Holy Cities for Holy People

First Chronicles begins with nine long chapters of genealogy. Little is said about where these multitudes live. There are scattered hints of territory, but no elaborate description of the borders and boundaries of the tribes, as we find in the latter chapters of Joshua. The Chronicler attends only to the settlements of the tribe of Levi, the Levitical cities and cities of refuge that are assigned to the priests and the priestly tribe (6:54-81), their “dwellings according to their fenced/walled areas in their borders (v. 54). The Chronicler is interested only in the holy cities assigned to the holy tribe.

The description of the distribution of cities is, like the genealogy of Levi, broken up by clan, and arranged symmetrically:

A. Priests’ cities of refuge in Judah and Benjamin, vv. 54b-60

B. Koathite cities in Manasseh, v. 61

C. Gershomite cities in Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Manasseh, v. 62

D. Merarite cities in Reuben, Gad, Zebulun, v. 63

A’. The sons of Israel gave cities in Judah, Benjamin, Simeon, vv 64-65

B’. Kohathite cities in Ephraim and Manasseh, vv. 66-70

C’. Gershomite cities in Manasseh, Issachar, Asher, and Naphtali, vv. 71-76

D’. Merarite cities in Zebulun, the transJordan (Reuben and Gad), vv. 77-81

B-D make only general statements about the tribal territories where each clan of Levi settled. B’-D’ contain lists of cities. The reference to “Ephraim” in v. 66 seems to bisect the entire list. The priests were assigned cities in Judah, and the rest of the Levites received cities in the territory that would become the northern kingdom, often identified with the dominant tribe, Ephraim.

In the wilderness camp, the clans of Levi formed a cordon around the tabernacle, each clan assigned to one side of the tent. Priests were on the east, Kohathites to the south, Gershomites to the west, and Merari to the north. The lists are organized geographically, but they don’t follow the arrangement of the wilderness camp. Instead, the arrangement moves roughly from south to north, the priests at the southern edge in Benjamin and Judah and the Gershomites and Merarites in the north, the opposite of the arrangement of the visionary tribal territories listed in Ezekiel 48.