LEVITICAL CITIES. Forty-eight cities allotted to the Levites by Moses and Joshua (Num 35:1-8; Josh 21). The tribe of Levi did not receive any part of the land of Canaan as an inheritance (Num 18:20-24; 26:62; Deut 10:9; 18:1, 2; Josh 18:7). To compensate them for this, they received the tithes of Israelites for their support (Num 18:21), and forty-eight cities were allotted to them out of the inheritance of the other tribes. Of these cities the priests received thirteen (Josh 21:4), and six were cities of refuge, to which men who had accidentally killed someone could go for protection (Num 35:9-34; Deut 4:41-43). The Levitical cities were made up by taking four cities from each of the twelve tribes. The apparent purpose of thus dispersing the Levites throughout the land was to enable them, as the official representatives of the Heb. faith, to instruct the people throughout the land in the law and in the worship of Jehovah. The description of the measurements of the cities and the pasture lands connected with them as given in Numbers 35:4, 5 is difficult to understand and has given rise to many different interpretations.

The Levites were not the sole possessors or occupiers of these cities. They were simply allowed to live in them and have fields for the pasture of their herds. These cities did not cease to belong to the tribes within which they were located. The Levites could sell their homes, but could redeem them at any time, and if they failed to do so the homes automatically returned to them in the Year of Jubilee. Their fields, however, could not be sold (Lev 25:32ff.).

The Levites did not live only in Levitical cities. They appear to have been regarded, in some respects at least, as belonging to the tribe within which they resided, even if it did not happen to be a Levitical city; hence the statement in Judges 17:7, “Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he sojourned there.” Thus also Elkanah, the father of Samuel, who undoubtedly was a Levite, is called an Ephraimite (1 Sam 1:1). The Levites are never regarded as a thirteenth tribe.

These cities were allocated to the Levites by anticipation, to be occupied by them only to the extent that they required them and the Israelites possessed them. It is unlikely that the Levites ever dwelt in all of them, or even most of them, for some of them did not belong to Israel until long after the time of Moses and Joshua. 1 Chronicles 6:54-81 also gives a list of the Levitical cities, but the list is smaller than the one in Joshua, and there are changes in names, perhaps because there was a change to a new city due to the unsuitability of the old one, or because some of the older ones were no longer in use. Levitical cities mentioned in Jewish history after the time of Joshua are Beth-shemesh (1 Sam 6:13-15), Jattir (1 Sam 30:27), Anathoth (1 Kings 2:26; Jer 1:1; 32).

Bibliography W. F. Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel (1941), 131; W. F. Albright, “The List of Levitic Cities,” Louis Ginzberg Jubilee Volume (1945), 49ff.; M. F. Unger, Archaeology and the OT (1954), 210, 211; R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel (1961), 366, 367.

The Levitical Cities

Based on Joshua 21