1. The heads of the Levite families approached Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of the families of the Israelite tribes.
2. At Shiloh, in the land of Canaan, they told them, “The Lord commanded through Moses that we be given cities to live in, with their pasturelands for our livestock.”
3. So the Israelites, by the Lord’s command, gave the Levites these cities with their pasturelands from their inheritance.
4. The lot came out for the Kohathite clans: The Levites who were the descendants of Aaron the priest received 13 cities by lot from the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin.
5. The remaining descendants of Kohath received 10 cities by lot from the clans of the tribes of Ephraim, Dan, and half the tribe of Manasseh.
6. Gershon’s descendants received 13 cities by lot from the clans of the tribes of Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and half the tribe of Manasseh in Bashan.
7. Merari’s descendants received 12 cities for their clans from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Zebulun.
8. The Israelites gave these cities with their pasturelands around them to the Levites by lot, as the Lord had commanded through Moses.
9. The Israelites gave these cities by name from the tribes of the descendants of Judah and Simeon
10. to the descendants of Aaron from the Kohathite clans of the Levites, because they received the first lot.
11. They gave them Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) with its surrounding pasturelands in the hill country of Judah. Arba was the father of Anak.
12. But they gave the fields and villages of the city to Caleb son of Jephunneh as his possession.
13. They gave to the descendants of Aaron the priest:Hebron, the city of refuge for the one who commits manslaughter, with its pasturelands, Libnah with its pasturelands,
14. Jattir with its pasturelands, Eshtemoa with its pasturelands,
15. Holon with its pasturelands, Debir with its pasturelands,
16. Ain with its pasturelands, Juttah with its pasturelands, and Beth-shemesh with its pasturelands — nine cities from these two tribes.