Cities of the Levites^(A)

21 Then the heads of the fathers’ houses of the ^(B)Levites came near to ^(C)Eleazar the priest, to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel. ² And they spoke to them at ^(D)Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, ^(E)“The Lord commanded through Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with their common-lands for our livestock.” ³ So the children of Israel gave to the Levites from their inheritance, at the commandment of the Lord, these cities and their common-lands:

⁴ Now the lot came out for the families of the Kohathites. And ^(F)the children of Aaron the priest, who were of the Levites, ^(G)had thirteen cities by lot from the tribe of Judah, from the tribe of Simeon, and from the tribe of Benjamin. ^5 (H)The rest of the children of Kohath had ten cities by lot from the families of the tribe of Ephraim, from the tribe of Dan, and from the half-tribe of Manasseh.

⁶ And ^(I)the children of Gershon had thirteen cities by lot from the families of the tribe of Issachar, from the tribe of Asher, from the tribe of Naphtali, and from the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan.

^7 (J)The children of Merari according to their families had twelve cities from the tribe of Reuben, from the tribe of Gad, and from the tribe of Zebulun.

^8 (K)And the children of Israel gave these cities with their common-lands by lot to the Levites, ^(L)as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses.

⁹ So they gave from the tribe of the children of Judah and from the tribe of the children of Simeon these cities which are ^[a]designated by name, ¹⁰ which were for the children of Aaron, one of the families of the Kohathites, who were of the children of Levi; for the lot was theirs first. ^11 (M)And they gave them ^[b]Kirjath Arba (Arba was the father of ^(N)Anak), ^(O)which is Hebron, in the mountains of Judah, with the common-land surrounding it. ¹² But ^(P)the fields of the city and its villages they gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as his possession.

¹³ Thus ^(Q)to the children of Aaron the priest they gave ^(R)Hebron with its common-land (a city of refuge for the slayer), ^(S)Libnah with its common-land, ^14 (T)Jattir with its common-land, ^(U)Eshtemoa with its common-land, ^15 (V)Holon with its common-land, ^(W)Debir with its common-land, ^16 (X)Ain with its common-land, ^(Y)Juttah with its common-land, and ^(Z)Beth Shemesh with its common-land: nine cities from those two tribes; ¹⁷ and from the tribe of Benjamin, ^(AA)Gibeon with its common-land, ^(AB)Geba with its common-land, ¹⁸ Anathoth with its common-land, and ^(AC)Almon with its common-land: four cities. ¹⁹ All the cities of the children of Aaron, the priests, were thirteen cities with their common-lands.

^20 (AD)And the families of the children of Kohath, the Levites, the rest of the children of Kohath, even they had the cities of their ^[c]lot from the tribe of Ephraim. ²¹ For they gave them ^(AE)Shechem with its common-land in the mountains of Ephraim (a city of refuge for the slayer), ^(AF)Gezer with its common-land, ²² Kibzaim with its common-land, and Beth Horon with its common-land: four cities; ²³ and from the tribe of Dan, Eltekeh with its common-land, Gibbethon with its common-land, ^24 (AG)Aijalon with its common-land, and Gath Rimmon with its common-land: four cities; ²⁵ and from the half-tribe of Manasseh, Tanach with its common-land and Gath Rimmon with its common-land: two cities. ²⁶ All the ten cities with their common-lands were for the rest of the families of the children of Kohath.

^27 (AH)Also to the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, from the other half-tribe of Manasseh, they gave ^(AI)Golan in Bashan with its common-land (a city of refuge for the slayer), and Be Eshterah with its common-land: two cities; ²⁸ and from the tribe of Issachar, Kishion with its common-land, Daberath with its common-land, ²⁹ Jarmuth with its common-land, and En Gannim with its common-land: four cities; ³⁰ and from the tribe of Asher, Mishal with its common-land, Abdon with its common-land, ³¹ Helkath with its common-land, and Rehob with its common-land: four cities; ³² and from the tribe of Naphtali, ^(AJ)Kedesh in Galilee with its common-land (a city of refuge for the slayer), Hammoth Dor with its common-land, and Kartan with its common-land: three cities. ³³ All the cities of the Gershonites according to their families were thirteen cities with their common-lands.

^34 (AK)And to the families of the children of Merari, the rest of the Levites, from the tribe of Zebulun, Jokneam with its common-land, Kartah with its common-land, ³⁵ Dimnah with its common-land, and Nahalal with its common-land: four cities; ^36 [d]and from the tribe of Reuben, ^(AL)Bezer with its common-land, Jahaz with its common-land, ³⁷ Kedemoth with its common-land, and Mephaath with its common-land: four cities; ³⁸ and from the tribe of Gad, ^(AM)Ramoth in Gilead with its common-land (a city of refuge for the slayer), Mahanaim with its common-land, ³⁹ Heshbon with its common-land, and Jazer with its common-land: four cities in all. ⁴⁰ So all the cities for the children of Merari according to their families, the rest of the families of the Levites, were by their lot twelve cities.

^41 (AN)All the cities of the Levites within the possession of the children of Israel were forty-eight cities with their common-lands. ⁴² Every one of these cities had its common-land surrounding it; thus were all these cities.

The Promise Fulfilled

⁴³ So the Lord gave to Israel ^(AO)all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they ^(AP)took possession of it and dwelt in it. ^44 (AQ)The Lord gave them ^(AR)rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And ^(AS)not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. ^45 (AT)Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.

^20 (A)At this time Moses was born, and ^(B)was well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father’s house for three months. ²¹ But ^(C)when he was set out, ^(D)Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son. ²² And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was ^(E)mighty in words and deeds.

^23 (F)“Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. ²⁴ And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. ²⁵ For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. ²⁶ And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?’ ²⁷ But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ^(G)‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? ²⁸ Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?’ ^29 (H)Then, at this saying, Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian, where he ^(I)had two sons.

^30 (J)“And when forty years had passed, an Angel ^[a]of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. ³¹ When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, ³² saying, ^(K)‘I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and dared not look. ^33 (L)‘Then the Lord said to him, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. ³⁴ I have surely ^(M)seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will ^(N)send you to Egypt.” ’

³⁵ “This Moses whom they rejected, saying, ^(O)‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer ^(P)by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush. ^36 (Q)He brought them out, after he had ^(R)shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, ^(S)and in the Red Sea, ^(T)and in the wilderness forty years.

Israel Rebels Against God

³⁷ “This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ^(U)‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. ^(V)Him^[b] you shall hear.’

^38 (W)“This is he who was in the ^[c]congregation in the wilderness with ^(X)the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, ^(Y)the one who received the living ^(Z)oracles^[d] to give to us, ³⁹ whom our fathers ^(AA)would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, ^40 (AB)saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ ^41 (AC)And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and ^(AD)rejoiced in the works of their own hands. ⁴² Then ^(AE)God turned and gave them up to worship ^(AF)the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: