Joshua 21:41

THE SUMMARY

"All the cities of the Levites in the midst of the possession of the children of Israel were forty and eight cities with their suburbs. These cities were every one with their suburbs round about them; thus it was with all these cities."

The numerology of the Hebrews was an extensive study, and a very great importance was attributed to the numbers. This is evident in the fact that these forty-eight cities constituted, in the aggregate, exactly twelve for each one of the four divisions of the Levites. The situation here suggests the twelve tribes marching in four detachments, the ark of God and its guard in the center (Numbers 2).

The Jews considered four the number of the world, and three the number or the `sign' of God; and twelve the multiple of the two. This symbolism relates especially to the description of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:12,14,16,19,21, and Revelation 22:2, where one reads of the City that "lieth four-square," which has "twelve foundations," "twelve gates," "twelve angels," "twelve names," "twelve apostles," "twelve thousand (furlongs)," "twelve kinds of fruit," and "twelve months" in the year when the tree of life bore its fruit! Also the "four and three" motif is prominent in each of the sequence visions of the "seals," the "the trumpets," and the "vials" of the wrath of God, as reported in those middle chapters of Revelation.