Numbers 35:6

"And the cities which ye shall give unto the Levites, they shall be the six cities of refuge, which ye shall give for the manslayer to flee unto: and besides them ye shall give forty and two cities. All the cities which ye shall give to the Levites shall be forty and eight cities; them shall ye give with their suburbs. And concerning the cities which ye shall give of the possession of the children of Israel, from the many ye shall take many; and from the few ye shall take few: everyone according to his inheritance which he inheriteth shall give of his cities unto the Levites."

The Divine charter for the appointment of these cities is given here, but the actual opening of the cities to their intended use, of course, had to wait upon the conquest of Canaan, and Moses' death would take place before that could be accomplished. Therefore, it was left to Joshua actually to appoint and open the cities of refuge and to supervise the distribution of the other 42 cities to the Levites. To be sure, when Joshua did this, he incorporated the Divine instructions here with his order of execution for the project, as in Joshua 20:1-4, where it is stated that "Jehovah spake unto Joshua, saying, Assign you the cities of refuge, whereof I spake unto you by Moses"! To us it simply seems incredible that intelligent men would allege "a contradiction" upon such a flimsy pretext as this. Moses already knew of his impending death, and he no doubt guided Joshua to the best of his ability while still alive. In fact it is related in Deuteronomy that Moses first named the cities west of the Jordan, which is. what happened, naturally enough; and what is there in such information as this to justify Gray's assertion that, "Both this passage and Joshua 20 are at variance with Deuteronomy 4:41-43, where Moses appointed three of the cities!"[7] The answer, of course, is absolutely nothing!

This is a good place to name the cities of refuge, although they are not named in the text of this chapter:

WEST OF JORDAN:

KEDESH in Galilee from the tribe of Naphtali.

SHECHEM from the tribe of Ephraim.

HEBRON (Kiriath-arba) from the tribe of Judah.

EAST OF JORDAN:

BEZER from the tribe of Reuben.

RAMOTH-GILEAD of the tribe of Gad.

GOLAN in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh.

Six different tribes were represented in the locations of these cities, and they were scattered throughout Israel, so that one of them could be reached in about a day's journey from anywhere in Palestine.

"From the many, ye shall take many; and from the few, ye shall take few ..." (Numbers 35:8). God's people honored this. "Nine of the 48 cities eventually came from the large joint-inheritance of Simeon and Judah; three came from the territory of Naphtali; and the ether tribes contributed four each."[8]

The matter of the Levitical cities was at this point in the chapter placed in the background, and more specific details concerning the purpose of the cities of refuge were enumerated.