Numbers 35:1-8

Forty-Eight Cities for the Levites

1 Again the LORD spoke to Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho: ¹

2 “Command the Israelites to give, from the inheritance they will possess, cities for the Levites to live in and pasturelands around the cities.

3 The cities will be for them to live in, and the pasturelands will be for their herds, their flocks, and all their other livestock.

4 The pasturelands around the cities you are to give the Levites will extend a thousand cubits ^[a] from the wall on every side.

5 You are also to measure two thousand cubits ^[b] outside the city on the east, two thousand on the south, two thousand on the west, and two thousand on the north, with the city in the center. These areas will serve as larger pasturelands for the cities.

6 Six of the cities you give the Levites are to be appointed as cities of refuge, to which a manslayer may flee. In addition to these, give the Levites forty-two other cities.

7 The total number of cities you give the Levites will be forty-eight, with their corresponding pasturelands.

8 The cities that you apportion from the territory of the Israelites should be given to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance of each tribe: more from a larger tribe and less from a smaller one.”

Numbers 35:1-8 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 35

Though the tribe of Levi had no part in the division of the land, yet cities out of the several tribes are here ordered to be given them to dwell in, to the number of forty eight, Nu 35:1-8, six of which were to be cities of refuge, Nu 35:9-15, but not for wilful murderers, in whatsoever way they might kill a man, Nu 35:16-21, but for such who had killed a man unawares, Nu 35:22-24, and several rules are given relating to such persons, Nu 35:25-29, but no satisfaction was to be taken in case of murder, nor to excuse a person's return to his own house before the death of the high priest, who had fled to a city of refuge, that so the land might not be defiled, Nu 35:30-34.

Cross References

• 1. (Joshua 21:1–45; 1 Chronicles 6:54–81)

Footnotes

• [a] 1,000 cubits is approximately 1,500 feet or 457.2 meters.
• [b] 2,000 cubits is approximately 3,000 feet or 914.4 meters.