Joshuachapter 21
45 verses · Joshua, by tradition · 15th or 13th century BC · History
Then came near the heads of the fathers of the Levites unto Eleazar the priest, and unto Joshua the son of Nun, and unto the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel;
Introduction
Joshua, by tradition, History, Joshua Overview.
This chapter settles the one tribe that was given no territory of its own. The priests and Levites served at the altar and lived from the offerings, yet their families still needed homes and grazing ground for their animals. Moses had ordered the other tribes to supply both. The narrator writes as the surveying ends and every tribe holds its portion. Listen for the four lots and the count that seals them, and for towns whose stories Scripture has already told. Then listen for the closing verses, where the whole book is gathered into one claim about God's word.
Context
- Who
- A landless tribe receiving somewhere to live, and eleven tribes handing the towns over
- What
- A list of the forty-eight towns the other tribes gave the Levites, closed by a summary of the whole conquest.
- Where
- Shiloh, where the claim was made, and towns spread through every tribe's territory on both sides of the Jordan.
- When
- About 1400 BC on the fifteenth-century date for the conquest, as the division of the land came to an end.
- Why
- To house the tribe that served at the altar within reach of every Israelite, and to record that God kept every promise He made about the land.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to the Levites, the one tribe that has to come and ask. Numbers 18:20 and Joshua 13:33 had left them with the LORD himself as their inheritance and no ground of their own.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
It stands at the very end of the division, after the last lot of chapter 19 and the cities of refuge of chapter 20. It closes the book's whole middle section with three summary verses.
The claim is made at Shiloh, where the tabernacle stood, and the towns fall in every tribal territory on both sides of the Jordan.
The occasion is a standing order being claimed. What the Levites ask for at verse 2 was commanded through Moses at Numbers 35:2, and the rule that large tribes give many towns and small tribes few comes from Numbers 35:8.
A first hearer knew what pasturelands meant. Numbers 35:4 measures a thousand cubits out from the wall and Numbers 35:5 two thousand cubits on each side, and the grant gives grazing ground for a household's animals without a farming estate attached.
Such a hearer also knew that giving up a town out of your own allotment was a real cost, and the text records which tribe gave which.
The last thing a first hearer would have caught is where the priests landed. Aaron's own sons drew into Judah, Simeon and Benjamin, the three tribes holding the ground where the temple would later stand, generations before David took the city.
Significance
Scattering the teaching tribe through every territory put a Levite within reach of every Israelite. Deuteronomy 33:10 gave Levi the teaching of the law, and 2 Chronicles 17:8 and 9 shows Levites going through the towns of Judah to do it.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
For first hearers the arrangement also closed a sentence from Genesis. Jacob had said Levi would be divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel, and here the scattering is the shape of the tribe's ministry.
The three closing verses told them where they stood on the day the surveying stopped: the land given, rest on every side, and not one good promise failed.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The forty eight cities given to the Levites are read as the working out of a rule already fixed in the Torah, and Rashi says so at the point where the rule bites. The Levites take cities from every tribe in proportion to what each tribe holds, and he brings the verse of Numbers that commands it, "Take more from a larger [portion], and less from a smaller [portion]; each person according to his inheritance, shall give of his cities to the Levi’im" (Rashi on Joshua 21:5:2, the Metsudah Publications translation of 1997, CC-BY). The tribe with no land of its own is therefore supported by a tax on every other tribe's land, levied in cities rather than in produce.
His other notes are the work of a careful reader of lists. At the fifth verse he identifies the remaining sons of Kohath as the descendants of Moses, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel (Rashi on Joshua 21:5:1). At the ninth he explains why the text says the cities will be mentioned by name, since their names have not yet been given and are about to be (Rashi on Joshua 21:9:1). At the eighteenth he sets the name Almon beside the form it takes in Chronicles and beside the word Jonathan uses in the Targum, and reads the two as forms of one word for youth (Rashi on Joshua 21:18:1).
The chapter ends on the book's own thesis, that not one word failed of all the good the LORD had spoken. The corpus carries no kept note of Rashi on those three closing verses. The commentary that does stand there is Metzudat David on Joshua 21:42:1, 21:44:1 and 21:45:1, carried with the reason that Sefaria holds no English version of them, so it is cited here and left unquoted. The rest of the linked commentary runs Metzudat David on Joshua 21:2:1, 21:3:1, 21:4:1, 21:6:1, 21:7:1, 21:8:1, 21:12:1 and 21:13:1; Malbim on Joshua 21:4:1, 21:8:1, 21:34:1 and 21:41:1; and Radak on Joshua 21:9:1, 21:10:1, 21:11:1, 21:24:1 and at the thirty-sixth verse.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries twenty one rabbinic locators for this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. The largest group stands on the twelfth verse, where the fields and villages of Hebron stay with Caleb while the city itself goes to the priests. There the corpus holds Bava Batra 122b:2 and Makkot 10a:5, with Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition) at Bava Batra 8:16 and Makkot 2:1, Ein Yaakov at Bava Batra 8:18 and Makkot 2:3, Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 26:55:1, and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 773:7 and 787:17. The two tractates behind that group are the same two the division of the land and the cities of refuge are argued in.
On the run of priestly cities from the ninth to the sixteenth verse the corpus holds Bereshit Rabbah 98:5, and on the thirteenth to nineteenth, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Chukat 28:1. Beth Shemesh at the sixteenth carries Sanhedrin 111b:18, Shechem at the twenty-first carries Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 829:1, and the cities of Naphtali at the thirty-ninth carry Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 15. The count of forty eight at the fortieth verse carries Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim 11:1:7 and Jerusalem Talmud Sheviit 8:5:5.
The closing thesis carries five. On the forty-third verse, that the LORD gave Israel all the land he swore to their fathers, the corpus holds Bamidbar Rabbah 1:2, Midrash Tanchuma, Re'eh 4:1, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bamidbar 2:2 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 683:1; and on the forty-fifth, Midrash Tanchuma, Bamidbar 2:1. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Joshua 21:5:1, 21:5:2, 21:9:1 and 21:18:1, The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997, CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Joshua 21:2:1 to 21:45:1, eleven refs cited because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Joshua 21:4:1, 21:8:1, 21:34:1 and 21:41:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Joshua 21:9:1, 21:10:1, 21:11:1, 21:24:1 and at the thirty-sixth verse, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/joshua/21.json, the 21 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The Levites ask for the towns they were promised
Joshua 21:1-3
The Levites are the one tribe that must come and ask, because Joshua 13:33 left them the LORD as their inheritance, and they claim the order of Numbers 35:2 at Shiloh. Numbers 35:4 measures the pasturelands at a thousand cubits from the wall and 35:5 at two thousand on each side. Readers take these as an inner belt within an outer square or as two measurements of one grant.
Joshua 21:1
“For no cities of refuge were appointed before they had been assigned to the Levites. To this may be added what was formerly said, that Joshua and Eleazar had made an end of dividing the land. Now, the land was not truly divided till the habitation of the Levites was fixed.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Joshua 21:1
“And it is probable that they had an eye to the situation of them, taking care they should be so dispersed as that no part of the country should be too far distant from a Levites' city. They gave them at the commandment of the Lord, that is, with an eye to the command and in obedience to it, which was it that sanctified the grant.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Joshua 21:1
“A list of the Levitical cities, varying in some particulars from that given in this chapter, is also, given in 1 Chr. 6:54-81.”
The Levites make their claim after the tribes' lots had closed at Joshua 19:51 and the refuge cities were set in chapter 20. Their towns had to come out of land already assigned. Numbers 35:3 gives the pasturelands to their herds, their flocks and all their other livestock.
Joshua 21:2
“And they spake unto them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan,.... Where the tabernacle was fixed, at or near which the above persons met to cast lots for the division of the land to the seven tribes that had not received their inheritance: saying, the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with the suburbs thereof for our cattle; this command is extant in Num 35:2.”
Each tribe hands over towns from its own lot, so every Levite home stood on ground another tribe had received first. The Levites' food came the same way, for Numbers 18:21 gives them all the tithes in Israel for their service at the Tent of Meeting. The tribe without land lived on the gifts of the rest.
Joshua 21:3
“And the children of Israel gave unto the Levites - They cheerfully obeyed the Divine command, and cities for habitations were appointed to them out of the different tribes by lot, that it might as fully appear that God designed them their habitations, as he designed the others their inheritances.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua 21:4-8
Four lots fall and the counts run thirteen, ten, thirteen and twelve, filling the forty-eight cities of Numbers 35:7 exactly. Aaron's sons draw first, into Judah, Simeon and Benjamin, the tribes holding the ground where the temple would stand, so the priesthood is settled around Jerusalem generations before David takes the city. Numbers 35:8 had ruled that large tribes give many cities and small tribes few.
Joshua 21:4
“Out of the tribe of Judah - Simeon, and - Benjamin, thirteen cities - These tribes furnished more habitations to the Levites in proportion than any of the other tribes, because they possessed a more extensive inheritance; and Moses had commanded, Num 35:8, From them that have many, ye shall give many; and from them that have few, ye shall give few: every one shall give of his cities unto the Levites, according to his inheritance.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Joshua 21:4
"First," it says, "the lot fell out for Kohath, and it came to pass for the sons of Aaron, the priests, who were among the Levites." Whose lot was it suitable to be the first to fall out? To whom was it fitting to be given first place, if not to Aaron, the first high priest, first in life, in merits, first in honors and power? Is it resolved among you now at least that this casting of lots is not accidental but that a heavenly power is present, governing it according to the judgment of divine providence?
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 25.2patristic
Joshua 21:4
“Moreover, Jerusalem was not then subjugated, as it continued under the power of the Jebusites. In short, it would have been absurd to assign a royal seat to priests. And their religion and faith was the better proved by this, that they migrated of their own accord from their native soil to devote their attention to sacred things.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
These are the Kohathites outside Aaron's family, the clan Numbers 4:4 put in charge of the most holy things. Numbers 7:9 gave them no carts, so they carried the holy objects on their shoulders. Their towns border the priests' ground on the north and west.
Joshua 21:5
“The non-priestly Kohathites had been diminished by the destruction of Korah and his company Num. 16. On comparing Num 26:57 following with Num 3:27 ff, two of the families of the Kohathites seem to have disappeared altogether. Hence, it is not surprising that the rest of the Kohathites were sufficiently accommodated in ten cities.”
Gershon's clan carried the curtains and coverings of the tabernacle, according to Numbers 4:25, and Numbers 7:7 gave them two carts and four oxen. Their towns lie in the north, from the Jezreel plain to Galilee. Bashan had been Og's kingdom, taken at Numbers 21:33-35.
Joshua 21:6
“And the children of Gershon had by lot out of the families of the tribe of Issachar,.... These were Levites who descended from Gershon, the eldest son of Levi, and had their cities by lot assigned them in tribes at a greater distance, not only out of Issachar, but out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the half tribe of Manasseh in Bashan; which was the other half of the tribe beyond Jordan: thirteen cities; as many as were given out of the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin.”
Merari carried the heaviest part of the tabernacle, its frames, crossbars, posts and bases, and Numbers 7:8 gave the clan four carts and eight oxen for it. Their twelve towns are split by the Jordan. Zebulun lies west of the river, and Reuben and Gad lie east of it.
Joshua 21:7
“The children of Merari by their families,.... The descendants of Merari, the third son of Levi: had out of the tribe of Reuben, and out of the tribe of Gad; which were both on the other side Jordan: and out of the tribe of Zebulun, twelve cities; in all forty eight, as the Lord commanded, Num 35:7.”
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 21:7
“This would find them all with work, and employ them all for the good of others; for ministers, of all people, must neither be idle nor live to themselves or to one another only. Christ left his twelve disciples together in a body, but left orders that they should in due time disperse themselves, that they might preach the gospel to every creature.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The Law kept these towns in Levite hands. Leviticus 25:32 gives the Levites a lasting right to redeem any house they sold in their cities, and Leviticus 25:33 returns such a house at the Jubilee. The rule kept the tribe from losing its few homes through debt.
Joshua 21:8
“The Lord commanded - Observe: the maintenance of ministers is not an arbitrary thing, left purely to the good will of the people. No: as the God of Israel commanded, that the Levites should be provided for, so hath the Lord Jesus ordained, (and a perpetual ordinance it is) that they who preach the gospel should live of the gospel.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Cities for Aaron's sons and the rest of Kohath
Joshua 21:9-19
Hebron goes to the priests as a city of refuge, and verse 12 keeps Caleb's grant of 14:13 by leaving him the fields and villages. Anathoth at verse 18 is where Solomon banishes Abiathar at 1 Kings 2:26 and Jeremiah's home at Jeremiah 1:1. The parallel list at 1 Chronicles 6:54-81 differs in several names, which Barnes treats as variant forms and copyists' slips rather than a different grant.
Joshua 21:9
“The thirteen priestly cities (see the marginal references) were all in the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin. Thus, as Calvin remarks, God so overruled it that the priestly families were placed upon the spot which He had determined before hand to choose as the site of His temple.”
Aaron's line at this time ran through Eleazar and Ithamar and their sons, a small household for thirteen towns. The grant looked ahead. By David's day 1 Chronicles 24:4 counts twenty-four heads of priestly families, sixteen from Eleazar and eight from Ithamar.
Joshua 21:10
“Families - That is, of the family, the plural number for the singular, which is not unusual.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Kiriath-arba means the city of Arba, and Joshua 14:15 calls Arba the greatest man among the Anakim. The spies of Numbers 13:22 found the descendants of Anak living in Hebron, and at 13:33 they felt like grasshoppers beside them. The giants' city now houses Aaron's sons.
Joshua 21:11
“The city of Arba - See the note on Jos 14:15.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Caleb's claim rests on Deuteronomy 1:36, where Moses promised him the land on which he had set foot, for he followed the LORD wholeheartedly. Joshua 14:14 gives the same reason. Both promises of Moses stand side by side at Hebron.
Joshua 21:12
“The fields of the city - gave they to Caleb - This was an exclusive privilege to him and his family, with which the grant to the Levites did not interfere. See the notes on Jos 14:14.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Numbers 35:6 had ordered that the six cities of refuge be among the Levites' towns, and Hebron is the first of them named here. A manslayer stayed there until the high priest died, according to Numbers 35:25. Libnah revolted against King Jehoram at 2 Chronicles 21:10.
Joshua 21:13
“Thus they gave to the children of Aaron the priest,.... The families of the Kohathites, that part of them which descended from him, and were priests: Hebron with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; that had slain a person unawares, and without design; see on Jos 20:3, and Libnah with her suburbs; a royal city, of which see Jos 10:29.”
Both towns lie in Judah's hill country south of Hebron. David sent them a share of the plunder from Ziklag, and 1 Samuel 30:27-28 names Jattir and Eshtemoa among the towns that received it. 1 Samuel 30:31 says the gifts went where David and his men had roamed.
Joshua 21:14
“And Jattir with her suburbs,.... See Gill on Jos 15:48, and Eshtemoa with her suburbs; See Gill on Jos 15:50.”
Debir was first called Kiriath-sepher, and Joshua 15:15-17 tells how Othniel took it and won Caleb's daughter Acsah as his wife. Othniel became Israel's first judge at Judges 3:9. Holon appears in 1 Chronicles 6:58 as Hilen.
Joshua 21:15
“And Holon with her suburbs,.... See Gill on Jos 15:51, and Debir with her suburbs; See Gill on Jos 15:49.”
Beth-shemesh is where the Philistines sent the ark back on a cart, and in 1 Samuel 6:15 the Levites lift it down onto a large rock. It was a priests' town, so men of Levi were at hand. Seventy men died there for looking into the ark.
Joshua 21:16
“And Ain - Ain and Gibeon, and some others here named are not named, 1 Chron. vi, 59. Either they were destroyed in some of those invasions wherewith their land was grievously wasted before that time; or they appear there under other names.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
In 2 Kings 23:8 Josiah gathers the priests from the cities of Judah, from Geba to Beersheba. That span covers the ground where this chapter settles Aaron's sons. Jonathan opened Saul's war with the Philistines by striking their outpost at Geba in 1 Samuel 13:3.
Joshua 21:17
“And out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with her suburbs,.... See Gill on Jos 18:25; from which came the Gibeonites. Geba with her suburbs. Of which See Gill on Jos 18:24.”
Jeremiah, a priest of Anathoth, bought his cousin Hanamel's field there by the right of redemption while Babylon besieged Jerusalem, in Jeremiah 32:7-9. The purchase was a sign that fields would again be bought in the land. Almon is Alemeth in 1 Chronicles 6:60.
Joshua 21:18
“Anathoth - Celebrated as the birthplace of Jeremiah, about three miles northward of Jerusalem, according to St. Jerome.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
All thirteen priestly towns lie in Judah, Simeon and Benjamin, the ground that stayed with the house of David when the kingdom split. When Jeroboam rejected the Levites as priests, 2 Chronicles 11:14 says they left their pasturelands and went to Judah and Jerusalem. The priests were already there.
Joshua 21:19
“Thirteen cities with their suburbs - At the time mentioned here certainly thirteen cities were too large a proportion for the priests, as they and their families amounted to a very small number: but this ample provision was made in reference to their great increase in after times, when they formed twenty-four courses, as in the days of David.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 21:19
“We read in both Testaments of such numbers of priests that we may suppose none of all the families of Israel that came out of Egypt increased afterwards so much as that of Aaron did; and the promise afterwards to the house of Aaron is, God shall increase you more and more, you and your children, Ps. cxv.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Joshua 21:20-26
The Kohathites who were not priests are placed in Ephraim, Dan and half Manasseh, and three of their ten towns were never cleared. Gezer is where 16:10 says the Canaanites stayed as forced labourers, Aijalon is held by Amorites at Judges 1:35, and Manasseh could not take Taanach at Judges 1:27. Shechem is their refuge city, where Joseph's bones are buried at 24:32 and Abimelech is crowned in Judges 9.
Joshua 21:20
“And the families of the children of Kohath, the Levites,.... Who were not priests: which remained of the children of Kohath; these are the children of Moses, as Jarchi says, and those that descended from Kohath in the lines of Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel: even they had the cities of their lot out of the tribe of Ephraim; and were as follow.”
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 21:20
“Of the cities of the non-priestly Kohathites, for Kibzaim we find Jokmeam in 1Ch 6:68. This is perhaps another name for the same place, since both names may be derived from roots having a similar meaning; and for Gath-rimmon in 1Ch 6:70, Bileam is given, and probably correctly; Gath-rimmon having apparently been repeated inadvertently from the preceding verse. Bileam is but another form of Ibleam Jos 17:11.”
Gezer held out as a Canaanite town until 1 Kings 9:16, when Pharaoh captured it, burned it and gave it to his daughter, Solomon's wife, as a dowry. Solomon rebuilt it in the next verse. The Levites' town came to Israel through an Egyptian king.
Joshua 21:21
“For they gave them Shechem, with her suburbs, in Mount Ephraim,.... Of which see Jos 20:7, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; which being on a mountain, was the more conspicuous, and the fitter for this purpose, as was Hebron in the hill country of Judea, Jos 21:11; this is the second; city of refuge mentioned: and Gezer with her suburbs: a place from whence the Canaanites were not expelled; See Gill on Jos 16:10.”
Beth-horon stands on the ascent into the hill country where Joshua 10:10-11 has Israel chase the five kings while the LORD casts down hailstones. Solomon later rebuilt Lower Beth-horon at 1 Kings 9:17. Kibzaim appears as Jokmeam in 1 Chronicles 6:68.
Joshua 21:22
“Beth-horon - There were two cities of this name, the upper and the nether; but which is intended here, cannot be ascertained.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Gibbethon is later called Gibbethon of the Philistines, and Israel's army was besieging it when Baasha killed King Nadab there in 1 Kings 15:27. A Levite town had passed into Philistine hands. 1 Chronicles 6:66-69 leaves out Dan and both of these towns.
Joshua 21:23
“And out of the tribe of Dan, Eltekeh with her suburbs,.... See Gill on Jos 19:44, Gibbethon with her suburbs; see Gill on Jos 19:44.”
Joshua cried, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon, at Joshua 10:12, as the Amorite kings fled down the road from Beth-horon. That valley became Levite ground. Aijalon had first been listed among Dan's towns at Joshua 19:42.
Joshua 21:24
“Aijalon with her suburbs,.... See Gill on Jos 19:42, Gathrimmon with her suburbs, four cities; See Gill on Jos 19:45.”
Taanach is where the kings of Canaan fought by the waters of Megiddo in the Song of Deborah at Judges 5:19. The second town repeats the name Gath-rimmon from verse 24. 1 Chronicles 6:70 reads Aner and Bileam, and Keil and Delitzsch treat the repeat as a copyist's slip for Bileam, the Ibleam of Judges 1:27.
Joshua 21:25
“And out of the half tribe of Manasseh, Taanach with her suburbs,.... Of which see Jos 17:10, and Gathrimmon with her suburbs, there was a city of this name in Dan, as in Jos 21:24; nor was it unusual for cities to be called by the same name in different tribes: two cities; these are called Aner and Bilean in 1Ch 6:70; in process of time cities changed their names; two cities were a proper proportion for this half tribe; two more were given out of the other half tribe on the other side Jordan, as appears by what follows.”
1 Samuel 1:1 calls Samuel's father Elkanah an Ephraimite from the hill country of Ephraim. 1 Chronicles 6:33-38 traces the same family to Kohath. A Kohathite family settled in Ephraim fits this allotment, and John Gill reads Ephraimite as the tribe Elkanah lived among.
Joshua 21:26
“All the cities were ten, with their suburbs,.... Four out of Ephraim, four out of Dan, and two out of the half tribe of Manasseh: which were for the families of the children of Kohath that remained: who were of the other branch of the Kohathites, and who did not descend from Aaron, and were only Levites, and not priests; See Gill on Jos 21:20.”
Gershon and Merari receive their pasture lands
Joshua 21:27-40
Gershon takes the north and Merari takes Zebulun with Reuben and Gad beyond the Jordan, and four of the six refuge cities stand in verses 27, 32, 36 and 38. Ramoth in Gilead is where Ahab dies at 1 Kings 22:29-37, and Mahanaim is where David shelters from Absalom at 2 Samuel 17:24. Heshbon had been Sihon's royal city at Numbers 21:26, so Levites settle in former Amorite capitals.
Joshua 21:27
“Compare Jos 19:18, etc. Of the cities of the Gershonites, for Beesh-terah read (Beeshterah.) The name is a contraction of Beth-Ashterah (“house of Ashterah”) and the city is undoubtedly the Ashtaroth or Astaroth of Og Jos 12:4; Deu 1:4; 1Ch 6:71.”
Daberath stood on the border of Issachar and Zebulun, named beside Chisloth-tabor at Joshua 19:12, at the foot of Mount Tabor. Kishion is listed among Issachar's towns at Joshua 19:20. 1 Chronicles 6:72 names the pair Kedesh and Daberath.
Joshua 21:28
“And out of the tribe of Issachar, Kishon with her suburbs,.... From whence the river Kishon probably had its name, or the city from that; it is the same with Kishion, Jos 19:20; and called Kedesh, 1Ch 6:72. Dabareh with her suburbs; the same with Daberath on the border of Zebulun; see Gill on Jos 19:12.”
This Jarmuth is Issachar's town, called Remeth at Joshua 19:21 and Ramoth at 1 Chronicles 6:73. Judah had a different Jarmuth, whose king Piram joined the coalition against Gibeon in Joshua 10:3. En-gannim is Anem in the Chronicles list.
Joshua 21:29
“Jarmuth with her suburbs,.... Called Ramoth, 1Ch 6:73; very probably the same with Remeth, Jos 19:21, Engannim with her suburbs; called Anem, 1Ch 6:73, four cities; so many are mentioned by name.”
Asher gave four towns out of land it never fully held, for Judges 1:31-32 says the Asherites lived among the Canaanites they did not drive out. Mishal stands in Asher's list at Joshua 19:26. Keil and Delitzsch read the Ebron of Joshua 19:28 as a copyist's form of Abdon.
Joshua 21:30
“And out of the tribe of Asher, Mishal with her suburbs,.... The same with Misheal, Jos 19:26; called Mashal, 1Ch 6:74, Abdon with her suburbs; not mentioned among the cities of Asher, unless the same with Hebron, Jos 19:28.”
Asher's list names a Rehob twice, at Joshua 19:28 and 19:30, and Judges 1:31 puts a Rehob among the towns Asher never took. Helkath opens Asher's list at Joshua 19:25. It is Hukok in 1 Chronicles 6:75.
Joshua 21:31
“Helkath with her suburbs,.... See Gill on Jos 19:25; the same with Hukok in 1Ch 6:75, and Rehob with her suburbs, four cities; See Gill on Jos 19:28.”
Kedesh in Galilee: Kedesh is the northern refuge city, set apart at Joshua 20:7. Tiglath-pileser of Assyria captured it with all the land of Naphtali in 2 Kings 15:29 and took the people captive. Keil and Delitzsch identify Hammoth-dor with the Hammath of Joshua 19:35.
Two towns from Manasseh, four each from Issachar and Asher and three from Naphtali make the thirteen. Numbers 3:22 counted 7,500 Gershonite males, more than the 6,200 Merarites of Numbers 3:34. Gershon draws one town more.
Joshua 21:33
“All the cities of the Gershonites, according to their families,.... Which were divided among them, according to the number of their families: were thirteen cities with their suburbs; two out of the half tribe of Manasseh beyond Jordan, four out of Issachar, four out of Asher, and three out of Naphtali.”
the rest of the Levites: Merari was the third son of Levi in Genesis 46:11, and this chapter settles his clan last. 1 Chronicles 6:44-47 traces Ethan, one of the singers David put in charge of the music, back to Merari. The clan of the tabernacle's frames also stood in its choir.
The king of Jokneam in Carmel is among the thirty-one kings Joshua defeated, at Joshua 12:22. Nahalal is the Nahalol of Judges 1:30, where Zebulun kept the Canaanites as forced laborers. 1 Chronicles 6:77 names only Rimmono and Tabor.
Joshua 21:35
“Dimnah with her suburbs,.... Nowhere mentioned, unless the same with Rimmon, 1Ch 6:77, Nahalal with her suburbs; see Jos 19:15, four cities; only two are mentioned, 1Ch 6:77; and they by different names; the one is Rimmon, before observed, and the other Tabor; perhaps the same with Chislothtabor, Jos 19:12.”
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 21:35
“Dimnah with her suburbs, etc. - It is well known to every Hebrew scholar that the two following verses are wholly omitted by the Masora; and are left out in some of the most correct and authentic Hebrew Bibles. Between critics there is no small controversy relative to the authenticity of these verses; and those who wish to see the arguments at large on both sides, must consult the Variae Lectiones of De Rossi on this place.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Verses 36 and 37 are missing from some Hebrew manuscripts and early printed Hebrew Bibles, and Adam Clarke sets out the evidence for keeping them. The count of forty-eight in verse 41 needs them, and 1 Chronicles 6:78-79 lists the same towns. Jahaz is where Sihon fought Israel.
Joshua 21:36
“And out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer with her suburbs,.... Which was a city of refuge, and the fifth of them in this account, though not observed as such here, but is in the Greek version; see Jos 20:8, and Jahazah with her suburbs; called Jahaz; see Gill on Num 21:23.”
Moses sent his offer of peace to Sihon from the Wilderness of Kedemoth, at Deuteronomy 2:26. By Jeremiah's day Mephaath belonged to Moab, and Jeremiah 48:21 names it in the judgment on Moab's high plain. Reuben's plateau passed to Moab.
Ramoth in Gilead: is Gad's refuge city, at Deuteronomy 4:43. Elisha's messenger anointed Jehu king there in 2 Kings 9:1-6. Mahanaim became Ish-bosheth's capital when Abner made him king over Gilead and all Israel in 2 Samuel 2:8-9.
Jazer's grazing land is what first drew Reuben and Gad to ask for the east bank in Numbers 32:1. Moses had sent spies to Jazer and taken its villages at Numbers 21:32. The town of that request now houses Levites.
Joshua 21:39
“Heshbon with her suburbs,.... Which was formerly the royal city of Sihon king of the Amorites, and was first given to and rebuilt by the Reubenites, but was upon the border of the tribe of Gad; and appears from hence to have been one of their cities, Num 21:26, Jazer with her suburbs; sometimes called Jaazer, another city in the same country, and near Heshbon; see Num 21:32, four cities in all: which were Ramothgilead, Mahanaim, Heshbon, and Jazer.”
Eight of Merari's twelve towns lay east of the Jordan, on the frontier facing Moab and Aram. 1 Chronicles 5:26 records the Assyrian king taking Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh into exile. Isaiah 15:4 counts Heshbon and Jahaz among Moab's towns.
Joshua 21:41-42
Forty-eight cities lie inside the other tribes' land, so the tribe with no territory lives in all of them. Genesis 49:7 spoke Levi's scattering as a sentence on the violence at Shechem, and here it shapes the tribe's work, since Deuteronomy 33:10 gives Levi the teaching of the law. Matthew Henry reads the spread as deliberate, so that no part of the country sat far from a Levite.
Joshua 21:41
“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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The repeat stresses the pastureland, the one part of a Levite town that could never change hands. Leviticus 25:34 forbids its sale and calls it their permanent possession. Each town kept its ring of grazing for good.
Joshua 21:42
“These cities were everyone with their suburbs round about them,.... Which reached to the space of two thousand cubits on every side; and such a space was assigned to everyone of the above cities for their cattle, to keep them in and lay up provision for them: thus were all their cities; six of them cities of refuge, and forty two for the priests and Levites to dwell in, and for the commodious use of their herds and flocks.”
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 21:42
“After this verse, the Septuagint introduces a passage (in part a repetition from Jos 19:49-50), recording the grant of a special inheritance to Joshua, and also that he buried at Timnath-serah the flint-knives with which he had circumcised (Jos 5:2 note) the people after the passage of Jordan. The latter statement, which has the authority of the Septuagint only, is a Jewish legend of early date.”
Not one word of all the good promises failed
Joshua 21:43-45
These verses say every promise was fulfilled, in the same book that says at 13:1 that much land remained to be possessed. Judges 1:19-36 then lists what was never taken, including several Levite cities from this chapter. Some readers take Joshua to speak of the land as granted rather than occupied, while others take verse 44 as real and read Israel's later losses as a forfeit of ground won.
Joshua 21:43
“All the land - He gave them the right to all, and the actual possession of the greatest part of it, and power to possess the rest, as soon as it was needful for them, which was when their numbers were increased, and the absolute dominion of all the people remaining in it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 21:43
“There is no real inconsistency between the declarations of these verses and the fact that the Israelites had not as yet possessed themselves of all the cities allotted to the various tribes Judg. 1:21-36 - nor did at any time, subdue the whole extent of country promised to them Num 34:1-12. God had fulfilled all His part of the covenant.”
the Lord gave them rest: Deuteronomy 12:10 had promised rest from all the enemies around Israel once the people crossed the Jordan. Hebrews 4:8 reads this rest as a pointer to a later one: if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. A Sabbath rest remains at Hebrews 4:9.
Joshua 21:44
“It is true there were Canaanites now remaining in many parts of the land, and such as afterwards made head against them, and became very formidable. As to the present remains of the Canaanites, they were no contradiction to the promise, for God had said he would not drive them out all at once, but by little and little, Exod. xxiii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Joshua repeats the line to Israel's leaders in his farewell at Joshua 23:14. Solomon echoes it at the temple's dedication in 1 Kings 8:56, saying that not one word has failed of all the good promises He made through His servant Moses. The sentence becomes a refrain of Israel's history.
Joshua 21:45
“All came to pass - Such an acknowledgment as this, here subscribed by Joshua, in the name of all Israel, we afterward find made by Solomon; and all Israel did in effect say amen to it, 1 Kings viii, 56. The inviolable truth of God's promise, and the performance of it to the uttermost, is what all believers in Christ have been always ready to bear their testimony to.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 21:45
“The inviolable truth of God's promise, and the performance of it to the utmost, are what all the saints have been ready to bear their testimony to; and, if in any thing the performance has seemed to come short, they have been as ready to own that they themselves must bear all the blame.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: A city list drawn by four lots, sealed by a count, and closed by the narrator's own summary of the book, as Keil and Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Four lots, four counts | The Kohathite priests take thirteen at verse 19, the rest of Kohath ten at verse 26, Gershon thirteen at verse 33 and Merari twelve at verse 40. The four numbers fill the forty eight of Numbers 35:7 exactly, and verse 41 prints the total.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Joshua 21:4 to 8. | Joshua 21:19, Joshua 21:26, Joshua 21:33, Joshua 21:40, Joshua 21:41 |
| The refuge city named inside each group | Hebron is marked a city of refuge at verse 13, Shechem at verse 21, Golan at verse 27, Kedesh at verse 32, Bezer at verse 36 and Ramoth at verse 38. The six towns of chapter 20 are flagged one at a time as the Levite list passes them.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1863, on Joshua 21:27 to 40. | Joshua 21:13, Joshua 21:21, Joshua 21:27, Joshua 21:32, Joshua 21:38 |
| The three sentences that close the book's middle | Verse 43 says the LORD gave the land, verse 44 says He gave rest on every side, and verse 45 says not one good promise failed. Three claims are laid one on another, each wider than the last, and the third covers the whole book.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1863, on Joshua 21:43 to 45. | Joshua 21:43, Joshua 21:44, Joshua 21:45 |
The structure
10 more paragraphs on the patterns
Four blocks and a close. Verses 1 to 8 are the claim and the four lots with their counts. Verses 9 to 19 give the priests' thirteen, verses 20 to 26 the rest of Kohath's ten, verses 27 to 33 Gershon's thirteen and verses 34 to 40 Merari's twelve. Verses 41 and 42 print the total, and verses 43 to 45 close the book's middle.
Each block is sealed by a number, which is the same shape the city lists of chapters 15 to 19 take.
Across the canon
Genesis 49:7 said of Levi, I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel, spoken as a sentence on the violence at Shechem. Here the scattering is the shape of the tribe's work. Deuteronomy 33:10 gives Levi the teaching of the law, and 2 Chronicles 17:8 and 9 show Levites going through the cities of Judah to teach it.
Anathoth at verse 18 is where Solomon banishes Abiathar at 1 Kings 2:26 and where Jeremiah comes from at Jeremiah 1:1. Gibeon at verse 17 is the town that deceived Joshua in chapter 9, and the tabernacle itself stands there at 1 Chronicles 16:39.
Gezer at verse 21, Aijalon at verse 24 and Taanach at verse 25 are all places Israel never cleared, recorded at Joshua 16:10, Judges 1:35 and Judges 1:27.
Heshbon at verse 39 had been Sihon's royal city at Numbers 21:26. Mahanaim at verse 38 is where Jacob met the angels at Genesis 32:2 and where David sheltered from Absalom at 2 Samuel 17:24. Ramoth in Gilead at verse 38 is where Ahab dies at 1 Kings 22:29 to 37.
The rest of verse 44 is picked up again at Joshua 22:4 and Joshua 23:1, and Joshua repeats verse 45 in his own mouth at Joshua 23:14.
In the New Testament
Hebrews 4:8 takes up the rest of verse 44 and argues that if Joshua had given them rest, God would not afterward have spoken of another day. The King James spells the name Jesus in that verse, because Greek gives Joshua and Jesus the same name.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, 1834 to 1885, on Joshua 21:9 to 19; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1863, on Joshua 21:41 to 45 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1708 to 1710, on Joshua 21:41 to 42.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.