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Cities for the Levites

35 The Lord again spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho:(A) ‘Command the Israelites to give cities out of their hereditary property for the Levites to live in and pastureland around the cities.(B) The cities will be for them to live in, and their pasturelands will be for their herds, flocks, and all their other animals. The pasturelands of the cities you are to give the Levites will extend from the city wall half a kilometre[a] on every side. Measure a kilometre[b] outside the city for the east side, a kilometre for the south side, a kilometre for the west side, and a kilometre for the north side, with the city in the centre. This will belong to them as pasturelands for the cities.

‘The cities you give the Levites will include six cities of refuge,(C) which you will provide so that the one who kills someone may flee there; in addition to these, give forty-two other cities.(D) The total number of cities you give the Levites will be forty-eight, along with their pasturelands.(E) Of the cities that you give from the Israelites’ territory, you should take more from a larger tribe and less from a smaller one.(F) Each tribe is to give some of its cities to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance it receives.’

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Footnotes

  1. 35:4 Lit nine hundred and twenty five metres
  2. 35:5 Lit 2,000 cubits