah,

And Sharaim, and Adithaim, and Gederah, and Gederothaim; fourteen cities with their villages:

Zenan, and Hadashah, and Migdal-gad,

And Dilean, and Mizpeh, and Joktheel,

Lachish, and Bozkath, and Eglon,

And Cabbon, and Lahmam, and Kithlish,

And Gederoth, Beth-dagon, and Naamah, and Makkedah; sixteen cities with their villages:

Libnah, and Ether, and Ashan,

And Jiphtah, and Ashnah, and Nezib,

And Keilah, and Achzib, and Mareshah; nine cities with their villages:

Ekron, with her towns and her villages:

From Ekron even unto the sea, all that lay near Ashdod, with their villages:

Ashdod with her towns and her villages, Gaza with her towns and her villages, unto the river of Egypt, and the great sea, and the border thereof:

And in the mountains, Shamir, and Jattir, and Socoh,

And Dannah, and Kirjath-sannah, which is Debir,

And Anab, and Eshtemoh, and Anim,

And Goshen, and Holon, and Giloh; eleven cities with their villages:

Arab, and Dumah, and Eshean,

And Janum, and Beth-tappuah, and Aphekah,

And Humtah, and Kirjath-arba, which is Hebron, and Zior; nine cities with their villages:

Maon, Carmel, and Ziph, and Juttah,

And Jezreel, and Jokdeam, and Zanoah,

Cain, Gibeah, and Timnah; ten cities with their villages:

Halhul, Beth-zur, and Gedor,

And Maarath, and Beth-anoth, and Eltekon; six cities with their villages:

Kirjath-baal, which is Kirjath-jearim, and Rabbah; two cities with their villages:

In the wilderness, Beth-arabah, Middin, and Secacah,

And Nibshan, and the city of Salt, and En-gedi; six cities with their villages.

As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day.

Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.

Scripture text: King James Version, Standardized 1769 text. Public domain in the United States.About this Bible text

Joshua 15:20-63

Judah's Towns Are Listed with an Unremoved Jebusite Community

Judah's towns are stored by region, not as a flat inventory

After the outer boundary, the inheritance is grouped: uttermost south toward Edom, the valley, the mountains, and the wilderness. Subtotals close clusters—twenty-nine in the south, fourteen and sixteen and nine in the lowland, then hill-country groups, then six wilderness towns including the city of Salt and En-gedi.

Campaign names reappear as settlement memory: Hormah, Hebron, Debir, Lachish, Eglon, Makkedah, Libnah. Philistine cities also sit inside the list—Ekron, Ashdod, Gaza—the same coastal world chapter 13 already counted as remaining land. The catalog claims them for Judah while the book has already said that possession is incomplete.

The last sentence keeps Jebusites in Jerusalem

Verse 63 does not celebrate the list. Judah could not drive out the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem; they dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day. Co-residence, not ethnic erasure, is how the long town record actually ends.

A dense name-list is not proof of every identification, and it is not permission to remove anyone from Jerusalem or any other city. The unremoved community is the list's own qualification.

How this should shape us

When a place catalog sounds complete, read to its last notice. Keep the people who remained in view, and do not use Judah's towns as a modern ethnic title or a program of removal.

Teach it back

Explain Joshua 15:20-63 in your own words. Include its movement, relation to Deuteronomy and the rest of Joshua, one material uncertainty or ethical cost, and one modern use the context rules out.

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Go deeper

The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.

Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties

Where do careful interpreters disagree?

Best judgment: Interpreters differ over the composition, historical value, textual form, geography, and theological judgment of “Judah's Towns Are Listed with an Unremoved Jebusite Community.” Confidence is strongest in the final-form movement summarized here; reconstructions beyond it remain labeled and limited.

How certain? probable

Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.

Joshua 15:20-63, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Joshua

Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, clauses, names, repeated roots, boundary formulas, covenant terms, and the base text behind translation discussion.

Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Josh.xml, 15:20–63

NET Bible: Joshua with translators' notes

Supports: Verse-level Hebrew, textual, translation, list, number, geographical, historical, and cross-reference notes.

NET Bible Joshua PDF, printed pp. 438-440, translation and translator notes on 15:20–63

Joshua

Supports: Whole-book movement, literary boundaries, composition, history and archaeology limits, geography, theology, and material interpretive alternatives.

Nelson, 'Joshua,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 170-171, discussion of 15:20–63

The Book of Joshua in Recent Research

Supports: Modern research plurality across textual criticism, composition, history, archaeology, geography, violence, ideology, and reception.

Dozeman, 'The Book of Joshua in Recent Research,' Currents in Biblical Research 15.3 (2017), printed pp. 270–288; research categories and bibliography applied cautiously to 15:20–63

Joshua 13-21 and the Politics of Land Division

Supports: The allotment section's political and theological significance and the need to read it as more than filler.

Creach, 'Joshua 13–21 and the Politics of Land Division,' Interpretation 66.2 (2012), official abstract and article record for printed pp. 153–163; applied only at that level to 15:20–63

West Semitic Texts and the Book of Joshua

Supports: Ancient West Semitic analogues for conquest accounts, treaties, boundaries, vocabulary, and names without treating them as modern genres.

Hess, 'West Semitic Texts and the Book of Joshua,' Bulletin for Biblical Research 7 (1997), printed pp. 63–76, article record and comparative survey applied cautiously to 15:20–63

Sources for This Section

These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.

Exact location: Joshua 15:20-63, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus

Open source ↗

hebrew text and morphology

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Joshua

Open Scriptures

Open Scriptures, release 2.2

Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, clauses, names, repeated roots, boundary formulas, covenant terms, and the base text behind translation discussion.

Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Josh.xml, 15:20–63

Open source ↗

translation and translator notes

NET Bible: Joshua with translators' notes

Biblical Studies Press

Biblical Studies Press, 2006

Supports: Verse-level Hebrew, textual, translation, list, number, geographical, historical, and cross-reference notes.

Exact location: NET Bible Joshua PDF, printed pp. 438-440, translation and translator notes on 15:20–63

Open source ↗

scholarly commentary article

Joshua

Richard D. Nelson

Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, edited by John Barton and John Muddiman, 2001

Supports: Whole-book movement, literary boundaries, composition, history and archaeology limits, geography, theology, and material interpretive alternatives.

Exact location: Nelson, 'Joshua,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 170-171, discussion of 15:20–63

Open source ↗

peer reviewed research review

The Book of Joshua in Recent Research

Thomas B. Dozeman

Currents in Biblical Research 15.3, 2017

Supports: Modern research plurality across textual criticism, composition, history, archaeology, geography, violence, ideology, and reception.

Exact location: Dozeman, 'The Book of Joshua in Recent Research,' Currents in Biblical Research 15.3 (2017), printed pp. 270–288; research categories and bibliography applied cautiously to 15:20–63

Open source ↗

peer reviewed article record and abstract

Joshua 13-21 and the Politics of Land Division

Jerome F. D. Creach

Interpretation 66.2, 2012

Supports: The allotment section's political and theological significance and the need to read it as more than filler.

Exact location: Creach, 'Joshua 13–21 and the Politics of Land Division,' Interpretation 66.2 (2012), official abstract and article record for printed pp. 153–163; applied only at that level to 15:20–63

Open source ↗

peer reviewed open access comparative study

West Semitic Texts and the Book of Joshua

Richard S. Hess

Bulletin for Biblical Research 7, 1997

Supports: Ancient West Semitic analogues for conquest accounts, treaties, boundaries, vocabulary, and names without treating them as modern genres.

Exact location: Hess, 'West Semitic Texts and the Book of Joshua,' Bulletin for Biblical Research 7 (1997), printed pp. 63–76, article record and comparative survey applied cautiously to 15:20–63

Open source ↗

Joshua 15:20-63, King James Version

Judah's towns are stored by region, not as a flat inventory

The last sentence keeps Jebusites in Jerusalem

How this should shape us

Teach it back

Go deeper

Where do careful interpreters disagree?

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Joshua

NET Bible: Joshua with translators' notes

Joshua

The Book of Joshua in Recent Research

Joshua 13-21 and the Politics of Land Division

West Semitic Texts and the Book of Joshua