Joshua 15 · a question people ask
"All the cities are twenty-nine" (15:32). Why does the list name more than that?
Count the names in 15:21-32 as the WEB prints them, from "Kabzeel" (15:21) to "Rimmon" (15:32), and there are thirty-six (counting "Hazor Hadattah" and "Kerioth Hezron (also called Hazor)" as one name each, as printed). The verse's own total is twenty-nine: "All the cities are twenty-nine, with their villages" (15:32). The chapter doesn't explain the difference. Two things in the text bear on the list, though neither is given as the reason for the total. One place can carry two names in this list: "Kerioth Hezron (also called Hazor)" (15:25). And some of these towns were later given to Simeon, "Out of the part of the children of Judah", "for the portion of the children of Judah was too much for them" (19:9): Simeon's list has Beersheba, Moladah, Hazar Shual, Ezem, Eltolad, Hormah, Ziklag, Ain and Rimmon (19:2-7), all names from this one. How these fit the total of twenty-nine, the text doesn't say.
The verses
“The farthest cities of the tribe of the children of Judah toward the border of Edom in the South were Kabzeel, Eder, Jagur, Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah, Kedesh, Hazor, Ithnan, Ziph, Telem, Bealoth, Hazor Hadattah, Kerioth Hezron (also called Hazor), Amam, Shema, Moladah, Hazar Gaddah, Heshmon, Beth Pelet, Hazar Shual, Beersheba, Biziothiah, Baalah, Iim, Ezem, Eltolad, Chesil, Hormah, Ziklag, Madmannah, Sansannah, Lebaoth, Shilhim, Ain, and Rimmon. All the cities are twenty-nine, with their villages.”
“Hazor Hadattah, Kerioth Hezron (also called Hazor),”