1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses in the rift valley plains of Moab along the Jordan near Jericho. He said: 2 “Instruct the Israelites to give the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites will possess. You must also give the Levites grazing land around the towns. 3 Thus they will have towns in which to live, and their grazing lands will be for their cattle, for their possessions, and for all their animals. 4 The grazing lands around the towns that you will give to the Levites must extend to a distance of 500 yards from the town wall.

1 The tribal leaders of the Levites went before Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun and the Israelite tribal leaders 2 in Shiloh in the land of Canaan and said, “The Lord told Moses to assign us cities in which to live along with the grazing areas for our cattle.” 3 So the Israelites assigned these cities and their grazing areas to the Levites from their own holdings, as the Lord had instructed. 4 The first lot belonged to the Kohathite clans. The Levites who were descendants of Aaron the priest were allotted 13 cities from the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin. 5 The rest of Kohath’s descendants were allotted ten cities from the clans of the tribe of Ephraim, and from the tribe of Dan and the half-tribe of Manasseh.