1The second lot came out for Simeon, even for the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families. Their inheritance was in the middle of the inheritance of the children of Judah. 2They had for their inheritance Beersheba (or Sheba), Moladah, 3Hazar Shual, Balah, Ezem, 4Eltolad, Bethul, Hormah, 5Ziklag, Beth Marcaboth, Hazar Susah, 6Beth Lebaoth, and Sharuhen; thirteen cities with their villages; 7Ain, Rimmon, Ether, and Ashan; four cities with their villages; 8and all the villages that were around these cities to Baalath Beer, Ramah of the South. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families. 9Out of the part of the children of Judah was the inheritance of the children of Simeon; for the portion of the children of Judah was too much for them. Therefore the children of Simeon had inheritance in the middle of their inheritance.
10The third lot came up for the children of Zebulun according to their families. The border of their inheritance was to Sarid. 11Their border went up westward, even to Maralah, and reached to Dabbesheth. It reached to the brook that is before Jokneam. 12It turned from Sarid eastward toward the sunrise to the border of Chisloth Tabor. It went out to Daberath, and went up to Japhia. 13From there it passed along eastward to Gath Hepher, to Ethkazin; and it went out at Rimmon which stretches to Neah. 14The border turned around it on the north to Hannathon; and it ended at the valley of Iphtah El; 15Kattath, Nahalal, Shimron, Idalah, and Bethlehem: twelve cities with their villages. 16This is the inheritance of the children of Zebulun according to their families, these cities with their villages.
17The fourth lot came out for Issachar, even for the children of Issachar according to their families. 18Their border was to Jezreel, Chesulloth, Shunem, 19Hapharaim, Shion, Anaharath, 20Rabbith, Kishion, Ebez, 21Remeth, Engannim, En Haddah, and Beth Pazzez. 22The border reached to Tabor, Shahazumah, and Beth Shemesh. Their border ended at the Jordan: sixteen cities with their villages. 23This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Issachar according to their families, the cities with their villages.
24The fifth lot came out for the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families. 25Their border was Helkath, Hali, Beten, Achshaph, 26Allammelech, Amad, Mishal. It reached to Carmel westward, and to Shihorlibnath. 27It turned toward the sunrise to Beth Dagon, and reached to Zebulun, and to the valley of Iphtah El northward to Beth Emek and Neiel. It went out to Cabul on the left hand, 28and Ebron, Rehob, Hammon, and Kanah, even to great Sidon. 29The border turned to Ramah, to the fortified city of Tyre; and the border turned to Hosah. It ended at the sea by the region of Achzib; 30Ummah also, and Aphek, and Rehob: twenty-two cities with their villages. 31This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families, these cities with their villages.
32The sixth lot came out for the children of Naphtali, even for the children of Naphtali according to their families. 33Their border was from Heleph, from the oak in Zaanannim, Adami-nekeb, and Jabneel, to Lakkum. It ended at the Jordan. 34The border turned westward to Aznoth Tabor, and went out from there to Hukkok. It reached to Zebulun on the south, and reached to Asher on the west, and to Judah at the Jordan toward the sunrise. 35The fortified cities were Ziddim, Zer, Hammath, Rakkath, Chinnereth, 36Adamah, Ramah, Hazor, 37Kedesh, Edrei, En Hazor, 38Iron, Migdal El, Horem, Beth Anath, and Beth Shemesh; nineteen cities with their villages. 39This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Naphtali according to their families, the cities with their villages.
40The seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families. 41The border of their inheritance was Zorah, Eshtaol, Irshemesh, 42Shaalabbin, Aijalon, Ithlah, 43Elon, Timnah, Ekron, 44Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Baalath, 45Jehud, Bene Berak, Gath Rimmon, 46Me Jarkon, and Rakkon, with the border opposite Joppa. 47The border of the children of Dan went out beyond them; for the children of Dan went up and fought against Leshem, and took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and possessed it, and lived therein, and called Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their forefather. 48This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families, these cities with their villages.
49So they finished distributing the land for inheritance by its borders. The children of Israel gave an inheritance to Joshua the son of Nun among them. 50According to Yahweh’s commandment, they gave him the city which he asked, even Timnathserah in the hill country of Ephraim; and he built the city, and lived there. 51These are the inheritances, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed for inheritance by lot in Shiloh before Yahweh, at the door of the Tent of Meeting. So they finished dividing the land.
Bethlehem resides in the hill country of Judah on the ridge route between Jerusalem and Hebron. To the West of Bethlehem is ample agricultural land and to the east is the Judean Desert – good for shepherding--- which descends down to the Dead Sea. It may be that its location with good farming land brought about the name Beit Lechem – “house of bread,” or the name in Arabic related to shepherding, Beit Lacham, “house of meat.” Both traditions of farming and shepherding play an important place here in the Biblical stories: Boaz had a field which Ruth gleaned from (Ruth 2), David tended Jesse’s sheep (1 Sam 17), and was anointed here by Samuel (1 Sam 16). And, shepherds heard the good news about the Messiah’s birth (Luke 2).
Tel Beit Lehem today is mainly covered by the Nativity Square and the Nativity Church but a small portion of the tel on the east side is still bare and was surveyed in 1969 by Gutman and Berman, confirming both Bronze and Iron Age occupation. While tradition points to a well north of the tel where three of David’s mighty men drew water for David after breaking through the Philistine garrison (2 Sam 23:14,16), the only real water sources came from the southeast in the area of “Solomon’s Pools” or “Artas,” likely biblical Etam (2 Chr 11:6; Greek Apan/Aitan).
Not only was Yeshua (Jesus) born in Bethlehem as Micah 5:2 foretold, but Herod murdered the innocents in the area (Matt 2:8, 18) and Hadrian built a sacred grove to Adonis after pounding the messianic Bar Kochva supporters into submission (Jerome, Ep. ad Paul, lviii.3). Jerome, supported by Paula and her daughter Eustochium, came permanently to Bethlehem in AD 382 to study Hebrew and translate the Hebrew Bible into the common language, Latin. His translation remained the foundation for all Western Scriptural reading for 1600 years.
Multiple excavations by Harvey, Vincent and Abel in the early 1900’s and subsequent studies have revealed three main levels of architectural remains of the Church of the Nativity: an early Roman church represented by floor mosaics from Constantine’s era (about AD 325), a Byzantine Church built by Justinian in the sixth century AD which amazingly still stands today, and Crusader restorations in the twelfth-century AD, as seen in the mosaic decoration on the high walls of the nave. The altar of the Church of the Nativity is built upon a large cave structure that from the second century AD was the venerated place of the Yeshua’s birth already from the second century AD (Justin Martyr and the Protoevangelium of James).