The settlement pattern of Judah is reflected in great detail by Joshua 15:20-63. That passage is the most detailed geographical text preserved in the Bible. The date of the original document incorporated by the author of Joshua is disputed. The references to administrative reorganization by Je-hoshaphat (2 Chron. 17:1-13) and his appointment of royal sons as local governors (21:3) have led some to suggest that the roster of Judean towns was compiled in the mid-ninth century. Others favor an eighth - or seventh-century date. In any case the roster is defective as it stands; key towns like Beth-shemesh and Adoraim are missing along with other known settlements from the genealogies of Judah, Caleb and Simeon (1 Chron. 2-4). An entire district is missing from the Hebrew text but can be partially supplied from the Greek version (Josh. 15:59a).
The Joshua list is based on strictly topographical, rather than kinship principles. Comparison with the geographical distribution of clans and families in “Greater Judah” (1 Chron. 2-A) reveals that the pattern of kinship settlement is only partially commensurate with the topographical divisions of Joshua 15:20-63. Here the four principal ecological zones of Judah, namely the Negeb, the Shephelah, the Hill Country and the Steppe (“Wilderness”), are the organizational basis for the list. The towns are
Grouped into geographical clusters indicated by subtotals; the Negeb and the Steppe each have a subtotal. The She-phelah has three subtotals corresponding to three districts; the Hill Country has six (counting the district preserved in the Greek). This total of eleven may be supplemented by the southernmost dis
Trict of Benjamin, which had remained under Judean control. Levitical cities are not distinguished. In the Shephelah and the southern Hill Country, the district boundaries correspond to watersheds between wadi systems. In district 2 the roster runs clockwise around the district; in district 4 it is counterclockwise.
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