Key Verse Spotlight
Joshua 21:40 - Meaning and Application
Understand how this verse speaks to what you're facing and how to apply it today
Translation: World English Bible — Catholic Edition
" All these were the cities of the children of Merari according to their families, even the rest of the families of the Levites. Their lot was twelve cities. "
Joshua 21:40
Verse in Context
Understanding the surrounding verses prevents misinterpretation:
38 Out of the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead with its pasture lands, the city of refuge for the man slayer, and Mahanaim with its pasture lands,
39 Heshbon with its pasture lands, Jazer with its pasture lands: four cities in all.
40 All these were the cities of the children of Merari according to their families, even the rest of the families of the Levites. Their lot was twelve cities.
41 All the cities of the Levites among the possessions of the children of Israel were forty-eight cities with their pasture lands.
42 Each of these cities included their pasture lands around them. It was this way with all these cities.
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Joshua 21:1
"Then the heads of fathers’ houses of the Levites came near to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel."
Joshua 21:2
"They spoke to them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, “The LORD commanded through Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with their pasture lands for our livestock.”"
Joshua 21:3
"The children of Israel gave to the Levites out of their inheritance, according to the commandment of the LORD, these cities with their pasture lands."
Joshua 21:4
"The lot came out for the families of the Kohathites. The children of Aaron the priest, who were of the Levites, had thirteen cities by lot out of the tribe of Judah, out of the tribe of the Simeonites, and out of the tribe of Benjamin."
Joshua 21:5
"The rest of the children of Kohath had ten cities by lot out of the families of the tribe of Ephraim, out of the tribe of Dan, and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh."
Joshua 21:6
"The children of Gershon had thirteen cities by lot out of the families of the tribe of Issachar, out of the tribe of Asher, out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan."
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