1 Chronicles 6:72

Study note

Setting — The Chronicler continues a census-style inventory of Levitical cities, specifying the towns allocated from the tribal territory of Issachar. This verse directly follows the distribution to the Gershomites and precedes the continuation of the list in the next verse.

The words — The text records קֶדֶשׁ (Kedesh), literally a holy place, and דָּבְרַת (Daberath), meaning speech or word, both marked as direct objects. It also includes מִגְרָשֶׁיהָ (migra’shehā), literally its pasture lands, designating the surrounding agricultural territory.

The thread — Kedesh and Daberath reappear in Joshua 21:28 and Joshua 19:37 as part of tribal land distributions. Joshua 21:32 further identifies a Kedesh in Galilee as a designated city of refuge.

Why it lands — The verse functions as a territorial ledger requiring exact tracking of how specific towns were assigned across tribal and Levitical boundaries. It demands cross-referencing to verify consistency between the conquest records and the later administrative lists.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.