54 These are their dwelling places according to their (A)settlements within their borders: to the sons of Aaron of the (B)clans of Kohathites, for theirs was the first lot,

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16 These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages and by their encampments, (A)twelve princes according to their tribes.

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10 which went to (A)the descendants of Aaron, one of the clans of the Kohathites who belonged to the people of Levi; since the lot fell to them first.

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So by command of the Lord the people of Israel gave to the Levites the following cities and pasturelands out of their inheritance.

The lot came out for the clans of the Kohathites. So those Levites who were descendants of Aaron the priest (A)received by lot from the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin, thirteen cities.

And the rest of the Kohathites received by lot (B)from the clans of the tribe of Ephraim, from the tribe of Dan and the half-tribe of Manasseh, ten cities.

The (C)Gershonites received by lot 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, thirteen cities.

The (D)Merarites according to their clans received from the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and the tribe of Zebulun, twelve cities.

These cities and their pasturelands the people of Israel (E)gave by lot to the Levites, (F)as the Lord had commanded through Moses.

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Cities for the Levites

35 The Lord spoke to Moses in (A)the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, (B)“Command the people of Israel to give to the Levites some of the inheritance of their possession as cities for them to dwell in. And you shall give to the Levites pasturelands around the cities. The cities shall be theirs to dwell in, and their pasturelands shall be for their cattle and for their livestock and for all their beasts. The pasturelands of the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall reach from the wall of the city outward a thousand cubits[a] all around. And you shall measure, outside the city, on the east side two thousand cubits, and on the south side two thousand cubits, and on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the middle. This shall belong to them as pastureland for their cities.

“The cities that you give to the Levites shall be (C)the six cities of refuge, where you shall permit the manslayer to flee, and in addition to them you shall give forty-two cities. All the cities that you give to the Levites shall be (D)forty-eight, with their pasturelands. And as for the cities that you shall give (E)from the possession of the people of Israel, (F)from the larger tribes you shall take many, and from the smaller tribes you shall take few; each, in proportion to the inheritance that it inherits, shall give of its cities to the Levites.”

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Footnotes

  1. Numbers 35:4 A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters

10 All their cities in the places where they lived, and all their (A)encampments, they burned with fire,

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