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35 Yahweh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, “Command the children of Israel to give to the Levites cities to dwell in out of their inheritance. You shall give pasture lands for the cities around them to the Levites. They shall have the cities to dwell in. Their pasture lands shall be for their livestock, and for their possessions, and for all their animals.

“The pasture lands of the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall be from the wall of the city and outward one thousand cubits[a] around it. You shall measure outside of the city for the east side two thousand cubits, and for the south side two thousand cubits, and for the west side two thousand cubits, and for the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the middle. This shall be the pasture lands of their cities.

“The cities which you shall give to the Levites, they shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the man slayer to flee to. Besides them you shall give forty-two cities. All the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities together with their pasture lands. Concerning the cities which you shall give of the possession of the children of Israel, from the many you shall take many, and from the few you shall take few. Everyone according to his inheritance which he inherits shall give some of his cities to the Levites.”

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Footnotes

  1. 35:4 A cubit is the length from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow on a man’s arm, or about 18 inches or 46 centimeters.

Cities and pastures of the Levites

35 The Lord spoke to Moses in the Moab plains by the Jordan across from Jericho: Command the Israelites that they give cities from their inherited property to the Levites in which to live. You will also give the Levites pastures around their cities. The cities will be theirs in which to live. Their pastures will be for their cattle, their possessions, and all their animals. The pastures of the cities that you must give to the Levites will extend from the wall of the city outward for one thousand five hundred feet in all directions. You will measure outside the city on the east side three thousand feet, on the south side three thousand feet, on the west side three thousand feet, and on the north side three thousand feet, with the city in the middle. These will be their cities’ pastures.

Six of the cities that you give to the Levites will be refuge cities. You will allow the person who kills someone to flee there. In addition to these you will give them forty-two cities. All the cities that you give to the Levites will total forty-eight, along with their pastures. As for the cities that you give from the property of the Israelites, you will take more from the larger tribes and less from the smaller. Each in proportion to its inheritance will give cities to the Levites.

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