Numbers Chapter 35 verse 7 Holy Bible
All the cities which ye shall give to the Levites shall be forty and eight cities; them `shall ye give' with their suburbs.
read chapter 35 in ASV
Forty-eight towns are to be given to the Levites, all with land round them.
read chapter 35 in BBE
all the cities that ye shall give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities, they and their suburbs.
read chapter 35 in DARBY
So all the cities which ye shall give to the Levites shall be forty and eight cities: them shall ye give with their suburbs.
read chapter 35 in KJV
So all the cities which ye shall give to the Levites shall be forty and eight cities: them shall ye give with their suburbs.
read chapter 35 in WBT
All the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities; them [shall you give] with their suburbs.
read chapter 35 in WEB
all the cities which ye give to the Levites `are' forty and eight cities, them and their suburbs.
read chapter 35 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 7. - Forty and eight cities. The Levites numbered nearly 50,000 souls (see on Numbers 26:62), so that each Levitical city would have an average population of about 1000 to start with. There seems no sufficient reason for supposing that they shared their towns with men of the surrounding tribe. Even if the provision made for their habitation was excessive at first (which does not appear), yet their rate of increase should have been exceptionally high, inasmuch as they were not liable to military service. It is possible that mystical reasons led to the selection of the number forty-eight (12 x 4, both typical of universality), but it is at least equally probable that it was determined by the actual numbers of the tribe.
