Joshua 21:2-4

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

²They said to them at Shiloh in Canaan, The Lord commanded through Moses that we should be given cities to dwell in, with their pasturelands (suburbs) for our cattle.

³So the Israelites gave to the Levites out of their own inheritance, at the command of the Lord, these cities and their suburbs.

⁴The [first] lot came out for the families of the Kohathites. So those ^[a]Levites who were descendants of Aaron the priest received by lot from the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin thirteen cities.

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Footnotes

Joshua 21:4 The Levites were divided into three groups, the descendants of Levi’s three sons, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. But only those Israelites who were descendants of Levi through Kohath’s grandson Aaron could be priests. The priesthood was made hereditary in the family of Aaron and restricted to it; however, even some of these were debarred by legal disabilities (Lev. 21:16ff.). The other families of Levi’s descendants, the Gershonites and Merarites and those Kohathites who were not descended from Aaron, were charged with the care of the sanctuary. The priests ministered at the altar.