1. The heads of the Levite families approached Eleazar the priest, Joshua, son of Nun, and the heads of families of the other tribes of the Israelites
2. at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, and said to them, “The Lord commanded, through Moses, that cities be given us to dwell in, with pasture lands for our livestock.”
3. Out of their own heritage, according to the command of the Lord, the Israelites gave the Levites the following cities with their pasture lands.
4. When the first lot among the Levites fell to the clans of the Kohathites, the descendants of Aaron the priest obtained by lot from the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin, thirteen cities.
5. From the clans of the tribe of Ephraim, from the tribe of Dan, and from the half-tribe of Manasseh, the rest of the Kohathites obtained by lot ten cities.
6. From the clans of the tribe of Issachar, from the tribe of Asher, from the tribe of Naphtali, and from the half-tribe of Manasseh, the Gershonites obtained by lot thirteen cities.
7. From the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Zebulun, the clans of the Merarites obtained twelve cities.
8. These cities with their pasture lands the Israelites gave by lot to the Levites, as the Lord had commanded through Moses.
9. From the tribes of the Judahites and Simeonites they gave the following cities
10. and assigned them to the descendants of Aaron in the Kohathite clan of the Levites, since the first lot fell to them:
11. first, Kiriath-arba (Arba was the father of Anak), that is, Hebron, in the mountain region of Judah, with the adjacent pasture lands,
12. although the open country and villages belonging to the city had been given to Caleb, son of Jephunneh, as his holding.