a cardinal number · conjunction + cardinal number, both genders singular absolute
cities
עָרִ֛ים'a.Rim
H5892
a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · noun, common masculine plural absolute
suburbs
וּמִגְרְשֵׁיהֶֽןu.mig.re.shei.Hen
H4054
a suburb (i.e. open country whither flocks are driven f… · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 49:7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
Numbers 35:1-8 And the LORD spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying,
Deuteronomy 33:10 They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law: they shall put incense before thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Joshua 21:9-42
We have here a particular account of the cities which were given to the children of Levi out of the several tribes, not only to be occupied and inhabited by them, as tenants to the several tribes in which they lay - no, their interest in them was not dependent and precarious, but to be owned and possessed by them as lords and proprietors, and as having the same title to them that the rest of the tribes had to their cities or lands, as appears by the law which preserved the house in the Levites' cities from being alienated any longer than till the year of jubilee, Lev 25:32, Lev 25:33. Yet it is probable that the Levites having only the cities and suburbs, while the land about pertained to th…
All the cities of the Levites within the possession of the children of Israel were forty and eight cities with their suburbs--This may appear too great a proportion compared with those of the other tribes. But it must be borne in mind that the list given here contains the names of every Levitical city (see on 1Ch. 6:39-66); whereas only those cities of the other tribes are mentioned which lay on the frontier or along the boundary line. Besides, the Levites were not the exclusive inhabitants of those forty-eight cities; for there must have been also a considerable number of people kept there to cultivate the glebe lands and tend the cattle. Still further, the Levitical cities had nothing but…
Forty and eight cities - At the last census of the Hebrew people, related Numbers 26, we find from Num 26:62 that the tribe of Levi amounted only to 23,000; and it is supposed that forty-eight cities were too great a proportion for this tribe, the other tribes having so very few. But,
1. All the cities of the other tribes are not enumerated.
2. They had the circumjacent country as well as the cities.
3. The Levites had no other cities than those enumerated.
4. They had no country annexed to their cities, the 2,000 cubits for their cattle, etc., excepted.
5. Cities in those ancient times were very small, as most villages went under this appellation.
6. The Levites had now the appointment that…
The Church Fathers
The question of knowing how to interpret the following text of the Scripture is rightly presented, since Israel not only did not exterminate the people who owned the land of promise until the time of Joshua's death, but it did not even manage to do so. later, although it did manage to defeat them and settle in the promised land. The text reads as follows: And the Lord granted to Israel all the land which he had sworn to give to his fathers. And they inherited it and lived in it. And the Lord granted them peace in all its confines, as he had sworn to his fathers. None of their enemies could resist them. The Lord gave all his enemies in his hands. Not one of all the good things that the Lord promised to the children of Israel failed. All were fulfilled. You have to consider all these things carefully. And, first of all, you have to know the territory of how many nations were promised to the Israelites. It seems that seven nations are surely mentioned frequently. In the Exodus we read like this: And the Lord said to Moses: "Go, get up from here, you and your people that you brought from the land of Egypt, to the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying: To your descendants I will give it to you. At the same time I will send my angel before you and drive out the Amorite and the Chaldee and the Perizzite and the Gegeseo and the Eveo and the Jebusite and the Canaanite.” (Ex 33,1-3) It seems clear, therefore, that God promised the patriarchs the land of these seven nations. In Deuteronomy it is written even more clearly: If you approach a city to attack it, you will propose peace. If you respond with peace and open the doors, all the people who are in the city will be tributary to you and obey you. But if they do not obey you and make war, then you will besiege them and the Lord your God will deliver them into your hands and kill all their males at the edge of the sword. To the women and to the objects and to all the cattle and all the things that there are in the city, and all the utensils you will take them as booty. And you shall eat all the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God gives you. So you will do to all the cities that are far away from you, that do not belong to the cities of these nations. But as for these cities whose land the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you will not leave anyone alive, but you will…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Kibzaim — Two heaps, a city of Ephraim, assigned to the Kohathite Levites, and appointed as a city of refuge (Josh. 21: 22). It is also called Jokmeam (1 Chr. 6:68).
Levite — A descendant of the tribe of Levi (Ex. 6:25; Lev. 25:32; Num. 35:2; Josh. 21:3, 41). This name is, however, generally used as the title of that portion of the tribe which was set apart for the…
Levites — (descendants of Levi). Sometimes the name extends to the whole tribe, the priests included, (Exodus 6:25; Leviticus 25:32; Numbers 35:2; Joshua 21:3,41) etc; sometimes only to those members of the…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
All the cities of the Levites, within the possession of the children of Israel,.... As comprised in one sum total:
were forty and eight cities with their suburbs; which is just the number that Moses from the mouth of God ordered to be given unto them, before they entered into the land, and before they were in possession of one city in it, Numbers 35:7; which, as it is a proof of the omniscience, prescience, and predetermination of God; so of the sure and true prediction of Moses, who could not be otherwise certain than from the Lord of the Israelites being able to give so many cities to them, out of each of their tribes: and it is to be observed, that this tribe of Levi, though it had no sh…
Joshua 21:20-45
20. And the families of the children of Kohath, the Levites which remained of the children of Kohath, even they had the cities of their lot out of the tribe of Ephraim.
20. Familiis vero filiarum Cahath Levitarum, qui residui erant de filiis Cahath (fuerunt autem urbes sortis eorum de tribu Ephraim.)
21. For they gave them Shechem with her suburbs in mount Ephraim, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Gezer with her suburbs,
21. Dederunt, inquam, illis urbem refugii homicidae Sechem, et suburbana ejus in monte Ephraim: et Geser et suburbana ejus.
22. And Kibzaim with her suburbs, and Bethhoron with her suburbs; four cities.
22. Et Cibsaim et suburbana ejus: et Bet…
Names of the Levitical Towns.
(Note: There is a similar list in 1 Chron 6:54-81, though in some respects differently arranged, and with many variations in the names, and corruptions of different kinds in the text, which show that the author of the Chronicles has inserted an ancient document that was altogether independent of the book before us. Thus in the Chronicles there are only forty-two towns mentioned by name instead of forty-eight, although it is stated in Ch1 6:45. that 13 + 10 + 13 + 12, i.e., forty-eight towns in all, were given up to the Levites. The names omitted are (1) Jutta in Judah; (2) Gibeon in Benjamin; (3 and 4) Ethekeh and Gibbethon in Dan; (5 and 6) and Jokneam and Naha…
The descendants of Aaron received thirteen cities, the rest of the Kohathite clan received ten, the descendants of Gershon received thirteen, and the Merari clan received twelve. There were a total of forty-eight Levitical cities. Each tribe had four Levitical cities, except Judah had eight, Simeon had one, and Naphtali had three. Six of the Levitical cities were also cities of refuge (20:7-8).
Rashi on Joshua 21:18
And Almon. In Sefer Divrei haYomim it is rendered: and Olemes this is similar to Bachurim which Yonason translates as Alomos.3Both words בַחוּרִים and עַלָמוֹת refer to youth.
and their open spaces around it. Two thousand amos on each side.
