1. Then the leaders of the families of Levi came to the priest Eleazar, to Joshua (son of Nun), and to the leaders of the families of the other Israelite tribes
2. at Shiloh in Canaan. They said to them, “The Lord commanded through Moses that we should receive cities to live in and pasturelands for our livestock.”
3. So, as the Lord had instructed, Levi’s descendants were given the following cities with pasturelands from the Israelites’ inheritance.
4. These are the cities for the families of Kohath that were chosen by drawing lots. These descendants of the priest Aaron the Levite received 13 cities from the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin.
5. The rest of Kohath’s descendants received 10 cities from the families of the tribes of Ephraim and Dan and half of the tribe of Manasseh.
6. Gershon’s descendants received 13 cities from the families of the tribes of Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and half of the tribe of Manasseh in Bashan.
7. Merari’s descendants received 12 cities for their families from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Zebulun.
8. The Israelites gave these cities with pasturelands to Levi’s descendants by drawing lots, as the Lord had commanded through Moses.
9. These are the names of the cities from the tribes of Judah and Simeon
10. that they gave Aaron’s descendants who were from the families of Kohath in the tribe of Levi. Their lot was the first one drawn.
11. They gave them Kiriath Arba (Arba was Anak’s father) and the pastureland around it. This is the city of Hebron located in the mountains of Judah.
12. But they gave its fields and villages to Caleb, son of Jephunneh, as his possession.
13. So they gave the following cities with pasturelands to the descendants of Aaron, the priest. The nine cities from those two tribes were Hebron (a city of refuge for murderers), Libnah,
14. Jattir, Eshtemoa,
15. Holon, Debir,
16. Ain, Juttah, and Beth Shemesh.
17. The tribe of Benjamin also gave them four cities: Gibeon, Geba,
18. Anathoth, and Almon.
19. In all, 13 cities with pasturelands were given to the priests, the descendants of Aaron.