Joshua 21

Revised Geneva Translation

21 Then, the principal fathers of the Levites came to Eleazar the Priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the chief fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel,

² and spoke to them at Shiloh, in the land of Canaan, saying, “The LORD Commanded by the hand of Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with their suburbs, for our cattle.”

³ So the children of Israel gave these cities, with their suburbs, to the Levites, out of their inheritance, at the Commandment of the LORD.

⁴ And the lot came out for the families of the Kohathites. And the children of Aaron the Priest, of the Levites, had by lot, out of the tribe of Judah, and out of the tribe of Simeon, and out of the tribe of Benjamin, thirteen cities.

⁵ And the rest of the children of Kohath had, by lot, out of the families of the tribe of Ephraim, and out of the tribe of Dan, and out of the half tribe of Manasseh, ten cities.

⁶ Also, 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.

⁷ The children of Merari, according to their families had, out of the tribe of Reuben, and out of the tribe of Gad, and out of the tribe of Zebulun, twelve cities.

⁸ So, the children of Israel gave these cities with their suburbs by lot to the Levites, as the LORD had Commanded, by the hand of Moses.

⁹ 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 named here.

¹⁰ And they were the children of Aaron, of the families of the Kohathites, of the sons of Levi (for theirs was the first lot).

¹¹ So they gave them Kirjath-Arba, of the father of Anak (which is Hebron) on the mountain of Judah, with the suburbs of the same all around it.

¹² But the land of the city, and its villages, they gave to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, to be his possession.

¹³ Thus they gave to the children of Aaron the Priest: a city of refuge for the killer (Hebron with her suburbs), Libnah with her suburbs,

¹⁴ Jattir with her suburbs, Eshtemoa and her suburbs,

¹⁵ Holon with her suburbs, Debir with her suburbs,

¹⁶ Ain with her suburbs, Juttah with her suburbs, and Beth Shemesh with her suburbs, nine cities out of those two tribes.

¹⁷ And out of the tribe of Benjamin they gave: Gibeon with her suburbs, Geba with her suburbs,

¹⁸ Anathoth with her suburbs, and Almon with her suburbs, four cities.

¹⁹ All the cities of the children of Aaron (the Priests) were thirteen cities with their suburbs.

²⁰ But to the families of the children of Kohath, of the Levites, who were the rest of the children of Kohath (for the cities of their lot were out of the tribe of Ephraim)

²¹ they gave the city of refuge for the killer (Shechem with her suburbs, on Mount Ephraim), Gezer with her suburbs,

²² Kibzaim with her suburbs, and Beth Horon with her suburbs, four cities.

²³ And out of the tribe of Dan: Eltekeh with her suburbs, Gibbethon with her suburbs,

²⁴ Aijalon with her suburbs, and Gath Rimmon with her suburbs, four cities.

²⁵ And out of the half tribe of Manasseh: Tanach with her suburbs, and Gath Rimmon with her suburbs, two cities.

²⁶ All the cities for the other families of the children of Kohath were ten, with their suburbs.

²⁷ Also, to the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, they gave out, from the half tribe of Manasseh, the city of refuge for the killer (Golan in Bashan with her suburbs), and Be Eshterah with her suburbs, two cities.

²⁸ And out of the tribe of Issachar, Kishon with her suburbs, Daberath with her suburbs,

²⁹ Jarmuth with her suburbs, En Gannim with her suburbs, four cities.

³⁰ And out of the tribe of Asher, Mishal with her suburbs, Abdon with her suburbs,

³¹ Helkath with her suburbs, and Rehob with her suburbs, four cities.

³² And out of the tribe of Naphtali: the city of refuge for the killer (Kedesh in Galilee, with her suburbs), Hammoth Dor with her suburbs, and Kartan with her suburbs, three cities.

³³ All the cities of the Gershonites, according to their families, were thirteen cities with their suburbs.

³⁴ Also, to the families of the children of Merari (the rest of the Levites), they gave from the tribe of Zebulun: Jokneam with her suburbs, Kartah with her suburbs,

³⁵ Dimnah with her suburbs, and Nahalal with her suburbs, four cities.

³⁶ And out of the tribe of Reuben: Bezer with her suburbs, Jahaz with her suburbs,

³⁷ Kedemoth with her suburbs, and Mephaath with her suburbs, four cities.

³⁸ And out of the tribe of Gad, they gave a city of refuge for the killer (Ramoth in Gilead, with her suburbs), Mahanaim with her suburbs,

³⁹ Heshbon with her suburbs, and Jazer with her suburbs, four cities in all.

⁴⁰ So, all the cities of the children of Merari, according to their families (which were the rest of the families of the Levites) were, by their lot, twelve cities.

⁴¹ All the cities of the Levites within the possession of the children of Israel were forty-eight, with their suburbs.

⁴² Every one of these cities lay with their suburbs all around them. So were all these cities.

⁴³ So the LORD gave to Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers. And they possessed it and dwelt in it.

⁴⁴ Also, the LORD gave them rest, all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not one of all their enemies stood before them. The LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand.

⁴⁵ No good thing which the LORD had said to the House of Israel failed. All came to pass at that time.