These towns that you must give shall be your six towns for refuge.

“You must give three towns on this side of the Jordan, and you must give three towns in the land of Canaan; they must be towns of refuge.

The grazing lands around the towns that you will give to the Levites must extend to a distance of 500 yards ¹  from the town wall.

“So the total of the towns you will give the Levites is forty-eight. You must give these together with their grazing lands.

A ruler will be established from Jacob; he will destroy the remains of the city.’” ¹ 

So Israel took all these cities; and Israel settled in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages. ¹ 

“Instruct the Israelites to give ¹  the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites ²  will possess. You must also give the Levites grazing land around the towns.

you must then designate some towns as towns of refuge for you, to which a person who has killed someone unintentionally may flee.

“You must measure ¹  from outside the wall of the town on the east 1,000 yards, ²  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. ³  This territory must belong to them as grazing land for the towns.

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. ¹  And you must give them forty-two other towns.

That is why those who speak in proverbs ¹  say, “Come to Heshbon, let it be built. Let the city of Sihon be established! ² 

They burned ¹  all their towns ²  where they lived and all their encampments.

Then they came very close to him and said, “We will build sheep folds here for our flocks and cities for our families, ¹ 

So build cities for your descendants and pens for your sheep, but do what you have said ¹  you would do.”

Our children, our wives, our flocks, and all our livestock will be there in the cities of Gilead,

Beth Nimrah, and Beth Haran as fortified cities, and constructed pens for their flocks.

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.

But if the slayer at any time goes outside the boundary of the town to which he had fled,

So Moses gave to the Gadites, the Reubenites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph the realm of King Sihon of the Amorites, and the realm of King Og of Bashan, the entire land with its cities and the territory surrounding them. ¹ 

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.