And the lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families: and the coast of their lot came forth between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph.
The lot of ... Benjamin came up. It has been supposed that there were two urns or vessels from which the lots were drawn, one containing the names of the tribes, the other containing those of the seven portions, and that the two were drawn out simultaneously.
The coast of their lot ... between the children of Judah the children of Joseph. It lay intermediate on the south of Ephraim and northeast of Judah (cf. Joshua 15:5-9). Its northern border, commencing on the east from the Jordan, extended on the north of Jericho as far as the wilderness of Beth-aven. From this point its western border ran to the nether Beth-horon, whence, west (not by "the sea," as in our version), it descended southward to the wooded district of Kirjath-jearim, forming there an angle with the north border of the canton of Judah. The southern border was drawn from Jericho to Jerusalem, the principal landmarks which divided it from Judah being Nephtoah, Eu-rogel, Eu-shemesh (now Bir el-Haoud), and the stone of Bohan (see the note at Joshua 15:6). The eastern border was the Jordan. It was the smallest allotment of all the tribes, in consequent, as Josephus says, of the superior richness of the soil ('Antiquities,' b. 5:, ch. 1:, sec. 22). Thus the prophecy of Moses respecting the inheritance of Benjamin was remarkably accomplished (see the note at Deuteronomy 33:12).