3 So Joshua said to the children of Israel, “How long will you delay going in to possess the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?
4 Select three men from each tribe, and I will send them out; and they will rise and go throughout the land, and describe it according to their inheritance, and they will come back to me.
5 They shall divide it into seven portions. Judah will stay in their territory in the south, and the house of Joseph will stay in their territory in the north.
6 So describe the land in seven portions and return to me. Then I will cast lots for you here before the Lord our God.
7 Yet there is no portion for the Levites among you, for the priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance. Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have acquired their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave them.”
8 So the men got up and left. Joshua commanded those who were leaving to survey the land, saying, “Go and walk back and forth throughout the land. Write a description of it, then return to me. Here in Shiloh I will cast lots for you before the Lord.”
9 The men went and passed through the land. In a book they wrote a description of it by cities in seven portions, and they came back to Joshua at the Shiloh settlement.