Joshua 21:9

THE CITIES OF THE PRIESTS

"And they gave out of the tribe of the children of Judah, and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon, these cities which are here mentioned by name: and they were for the children of Aaron, of the family of the Kohathites, who were of the children of Levi; for theirs was the first lot. And they gave them Kiriath-arba, which Arba was the father of Anak (the same is Hebron), in the hill-country of Judah, with the suburbs thereof round about it. But the fields of the city, and the villages thereof, gave they to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for his possession.

"And unto the children of Aaron the priest they gave Hebron with its suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Libnah with its suburbs, and Jattir with its suburbs, and Eshtemoa with its suburbs, and Holon with its suburbs, and Debir with its suburbs, and Ain with its suburbs, and Juttah with its suburbs, and Beth-shemesh with its suburbs; nine cities out of these two tribes. And out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with its suburbs, Geba with its suburbs, Anothoth with its suburbs, and Aimon with its suburbs; four cities. All the cities of the children of Aaron, the priests, were thirteen cities with their suburbs."

There are four major divisions of the Levites. Now Levi had only three sons Kohath, Gershon, and Merari; but one of Kohath's descendants was Aaron who became a sub-tribe of his own, all of the priests being restricted to his descendants. All of the other descendants of Kohath were the Levites, thus giving us: (1) the sons of Kohath (through Aaron) the priests (Note that the priests also, as descendants from Levi, were Levites, sometimes called Levitical priests); (2) the sons of Kohath (the Levites); (3) the sons of Gershon (Levites); and (4) the sons of Merari (Levites).

There is another list of these Levitical cities in 1 Chronicles 6:54-81, with certain variations in it due to the double names borne by some cities, and to changes which, from time to time, might have been made. It will be observed here that Hebron had first been assigned to Caleb; but here it was given to the priests. In all probability, this was done with the full and happy consent of Caleb who nevertheless received suburban locations which Caleb himself may be presumed to have chosen. Several commentators have mentioned these two lists, referring to the variations as "slight,"[11] or "only minor."[12] Our own view is that the variations are of very little, if any, significance. Plummer pointed out the type of variations found. For example "Ibleam" is found in one place and "Bileam" in another, these being obviously the same word.[13]

We have already commented on the more important cities in this list, and regarding some of the others, about all that is known may be gleaned from this paragraph.