Study Desk

These are the inheritances which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers' households of the tribes of the sons of Israel apportioned by lot in Shiloh before the LORD at the doorway of the tent of meeting. So they finished dividing the land.

so that one who commits manslaughter by killing a person unintentionally, without premeditation, may flee there, and they shall become your refuge from the avenger of blood.

'Then he shall flee to one of these cities, and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and state his case in the presence of the elders of that city; and they shall receive him into the city to them and give him a place, so that he may remain among them.

'Now if the avenger of blood pursues him, then they are not to hand the one who committed manslaughter over to him, since he struck his neighbor without premeditation and did not hate him previously.

So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.

And beyond the Jordan east of Jericho, they designated Bezer in the wilderness on the plain from the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh.

And they spoke to them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, "The LORD commanded through Moses to give us cities to live in, with their pasture lands for our cattle."

They gave these cities which are mentioned here by name from the tribe of the sons of Judah and from the tribe of the sons of Simeon;

and they were for the sons of Aaron, one of the families of the Kohathites, of the sons of Levi, because the lot was theirs first.

But the fields of the city and its villages they gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as his possession.

They gave them Shechem, the city of refuge for the one who commits manslaughter, with its pasture lands, in the hill country of Ephraim, and Gezer with its pasture lands,

From the half-tribe of Manasseh, they allotted Taanach with its pasture lands and Gath-rimmon with its pasture lands; two cities.

And to the sons of Gershon, one of the families of the Levites, from the half-tribe of Manasseh, they gave Golan in Bashan, the city of refuge for the one who commits manslaughter, with its pasture lands, and Be-eshterah with its pasture lands; two cities.

And from the tribe of Issachar they gave Kishion with its pasture lands, Daberath with its pasture lands,

And from the tribe of Naphtali, they gave Kedesh in Galilee, the city of refuge for the one who commits manslaughter, with its pasture lands, Hammoth-dor with its pasture lands, and Kartan with its pasture lands; three cities.

And to the families of the sons of Merari, the rest of the Levites, they gave from the tribe of Zebulun, Jokneam with its pasture lands, Kartah with its pasture lands,

And from the tribe of Gad, they gave Ramoth in Gilead, the city of refuge for the one who commits manslaughter, with its pasture lands, Mahanaim with its pasture lands,

So the LORD gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and lived in it.

So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.

So the sons of Reuben, the sons of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned home, leaving the sons of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, to the land of their possession in which they had settled, in accordance with the command of the LORD through Moses.