1. THEN THE heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites came to Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun and the heads of the fathers' houses of the Israelite tribes.
2. They said to them at Shiloh in Canaan, The Lord commanded through Moses that we should be given cities to dwell in, with their pasturelands (suburbs) for our cattle.
3. So the Israelites gave to the Levites out of their own inheritance, at the command of the Lord, these cities and their suburbs.
4. The [first] lot came out for the families of the Kohathites. So those Levites who were descendants of Aaron the priest received by lot from the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin thirteen cities.
5. And the rest of the Kohathites received by lot from the families of the tribes of Ephraim, Dan, and the half-tribe of Manasseh ten cities.
6. The Gershonites received by lot from the families of the tribes of Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan thirteen cities.
7. The Merarites received according to their families from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Zebulun twelve cities.
8. The Israelites gave by lot to the Levites these cities with their pasturelands (suburbs), as the Lord commanded through Moses.
9. They gave from the tribes of Judah and Simeon the cities here mentioned by name,
10. Which went to the families of the descendants of Aaron, of the Kohathite branch of the Levites, for the lot fell to them first.
11. They gave them [the city of] Kiriath-arba, Arba being the father of Anak, which city is Hebron, in the hill country of Judah, with its pasturelands round about it.
12. But the city's fields and villages they gave to Caleb son of Jephunneh as his own.