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Joshua 21: What the Passage Says

125 claims across 45 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Joshua 21 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

The family leaders of the Levites come to Eleazar, Joshua, and the tribal leaders at Shiloh and ask for the towns the LORD had commanded through Moses. Israel gives them forty-eight cities with their pasturelands, drawn from every tribe and assigned by lot to the three Levite groups: the Kohathites (including Aaron's priestly line), the Gershonites, and the Merarites. The list names each city and marks the cities of refuge among them. The chapter ends by stating that the LORD gave Israel all the land he had sworn to their ancestors, gave them rest on every side, and that not one of his good promises failed.

Claim by Claim

  1. 21:1
    • The heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites came near to Eleazar the priest.
    • They also came to Joshua son of Nun.
    • They also came to the heads of the fathers' houses of the tribes of the children of Israel.
  2. 21:2
    • They spoke to them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.
    • They said that the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses to give them cities to dwell in.
    • They said the command included pasture lands around those cities for their livestock.
  3. 21:3
    • The children of Israel gave the Levites cities out of their own inheritance.
    • They gave them at the command of the LORD.
    • They gave these cities together with their pasture lands.
  4. 21:4
    • The lot came out for the families of the Kohathites.
    • The children of Aaron the priest were among the Levites.
    • The children of Aaron received cities by lot from the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Simeon, and the tribe of Benjamin.
    • They received thirteen cities.
  5. 21:5
    • The rest of the children of Kohath received cities by lot from the families of the tribe of Ephraim, the tribe of Dan, and the half tribe of Manasseh.
    • They received ten cities.
  6. 21:6
    • The children of Gershon received cities by lot from the families of the tribe of Issachar, the tribe of Asher, the tribe of Naphtali, and the half tribe of Manasseh in Bashan.
    • They received thirteen cities.
  7. 21:7
    • The children of Merari, by their families, received cities from the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and the tribe of Zebulun.
    • They received twelve cities.
  8. 21:8
    • The children of Israel gave these cities with their pasture lands to the Levites by lot.
    • They did so as the LORD had commanded by the hand of Moses.
  9. 21:9
    • They gave out of the tribe of the children of Judah and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon these cities.
    • These cities are designated by name.
  10. 21:10
    • The cities went to the children of Aaron.
    • The children of Aaron were of the families of the Kohathites.
    • The Kohathites were of the children of Levi.
    • The first lot was theirs.
  11. 21:11
    • They gave them the city of Arba.
    • Arba was the father of Anak.
    • That city is Hebron.
    • Hebron is in the hill country of Judah.
    • They gave it with its pasture lands around it.
  12. 21:12
    • The fields of the city and its villages they gave to Caleb son of Jephunneh.
    • They gave them to Caleb as his possession.
  13. 21:13
    • They gave to the children of Aaron the priest Hebron with its pasture lands.
    • Hebron was to be a city of refuge for the manslayer.
    • They gave them Libnah with its pasture lands.
  14. 21:14
    • They gave them Jattir with its pasture lands.
    • They gave them Eshtemoa with its pasture lands.
  15. 21:15
    • They gave them Holon with its pasture lands.
    • They gave them Debir with its pasture lands.
  16. 21:16
    • They gave them Ain with its pasture lands.
    • They gave them Juttah with its pasture lands.
    • They gave them Beth-shemesh with its pasture lands.
    • These were nine cities out of those two tribes.
  17. 21:17
    • Out of the tribe of Benjamin they gave Gibeon with its pasture lands.
    • They gave Geba with its pasture lands.
  18. 21:18
    • They gave Anathoth with its pasture lands.
    • They gave Almon with its pasture lands.
    • These were four cities.
  19. 21:19
    • All the cities of the children of Aaron, the priests, were thirteen cities.
    • These cities came with their pasture lands.
  20. 21:20
    • The remaining families of the children of Kohath were Levites.
    • The cities of their lot came out of the tribe of Ephraim.
  21. 21:21
    • They gave them Shechem with its pasture lands in the hill country of Ephraim.
    • Shechem was to be a city of refuge for the manslayer.
    • They gave them Gezer with its pasture lands.
  22. 21:22
    • They gave them Kibzaim with its pasture lands.
    • They gave them Beth-horon with its pasture lands.
    • These were four cities.
  23. 21:23
    • Out of the tribe of Dan they gave Eltekeh with its pasture lands.
    • They gave Gibbethon with its pasture lands.
  24. 21:24
    • They gave Aijalon with its pasture lands.
    • They gave Gath-rimmon with its pasture lands.
    • These were four cities.
  25. 21:25
    • Out of the half tribe of Manasseh they gave Taanach with its pasture lands.
    • They gave Gath-rimmon with its pasture lands.
    • These were two cities.
  26. 21:26
    • All the cities for the remaining families of the children of Kohath were ten.
    • These cities came with their pasture lands.
  27. 21:27
    • The children of Gershon were of the families of the Levites.
    • Out of the half tribe of Manasseh they gave them Golan in Bashan with its pasture lands.
    • Golan was to be a city of refuge for the manslayer.
    • They gave them Beeshterah with its pasture lands.
    • These were two cities.
  28. 21:28
    • Out of the tribe of Issachar they gave Kishion with its pasture lands.
    • They gave Daberath with its pasture lands.
  29. 21:29
    • They gave Jarmuth with its pasture lands.
    • They gave En-gannim with its pasture lands.
    • These were four cities.
  30. 21:30
    • Out of the tribe of Asher they gave Mishal with its pasture lands.
    • They gave Abdon with its pasture lands.
  31. 21:31
    • They gave Helkath with its pasture lands.
    • They gave Rehob with its pasture lands.
    • These were four cities.
  32. 21:32
    • Out of the tribe of Naphtali they gave Kedesh in Galilee with its pasture lands.
    • Kedesh was to be a city of refuge for the manslayer.
    • They gave Hammoth-dor with its pasture lands.
    • They gave Kartan with its pasture lands.
    • These were three cities.
  33. 21:33
    • All the cities of the Gershonites according to their families were thirteen cities.
    • These cities came with their pasture lands.
  34. 21:34
    • The families of the children of Merari were the rest of the Levites.
    • Out of the tribe of Zebulun they were given Jokneam with its pasture lands.
    • They were given Kartah with its pasture lands.
  35. 21:35
    • They were given Dimnah with its pasture lands.
    • They were given Nahalal with its pasture lands.
    • These were four cities.
  36. 21:36
    • Out of the tribe of Reuben they were given Bezer with its pasture lands.
    • They were given Jahaz with its pasture lands.
  37. 21:37
    • They were given Kedemoth with its pasture lands.
    • They were given Mephaath with its pasture lands.
    • These were four cities.
  38. 21:38
    • Out of the tribe of Gad they were given Ramoth in Gilead with its pasture lands.
    • Ramoth was to be a city of refuge for the manslayer.
    • They were given Mahanaim with its pasture lands.
  39. 21:39
    • They were given Heshbon with its pasture lands.
    • They were given Jazer with its pasture lands.
    • These were four cities in all.
  40. 21:40
    • The children of Merari by their families were the remaining families of the Levites.
    • All the cities of their lot were twelve cities.
  41. 21:41
    • All the cities of the Levites were within the possession of the children of Israel.
    • They were forty-eight cities.
    • These cities came with their pasture lands.
  42. 21:42
    • Each one of these cities had its pasture lands around it.
    • This was so for all these cities.
  43. 21:43
    • The LORD gave Israel all the land which he swore to give to their fathers.
    • They took possession of it.
    • They dwelt in it.
  44. 21:44
    • The LORD gave them rest on every side.
    • He did so according to all that he swore to their fathers.
    • Not one man of all their enemies stood before them.
    • The LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand.
  45. 21:45
    • Not one word failed of all the good word the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel.
    • All of it came to pass.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

21:1
The Levites were the descendants of Levi, one of Jacob's twelve sons. Unlike the other tribes they were given no block of territory of their own; they served at the sanctuary and were supported by the other tribes. This chapter settles where they would actually live, scattered in towns throughout everyone else's land.
21:2
Shiloh was the town in central Canaan where the tent-sanctuary had been set up (Joshua 18:1), so it functioned as the national gathering place. The command referred to is in Numbers 35, which specifies a belt of open ground measured out around each Levite town (a thousand cubits, about 500 yards, in the Hebrew text) for grazing animals and keeping property. The King James word "suburbs" means this pastureland, not a residential district.
21:3
"Inheritance" is the standard term in these chapters for the territory each tribe received by allotment. It does not mean property left by someone who died; it means the permanent family holding a tribe was assigned. The Levite towns were carved out of those existing tribal holdings.
21:4
Casting lots meant drawing marked objects, probably stones, to make a decision by chance rather than by argument; Israelites understood the result as a decision handed down rather than negotiated. Levi had three sons, Kohath, Gershon and Merari, and their descendants formed the three branches of the tribe. Aaron was a descendant of Kohath, and only Aaron's own line served as priests; the remaining Levites did the supporting work of the sanctuary.
21:5
Manasseh is repeatedly called a "half tribe" because it settled in two separate blocks: half east of the Jordan River, half west of it. Both halves appear in this chapter.
21:6
Bashan was the fertile upland region east of the Sea of Galilee, part of the territory taken before Israel crossed the Jordan.
21:11
"City of Arba" translates the older name Kiriath-arba. Anak was remembered as the ancestor of the Anakim, a people described in Numbers 13 as unusually tall and formidable, the report that frightened the Israelite scouts a generation earlier.
21:12
Caleb had been promised Hebron and had taken it (Joshua 14–15). The arrangement here splits the property: the walled town and its surrounding pasture belt go to the priests, while the farmland and outlying villages stay with Caleb's family.
21:13
A city of refuge was a designated town where someone who had killed another person could flee for safety. Under the custom of the time, the dead person's nearest male relative had the right and duty to hunt down the killer. The refuge towns interrupted that: the fugitive was protected until a hearing decided whether the death was accidental or deliberate. Deliberate killers were handed back; accidental ones stayed safe in the town. The full procedure is set out in Numbers 35 and Joshua 20.
21:17
Gibeon was the town whose people had tricked Israel into a peace treaty by pretending to come from far away (Joshua 9).
21:18
Anathoth was later the hometown of the prophet Jeremiah, who came from one of the priestly families settled there (Jeremiah 1:1).
21:21
Shechem sat in a pass between two mountains in central Israel and was an old and important gathering place; Joshua would call the whole nation together there in chapter 24.
21:25
Gath-rimmon has already been listed in verse 24 as a town of Dan, and its appearance again here is probably a copying slip. The Greek version and the parallel list in 1 Chronicles 6 give a different name for this second town.
21:27
Golan gave its name to the Golan Heights, the high ground east of the Sea of Galilee still called that today.
21:32
Galilee is the northern region of the country, around and west of the lake later called the Sea of Galilee.
21:36
Bezer was also one of the six cities of refuge (Joshua 20:8), though the Hebrew text does not label it as such here. Some manuscripts and ancient versions add the phrase.
21:38
This completes the six cities of refuge named in Joshua 20: Kedesh, Shechem and Hebron west of the Jordan, and Bezer, Ramoth in Gilead and Golan to the east, spaced so that no one was impossibly far from one.
21:41
Forty-eight towns matches the number commanded in Numbers 35:7: six refuge towns plus forty-two others.
21:43
"Sware" is the old past tense of swear, meaning promised under oath. The promise goes back to Abraham, generations earlier, that his descendants would hold this land (Genesis 12 and 15).
21:44
"Rest" here is a concrete term, not an emotional one: it means the fighting has stopped and no enemy is pressing them, so people can settle, farm and build.
21:45
This summary of complete success stands in the same book as earlier statements that much land remained unconquered (13:1) and that various peoples were never driven out (15:63; 16:10; 17:12–13). The book sets the two kinds of statement side by side without reconciling them.

Read Joshua 21