Numbers 35:1-8

Evangelical Heritage Version

Towns for the Levites

35 The Lord spoke to Moses on the Plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho:

² Command the people of Israel to give the Levites cities^[a] to live in from the territory assigned to them as their possession. They will also give the Levites the pasturelands around those cities. ³ The Levites will then have cities to live in. Their pasturelands will be for their cattle, their flocks and herds, and all their other animals.

⁴ The pasturelands of the cities, which you will give to the Levites, will extend out from the wall of the city 500 yards^[b] in all directions. ⁵ As the eastern boundary you will measure 1000 yards^[c] in addition to the size of the city, 1000 yards as the southern boundary, 1000 yards as the western boundary, and 1000 yards as the northern boundary. The city is in the middle. This area will serve as the pasturelands of their cities.

⁶ The cities which you will give to the Levites will include six cities of refuge, which you will provide so that a person who has killed someone may flee there. In addition to these six cities, you will give them forty-two other cities. ⁷ All the cities which you are to give to the Levites will total forty-eight cities along with their pasturelands. ⁸ For the cities which you will transfer to the Levites from the property of the Israelites, you will take more cities from a larger tribe and fewer from a smaller tribe. Every tribe will give some of its cities to the Levites in proportion to the amount of assigned territory it has received.