Bible Strands
Joshua 21:16
Ain, Juttah, and Beth-shemesh—nine cities from these two tribes, together with their pasturelands.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Joshua’s administration distributing urban centers and their surrounding lands to the Levites from the tribes of Judah and Simeon. This allocation occurs during the territorial settlement of Canaan following the military conquests.
The words — עַ֣יִן ('A.yin) identifies the city of Ain, while מִגְרָשֶׁ֗/הָ (migraShe/ha) denotes the open grazing territory attached to it. These terms establish the precise geographic and economic boundaries of the given inheritance.
The thread — The same cities and pastureland designations appear in Joshua 15:55 and 1 Chronicles 6:59. Joshua 15:10 further maps the regional borders that frame these Levitical holdings.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to recognize the exact material provisions assigned to the priestly tribe. It demands a clear accounting of how urban centers and their agricultural zones were formally distributed to sustain Levitical service.
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.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Ain with her suburbs, and Juttah with her suburbs, and Beth–shemesh with her suburbs; nine cities out of those two tribes.
Cross-references
- Joshua 15:10 The border curled westward from Baalah to Mount Seir, ran along the northern slope of Mount Jearim (that is, Chesalon), went down to Beth-shemesh, and crossed to Timnah.
- Joshua 15:55 Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Juttah,
- 1 Chronicles 6:59 Ashan, Juttah, and Beth-shemesh, together with their pasturelands.
- Joshua 15:42 Libnah, Ether, Ashan,
- 1 Samuel 6:9 but keep watching it. If it goes up the road to its homeland, toward Beth-shemesh, it is the LORD who has brought on us this great disaster. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not His hand that punished us and that it happened by chance.”
- 1 Samuel 6:12 And the cows headed straight up the road toward Beth-shemesh, staying on that one highway and lowing as they went, never straying to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed behind them to the border of Beth-shemesh.