Bible Strands
Joshua 19:11
It went up westward to Maralah, reached Dabbesheth, and met the brook east of Jokneam.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Joshua records the territorial boundaries assigned by lot to the tribe of Zebulun during the division of the Promised Land. The narrator describes the specific western and eastern limits of their inheritance as surveyors traced the perimeter.
The words — The Hebrew verb עָלָה ('alah) literally means "it goes up" or "ascends," describing the border's movement toward Maralah. The verb פָּגַע (paga') literally means "it touches" or "meets," indicating where the boundary line physically contacts Dabbesheth and the brook near Jokneam.
The thread — The location Jokneam appears in Joshua 12:22 as a defeated king's city, in 1 Kings 4:12 as part of a royal district, and in 1 Chronicles 6:68 as a Levitical town. The boundary description anchors Zebulun's inheritance within a broader geographic and administrative landscape of Israel.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that tribal allotments were defined by concrete, surveyed landmarks rather than abstract claims. A reader must acknowledge that the distribution of land operated through precise, verifiable geography.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And their border went up toward the sea, and Maralah, and reached to Dabbasheth, and reached to the river that is before Jokneam;
Cross-references
- Joshua 12:22 the king of Kedesh, one; the king of Jokneam in Carmel, one;
- 1 Kings 4:12 Baana son of Ahilud in Taanach, in Megiddo, and in all of Beth-shean next to Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah and on past Jokmeam;
- 1 Chronicles 6:68 Jokmeam, Beth-horon,