Joshua 18:9

“And the men went and passed through the land, etc.] Undisturbed by the inhabitants that remained; the fear of the Israelites being still upon them, and the providence of God restraining them, so that the men passed through the whole country, and took a survey of it without any molestation: and described it by cities, into seven parts, in a book; or map, or rather made seven maps of it, and set down the several cities in each division, with the places adjacent, hills and vales, and marked out a plain and exact chorography of the whole, by which it appears they must be men well skilled in geometry. Josephus f404 says, that Joshua added to them some that understood geometry; but doubtless the…”

“The men went and passed through the land, and described it by cities into seven parts in a book--dividing the land according to its value, and the worth of the cities which it contained, into seven equal portions. This was no light task to undertake. It required learning and intelligence which they or their instructors had, in all probability, brought with them out of Egypt. Accordingly, JOSEPHUS says that the survey was performed by men expert in geometry. And, in fact, the circumstantial account which is given of the boundaries of each tribe and its situation, well proves it to have been the work of no mean or incompetent hands.”

“By cities - Or, according to the cities, to which the several parties or territories belonged. Joshua 18:11”

“18:9 The Canaanites of the hill country now feared Israel and allowed twenty-one men (18:4) to walk through these territories and return unharmed. • The written record was probably a scroll, which might have provided the original source for the descriptions of the tribal allotments in chs 18–19.”

“described: The surveyors seem to have formed some kind of map of the country, as well as a description of it in writing. The Egyptians, from the situation of their fields, as annually overflowed by the Nile, acquired great skill in mensuration and land surveying; and some of the Israelites had, no doubt, learned these from them, without a knowledge of which they could not properly have divided the land. This is probably the first act of surveying on record. into seven: Act 13:19 Joshua 18:10”