Numbers 35:1–8

¹And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, in the plains of Moab, by Jordan, near Jericho, saying, ²‘Command the sons of Israel, and they have given to the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to inhabit; also a suburb for the cities round about them ye do give to the Levites. ³And the cities have been to them to inhabit, and their suburbs are for their cattle, and for their goods, and for all their beasts.

⁴‘And the suburbs of the cities which ye give to the Levites are, from the wall of the city and without, a thousand cubits round about. ⁵And ye have measured from the outside of the city, the east quarter, two thousand by the cubit, and the south quarter, two thousand by the cubit, and the west quarter, two thousand by the cubit, and the north quarter, two thousand by the cubit; and the city is in the midst; this is to them the suburbs of the cities.

⁶‘And the cities which ye give to the Levites are the six cities of refuge, which ye give for the fleeing thither of the man-slayer, and besides them ye give forty and two cities; ⁷all the cities which ye give to the Levites are forty and eight cities, them and their suburbs. ⁸And the cities which ye give are of the possession of the sons of Israel, from the many ye multiply, and from the few ye diminish; each, according to his inheritance which they inherit, doth give of his cities to the Levites.’