Numbers 35:1–8

And the Lord spoke these things also to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, over against Jericho:

²Command the children of Israel that they give to the Levites out of their possessions,

³Cities to dwell in, and their suburbs round about: that they may abide in the towns, and the suburbs may be for them cattle and beasts:

⁴Which suburbs shall reach from the walls of the cities outward, a thousand paces on every side:

⁵Toward the east shall be two thousand cubits: and toward the south in like manner shall be two thousand cubits: toward the sea also, which looketh to the west, shall be the same extent: and the north side shall be bounded with the like limits. And the cities shall be in the midst, and the suburbs without.

⁶And among the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, six shall be separated for refuge to fugitives, that he who hath shed blood may flee to them: and besides these there shall be other forty-two cities,

⁷That is, in all forty-eight with their suburbs.

⁸And of these cities which shall be given out of the possessions of the children of Israel, from them that have more, more shall be taken: and from them that have less, fewer. Each shall give towns to the Levites according to the extent of their inheritance.