Joshua 21:27

CITIES OF THE GERSHONITES

"And unto the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, out of the half-tribe of Manasseh they gave Golan in Bashan with its suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Beeshterah with its suburbs; two cities. And out of the tribe of Isaachar, Kishion with its suburbs, Daberath with its suburbs, Jarmuth with its suburbs, En-gannim with its suburbs; four cities. And out of the tribe of Asher, Mishal with its suburbs, Abdon with its suburbs, Helkath with its suburbs, and Rehob with its suburbs; four cities. And out of the tribe of Napthali, Kedesh in Galilee with it suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Hammoth-dot with its suburbs, and Kartan with its suburbs; three cities. All the cities of the Gershonites according to their families were thirteen cities with their suburbs."

"Beeshterah ..." (Joshua 21:27). This is another of those "variations" from the list in 1 Chronicles 6, which reads "Ashteroth"; "But Beeshterah is only an abbreviated form of Beth-Ashtaroth, meaning the place of Ashtaroth, or the Temple of Ashtaroth."[15] Thus, we have another instance of the same city with different names, the city here, of course, being one of Og's capitals.

In all of these assignments, it should be remembered that the Levites were neither the sole possessors of those cities nor the rulers of them. "The regulation meant that adequate room for the Levites was to be provided, and that they had the right to the pasture lands around their cities."[16]