| Contradictions Main Page |
| HOW MANY CITIES DID JUDAH INHERIT? |
| Joshua 19:1-6. And the second lot came forth to Simeon, even for the
tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families: and their
inheritance was within the inheritance of the children of Judah.
And they had in their inheritance Beersheba, or Sheba, and Moladah,
And Hazarshual, and Balah, and Azem, And Eltolad, and Bethul, and Hormah,
And Ziklag, and Bethmarcaboth, and Hazarsusah, And Bethlebaoth, and Sharuhen;
thirteen cities and their villages: (KJV)
Of course, it's pointed out that the cities given total fourteen, while at the end it says there were thirteen cities.
|
| Like with the previous item (on the cities in the valley), this could be a simple case of the author miscounting, showing that the author is human. Or a later copyist could have divided a single city into two separate names, or a four could have been mistaken for a three. The KJV suggests that Beersheba and Sheba are the same place by using the word 'or' in between them, though the 'or' does not appear in the Hebrew texts (it essentially says "Beer Sheba Sheba Moladah..."). It is possible, as the KJV suggests, that "Beer Sheba Sheba" was meant to be a single place and a later scribe separated it into two places. Since there is, again, reason to believe that this was a copyist error and not an error of the original text, this is not a contradiction. |
| Previous | Next |