'City' in the Bible

Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son.

and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city.

They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.

So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.

Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?

So the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account.”

Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five, will You destroy the whole city because of five?” And He said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”

Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter;

Then the two men said to Lot, “Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place;

Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, “Up, get out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city.” But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting.

When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.”

But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the Lord was upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city.

Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth; even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying,

to Abraham for a possession in the presence of the sons of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city.

Then the servant took ten camels from the camels of his master, and set out with a variety of good things of his master’s in his hand; and he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor.

He made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at evening time, the time when women go out to draw water.

Behold, I am standing by the spring, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water;

So he called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

He called the name of that place Bethel; however, previously the name of the city had been Luz.

Now Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram, and camped before the city.

So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying,

All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and to his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.

Now it came about on the third day, when they were in pain, that two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword and came upon the city unawares, and killed every male.

Jacob’s sons came upon the slain and looted the city, because they had defiled their sister.

They took their flocks and their herds and their donkeys, and that which was in the city and that which was in the field;

Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom, and the name of his city was Dinhabah.

Then Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who defeated Midian in the field of Moab, became king in his place; and the name of his city was Avith.

Then Baal-hanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadar became king in his place; and the name of his city was Pau; and his wife’s name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, daughter of Mezahab.

So he gathered all the food of these seven years which occurred in the land of Egypt and placed the food in the cities; he placed in every city the food from its own surrounding fields.

They had just gone out of the city, and were not far off, when Joseph said to his house steward, “Up, follow the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?

Then they tore their clothes, and when each man loaded his donkey, they returned to the city.

Moses said to him, “As soon as I go out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the Lord; the thunder will cease and there will be hail no longer, that you may know that the earth is the Lord’s.

So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread out his hands to the Lord; and the thunder and the hail ceased, and rain no longer poured on the earth.

then the priest shall order them to tear out the stones with the mark in them and throw them away at an unclean place outside the city.

He shall have the house scraped all around inside, and they shall dump the plaster that they scrape off at an unclean place outside the city.

He shall therefore tear down the house, its stones, and its timbers, and all the plaster of the house, and he shall take them outside the city to an unclean place.

However, he shall let the live bird go free outside the city into the open field. So he shall make atonement for the house, and it will be clean.”

‘Likewise, if a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then his redemption right remains valid until a full year from its sale; his right of redemption lasts a full year.

But if it is not bought back for him within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city passes permanently to its purchaser throughout his generations; it does not revert in the jubilee.

What, therefore, belongs to the Levites may be redeemed and a house sale in the city of this possession reverts in the jubilee, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel.

For Heshbon was the city of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon.

Therefore those who use proverbs say,“Come to Heshbon! Let it be built!So let the city of Sihon be established.

When Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him at the city of Moab, which is on the Arnon border, at the extreme end of the border.

“One from Jacob shall have dominion,And will destroy the remnant from the city.”

“The pasture lands of the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall extend from the wall of the city outward a thousand cubits around.

You shall also measure outside the city on the east side two thousand cubits, and on the south side two thousand cubits, and on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits, with the city in the center. This shall become theirs as pasture lands for the cities.

The congregation shall deliver the manslayer from the hand of the blood avenger, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge to which he fled; and he shall live in it until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.

But if the manslayer at any time goes beyond the border of his city of refuge to which he may flee,

and the blood avenger finds him outside the border of his city of refuge, and the blood avenger kills the manslayer, he will not be guilty of blood

because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest the manslayer shall return to the land of his possession.

You shall not take ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to live in the land before the death of the priest.

So we captured all his cities at that time and utterly destroyed the men, women and children of every city. We left no survivor.

From Aroer which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon and from the city which is in the valley, even to Gilead, there was no city that was too high for us; the Lord our God delivered all over to us.

We captured all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we did not take from them: sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women and children of every city.

some worthless men have gone out from among you and have seduced the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods’ (whom you have not known),

you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it and all that is in it and its cattle with the edge of the sword.

Then you shall gather all its booty into the middle of its open square and burn the city and all its booty with fire as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God; and it shall be a ruin forever. It shall never be rebuilt.

then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.

“When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall offer it terms of peace.

Only the women and the children and the animals and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourself; and you shall use the spoil of your enemies which the Lord your God has given you.

“When you besiege a city a long time, to make war against it in order to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them; for you may eat from them, and you shall not cut them down. For is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged by you?

Only the trees which you know are not fruit trees you shall destroy and cut down, that you may construct siegeworks against the city that is making war with you until it falls.

It shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke;

and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley.

All the elders of that city which is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley;

then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown.

They shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.’

Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear of it and fear.

then the girl’s father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate.

and behold, he has charged her with shameful deeds, saying, “I did not find your daughter a virgin.” But this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city.

So the elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him,

then they shall bring out the girl to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death because she has committed an act of folly in Israel by playing the harlot in her father’s house; thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

“If there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her,

then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them to death; the girl, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he persists and says, ‘I do not desire to take her,’

“Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.

“Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.

and the Negev and the plain in the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.

Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall, so that she was living on the wall.

the waters which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those which were flowing down toward the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. So the people crossed opposite Jericho.

You shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days.

Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.

It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people will go up every man straight ahead.”

Then he said to the people, “Go forward, and march around the city, and let the armed men go on before the ark of the Lord.”

So he had the ark of the Lord taken around the city, circling it once; then they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp.

Thus the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp; they did so for six days.

Then on the seventh day they rose early at the dawning of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times; only on that day they marched around the city seven times.

At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city.

The city shall be under the ban, it and all that is in it belongs to the Lord; only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in the house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.

So the people shouted, and priests blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city.

They utterly destroyed everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword.

They burned the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only the silver and gold, and articles of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord.

Then Joshua made them take an oath at that time, saying, “Cursed before the Lord is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho; with the loss of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he shall set up its gates.”

Now the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not fear or be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you and arise, go up to Ai; see, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.

You shall do to Ai and its king just as you did to Jericho and its king; you shall take only its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it.”

He commanded them, saying, “See, you are going to ambush the city from behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready.

Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out to meet us as at the first, we will flee before them.

They will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are fleeing before us as at the first.’ So we will flee before them.