Joshua 21:2-42

21:2 in Shiloh in the land of Canaan and said, “The Lord told Moses to assign us cities in which to live along with the grazing areas for our cattle.” 21:3 So the Israelites assigned these cities and their grazing areas to the Levites from their own holdings, as the Lord had instructed.

21:4 The first lot belonged to ¹  the Kohathite clans. The Levites who were descendants of Aaron the priest were allotted thirteen cities from the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin. 21:5 The rest of Kohath’s descendants were allotted ten cities from the clans of the tribe of Ephraim, and from the tribe of Dan and the half-tribe of Manasseh. 21:6 Gershon’s descendants were allotted thirteen cities from the clans of the tribe of Issachar, and from the tribes of Asher and Naphtali and the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan. 21:7 Merari’s descendants by their clans were allotted twelve cities from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Zebulun. 21:8 So the Israelites assigned to the Levites by lot these cities and their grazing areas, as the Lord had instructed Moses.

21:9 They assigned from the tribes of Judah and Simeon the cities listed below. 21:10 They were assigned to the Kohathite clans of the Levites who were descendants of Aaron, ²  for the first lot belonged to them. 21:11 They assigned them Kiriath Arba (Arba was the father of Anak), that is, Hebron, in the hill country of Judah, along with its surrounding grazing areas. 21:12 (Now the city’s fields and surrounding towns they had assigned to Caleb son of Jephunneh as his property.) 21:13 So to the descendants of Aaron the priest they assigned Hebron (a city of refuge for one who committed manslaughter), Libnah, 21:14 Jattir, Eshtemoa, 21:15 Holon, Debir, 21:16 Ain, Juttah, and Beth Shemesh, along with the grazing areas of each – a total of nine cities taken from these two tribes. 21:17 From the tribe of Benjamin they assigned ³  Gibeon, Geba, 21:18 Anathoth, and Almon, along with the grazing areas of each – a total of four cities. 21:19 The priests descended from Aaron received thirteen cities and their grazing areas.

21:20 The rest of the Kohathite clans of the Levites were allotted cities from the tribe of Ephraim. 21:21 They assigned them Shechem (a city of refuge for one who committed manslaughter) in the hill country of Ephraim, Gezer, 21:22 Kibzaim, and Beth Horon, along with the grazing areas of each – a total of four cities. 21:23 From the tribe of Dan they assigned Eltekeh, Gibbethon, 21:24 Aijalon, and Gath Rimmon, along with the grazing areas of each – a total of four cities. 21:25 From the half-tribe of Manasseh they assigned Taanach and Gath Rimmon, ⁴  along with the grazing areas of each – a total of two cities. 21:26 The rest of the Kohathite clans received ten cities and their grazing areas.

21:27 They assigned to the Gershonite clans of the Levites the following cities: ⁵  from the half-tribe of Manasseh: Golan in Bashan (a city of refuge for one who committed manslaughter) and Beeshtarah, along with the grazing areas of each – a total of two cities; 21:28 from the tribe of Issachar: Kishon, Daberath, 21:29 Jarmuth, and En Gannim, along with the grazing areas of each – a total of four cities; 21:30 from the tribe of Asher: Mishal, Abdon, 21:31 Helkath, and Rehob, along with the grazing areas of each – a total of four cities; 21:32 from the tribe of Naphtali: Kedesh in Galilee (a city of refuge for one who committed manslaughter), Hammoth Dor, and Kartan, along with the grazing areas of each – a total of three cities. 21:33 The Gershonite clans received thirteen cities and their grazing areas.

21:34 They assigned to the Merarite clans (the remaining Levites) the following cities: from the tribe of Zebulun: Jokneam, Kartah, 21:35 Dimnah, and Nahalal, along with the grazing areas of each – a total of four cities; 21:36 ⁶  from the tribe of Reuben: Bezer, Jahaz, 21:37 Kedemoth, and Mephaath, along with the grazing areas of each – a total of four cities; 21:38 from the tribe of Gad: Ramoth in Gilead (a city of refuge for one who committed manslaughter), Mahanaim, 21:39 Heshbon, and Jazer, along with the grazing areas of each – a total of four cities. 21:40 The Merarite clans (the remaining Levites) were allotted twelve cities.

21:41 The Levites received within the land owned by the Israelites ⁷  forty-eight cities in all and their grazing areas. 21:42 Each of these cities had grazing areas around it; they were alike in this regard. ⁸ 

Numbers 35:2-8

35:2 “Instruct the Israelites to give ⁹  the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites ¹⁰  will possess. You must also give the Levites grazing land around the towns. 35:3 Thus they will have towns in which to live, and their grazing lands will be for their cattle, for their possessions, and for all their animals. 35:4 The grazing lands around the towns that you will give to the Levites must extend to a distance of 500 yards ¹¹  from the town wall.

35:5 “You must measure ¹²  from outside the wall of the town on the east 1,000 yards, ¹³  and on the south side 1,000 yards, and on the west side 1,000 yards, and on the north side 1,000 yards, with the town in the middle. ¹⁴  This territory must belong to them as grazing land for the towns. 35:6 Now from these towns that you will give to the Levites you must select six towns of refuge to which a person who has killed someone may flee. ¹⁵  And you must give them forty-two other towns.

35:7 “So the total of the towns you will give the Levites is forty-eight. You must give these together with their grazing lands. 35:8 The towns you will give must be from the possession of the Israelites. From the larger tribes you must give more; and from the smaller tribes fewer. Each must contribute some of its own towns to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance allocated to each.

Numbers 35:1

The Levitical Cities

35:1 ¹⁶ Then the Lord spoke to Moses in the Moabite plains by the Jordan near Jericho. ¹⁷  He said:

Numbers 6:1

The Nazirite Vow

6:1 ¹⁸ Then the Lord spoke to Moses:

[21:4]  ¹ tn Heb “came out for.”

[21:10]  ² tn Heb “and it belonged to the sons of Aaron, from the Kohathite clans, from the sons of Levi.”

[21:17]  ³ tn The words “they assigned” are supplied for clarification (also in vv. 23, 25).

[21:25]  ⁴ tn The name “Gath Rimmon” is problematic here, for it appears in the preceding list of Danite cities. The LXX reads “Iebatha”; 1 Chr 6:55 HT (6:70 ET) reads “Bileam.” Most modern translations retain the name “Gath Rimmon,” however.

[21:27]  ⁵ tn The words “they assigned” and “the following cities” are supplied for clarification (also in v. 34).

[21:36]  ⁶ tc 21:36-37 are accidentally omitted from a number of significant Hebrew mss. They are, however, found in some Hebrew mss, the LXX and Vulgate.

[21:41]  ⁷ tn Heb “in the midst of the possession of the sons of Israel.”

[21:42]  ⁸ tn Heb “these cities were city [by] city, and its grazing areas [were] around it; so [it was] for all these cities.”

[35:2]  ⁹ tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive: “command…and they will give,” or “that they give.”

[35:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[35:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “one thousand cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about eighteen inches (45 cm) in length, so this would be a distance of 1,500 feet or 500 yards (675 meters).

[35:5]  ¹² tn The verb is the Qal perfect of מָדַד (madad, “to measure”). With its vav (ו) consecutive it carries the same instructional force as the imperfect.

[35:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “two thousand cubits” (also three more times in this verse). This would be a distance of 3,000 feet or 1,000 yards (1,350 meters).

[35:5]  ¹⁴ sn The precise nature of the layout described here is not altogether clear. V. 4 speaks of the distance from the wall as being 500 yards; v. 5, however, describes measurements of 1,000 yards. Various proposals have been made in order to harmonize vv. 4 and 5. P. J. Budd, Numbers (WBC), 376, makes the following suggestion: “It may be best to assume that the cubits of the Levitical pasture lands are cubit frontages of land – in other words on each side of the city there was a block of land with a frontage of two thousand cubits (v 5), and a depth of 1000 cubits (v 4).”

[35:6]  ¹⁵ tn The “manslayer” is the verb “to kill” in a participial form, providing the subject of the clause. The verb means “to kill”; it can mean accidental killing, premeditated killing, or capital punishment. The clause uses the infinitive to express purpose or result: “to flee there the manslayer,” means “so that the manslayer may flee there.”

[35:1]  ¹⁶ sn This section has two main parts, the Levitical cities (vv. 1-8) and the Cities of Refuge (vv. 9-34).

[35:1]  ¹⁷ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[6:1]  ¹⁸ sn This chapter can be divided into five sections: The vow is described in vv. 1-8, then the contingencies for defilement are enumerated in vv. 9-12, then there is a discussion of discharging the vows in vv. 13-20, and then a summary in v. 21; after this is the high priestly blessing (vv. 22-27). For information on the vow, see G. B. Gray, “The Nazirite,” JTS 1 (1899-1900): 201-11; Z. Weisman, “The Biblical Nazirite, Its Types and Roots,” Tarbiz 36 (1967): 207-20; and W. Eichrodt, Theology of the Old Testament (OTL), 1:303-6.