04 Num 35.1-8 God provided Levites 48 cities

Numbers 35:1-8 (ESV)

^1  The LORD spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,

^2  “Command the people of Israel to give to the Levites some of the inheritance of their possession as cities for them to dwell in. And you shall give to the Levites pasturelands around the cities.

^3  The cities shall be theirs to dwell in, and their pasturelands shall be for their cattle and for their livestock and for all their beasts.

^4  The pasturelands of the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall reach from the wall of the city outward a thousand cubits all around.

^5  And you shall measure, outside the city, on the east side two thousand cubits, and on the south side two thousand cubits, and on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the middle. This shall belong to them as pastureland for their cities. 

^6  “The cities that you give to the Levites shall be the six cities of refuge, where you shall permit the manslayer to flee, and in addition to them you shall give forty-two cities.

^7  All the cities that you give to the Levites shall be forty-eight, with their pasturelands.

^8  And as for the cities that you shall give from the possession of the people of Israel, from the larger tribes you shall take many, and from the smaller tribes you shall take few; each, in proportion to the inheritance that it inherits, shall give of its cities to the Levites.”

My understanding of the 1000 cubits of vs 4 and the 2000 cubits of vs 5 is aligned with commentators such as Keil and Delitzsch: if the city wall is viewed as a square then the 1000 cubit region would be a larger square 1000 cubits from the square representing the city walls. Consequently the length of each side of the larger square, representing the outer boundary of the mandated pasturelands/suburbs, would be 3000 cubits, e.g. the 1000 cubits of verse 4 plus the 2000 cubits of verse 5.