Forty-Eight Cities, and Not One Failed Promise

Levi had three sons, Gershon, Kohath and Merari (Exodus 6:16), and the chapter is organised by them. Numbers 35:6–7 had fixed the number: six cities of refuge and forty two more, forty eight in all, the total this chapter will reach.

Numbers 35:4–5 had even set the measurements of the pasture: a thousand cubits out from the wall, and two thousand along each side. “In the land of Canaan” marks the difference from when the command was given, on the plains of Moab: the Levites now claim it where it can be kept.

Numbers 35:8 had set the principle for the contributions: “from them that have many ye shall give many; but from them that have few ye shall give few.” The tribes give “out of their inheritance”, at the commandment of the LORD, not as a favour.

All thirteen priestly cities come from Judah, Simeon and Benjamin, the tribes around the future Jerusalem. The priests were settled, by lot, within reach of the city where the temple would one day stand.

Moses himself was a Kohathite, the grandson of Kohath through Amram (Exodus 6:18–20), so his own descendants were among “the rest of the children of Kohath”, not the priests. In the wilderness the Kohathites carried the ark and the holy furniture (Numbers 4:15).

The Gershonites had carried the tabernacle’s curtains, coverings and hangings on the march (Numbers 4:24–26). Their thirteen cities lie in the north, in Galilee and in Bashan across the Jordan.

The Merarites carried the tabernacle’s boards, bars, pillars and sockets (Numbers 4:31–32), the heaviest loads. Their twelve cities are scattered furthest of all, in Zebulun and across the Jordan in Reuben and Gad.

The chapter moves from summary (verses 4–8) to full lists (9–40) to a grand total (41). Even the Levites’ towns are assigned “by lot”, and the formula “as the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses” from verse 2 is repeated to frame the summary.

“Which are here mentioned by name” is literally “which he called by name”, a formal roll. 1 Chronicles 6:54–81 gives a parallel list of the Levitical cities, with a number of names spelled or given differently, and some dropped.

Kohath was Levi’s second son, but the first lot goes to his line because Aaron belonged to it. The priests draw first, the rest of the Kohathites second, Gershon third and Merari last.

Hebron, the priestly city, also became the royal city: the men of Judah anointed David king there (2 Samuel 2:4), and he reigned there before moving to Jerusalem. “With the suburbs thereof round about it” gives the priests the pasture ringing the town.

Leviticus 25:34 made the Levites’ pasture land permanent: “the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.” Hebron’s town and pasture belonged to the priests while its farmland and villages remained Caleb’s family property.

Numbers 35:6 required that the six cities of refuge be among the Levites’ cities. A fugitive therefore lived among priests and Levites while he waited for the high priest’s death. Libnah is the second of the priestly towns.

The Chronicler’s genealogies treat some towns as persons: “Ishbah the father of Eshtemoa” (1 Chronicles 4:17) means the founder of that town. Jattir and Eshtemoa both lay in the hills south of Hebron.

Holon appears as Hilen in 1 Chronicles 6:58, one of many spelling differences between the two lists. Debir, once a city of the Anakim and then Othniel’s prize, becomes a priestly city: the same town serves three chapters of history.

Ain appears as Ashan in 1 Chronicles 6:59, and Juttah is missing there. At Beth-shemesh, a priestly town, Levites lifted down the returned ark, and then men of the town looked into it and were struck (1 Samuel 6:15, 19).

Gibeon is where the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream and asked, “Ask what I shall give thee” (1 Kings 3:5). Geba is where Jonathan struck the Philistine garrison and set off Saul’s war (1 Samuel 13:3).

Anathoth was the home of “Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth” (Jeremiah 1:1), and the place to which Solomon banished the priest Abiathar (1 Kings 2:26). Almon appears as Alemeth in 1 Chronicles 6:60.

1 Chronicles 6:60 also totals thirteen priestly cities, though it names only eleven, lacking Juttah and Gibeon. The total survived in both lists even where the names did not.

The remaining Kohathite clans were Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel (Exodus 6:18). Korah was a Kohathite of the line of Izhar (Numbers 16:1), and his descendants, “the sons of Korah”, are named in the headings of eleven psalms.

Levites are given Shechem, the city Simeon and Levi had once massacred to avenge Dinah (Genesis 34:25), and Gezer, where Canaanites still lived under tribute (16:10). The tribe Jacob rebuked for violence at Shechem becomes the keeper of refuge there.

Kibzaim appears as Jokmeam in 1 Chronicles 6:68. Beth-horon guarded the pass that led up from the coast; placing Levites there put the tribe of teaching on one of the main roads into the hill country.

Eltekeh and Gibbethon do not appear at all in the Chronicles list, which gives no cities from Dan. By the time of the Chronicler, Dan’s original territory had long since been lost to the Philistines and others.

Aijalon was later fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:10) and taken by the Philistines in the reign of Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28:18). Gath-rimmon means “winepress of the pomegranate”.

Gath-rimmon here repeats the name from verse 24, probably a copyist’s slip; 1 Chronicles 6:70 has Aner and Bileam instead, and Bileam is likely Ibleam (17:11). Tanach is Taanach, whose king Joshua had defeated (12:21).

Samuel’s family were Kohathite Levites (1 Chronicles 6:33–38), yet his father Elkanah lived in the hill country of Ephraim (1 Samuel 1:1). That fits this allotment: the non priestly Kohathites were settled among Ephraim.

Beesh-terah is a contraction of “Be-ashtarah”, “in Ashtaroth”, and 1 Chronicles 6:71 has Ashtaroth, Og’s royal city (12:4). Golan, the eastern city of refuge, heads the Gershonite list.

Kishon is the Kishion of Issachar’s list (19:20), and 1 Chronicles 6:72 has Kedesh instead. Dabareh is Daberath, at the foot of Mount Tabor, still echoed in the name of the village Daburiyya.

This Jarmuth is a northern town, not the Jarmuth of the Shephelah; it is the Remeth of 19:21 and the Ramoth of 1 Chronicles 6:73. En-gannim appears there as Anem.

Abdon is the Ebron of Asher’s list (19:28). The same name belongs to one of the minor judges, Abdon son of Hillel, who had forty sons and thirty grandsons riding on seventy ass colts (Judges 12:13–14).

Helkath appears as Hukok in 1 Chronicles 6:75. There were several towns called Rehob, “broad place”; this one lay in Asher, and Levites were placed in a district where, by Judges 1:31, Canaanites still lived.

Hammoth-dor is the Hammath of 19:35, the hot springs by the lake, and 1 Chronicles 6:76 calls it Hammon; Kartan appears there as Kirjathaim. Kedesh in Galilee, a city of refuge, heads Naphtali’s three.

Asaph, the chief of David’s singers and the name on the headings of twelve psalms, was a Gershonite (1 Chronicles 6:39–43). The family that once carried the tabernacle’s curtains later supplied its music.

Merari’s line produced Ethan, one of David’s three chief singers alongside Heman and Asaph (1 Chronicles 6:44; 15:17). 1 Chronicles 6:77 gives Merari’s Zebulun towns as Rimmon and Tabor, not Jokneam and Kartah.

Dimnah is probably Rimmonah (Rimmon in 1 Chronicles 6:77); in Hebrew script the letters d and r look very alike and were easily confused. Nahalal is one of the towns Zebulun did not clear of Canaanites (Judges 1:30).

This verse and the next are missing from many Hebrew manuscripts and some printed Hebrew Bibles. The Greek version and 1 Chronicles 6:78–79 include the four Reubenite cities, and without them Merari’s total of twelve cannot be reached.

Mephaath is identified with Umm er-Rasas in Jordan, where a Byzantine church mosaic labels the town “Kastron Mefaa”. The mosaic confirmed the ancient name of a place that had been only a word in these lists.

Ramoth-gilead is where one of Elisha’s young prophets anointed Jehu king in an inner room (2 Kings 9:1–6). At Mahanaim, the aged Barzillai brought beds, food and supplies to David in flight from Absalom (2 Samuel 17:27–29).

The Song of Solomon praises a beloved’s eyes as “the fishpools in Heshbon” (7:4). In David’s fortieth year, “mighty men of valour” among the Levites were found at Jazer of Gilead (1 Chronicles 26:31).

Merari was Levi’s youngest son (Genesis 46:11), and his families, Mahli and Mushi (Exodus 6:19), receive the last lot. The word “remaining” is used of them as it was of the non priestly Kohathites.

Forty eight cities spread across twelve tribal territories gives roughly four to each. Ezekiel’s vision of the restored land takes a different approach: the Levites receive one strip of land together beside the sanctuary (Ezekiel 45:5; 48:13).

The Greek Old Testament adds a paragraph here: when Joshua finished dividing the land, he took the flint knives used at Gilgal and placed them at Timnath-serah. The Hebrew passes straight from the list to the great summary.

“Possessed it, and dwelt therein” is the pair of verbs Moses used for the future: “ye shall possess it, and dwell therein” (Deuteronomy 11:31). Promise and fulfilment are written in the same words.

Deuteronomy 12:10 had made rest “from all your enemies round about” the signal for choosing the place of worship. The phrase returns when David dwells in his house and “the LORD had given him rest round about” (2 Samuel 7:1).

Solomon uses nearly the same words at the temple’s dedication: “there hath not failed one word of all his good promise” (1 Kings 8:56), and Joshua repeats them in his farewell (23:14). “Failed” is literally “fell”: not one word dropped to the ground.