SUBURB . This word is used in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] in two quite distinct senses. (1) In 2 Kings 23:11 a certain chamber, really within the Temple precincts, is said to have been ‘in the suburbs’ (Heb. parvar , RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘precincts’). Practically the same original is retained as a proper name Parbar , 1 Chronicles 26:18 (RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ‘the Precinct’), where the reference is probably to the same spot as in the former passage. Modern scholars find in this mysterious parbar or parvar a designation of the western colonnade (or part thereof) of the Temple (see Parbar).
(2) In all other instances ‘suburbs’ occurs only in connexion with the so-called Levitical cities, as the rendering derived from the Vulg. [Note: Vulgate.] suburbana (fields, etc., close to a city) of a Heb. word meaning ‘pasture-grounds.’ Each of the 48 cities, according to Numbers 35:2 ff., is to be provided with a square tract of land measuring 2000 cubits roughly 1000 yards each way, which is to serve the Levites as a common pasture ground ‘for their cattle and for their substance and for all their beasts’ (v. 3 RV [Note: Revised Version.] , cf. the lists in Joshua 21:2-42 , 1 Chronicles 6:55-81 ).
A. R. S. Kennedy.