Benjamin

So the property of the Levites and the property of the city will lie in the center of the area that belongs to the prince.

The area belonging to the prince will lie between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin.

As for the rest of the tribes, Benjamin will have one portion.

It will extend from the east side to the west side.

Simeon will have one portion.

It will border the territory of Benjamin from east to west.

Issachar will have one portion.

It will border the territory of Simeon from east to west.

And then he returned to Jerusalem." So he did it at home, and he did it up north as well.

"Now, in the 18th year of his reign, when he had cleansed the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Jeho- uh, Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God." Now it's time to get the temple into good condition, right? So he begins to tell these guys, "Listen, we're gonna get the temple cleaned out and pr- repaired." "And they came to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had collected from Manasseh and Ephraim, and from the remnant of Israel and from all Judah and Benjamin, and from the inhabitants of Jerusalem." So it speaks of some of that, the remnant of people still living up north even after the Assyrians conquered them.

And they gave too for the repair of the temple.

And it says in verse 10 that, "They gave it to the workmen who were working in the house of the Lord, and the workmen who were working in the house of the Lord gave it for repairing and restoring the house.

But King Josiah is doing it.

"And the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul to perform the words of the covenant that were written in the book.

Then he made all who were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin join in it.

And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers." Uh, can I ask you a question just for a moment? If God came to you in very clear terminology and told you that because of the sins of the nation in which you were living, judgment was about to fall, was very close to falling and, and, and, and basically the Lord communicated it in such a way as to say, "This is a done deal.

All of them were listed in their genealogical records.

87,000 warriors? That's a lot, right? What's the percentage? Is that a lot for them? Three of Benjamin's sons, okay, now we're on the tribe of Benjamin, okay? Three of Benjamin's sons were Bela, Beker, and Jedael.

The five sons of Bela were Esbon, Uzai, Uzael, Jerimoth, and Eri.

Each of them was the leader of an ancestral clan.

How come they haven't mentioned, have they mentioned warriors? I don't think so.

Why is it important that the warriors are listed in these ones? Verse 10, the son of Jediel was Bilhan.

The sons of Bilhan were Jeush, Benjamin, Ehud.

Ehud stood out to me, stood out to me, stuck out to me.

Judah, and Beth Shemesh.

And from the territory of Benjamin, they were given Gibeon, Geba, Alameth, and Anathoth, each with its pasture land.

So 13 towns were given to the descendants of Aaron.

The remaining descendants of Kohath received 10 towns from the territory of the half tribe of Manasseh by means of sacred lot.

The descendants of Gershon received...

So the people of Israel assigned all these towns and pasture lands to the Levites.

The towns in the territories of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin mentioned above were assigned to them by means of sacred lots.

Remember, they were like kind of like dice-like that they would have that the high priest had in the umim and the thermim? That's what we're talking about.

And what is going to happen to the spiritual life of Judah when they go home? And that's how this chapter begins.

It says, now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and on their way, this is kind of cool, they broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherim and broke down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin and Ephraim and Manasseh until they destroyed them all.

Then all the people of Israel returned to their cities, every man to his own possession, went back to his job, started punching the clock and just doing what he did before all this stuff happened.

Do you get the point? They're all excited and they're going home and they're like, wow, God is so good.