Special Cities for the Levites and for Refuge

35:1–8  The issue of the distribution of the land to the tribes continues in the first part of chapter 35 with provision for the Levites. This pattern of attending to the tribes first and then the Levites is familiar from the census counts in Numbers. The instruction, which comes in a divine command on the plains of Moab, is to give the Levites towns to live in and pasturelands around the towns. They will need pasture because the Levites receive offerings of livestock. From 18:24 and 26:62, readers know that the Levites did not receive a land allotment. They are to receive forty-eight towns, which the tribes will give proportionately. Larger tribes will provide more towns. Six of these towns will be cities of refuge. The description of the pastu…