1Then the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites drew near to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua son of Nun, and to the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the Israelites.
2They spoke to them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, “Yahweh commanded through Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with their pasturelands for our livestock.”
3So the Israelites gave to the Levites out of their inheritance, according to the mouth of Yahweh, these cities with their pasturelands.
4The lot came out for the clans of the Kohathites; and the descendants of Aaron the priest, from among the Levites, received by lot thirteen cities from the tribe of Judah, from the tribe of the Simeonites, and from the tribe of Benjamin.
5The rest of the descendants of Kohath received by lot ten cities from the clans of the tribe of Ephraim, from the tribe of Dan, and from the half-tribe of Manasseh.
6The descendants of Gershon received by lot thirteen cities from the clans of the tribe of Issachar, from the tribe of Asher, from the tribe of Naphtali, and from the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan.
7The descendants of Merari, by their clans, received twelve cities from the tribe of Reuben, from the tribe of Gad, and from the tribe of Zebulun.
8So the Israelites gave to the Levites these cities with their pasturelands by lot, just as Yahweh had commanded through Moses.
9They gave, from the tribe of the descendants of Judah and from the tribe of the descendants of Simeon, these cities that are designated here by name.
10They went to the descendants of Aaron, from the clans of the Kohathites, from the descendants of Levi, for theirs was the first lot.
11They gave them Kiriath-arba (Arba was the father of Anak), that is, Hebron, in the hill country of Judah, with its pasturelands around it.
12But the field of the city and its villages they had given to Caleb son of Jephunneh as his holding.
13To the descendants of Aaron the priest they gave Hebron with its pasturelands—the city of refuge for the manslayer—and Libnah with its pasturelands,
14Jattir with its pasturelands, Eshtemoa with its pasturelands,
15Holon with its pasturelands, Debir with its pasturelands,
16Ain with its pasturelands, Juttah with its pasturelands, and Beth-shemesh with its pasturelands—nine cities from these two tribes.
17And from the tribe of Benjamin: Gibeon with its pasturelands, Geba with its pasturelands,
18Anathoth with its pasturelands, and Almon with its pasturelands—four cities.
19All the cities of the descendants of Aaron the priests were thirteen cities with their pasturelands.
20As for the clans of the descendants of Kohath, the Levites remaining from the descendants of Kohath, the cities of their lot were from the tribe of Ephraim.
21They gave them Shechem with its pasturelands in the hill country of Ephraim—the city of refuge for the manslayer—and Gezer with its pasturelands,
22Kibzaim with its pasturelands, and Beth-horon with its pasturelands—four cities.
23And from the tribe of Dan: Eltekeh with its pasturelands, Gibbethon with its pasturelands,
24Aijalon with its pasturelands, and Gath-rimmon with its pasturelands—four cities.
25And from the half-tribe of Manasseh: Taanach with its pasturelands, and Gath-rimmon with its pasturelands—two cities.
26All the cities for the clans of the remaining descendants of Kohath were ten, with their pasturelands.
27To the descendants of Gershon, of the clans of the Levites, from the half-tribe of Manasseh: Golan in Bashan with its pasturelands—the city of refuge for the manslayer—and Beeshterah with its pasturelands—two cities.
28And from the tribe of Issachar: Kishion with its pasturelands, Daberath with its pasturelands,
29Jarmuth with its pasturelands, and En-gannim with its pasturelands—four cities.
30And from the tribe of Asher: Mishal with its pasturelands, Abdon with its pasturelands,
31Helkath with its pasturelands, and Rehob with its pasturelands — four towns.
32And from the tribe of Naphtali: Kedesh in Galilee, the city of refuge for the manslayer, with its pasturelands, and Hammoth-dor with its pasturelands, and Kartan with its pasturelands — three towns.
33All the towns of the Gershonites according to their clans were thirteen towns with their pasturelands.
34And to the clans of the sons of Merari, the rest of the Levites, from the tribe of Zebulun: Jokneam with its pasturelands, Kartah with its pasturelands,
35Dimnah with its pasturelands, Nahalal with its pasturelands — four towns.
36And from the tribe of Reuben: Bezer with its pasturelands, and Jahaz with its pasturelands,
37Kedemoth with its pasturelands, and Mephaath with its pasturelands — four towns.
38And from the tribe of Gad: Ramoth in Gilead, the city of refuge for the manslayer, with its pasturelands, and Mahanaim with its pasturelands,
39Heshbon with its pasturelands, Jazer with its pasturelands — all these towns numbered four.
40All the towns belonging to the sons of Merari according to their clans, the rest of the clans of the Levites — their allotment was twelve towns.
41All the towns of the Levites within the possession of the sons of Israel were forty-eight towns with their pasturelands.
42Each of these towns had its own pasturelands surrounding it; so it was for all these towns.
43So Yahweh gave to Israel all the land that he had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and settled in it.
44And Yahweh gave them rest on every side, according to all that he had sworn to their fathers; and not a man of all their enemies stood before them — Yahweh gave all their enemies into their hand.
45Not one word failed of all the good word that Yahweh had spoken to the house of Israel; it all came to pass.
Open in the interactive reader →