“Then came near the heads of fathers' houses of the Levites unto Eleazar the
priest, and unto Joshua the son of Nun, and unto the heads of fathers' houses of
the tribes of the Children of Israel. And they spoke unto them at Shiloh in the
land of Canaan, saying: The LORD commanded by the hand of Moses to give us
cities to dwell in, with the open land thereabout for our cattle.”
Top officials from the tribe of Levi approached the Hebrew high command, with a demand.
“And they spoke unto them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying. The LORD commanded by
the hand of Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with the open land thereabout for our cattle.”
Abravanel brings our attention to what appears to be inequitable arrangements for the six
cities of refuge and forty-two Levitical cities. Did the tribes residing on east bank of the Jordan
River and the west bank fairly allocate the six cities of refuge? Did each tribe give Levites the
same amount of their respective territories in which to live and raise livestock?
To the point, Abravanel asks why did the two and a half tribes on the east bank establish three
cities of refuge, matching all the other nine and a half tribes on the west bank? Was that just?
Shouldn’t the burden have been lighter on Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh? Next,
Abravanel sets out to ascertain why the twelve tribes don’t appear to bear the burden of the
Levitical cities equally.
Consider the make-up of some of the forty-two Levitical cities. Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin
provided thirteen cities of theirs to Levites. Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and half of Manasseh,
who had a much greater population than Judah & Co., also gave thirteen cities. Ephraim handed
over four cities. Dan, whose population doubled Ephraim’s, matched his four cities. In sum,
what lies behind the arithmetic?
Here are Abravanel’s answers. Given that the forty-two Levitical cities also acted as places of
refuge for men who killed inadvertently, the total of custodial or safe cities within the Holy Land
equals forty-eight. If we divide forty-eight by twelve tribes, we arrive at four cities per tribe.
Thus, on a per tribe basis, all is fair and square.
Based on the four-per-tribe formula, we see that the two and a half tribes living on the east
bank should have given Levites ten cities (4X2.5=10). If we add the three cities of refuge on the
east bank to the seven Levitical cities there, we’re at ten. While it is true that the bulk of
Levitical cities were situated on the west bank, that holds logic. After all, Levites would want to
be closer to the Temple, where they held official positions.
Abravanel quotes an earlier commentator who added this important contribution to our essay.
The reason why the six cities of refuge had been split evenly between the east and west banks
of the Jordan had to do with the respective sizes of both areas. Recall, the territory that
Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh settled on the east bank had been land wrested from kings
Sihon and Og. Both monarchs ruled over vast land masses. Sihon’s and Og’s territories
comprised feudal chiefs’ property. In fact, the two kings controlled sprawling empires, in terms
of acreage.
Now let us move to the west bank’s property. While it is true that Joshua defeated thirty-one
Canaanite kings, they had not really ruled over big areas; their domains were smallish, modest.
In essence, they were more like city mayors – not monarchs. From one edge of a city border to
the other, far end was a several hour stroll. In those days, it was customary to call or address
city mayors as kings. Alternatively, owing to the inherent uniqueness of Israel, municipal heads
were called kings. On that basis, we see that, indeed, it made eminent sense to establish three
cities of refuge on the east bank and three on the west bank.