‘ Then came near the heads of the fathers of the Levites, to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua, the son of Nun, and to the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel.' The land having been allocated, and cities of refuge appointed, the Levites now came to remind the leaders, who h... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And they spoke to them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, “YHWH commanded by the hand of Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with their suburbs for our cattle.” ' The approach would probably be made before the Tent of Meeting with due solemnity. The Levites had a responsibility to Israel i... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And the children of Israel gave to the Levites out of their inheritance, in accordance with the commandment of YHWH, these cities with their suburbs.' The response of the people was immediate, and cities were allocated by lot to the Levites. There was no guarantee that those cities were all avail... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CITIES ALLOCATED TO KOHATH. Joshua 21:4 ‘ And the lot came out for the families of the Kohathites, and the children of Aaron the priest, who were of the Levites, had by lot out of the tribe of Judah, and out of the tribe of the Simeonites, and out of the tribe of Benjamin, thirteen cities.'... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ALLOCATION OF THE OTHER CITIES. Joshua 21:6 ‘ And the children of Gershon had by lot out of the families of the tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the half tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen cities.' These Levites, who were ‘desc... [ Continue Reading ]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE CITIES GIVEN. Joshua 21:8 ‘ And the children of Israel gave by lot to the Levites these cities with their suburbs, as YHWH commanded by the hand of Moses.' As mentioned above this ‘giving' of the cities did not indicate that the Levites took full possession of them, a... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And they gave out of the tribe of the children of Judah, and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon, these cities which are here mentioned by name (literally ‘which one calls by name'), and these were for the children of Aaron, of the families of the Kohathites, who were of the children of Lev... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And they gave them the city of Arba, the father of Anak, the same is Hebron in the hill country of Judah, with the suburbs thereof round about it, but the fields of the city, and its villages gave they to Caleb the son of Jephunneh, for his possession.' The giving of Hebron to the Levites as a ci... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And to the children of Aaron the priest they gave Hebron with her suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Libnah with her suburbs, and Jattir with her suburbs, and Eshtemoa with her suburbs, and Holon with her suburbs, and Debir with her suburbs, and Ain with her suburbs, and Juttah wit... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with her suburbs, Geba with her suburbs, Anathoth with her suburbs, and Almon with her suburbs. Four cities. All the cities of the children of Aaron, the priests, were thirteen cities with their suburbs ' With the four cities from Benjamin the priestly citi... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And the families of the children of Kohath, the Levites, even the remainder of the children of Kohath, they had the cities of their lot out of the tribe of Ephraim.' These were the descendants of Moses (see Judges 18:30) and of Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel (1 Chronicles 6:1). Their lot was among the... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And they gave them Shechem, with her suburbs, in the hill country of Ephraim, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Gezer with her suburbs, and Kibzaim with her suburbs, and Beth-horon with her suburbs. Four cities.' The Ephraimite cities were then listed. The first was Shechem, the city of re... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And out of the tribe of Dan, Eltekeh with her suburbs, Gibbethon with her suburbs, Aijalon with her suburbs, Gath-rimmon with her suburbs. Four cities.' For Eltekeh see Joshua 19:44, for Gibbethon see Joshua 19:44, for Aijalon see Joshua 19:42, for Gath-rimmon see Joshua 19:45.... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And out of the half tribe of Manasseh, Taanach with her suburbs, and Gath-rimmon with her suburbs. Two cities.' This was the half tribe of Manasseh west of Jordan. For Taanach see Joshua 12:21; Joshua 17:11. Gath-rimmon means ‘the winepress of Rimmon'. Rimmon was a well known god and it is not un... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ All the cities of the remainder of the children of Kohath were ten, with their suburbs.' Why should the family of Aaron receive more cities than the remainder of the family of Kohath? Perhaps the answer is that the leaders were desirous of spreading the influence of the relatively few priests as... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And to the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, out of the half tribe of Manasseh they gave Golan in Bashan, with her suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Be-eshterah with her suburbs. Two cities.' For Golan see Joshua 20:8. Be-eshterah may well be short for Beth-ash... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And out of the tribe of Issachar, Kishion with her suburbs, Daberath with her suburbs, Jarmuth with her suburbs, En-gannim with her suburbs. Four cities.' For Kishion see Joshua 19:20, for Daberath (Dabareh) see Joshua 19:12, for Jarmuth and En-gannim see Joshua 19:21. Remeth is probably an abbre... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And out of the tribe of Asher, Mishal with her suburbs, Abdon with her suburbs, Helkath with her suburbs, and Rehob with her suburbs. Four cities.' For Mishal see Joshua 19:26, for Abdon see Ebron - Joshua 19:28 (‘d' and ‘r' are almost the same in Hebrew), for Helkath see Joshua 19:25, for Rehob... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And out of the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with her suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Hammoth-dor with her suburbs, and Kartan with her suburbs. Three cities.' For Kedesh in Galilee see Joshua 20:7, for Hammoth-dor see Joshua 19:35, Hammath (‘hot springs'), which was just... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ All the cities of the Gershonites, according to their families, were thirteen cities with their suburbs.' So the Gershonites acted as Levites in the northern territories, Asher, Naphtali, Issachar and Manasseh in Transjordan.... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And to the families of the children of Merari, the remainder of the Levites, out of the tribe of Zebulun, Jokneam with her suburbs, and Kartah with her suburbs, Dimnah with her suburbs, Nahalal with her suburbs. Four cities.' For Jokneam see Joshua 19:11; Joshua 12:22. Kartah (possibly Kattath - J... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer with her suburbs, and Jahaz with her suburbs, Kedemoth with her suburbs, and Mephaath with her suburbs. Four cities.' These verses are not in the Massoretic Text but are included in many Hebrew MSS and in versions. (See also 1 Chronicles 6:78. Thus they are S... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And out of the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead with her suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Mahanaim with her suburbs, Heshbon with her suburbs, Jazer with her suburbs. Four cities in all.' Ramoth in Gilead makes up the sixth of the cities of refuge (see Joshua 20:8). It later featur... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ All these were the cities for the children of Merari according to their families, who were those remaining of the families of the Levites. And their lot was twelve cities.' So forty eight cities were set apart as levitical cities, that is were put under the authority of the Levites who were given... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ All the cities of the Levites amongst the possession of the children of Israel, were forty eight cities with their suburbs. These cities were every one with their suburbs round about them. Thus it was with all these cities.' So the Levites had rights of dwelling and authority in forty eight citie... [ Continue Reading ]
A SUMMARY OF THE SITUATION PREPARATORY TO RELEASING THE TRANSJORDAN CONTINGENTS (JOSHUA 21:43). This summary assesses the situation at the end of Joshua's successful campaign, as he was preparing to release the Transjordan contingents from Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh. Canaan was bein... [ Continue Reading ]