The distinct impression from this chapter is that each tribe had its own Leviyim, rather than (perhaps as well as?) the Beney Levi being the Levitical tribe. And that is logical, as every tribe would have had its local shrines; probably every town and village, so that the Leviyim would have been sent out like parish priests. But there is also the question, raised by the Book of Chronicles especially, where King David's sons are described as serving as Leviyim, even though their father was from the tribe of Yehudah. I have explored this throughout the Mosaic legends, especially in the Book of Leviticus, and two possible conclusions have emerged:
a) that the tribe of Levi did not acquire the monpoly on the priesthood until the period of the Second Temple, before which time the name was used, because Aharon was the first High Priest and he was a Levi, but anyone from any tribe could become apprenticed and obtain the equivalent of semicha;
b) that the priesthood was a much more wide-ranging service than the priesthood today, which conducts liturgy and ceremony and not much else; more like mediaeval monks, in a world where virtually everything was owned and run by the church: so the crafts guilds were worshipful companies, so the clerks and auditors and human resource administrators were church-trained and hired, as were the lawyers, the medics; so David's sons may well have run government ministries, and in a religion-dominated world that would have counted as a priestly profession.
And it may well be that both are correct, and that the Levite "monopoly" was exclusively on altar-duties and other senior positions in the Sanhedrin. And if so, this may explain why we are sometimes told of "the Kohanim ha Leviyim", which appears to be making a distinction between those Temple officials who were from the tribe of Levi, and those who were not.
As we go through this chapter it is worth having Bible texts open at Numbers 35, Nehemiah 11 ff, and 1 Chronicles 6 - all of which parallel and/or explain aspects of what now follows
21:1 VA YIGSHU RA'SHEY AVOT HA LEVIYIM EL EL-AZAR HA KOHEN VE EL YEHOSHU'A BIN NUN VE EL RA'SHEY AVOT HA MATOT LIVNEY YISRA-EL
21:1 VA YIGSHU RA'SHEY AVOT HA LEVIYIM EL EL-AZAR HA KOHEN VE EL YEHOSHU'A BIN NUN VE EL RA'SHEY AVOT HA MATOT LIVNEY YISRA-EL
וַיִּגְּשׁוּ רָאשֵׁי אֲבֹות הַלְוִיִּם אֶל אֶלְעָזָר הַכֹּהֵן וְאֶל יְהֹושֻׁעַ בִּן נוּן וְאֶל רָאשֵׁי אֲבֹות הַמַּטֹּות לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
BN (BibleNet translation): Then the clan-chiefs of the Beney Levi approached El-Azar the priest, and Yehoshu'a bin Nun, and the clan-chiefs of the tribes of the Beney Yisra-El.
What follows is not the creation of the refuge cities, but the establishing of Levitical cities, which both is and is not the same thing. In what ways different will emerge as we read on.
21:2 VA YEDABRU ALEYHEM BE SHILOH BE ERETS KENA'AN LEMOR YHVH TSIVAH VE YAD MOSHEH LATET LANU ARIM LASHAVET U MIGRESHEYHEN LIVEHEMTENU
וַיְדַבְּרוּ אֲלֵיהֶם בְּשִׁלֹה בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן לֵאמֹר יְהוָה צִוָּה בְיַד מֹשֶׁה לָתֶת לָנוּ עָרִים לָשָׁבֶת וּמִגְרְשֵׁיהֶן לִבְהֶמְתֵּנוּ
BN: And they spoke to them at Shiloh in the land of Kena'an, saying: YHVH gave instruction, by the hand of Mosheh, to create cities for us to dwell in, with their open lands for our cattle.
SHILOH: The political centre which began at Gil-Gal has now moved definitively to Shiloh. Why? Or was it seasonal? My impression of the reign of King Sha'ul, which is the most detailed portrait of the daily kingship given in the Bible, is that he had summer quarters and winter quarters, as well as sometimes staying in his own home town: in much the same way that Henry VIII moved between Richmond Palace and Greenwich Palace and Whitehall.
But the political capital is Shiloh, and these cities are for the Leviyim. Why do they need cities, if they are dedicated to service as parish priests? Will they and their families not live in the cities where they are working? Or is the intention to dedicate Levitical cities in each tribe, and for those and only those to be the legitimate shrines? If so, we have a much more logical structure for a tribal amphictyony than the centralisation on Yeru-Shala'im that will come later.
Or is the intention to give the Leviyim "abbeys" of their own, fiefdoms which they could run, and from which they could accrue whatever wealth there was to be accrued? Local sheikhdoms for the ruling tribe?
There are also the male members of the tribe with hare-lips, or warts on their noses - physical blemishes that exclude them from serving as Leviyim (Leviticus 21:17 ff), even though they belong to a tribe that has no land rights, in an epoch when many of the crafts and trades were carried out by non Beney Yisra-El "servants", and yet the blemished also needed to earn a living.
VE YAD MOSHEH: See Numbers 35:1–8 for this Mosaic instruction.
MIGRESHEYHEN: Note the difference between this and CHATSREYHEN, which we have seen repeatedly in the latter chapters. Some translators go for "suburbs" here, but that infers a built-up area, however few the shops and houses, and this is about pasture-land. If you look at the descriptions in Nechem-Yah (Nehemiah 11 ff), it makes even more sense. The precise detail, including yardage, is given at Numbers 35:2-5 (which also uses the word MIGRASH).
21:3 VA YITNU VENEY YISRA-EL LA LEVIYIM MI NACHALATAM EL PI YHVH ET HE ARIM HA ELEH VE ET MIGRESHEYHEN
KJ: And the children of Israel gave unto the Levites out of their inheritance, at the commandment of the LORD, these cities and their suburbs.
BN: So the Beney Yisra-El gave to the Leviyim out of their inheritance, at the commandment of YHVH, these cities and their open lands.
21:4 VA YETS'E HA GORAL LE MISHPECHOT HA KEHATI VA YEHI LIVNEY AHARON HA KOHEN MIN HA LEVIYIM MI MATEH YEHUDAH U MI MATEH HA SHIM'ONI U MI MATEH VIN-YAMIN BA GORAL ARIM SHELOSH ESREH
21:3 VA YITNU VENEY YISRA-EL LA LEVIYIM MI NACHALATAM EL PI YHVH ET HE ARIM HA ELEH VE ET MIGRESHEYHEN
וַיִּתְּנוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לַלְוִיִּם מִנַּחֲלָתָם אֶל פִּי יְהוָה אֶת הֶעָרִים הָאֵלֶּה וְאֶת מִגְרְשֵׁיהֶן
BN: So the Beney Yisra-El gave to the Leviyim out of their inheritance, at the commandment of YHVH, these cities and their open lands.
21:4 VA YETS'E HA GORAL LE MISHPECHOT HA KEHATI VA YEHI LIVNEY AHARON HA KOHEN MIN HA LEVIYIM MI MATEH YEHUDAH U MI MATEH HA SHIM'ONI U MI MATEH VIN-YAMIN BA GORAL ARIM SHELOSH ESREH
וַיֵּצֵא הַגֹּורָל לְמִשְׁפְּחֹת הַקְּהָתִי וַיְהִי לִבְנֵי אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן מִן הַלְוִיִּם מִמַּטֵּה יְהוּדָה וּמִמַּטֵּה הַשִּׁמְעֹנִי וּמִמַּטֵּה בִנְיָמִן בַּגֹּורָל עָרִים שְׁלֹשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה
BN: And the lot came out for the clans of the Kehati; and the children of Aharon the priest, who were Leviyim, had by lot out of the tribe of Yehudah, and out of the tribe of Shim'on, and out of the tribe of Bin-Yamin, thirteen cities.
Two possible lotteries here: one to decide which land gets given, one to decide who gets it.
Two possible definitions of lot too: a lottery, as in "drawing straws", and an "allotment", as in freely distributing. And if it was the former, did they use the Urim and Tumim?
Shim'on was itself land-locked inside Yehudah, as we have seen (Joshua 19), and Bin-Yamin is the tiniest of all the tribal regions, on the northern border of Yehudah, but just happening to include what will become Yeru-Shala'im later on. So was this by lot, or did the ruling tribe, Yehoshu'a's tribe, step forward and offer its "allotment" to the ones who drew first, including Shim'on and Bin-Yamin who it rather controlled - and the lot happened to fall to the Beney Kohat?
KEHATI: the tribe is either Beney Kohat or Kehatim. For full details of who they were and what their role was, see the link.
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KEHATI: the tribe is either Beney Kohat or Kehatim. For full details of who they were and what their role was, see the link.
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21:5 VE LIVNEY KEHAT HA NOTARIM MI MISHPECHOT MATEH EPHRAYIM U MI MATEH DAN U ME CHATSI MATEH MENASHEH BA GORAL ARIM ASER
וְלִבְנֵי קְהָת הַנֹּותָרִים מִמִּשְׁפְּחֹת מַטֵּה אֶפְרַיִם וּמִמַּטֵּה דָן וּמֵחֲצִי מַטֵּה מְנַשֶּׁה בַּגֹּורָל עָרִים עָשֶׂר
BN: And the remainder of the Beney Kehat received by lot, from the clans of the tribe of Ephrayim, and from the tribe of Dan, and from the half tribe of Menasheh, ten cities.
How nice! Our own city, and the open lands right by the city walls for our cattle, and the best houses in the wall (see Nehemiah 11), with easy access from them to our fields, and all the best food from the sacrifices, and all the tithes - and all we have to do all day is a bit of priestly business - sit in the yeshivah and study while the non-Levitical men are serving in the military. How very nice! Best of all if you have a minor blemish and are excused from even doing the priestly stuff.
On the other hand, comes a foreign army and lays siege, and the Levites are going to be the first to get it. Or does their being priests put fear of retribution in the afterlife into the hearts of the invaders, and hold them back? And do they count as "human shields"?
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21:6 VE LIVNEY GERSHON MI MISHPECHOT MATEH YISASCHAR U MI MATEH ASHER U MI MATEH NAPHTALI U ME CHATSI MATEH MENASHEH VA BASHAN BA GORAL ARIM SHELOSH ESREH
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21:6 VE LIVNEY GERSHON MI MISHPECHOT MATEH YISASCHAR U MI MATEH ASHER U MI MATEH NAPHTALI U ME CHATSI MATEH MENASHEH VA BASHAN BA GORAL ARIM SHELOSH ESREH
וְלִבְנֵי גֵרְשֹׁון מִמִּשְׁפְּחֹות מַטֵּה יִשָּׂשכָר וּמִמַּטֵּה אָשֵׁר וּמִמַּטֵּה נַפְתָּלִי וּמֵחֲצִי מַטֵּה מְנַשֶּׁה בַבָּשָׁן בַּגֹּורָל עָרִים שְׁלֹשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה
KJ: And the children of Gershon had by lot out of the families of the tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the half tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen cities.
BN: And the Beney Gershon received by lot from the clans of the tribe of Yisaschar, and from the tribe of Asher, and from the tribe of Naphtali, and from the half-tribe of Menasheh in Bashan, thirteen cities.
Thirteen on two occasions; any reason for the number? Is it in fact 1 + 12, a central shrine and 12 satelites, yet again reflecting the cosmology?
GERSHON: See the link.
This division also identifies each sub-clan of the Beney Levi with a particular group of tribes, among whom they will now live; does this impact on our understanding of them in the later epoch of the Temple? Is it possible, for example, that particular Psalms associated with them were originally local cult-Psalms, adapted for the centralised liturgy? Is this also the base from which the Mishmarot and Ma'amadot were appointed?
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21:7 LIVNEY MERARI LE MISHPECHOTAM MI MATEH RE'U-VEN U MI MATEH GAD U MI MATEH ZEVULUN ARIM SHETEYM ESREH
לִבְנֵי מְרָרִי לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם מִמַּטֵּה רְאוּבֵן וּמִמַּטֵּה גָד וּמִמַּטֵּה זְבוּלֻן עָרִים שְׁתֵּים עֶשְׂרֵה
BN: The Beney Merari, by their clans, received from the tribe of Re'u-Ven, and from the tribe of Gad, and from the tribe of Zevulun, twelve cities.
MERARI: See the link.
And if there are only twelve, is it because there is no central shrine, or because the role of the Merarim was now purely parochial? And note that two-thirds of these (Re'-u-Ven and Gad) are on the east bank of the Yarden.
21:8 VA YITNU VENEY YISRA-EL LA LEVIYIM ET HE ARIM HA ELEH VE ET MIGRESHEYHEN KA ASHER TSIVAH YHVH BE YAD MOSHEH BA GORAL
וַיִּתְּנוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לַלְוִיִּם אֶת הֶעָרִים הָאֵלֶּה וְאֶת מִגְרְשֵׁיהֶן כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה בְּיַד מֹשֶׁה בַּגֹּורָל
BN: And the Beney Yisra-El gave by lot to the Leviyim these cities with their open lands, as YHVH commanded, through the hand of Mosheh.
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21:9 VA YITNU MI MATEH BENEY YEHUDAH U MI MATEH BENEY SHIM'ON ET HE ARIM HA ELEH ASHER YIKR'A ET'HEN BE SHEM
וַיִּתְּנוּ מִמַּטֵּה בְּנֵי יְהוּדָה וּמִמַּטֵּה בְּנֵי שִׁמְעֹון אֵת הֶעָרִים הָאֵלֶּה אֲשֶׁר יִקְרָא אֶתְהֶן בְּשֵׁם
KJ: And they gave out of the tribe of the children of Judah, and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon, these cities which are here mentioned by name,
BN: And they gave from the tribe of the Beney Yehudah, and from the tribe of the Beney Shim'on, these cities which are here mentioned by name...
YEHUDAH...SHIM'ON: No mention of Bin-Yamin, who was the third part of this. See verse 17; and see again my note at verse 4, to which we can now add that Shim'on gave with Yehudah precisely because he was land-locked and therefore controlled; Bin-Yamin giving separately allows a measure of autonomy, if not full independence.
Why am I asking this next multi-question here, and now? No reason, except that the thought once again occurred to me, and so I am placing it here. And the multi-question: who wrote this down? originally, I mean, not the Ezraic redaction that we are reading. Who? And when? And on what (papyrus scroll, wax tablet, carved in stone)? And more importantly, for our purposes anyway: how did it survive? Where did it survive? Was there an archive in a cellar somewhere, or underground, or in the caves like the Qumran scrolls, and when they came back from exile in Babylon in 538 BCE, they dug it out from the ashes of the destroyed city? Or were they permitted to take it with them into exile - unimaginable, in the historical circumstances: they were dragged away on force-march as imprisoned slaves, a conquered people; you don't get to take your museum treasures with you because they have all been pilfered or burned. Then was it all memorised, and handed down as part of oral tradition? And if not, how did they know, in Ezra's time, to write it down in this much detail, all the inheritances of all the tribes, all the names of the all tribal and clan chieftains, all the military generals later on? I have no answer, but the question is fundamental to any study of this book.
21:10 VA YEHI LIVNEY AHARON MI MISHPECHOT HA KEHATI MI BENEY LEVI KI LAHEM HAYAH HA GORAL RI'SHONAH
וַיְהִי לִבְנֵי אַהֲרֹן מִמִּשְׁפְּחֹות הַקְּהָתִי מִבְּנֵי לֵוִי כִּי לָהֶם הָיָה הַגֹּורָל רִיאשֹׁנָה
BN (literal translation): And it came to the Beney Aharon - from the clans of the Kehati, from the Beney Levi - it came to them as the first lot.
An unusually awkward and convoluted sentence for the Redactor. Full of incorrect grammar too. HE ARIM in verse 9 should lead to VA YIHEYU (plural) here, not VA YEHI (singular); and surely that MI before MISHPECHOT is an error; it should be LE = "to".
BN (amended translation): And they came to the Beney Aharon - to the clans of the Kehati, to the Beney Levi - they came to them as the first lot.
21:11 VA YITNU LAHEM ET KIRYAT ARBA AVI HA ANOK HI CHEVRON BE HAR YEHUDAH VE ET MIGRASHEHAH SEVIYVOTEYHA
21:11 VA YITNU LAHEM ET KIRYAT ARBA AVI HA ANOK HI CHEVRON BE HAR YEHUDAH VE ET MIGRASHEHAH SEVIYVOTEYHA
וַיִּתְּנוּ לָהֶם אֶת קִרְיַת אַרְבַּע אֲבִי הָעֲנֹוק הִיא חֶבְרֹון בְּהַר יְהוּדָה וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ סְבִיבֹתֶיהָ
BN: And they gave them the city of Arba, the ancestor of the Anakim, which city is Chevron, in the hill country of Yehudah, with the open lands that surround it.
But Kalev has just been given it. Is he now forced to accept it as a Levitical city? Or can we now draw a different understanding of what a Levitical city is? Perhaps these cities are designated as the religious centres, each with its own equivalent of the Yeru-Shala'im Temple, but centuries before that centralised Temple came into existence. This would be far more logical for a tribal structure anyway.
Or is this verse a late addition, from the time when David was made King of Chevron, in spite of the claim by the heirs of Kalev that it was their rightful throne. A verse like this one would be extremely useful to David. But see next verse.
And think of a modern equivalent. The City of Westminster has been given to the priests as their shrine - and there is the Abbey, fully functional to prove it. But the City of Westminster was also given to that Kalev, the politicians - and there are the Houses of Parliament, fully functional to prove it. No reason why it can't be both.
ANOK: rather than the customary ANAK;a way of denoting the people that we have not witnessed before, an alternative to either Beney Anak or Ha Anakim.
21:12 VE ET SEDEH HA IR VE ET CHATSREYHA NATNU LE CHALEV BEN YEPHUNEH BA ACHUZATO
ANOK: rather than the customary ANAK;a way of denoting the people that we have not witnessed before, an alternative to either Beney Anak or Ha Anakim.
21:12 VE ET SEDEH HA IR VE ET CHATSREYHA NATNU LE CHALEV BEN YEPHUNEH BA ACHUZATO
וְאֶת שְׂדֵה הָעִיר וְאֶת חֲצֵרֶיהָ נָתְנוּ לְכָלֵב בֶּן יְפֻנֶּה בַּאֲחֻזָּתֹו
BN: But the fields surrounding the city, and its villages, these they gave to Kalev ben Yephuneh for his possession.
Does this mean Kalev has been cheated? No, he has the secular, they have the religious.
And of what he did receive, those "open lands" immediately surrounding the walls, which are part of the Levitical inheritance, would have been excluded anyway.
CHATSREYHA...SEDEH: Note that "open lands" (MIGRESHEYHEN) are the green space immediately outside the city walls, and not the larger arable and pasture lands beyond; these are the SEDEH. The priests get the MIGRESHEYHEN, Kalev gets the CHATSREYHEN.
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21:13 VE LIVNEY AHARON HA KOHEN NATNU ET IR MIKLAT HA ROTSE'ACH ET CHEVRON VE ET MIGRASHEHAH VE ET LIVNAH VE ET MIGRASHEHAH
וְלִבְנֵי אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן נָתְנוּ אֶת עִיר מִקְלַט הָרֹצֵחַ אֶת חֶבְרֹון וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ וְאֶת לִבְנָה וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ
BN: Thus they gave Chevron to the descendants of Aharon the priest, with her open lands, to be a city of refuge for the acidental killer; and Livnah with her open lands;
So we begin to see the Levitical distinctions. Some cities are Levitical, some are refuge, and some are both; remember that the obligations imposed on the city for dealing with an asylum seeker are on the elders, not the priests (though those may well be the same thing), so a refuge city doesn't have automatically to be a Leviticial city, or vice versa, though they probably were. The text does not truly clarify any of these matters - on the contrary, the variations within the text add to the confusion.
LIVNAH: White City. See my notes to Joshua 9:29-33; the town is also mentioned in 12:15 and 15:42.
21:14 VE ET YATIR VE ET MIGRASHEHAH VE ET ESHTEMO'A VE ET MIGRASHEHAH
וְאֶת יַתִּר וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ וְאֶת אֶשְׁתְּמֹעַ וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ
BN: And Yatir with her open lands, and Eshtemo'a with her open lands;
YATIR: Lots of possible explanations for this name. There is YETER, which means "remnant" or "remainder", and is probably the root of Yitro, Mosheh's first father-in-law (Exodus 3:1 et al).
However, Gesenius has a long list which is worth going through: "cords" (cf Job 4:21), "redundant", all sorts - though most of them turn out to be metaphors rooted on the concept of left-overs, or extensions of the concept of "remainder": economic surplus, overhanging branches, et al; even "gain" and "profit" which occur several times in the Book of Ecclesiastes (1:3, 2:11, 3:9...). See also my pages on Yetur and Yitran.
See also Joshua 15:48.
ESHTEMO'A: Esh-te-mo'a, not Esh-de-mo'a; the latter might infer SHADAYIM, which are "breasts", and thence El Shadai, the breast-shaped, or more likely the multi-breasted, mountain-god of Av-Ram; but this is a Tav (ת) not a Dalet (ד). I mention it only because several encyclopedia give "breasts", intending a metaphor for hills and mountains, as its etymology.
See Joshua 15:50 for Eshtemoh as a variant of Eshtemo'a, and my thoughts on its possible meaning.
21:15 VE ET CHOLON VE ET MIGRASHEHAH VE ET DEVIR VE ET MIGRASHEHAH
וְאֶת חֹלֹן וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ וְאֶת דְּבִר וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ
BN: And Cholon with her open lands, and Devir with her open lands;
CHOLON: See Joshua 15:51.
DEVIR: See Joshua 15:7.
Suburbs, as we think of them today, only happen when settlement is long established. New towns, just built, have centres, and then walls with gates; suburbs are the villages beyond the gates which become integrated, or where the city outgrows its walls and spreads. Given what we know of Kena'an at the supposed time of Yehoshu'a, suburbs in the modern sense are highly unlikely. Surrounding villages perhaps, but actual suburbs would date the text somewhat later. Nonetheless, it is from this pattern - major town, farmsteads and villages in its immediate vicinity, and dependent on it - that the city-state grew up, most famously in Greece in the Biblical era, in Italy in the mediaeval.
21:16 VE ET AYIN VE ET MIGRASHEHAH VE ET YUTAH VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ET BEIT SHEMESH VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ARIM TESHA ME ET SHENEY HA SHEVATIM HA ELEH
וְאֶת עַיִן וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ וְאֶת יֻטָּה וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ אֶת בֵּית שֶׁמֶשׁ וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ עָרִים תֵּשַׁע מֵאֵת שְׁנֵי הַשְּׁבָטִים הָאֵלֶּה
BN: And Ayin with her open lands, and Yutah with her open lands, Beit Shemesh with her open lands ; nine cities out of those two tribes.
AYIN: See Joshua 15:32.
YUTAH: See Joshua 15:55
BEIT SHEMESH: See Joshua 15:10. Why is there no conjunction before Beit Shemesh; all the others have one?
Or is the variation in the number of refuge cities a factor of geography - having mountains, say, or marshland, inside your territory, provides obstacles to accessing the refuge cities?
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21:17 U MI MATEH VIN-YAMIN ET GIV-ON VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ET GEV'A VE ET MIGRASHEHAH
וּמִמַּטֵּה בִנְיָמִן אֶת גִּבְעֹון וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ אֶת גֶּבַע וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ
KJ: And out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with her suburbs, Geba with her suburbs,
BN: And from the tribe of Bin-Yamin, Giv-On with her open lands, Geva with her open lands,
GIV-ON: See my note to Joshua 9:3.
GEV'A: Where Giv-On describes the mound as a tumulus, and dedicates it to the Egyptian father-god in his role of Lord of the Dead, this is a natural mound, a hill made of earth, without requiring the spade of Man; though the Yehudit word is almost certainly derived from the Egyptian, rather than the other way around - click here.
21:18 ET ANATOT VE ET MIGRASHEHAH VE ET ALMON VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ARIM ARBA
אֶת עֲנָתֹות וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ וְאֶת עַלְמֹון וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ עָרִים אַרְבַּע
BN: Anatot with her open lands, and Almon with her open lands: four cities.
ANATOT: I queried Beit Anot earlier (Joshua 15:59), as being perhaps the same as this. Christians know Beit Anatot as Bethany, and from Yirme-Yah (Jeremiah), whose father was a priest there. Obviously there would have been many shrines to her, as the consort of Ba'al and mother-goddess of the Hittite tribes, but click here for where the archaeologists have located both it and Almon (Alemeth in its later, probably Aramaic, rendering).
ALMON: The name means "hidden", which is presumably a geographical description. The hills are very steep and the valleys very narrow in those parts, especially where we are now in the southern hills of Mo-Av.
21:19 KOL AREY VENEY AHARON HA KOHANIM SHELOSH ESREH ARIM U MIGRESHEYHEN
כָּל עָרֵי בְנֵי אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֲנִים שְׁלֹשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה עָרִים וּמִגְרְשֵׁיהֶן
BN: The total number of cities given to the Beney Aharon, the priests, were thirteen, with their open lands.
Or, as suggested previously, 1 + 12, though it is not obvious which counted as the Rabah, the capital, at that time; later it will be Yeru-Shala'im in Bin-Yamin. Given its historical and religious significance, especially the presence there of the Cave of Machpelah, plus the fact that it got named first, can we assume that Chevron had that distinction? If we read the stories of David mythologically, rather than pseudo-historically, it was definitely Chevron.
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21:20 U LE MISHPECHOT BENEY KEHAT HA LEVIYIM HA NOTARIM MI BENEY KEHAT VA YEHI AREY GORALAM MI MATEH EPHRAYIM
וּלְמִשְׁפְּחֹות בְּנֵי קְהָת הַלְוִיִּם הַנֹּותָרִים מִבְּנֵי קְהָת וַיְהִי עָרֵי גֹורָלָם מִמַּטֵּה אֶפְרָיִם
BN: And to the clans of the Beney Kehat - the remaining Leviyim from the Beney Kehat - the cities of their lot were from the tribe of Ephrayim.
Another very convoluted sentence, with which translators have struggled; I think the intention is that some of the Beney Kehat have already received their shares, and this verse is giving theirs to the remainder; hence my rendition. Why these Beney Kehat were not included in the original allotment is not something I am able to answer; but look at the link, and two speculations emerge: a) that the nature of their duties separated them geographically - Numbers 4 has the full detail of this; b) that the rebel Korach was a grandson of Kohat ben Levi, the founder of this guild, and the survivors of his branch of the family were treated differently - Numbers 16 has the full tale behind this. Their lot being in Ephrayim, their capital will have been Shechem, so it may be that this was an add-on from a later time, when the Ezraics were trying (unsuccessfully) to incorporate the Samaritan priesthood into the Jerusalemite.
21:21 VA YITNU LAHEM ET IR MIKLAT HA ROTSE'ACH ET SHECHEM VE ET MIGRASHEHAH BE HAR EPHRAYIM VE ET GEZER VE ET MIGRASHEHAH
וַיִּתְּנוּ לָהֶם אֶת עִיר מִקְלַט הָרֹצֵחַ אֶת שְׁכֶם וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ בְּהַר אֶפְרָיִם וְאֶת גֶּזֶר וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ
BN: For they gave them Shechem with her open lands on Mount Ephrayim, to be a city of refuge for the acidental killer; and Gezer with her open lands;
SHECHEM: There is of course an enormous irony in making Shechem, of all cities, a refuge city for the Beney Yisra-El - it all goes back to Genesis 34, where Ya'akov's daughter Dinah may or may not have been raped by the city's heir apparent, and Shim'on and Levi - Levi, note! - undertook the full Go'el, the blood-vengeance that was explained in the previous chapter; and no opportunity for safe asylum for anyone in that little act of genocide, on either side.
GEZER: See Joshua 10:33, 12:12/13 and 16:3, where it is Gazer.
Are they giving it to be a city of refuge, or are they giving them a city, and choosing it because it is already a city of refuge? I ask only because Shechem was already given to Yehudah in 20:7. Or were there two Shechems?
21:22 VE ET KIVTSAYIM VE ET MIGRASHEHAH VE ET BEIT CHORON VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ARIM ARBA
וְאֶת קִבְצַיִם וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ וְאֶת בֵּית חֹורֹן וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ עָרִים אַרְבַּע
BN: And Kivtsayim with her open lands, and Beit Choron with her open lands; four cities.
KIVTSAYIM: The root that gives us the modern Kibbutz, though here it is in the multiple plural, so presumably more like a modern Moshav - a collection if not actually a collective of individual farmsteads.
BEIT CHORON: See Joshua 10:10/11, 16:3 and 5, 18:13 - it is not clear whether the Beit Choron on this occasion is the Upper or the Lower town.
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21:23 U MI MATEH DAN ET EL-TEK'E VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ET GIBTON VE ET MIGRASHEHAH
וּמִמַּטֵּה דָן אֶת אֶלְתְּקֵא וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ אֶת גִּבְּתֹון וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ
KJ: And out of the tribe of Dan, Eltekeh with her suburbs, Gibbethon with her suburbs,
BN: And from the tribe of Dan, El-Tek'e with her open lands, Gibton with her open lands;
EL-TEK'E: Joshua 15:59 had El-Tekon. Joshua 19:44 had El-Tekeh, with a final Hey (ה) rather than the final Aleph (א) that we find here. That, however, was in Shim'on, and this is in Dan.
Except that the very next town named here is also the very next town named there, which turns random chance into something rather closer to odd coincidence. If this was the original location of Dan, before they moved to La'ish, then ... it becomes entirely likely that we have the same towns, just a variation in the spelling. And then go back to my notes to 19:44, where I suggested that the Aleph ending might actually be correct, the Hey an error.
GIBTON: Is that another Geb town? The TON is a most unusual ending in Yehudit (where in English it would be precisely what we would expect).
21:24 ET AYALON VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ET GAT RIMON VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ARIM ARBA
אֶת אַיָּלֹון וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ אֶת גַּת רִמֹּון וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ עָרִים אַרְבַּע
BN: Ayalon with her open lands; Gat Rimmon with her open lands: four cities.
AYALON: See Joshua 10:12 for the Valley and the eclipse, 19:42 for the town.
GAT RIMON: Rimon, or possibly Rimmon, occurred in Joshua 15:32, Gat Rimon in 19:45. A Gat, as we have seen with Gat Shemen (Gethsemane) et al (cf Joshua 13:3), is a wine or olive, or presumably on this occasion a pomegranete press.
Have these not already been given to someone else? Need to check the entire Kehati list, and then go back and look again at that word "remainder"; it begins to feel like they were the forgotten remnant, and given even less than the leftovers: a mere share with someone else. Why would that be? (Korach again?)
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21:25 U MI MACHATSIT MATEH MENASHEH ET TA'NACH VE ET MIGRASHEHAH VE ET GAT RIMON VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ARIM SHETAYIM
וּמִמַּחֲצִית מַטֵּה מְנַשֶּׁה אֶת תַּעְנַךְ וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ וְאֶת גַּת רִמֹּון וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ עָרִים שְׁתָּיִם
BN: And out of the half tribe of Menasheh, Ta'nach with her open lands, and Gat Rimon with her open lands: two cities.
TA'NACH: Joshua 17:11 told us that Menasheh had been given this town, along with several others that were actually inside either Yisaschar or Asher. Which of course has no relevance to its also becoming a Levitical city, but does add one more layer of complexity to these allocations.
GAT RIMON: See the previous verse. Are there then two towns called Gat Rimon? Otherwise two tribes are giving the same city. Given the note to Ta'nach, above, this seems highly possible.
21:26 KOL ARIM ESER U MIGRESHEYHEN LE MISHPECHOT BENEY KEHAT HA NOTARIM
כָּל עָרִים עֶשֶׂר וּמִגְרְשֵׁיהֶן לְמִשְׁפְּחֹות בְּנֵי קְהָת הַנֹּותָרִים
KJ: All the cities were ten with their suburbs for the families of the children of Kohath that remained.
BN: The total number of cities, with their open lands, for the remainder of the clans of the Beney Kehat, was ten.
samech break (that is an extraordinary number of samech breaks for one chapter - do we need to reconsider the layout? - no, it is simply the Tanach's way of organising inventories and lists, made confusing because it uses the same symbols for separating the weekly readings into Sidra'ot and Perashot).
21:27 VE LIVNEY GERSHON MI MISHPECHOT HA LEVIYIM ME CHATSI MATEH MENASHEH ET IR MIKLAT HA ROTSE'ACH ET GOLAN BA BASHAN VE ET MIGRASHEHAH VE ET BE'ESHTERAH VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ARIM SHETAYIM
וְלִבְנֵי גֵרְשֹׁון מִמִּשְׁפְּחֹת הַלְוִיִּם מֵחֲצִי מַטֵּה מְנַשֶּׁה אֶת עִיר מִקְלַט הָרֹצֵחַ אֶת־ [גָּלֹון כ] (גֹּולָן ק) בַּבָּשָׁן וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ וְאֶת בְּעֶשְׁתְּרָה וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ עָרִים שְׁתָּיִם
BN: And to the Beney Gershon, of the clans of the Leviyim, from the other half-tribe of Menasheh they gave Golan in Bashan with her open lands, to be a city of refuge for the accidental killer; and at Eshterah with her open lands: two cities.
BE'ESHTERAH: The Bet is usually a prepositional prefix: "at" or "in" or "by"; and if not, it is a very unusual word in any language of the region. Remove the prefix, and you will recognise the name of Tammuz's mother, the Babylonian Athena-Diana-Mary, Queen Ester in the Jewish Purim story: Ishtar, whose name (Oestrus in the Greek, the correct spelling of Easter) gives us the Ashterot, and varies by dialect into Asherah, Sarai and Sarah, as well as Ashterah. 1 Chronicles 6:56 (6:71 in some English Christian versions) clearly shares my view, naming it straightforwardly as Ashterot (וְאֶת־עַשְׁתָּר֖וֹת), which is the plural form; as does the BibleHub link at the start of this note.
If it is a prepositional prefix, then, for a revised translation: "and two open lands and two cities in Eshterah" for that closing line.
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21:28 U MI MATEH YISASCHAR ET KISHYON VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ET DAVRAT VE ET MIGRASHEHAH
וּמִמַּטֵּה יִשָּׂשכָר אֶת קִשְׁיֹון וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ אֶת דָּבְרַת וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ
BN: And out of the tribe of Yisaschar, Kishon with her open lands, Davrat with her open lands;
KISHYON: See Joshua 19:20. Better known as Israel's other "major river" after the Yarden, it runs (it generally dawdles, and often dries up altogether - I have used the phrase "major river" very advisedly) through the Yazar-El or possibly Yizre-El (Jezreel) Valley from Yifar and Afula to the Bay of Haifa - click here. 1 Chronicles 6:57 names it Kedesh, meaning "holy"; and we have seen that numerous places have that designation. It was along the banks of the Kishyon (generally pronounced as Kishon today) that Devorah and Barak fought against Siys-Ra (Judges 4:7); my link to that text is to a standard Yehudit version besides my own, so that you can see Kiyshon written with the Yud (י) before the Sheen (ש), rather than after it, as here, and as several times previously in the Book of Joshua, but probably more correctly for being thay other way around, and definitely that way in modern Ivrit.
DAVRAT: rendered in some English translations as Dabareh. There has to be a reason for such a considerable variation, but I am unable to locate it in any commentary. The root is DAVAR, which gives us the "Word" of YHVH, and the prophetess Devorah, whose tale, probably mythological rather than historical, took place precisely here, as noted above; so clearly we are in shrine territory again. It also adds weight to the probability that these Levitical cities were chosen because the infrastructure was already in place - courts, city elders, shrine, prison, shrine, priesthood - even if they were not YHVH-worshipping until the Beney Yisra-El took them over.
21:29 ET YARMUT VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ET EYN GANIM VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ARIM ARBA
אֶת יַרְמוּת וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ אֶת עֵין גַּנִּים וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ עָרִים אַרְבַּע
BN: Yarmut with her open lands, Ein Ganim with her open lands: four cities.
YARMUT: See Joshua 10:3 and 23, 12:11 and 15:35.
EIN GANIM: See Joshua 15:34 and 19:21.
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21:30 U MI MATEH ASHER ET MISH'AL VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ET AVDON VE ET MIGRASHEHAH
וּמִמַּטֵּה אָשֵׁר אֶת מִשְׁאָל וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ אֶת עַבְדֹּון וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ
BN: And out of the tribe of Asher, Mishal with her open lands, Avdon with her open lands;
MISH'AL: Interesting name! The root is SHA'AL, which could lead to the Underworld, or it could lead to that process of inner "questioning" which is the intention of most Jewish prayer. Or are those two, at the human level, one and the same thing? Underworld as a metaphorical synonym for "psyche", "soul", "the inner life"?
AVDON: "Place of worship", which is a rather good name for a Levitical city (unless you prefer, as in the Book of Exodus, to translate "EVED" as a slave, rather than a worshipper).
21:31 ET CHELKAT VE ET MIGRASHEHAH VE ET RECHOV VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ARIM ARBA
אֶת חֶלְקָת וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ וְאֶת רְחֹב וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ עָרִים אַרְבַּע
BN: Chelkat with her open lands, and Rechov with her open lands: four cities.
CHELKAT: Still one more variation: see Joshua 19:25 for Chelkat, but also my notes at Joshua 11:17.
RECHOV: But unpointed that could as well be RACHAV. See Joshua 19:28.
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21:32 U MI MATEH NAPHTALI ET IR MIKLAT HA ROTSE'ACH ET KEDESH BA GALIL VE ET MIGRASHEHAH VE ET CHAMOT DOR VE ET MIGRASHEHAH VE ET KARTAN VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ARIM SHALOSH
וּמִמַּטֵּה נַפְתָּלִי אֶת עִיר מִקְלַט הָרֹצֵחַ אֶת קֶדֶשׁ בַּגָּלִיל וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ וְאֶת חַמֹּת דֹּאר וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ וְאֶת קַרְתָּן וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ עָרִים שָׁלֹשׁ
BN: And from the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in the Galil with her open lands, to be a city of refuge for the acidental killer; and Chamot Dor with her open lands, and Kartan with her open lands; three cities.
KEDESH: Note that Kiyshon in verse 28 was reckoned to be called Kedesh, in 1 Chronicles 6:57. There are numerous other towns that also bear the name (see the link).
CHAMOT DOR: There was a Chamat in Joshua 13:5, and another in 19:35; this is probably neither of those, but simply another town that grew up around another hot spring.
KARTAN: see verse 34 below for KARTAH. Both names come from the root KERET, which is not a Yehudit word at all, but introduced into the language, presumably by the Samaritans who were moved there at the time of the conquest by Nebuchadnezzar, when the Yehudim were taken off to Tel Aviv in Babylon. KERET is an Aramaic word, known from the Book of Job (29:7) and from several Proverbs (8:3, 9:3, 11:11). Its usage is rather more poetic than IR for a city, but it does appear to be an anachronism here. (How does that work? Imagine I am writing a piece about the early European settlers on the north-east coast of America, on the islands inhabited by the Algonquians, the Canarsie, the Iroquois, the Lenape, the Mahican, the Metoac, the Mohawk, the Montaukett, and I am being very fastidious in getting the tribal names as correct as I can; but I want to give the general area a name, and the tribes didn't have a shared name, each had its own, and so I call it New York - not even New Amsterdam, but New York. Yes, it is exactly that place; but not, at that epoch, by that name.)
21:33 KOL AREY HA GERSHUNI LE MISHPECHOTAM SHELOSH ESREH IR U MIGRESHEYHEN
כָּל עָרֵי הַגֵּרְשֻׁנִּי לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם שְׁלֹשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה עִיר וּמִגְרְשֵׁיהֶן
BN: The total number of the cities of the Gershoni, according to their clans, was thirteen cities with their open lands.
And yet again thirteen cities: central shrine and constellations? Because of the spread, it is not so certain on this occasion, yet the coincidence of the numbers is hard to ignore.
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21:34 U LE MISHPECHOT BENEY MERARI HA LEVIYIM HA NOTARIM ME ET MATEH ZEVULUN ET YAKNE'AM VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ET KARTAH VE ET MIGRASHEHAH
וּלְמִשְׁפְּחֹות בְּנֵי מְרָרִי הַלְוִיִּם הַנֹּותָרִים מֵאֵת מַטֵּה זְבוּלֻן אֶת יָקְנְעָם וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ אֶת קַרְתָּה וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ
BN: And to the clans of the Beney Merari, the remainder of the Leviyim, from the tribe of Zevulun, Yakne'am with her open lands, and Kartah with her open lands;
MERARI: See the link.
YAKNE'AM: See Joshua 19:11. Or is that Yakme'am, which is how it is rendered in 1 Chronicles 6:53 (68 in some Christian translations) and 1 Kings 4:12? See also 1 Chronicles 23:19 and 24:23, though both of these are names of people rather than a town. This link likewise prefers Yakme'am, but it also insists, as does Gesenius, that KIVTSAYIM in verse 22 was the same town as this, and only because both names have similar meanings; I cannot find a way to support that hypothesis.
KARTAH: See verse 32, above.
21:35 ET DIMNAH VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ET NAHALAL VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ARIM ARBA
אֶת דִּמְנָה וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ אֶת נַהֲלָל וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ עָרִים אַרְבַּע
BN: Dimnah with her open lands, Nahalal with her open lands: four cities.
DIMNAH: DAMAN is "dung", though dung is also perfectly good manure. Was this a shrine to Ba'al Zvuv, the Lord of the Flies, before the Beney Yisra-El took it over?
NAHALAL: See Judges 19:15.
At this point the text becomes problematic: neither the Septuagint nor the Masoretic text, the one used by most Jewish communities since the Middle Ages, have the next two verses, though they are clearly present in other early codices. Mechon-Mamre and Chabad.org therefore have 43 verses, where KJ has 45; Sefaria includes both, but merges them, so that it has 44 verses. The fact that the Septuagint has only 43 is itself bewildering, because usually KJ gets its text from Jerome's Vulgate, which was a translation from the Septuagint; so KJ must have put them back. Rashi does not have these verses. I have kept the numbering system of the full text.
21:36 (missing) U MI MATEH RE'U-VEN ET BETSER VE ET MIGRASHEHA VE ET YAHTSAH VE ET MIGRASHEHA
וּמִמַּטֵּ֣ה רְאוּבֵ֔ן אֶת בֶּ֖צֶר וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁ֑הָ וְאֶת יַ֖הְצָה וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶֽׁהָ
BN: And out of the tribe of Re'u-ven, Betser with her open lands, and Yahtsa with her open lands;
BETSER: See Joshua 20:8.
YAHTSAH: See Joshua 13:18.
21:37 (missing) ET KEDEMOT VE ET MIGRASHEHA VE ET MEY PHA'AT VE ET MIGRASHEHA ARIM ARBA
אֶת קְדֵמוֹת֙ וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁ֔הָ וְאֶת מֵיפָ֖עַת וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁ֑הָ עָרִ֖ים אַרְבַּֽע
BN: Kedemot with her open lands, and Mey Pha'at with her open lands: four cities.
KEDEMOT: See Joshua 13:18. Presumably the most easterly point in the territory of Re'u-Ven, given that KEDEM means "east"; though from the plural this looks like another group of villages rather than a single town.
MEY PHA'AT: See Joshua 13:18. MEY means "waters", and usually signifies a village by a spring or a well, though it could perfectly well be a stream or a river (but not the sea). However, this requires PHA'AT to be a stand-alone word, and there is no root Pey-Ayin-Tav, so we have to look elsewhere or regard the name as a single word with an even more obscure meaning. Isaiah 42:14 has a woman in labour crying out (אֶפְעֶה), which implies a root Pey-Ayin-Hey (פעה), of which Pha'at or Pha'ot would be viable as a feminine plural. Both Syriac and Chaldean have a root Pey-Ayin-Aleph (פעא) - and we always look for the Aleph ending as a clue, because this is an essential dialect difference between Aramaic and Yehudit - which is used for the hissing of a viper (a viper in Yehudit is an EPHEH - אפעה), or the bleating of baa-lambs - an onomatopoeiac word for all sorts of natural sounds. So yes, it appears that this is indeed MEY PHA'AT - "hissing waters", perhaps, or "snake-riddled waters". Genesis 36:39 has a town named Pa'u, in Edom, derived from the same root.
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21:38 (missing) U MI MATEH GAD ET IR MIKLAT HA ROTSE'ACH ET RAMOT BA GIL'AD VE ET MIGRASHEHAH VE ET MACHANAYIM VE ET MIGRASHEHA
21:38 (missing) U MI MATEH GAD ET IR MIKLAT HA ROTSE'ACH ET RAMOT BA GIL'AD VE ET MIGRASHEHAH VE ET MACHANAYIM VE ET MIGRASHEHA
וּמִמַּטֵּה גָד אֶת עִיר מִקְלַט הָרֹצֵחַ אֶת רָמֹת בַּגִּלְעָד וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ וְאֶת מַחֲנַיִם וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ
BN: And out of the tribe of Gad, Ramot in Gil'ad with her open lands, to be a city of refuge for the acidental killer; and Machanayim with her open lands.
RAMOT: See Joshua 20:8. See also REMET at Joshua 19:21.
MACHANAYIM: Where Ya'akov (Jacob) "divided the camp" on the eve of his meeting with Esav (Esau) in Genesis 32. See Joshua 13:26.
A traditional Rabbinic explanation of the verses missing from the final Masoretic text can be found here, but essentially it is an acceptance that a scribe at some very early stage of the text's life made an error.
21:39 ET CHESHBON VE ET MIGRASHEHAH ET YA'ZER VE ET MIGRASHEHAH KOL ARIM ARBA
אֶת חֶשְׁבּוֹן וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ אֶת יַעְזֵר וְאֶת מִגְרָשֶׁהָ כָּל עָרִים אַרְבַּע
BN: Cheshbon with the open land about it, Ya'zer with the open land about it: four cities in all.
CHESHBON: See Joshua 9:10, 12:2, several references in Joshua 13.
YA'ZER: See the link.
21:40 KOL HE ARIM LIVNEY MERARI LE MISHPECHOTAM HA NOTARIM MI MISHPECHOT HA LEVIYIM VA YEHI GORALAM ARIM SHETEYM ESREH
כָּל הֶעָרִים לִבְנֵי מְרָרִי לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם הַנֹּותָרִים מִמִּשְׁפְּחֹות הַלְוִיִּם וַיְהִי גֹּורָלָם עָרִים שְׁתֵּים עֶשְׂרֵה
BN: The total number of cities for the Beney Merari, who were the last remaining of the families of the Leviyim, by lot, according to their clans, was twelve cities.
And yet again that constellatory number twelve.
21:41 KOL AREY HA LEVIYIM BETOCH ACHUZAT BENEY YISRA-EL ARIM ARBA'IM U SHEMONEH U MIGRESHEYHEN
כֹּל עָרֵי הַלְוִיִּם בְּתֹוךְ אֲחֻזַּת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל עָרִים אַרְבָּעִים וּשְׁמֹנֶה וּמִגְרְשֵׁיהֶן
BN: The total number of Levitical cities within the areas possessed by the Beney Yisra-El was forty-eight, with their open lands.
תִּהְיֶינָה הֶעָרִים הָאֵלֶּה עִיר עִיר וּמִגְרָשֶׁיהָ סְבִיבֹתֶיהָ כֵּן לְכָל הֶעָרִים הָאֵלֶּה
BN: These were the chosen cities: each city with its surrounding open lands: thus was the case with all of these cities.
A statement of legal equality, though in fact both the quantity and quality of land area was very different, tribe by tribe.
MIGRASHEYHAH: Note also that, uniquely on this occasion, there is a Yud inside the word. MIGRASH SHELAH would be the norm, elided into MIGRASHEHAH for the singular; here the Yud inside the elision tells us that the plural is being elided, MIGRASHIM SHELAH.
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21:43 VA YITEN YHVH LE YISRA-EL ET KOL HA ARETS ASHER NISHB'A LATET LA AVOTAM VA YIRASHUHA VA YESHVU VAH
וַיִּתֵּן יְהוָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת כָּל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע לָתֵת לַאֲבֹותָם וַיִּרָשׁוּהָ וַיֵּשְׁבוּ בָהּ
KJ: And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein.
BN: And YHVH gave to Yisra-El all the land which he had sworn to their ancestors that he would give; and they possessed it, and dwelt in it.
Except that they didn't, not completely, as we shall see repeatedly in the books that follow. These, like all political manifestos, start with "Yes we can", but alas end with "No we didn't".
21:44 VA YANACH YHVH LAHEM MI SAVIV KE CHOL ASHER NISHBA LA AVOTAM VE LO AMAD ISH BIPHNEYHEM MI KOL OYEVEYHEM ET KOL OYEVEYHEM NATAN YHVH BEYADAM
וַיָּנַח יְהוָה לָהֶם מִסָּבִיב כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע לַאֲבֹותָם וְלֹא עָמַד אִישׁ בִּפְנֵיהֶם מִכָּל אֹיְבֵיהֶם אֵת כָּל אֹיְבֵיהֶם נָתַן יְהוָה בְּיָדָם
BN: And YHVH gave them a period of peace with their neighbours, just as he had sworn to their ancestors; and not a single one of all their enemies stood up against them; YHVH delivered all their enemies into their hand.
Again, not true, and the next several books of the Tanach repeatedly make clear that it isn't true. So why say it? The victory of propaganda over fact! "If they could do it then, so, with YHVH's help - provided that we worship him fully, sincerely, properly - so we too can achieve it now." Something of that order.
21:45 LO NAPHAL DAVAR MI KOL HA DAVAR HA TOV ASHER DIBER YHVH EL BEIT YISRA-EL HA KOL BA
לֹא נָפַל דָּבָר מִכֹּל הַדָּבָר הַטֹּוב אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר יְהוָה אֶל בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל הַכֹּל בָּא
BN: Not one good thing failed of all that YHVH had promised the house of Yisra-El; everything came to pass.
No comment! (I guess even that is a comment!)
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