Read Joshua 15 here (text coming …) or at Bible Gateway.
The Hebrew paragraphs:
15:1-19 {p} The borders of Judah and Caleb’s inheritance
15:20-32 {s} The cities of Judah in the south: 29 with their villages
15:33-36 {s} In the lowland: 14 cities with their villages
15:37-41 {s} 16 cities with their villages
15:42-44 {s} 9 cities with their villages
15:45-46 {s} Ekron with its towns and villages
15:47 {s} Ashdod and Gaza with its towns and villages
15:48-49 {s} In the highland: through Kiriath-sepher (which is Debir)
15:50-51 {s} 11 cities with their villages
15:52-54 {s} 9 cities with their villages
15:55-57 {s} 10 cities with their villages
15:58-59 {p} 6 cities with their villages
15:60 {s} 2 cities with their villages
15:61-63 {p} In the wilderness: 6 cities with their villages; the Jebusites in Jerusalem
Joshua 15:1-63 Chiastic Structure:
Let’s talk about the children of Anak. Forty + years prior to this,
And they went up through the South and came to Hebron; Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) Num 13:22
The Scripture calls Judah the children of Israel, because Judah the individual was, but often the context is speaking of the whole tribe who were descended from Judah, thousands of people. So the thought is that Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai were sons of Anak as individuals, but likely his descendants, three tribes of them, if you will; the Anakim (people descended from Anak) numbering more than just three persons.
Backtracking, Nimrod corrupted the worship of the one true God taught by Noah, with the worship of false gods (Gen 11). He named the first “An,” father heaven. He named the second “Ki,” mother earth (also pronounced “Gi”). Father heaven and mother earth was a perversion of “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” (Gen 1:1). He named the third “Enlil,” god of the air, which was a perversion of the creation of the firmament found in Gen 1:7. Thus three powerful gods representing heaven, air, and earth had their root in the perversion of the true account of creation.
An and Ki combined became “Anki,” the god of life, the most powerful god in the pantheon of gods. The myth tells that father heaven and mother earth united in procreation, and their union brought forth the “Anunnaki,” giants or demi-gods. The Bible calls them “Anakim,” the children of Anak.
Greek and Roman mythology calls father heaven “Uranus” (notice the “An” in “Uranus”), and mother earth “Gaea” (notice the similarity to “Gi” or “Ki”). Their children were the Titans, who were mostly evil giants. In ancient Egyptian culture the “ankh” was the symbol of life. Similarities can be drawn from all pagan religions, which spread, after the dispersal from Babel, from Nimrod’s corruption of the history of the creation of the world and the worship of the one true God.
If there are questions, these are good resources:
Who were the Anakim? – Got Questions
Deu 9:1-2, Why are the Anakim the central axis of Worship YHVH Only? – Christine Miller
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