Joshua 15 · a question people ask

"The children of Judah couldn’t drive them out" (15:63). Then was Jerusalem taken or not?

In the text

The Bible tells of Jerusalem in several places, and they are best read side by side. Earlier in Joshua, Adoni-Zedek "king of Jerusalem" called four other kings to strike Gibeon (10:1-5), and Joshua put the five kings to death (10:23-26); the chapter doesn't say the city was taken. Judah's border runs along "the side of the Jebusite (also called Jerusalem) southward" (15:8), and at the end of the chapter: "As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah couldn’t drive them out; but the Jebusites live with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day" (15:63). Benjamin's list includes "the Jebusite (also called Jerusalem)" among its cities (18:28). Judges says, "The children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, took it, struck it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire" (Judges 1:8), and a few verses later, "The children of Benjamin didn’t drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem, but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day" (Judges 1:21), in almost the same words as Joshua 15:63, but with Benjamin in the place of Judah, and "didn’t drive out" where 15:63 has "couldn’t drive them out". Later still, a Levite won't stop there: "We won’t enter into the city of a foreigner that is not of the children of Israel" (Judges 19:12). And under David: "The king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites", and "David took the stronghold of Zion. This is David’s city" (2 Samuel 5:6-7). The Bible sets these accounts down without saying how they fit together, and this chapter doesn't either.

The verses

“The border went up by the valley of the son of Hinnom to the side of the Jebusite (also called Jerusalem) southward; and the border went up to the top of the mountain that lies before the valley of Hinnom westward, which is at the farthest part of the valley of Rephaim northward.”
Joshua 15:8 · World English Bible
“As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah couldn’t drive them out; but the Jebusites live with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.”
Joshua 15:63 · World English Bible
“Zelah, Eleph, the Jebusite (also called Jerusalem), Gibeath, and Kiriath; fourteen cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to their families.”
Joshua 18:28 · World English Bible
“The children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, took it, struck it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.”
Judges 1:8 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Joshua 15

Joshua 15: Judah's lot

Judah's lot comes first, its border walked past Achor, Hinnom and Jerusalem. Caleb drove out the three sons of Anak the spies had seen at Hebron (15:14); his daughter asked, "Give me a blessing", and got upper and lower springs (15:19). Yet the chapter ends with Jebusites Judah "couldn’t drive" out (15:63).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions