For the Levites have no portion among you; for the priesthood of Yahweh is their inheritance: and Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan eastward, which Moses the servant of Yahweh gave them.
Benjamin received a small area between the powerful tribes of Judah and Ephraim. A number of important towns of the central highlands were located in Benjamin, among them Jerusalem, which was just inside Benjamin’s southern border (11-28). Simeon was settled in part of the tribal area of Judah (since Judah’s area was too large for it), in the dry southern region known as the Negeb. As a result Simeon soon lost its separate tribal identity and was absorbed into the more powerful Judah (19:1-9; cf. Genesis 49:5-7).