Joshua 21:1-8

New Catholic Bible

Chapter 21

The Levitical Cities. ¹ Now the leaders of the ancestral clans of the Levites came to Eleazar, the priest, Joshua, the son of Nun, and the leaders of the ancestral tribes of the Israelites ² at Shiloh in the land of Canaan and they said to them, “The Lord commanded through Moses that you give us cities in which we can live and have pastures for our cattle.”^{[a] 3} So the Israelites gave the Levites cities and pastures out of their own inheritance as the Lord had commanded. ⁴ The first lot chosen was for the Kohathites, divided according to its families. Now the Levites were the descendants of Aaron the priest, and they were allotted thirteen cities out of the inheritance of the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin. ⁵ The rest of the descendants of Kohath were allotted ten cities from the inheritance of the clans of the tribes of Ephraim, Dan, and one of the halves of the tribe of Manasseh. ⁶ The descendants of Gershom were allotted thirteen cities from the inheritance of the clans of the tribes of Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and the half of the tribe of Manasseh that was living in Bashan. ⁷ The descendants of Merari, divided according to its families, were allotted twelve cities from the inheritance of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Zebulun. ⁸ This is how the Israelites gave the Levites their cities with their pastures, just as the Lord had commanded through Moses.