The text of the passage has suffered in transcription. In verses 55‒60 eleven names are given, but thirteen are reckoned (verse 60), the explanation being that the names _Juttah_ and _Gibeon_ (Joshua xxi. 16, 17) have fallen out. In verse 61, after or before _Manasseh_, the names of _Ephraim_ and _Dan_ have fallen out (compare verse 66 and Joshua xxi. 5); Manasseh contributed only two out of the ten cities. Before verse 69 we must restore from Joshua xxi. 23 the words, _And out of the tribe of Dan, Eltekeh with her suburbs, Gibbethon with her suburbs_. In verse 77 or immediately before verse 78 two names of cities of Zebulun have fallen out; compare verse 63 (“twelve cities”) with verses 77‒81 (ten cities only are named). =54‒60= (= Joshua xxi. 10‒19). THE [THIRTEEN] CITIES OF THE AARONITES. ⁵⁴Now these are their dwelling places according to their encampments in their borders: to the sons of Aaron, of the families of the Kohathites, for theirs was the _first_ lot, =54.= _Now these ... borders_] the words are supplied by the Chronicler. Owing to his rearrangement of the material, the original introduction (i.e. Joshua xxi. 9) appears in this chapter as verse 65 (where see note). _encampments_] Properly, the circular encampments of a nomadic tribe; here used more freely = habitations. ⁵⁵to them they gave Hebron in the land of Judah, and the suburbs thereof round about it; =55.= _suburbs_] compare xiii. 2, note. ⁵⁶but the fields of the city, and the villages thereof, they gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh. =56.= _to Caleb_] Joshua xxi. 12; Judges i. 20. ⁵⁷And to the sons of Aaron they gave the cities of refuge, Hebron; Libnah also with her suburbs, and Jattir, and Eshtemoa with her suburbs; =57.= _the cities of refuge, Hebron_] Read, =the city of refuge, Hebron= (compare Joshua xxi. 13), Hebron being the only city of refuge here mentioned (Joshua xx. 7). _Libnah_] in the south-west of Judah, Joshua x. 29; 2 Kings viii. 22, xix. 8. _Eshtemoa_] the modern es-Semu‘a, south of Hebron. Compare iv. 17. ⁵⁸and Hilen¹ with her suburbs, Debir with her suburbs; ¹ In Joshua xxi. 15, _Holon_. =58.= _Hilen_] In Joshua xxi. 15, _Holon_. _Debir_] identified with modern Dāharījeh, south-west of Hebron. It is called _Kiriath-sepher_ (Judges i. 11) and _Kiriath-sannah_ (Joshua xv. 49). ⁵⁹and Ashan¹ with her suburbs, and Beth-shemesh with her suburbs: ¹ In Joshua xxi. 16, _Ain_. =59.= _Ashan with her suburbs_] Joshua xxi. 16 has _Ain_ for _Ashan_, and adds, _and Juttah with her suburbs_. Compare the Critical Note above. _Beth-shemesh_] Joshua xv. 10; 1 Samuel vi. 9; 2 Kings xiv. 11, 13 (= 2 Chronicles xxv. 21, 23). A town in the north-west of Judah, now _‘Ain Shems_, situated at the point at which the hill-country of Judah begins, as one goes by the railway from Jaffa to Jerusalem (Bädeker, _Palestine_⁵, p. 14).