'Towns' in the Bible
Only the land of {the Ammonites} you did not approach, [all along] the whole upper region of the Jabbok {River} and the towns of the hill country, [according to all] that Yahweh our God had instructed.
And we captured all [of] his towns at that time; [there] was not a city that we did not take from them.
All of these [were] fortified towns with high walls, gates, and bars, {apart from} very many [of] the villages of the open country.
But all [of] the livestock and the booty of the towns we kept as spoil for ourselves.
All of the towns of the plateau and the whole of Gilead and all of Bashan up to Salecah and Edrei, the towns of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
And [so] we took possession of this land at that time, from Aroer, which [is] on the [edge of the] wadi of Arnon, and [also] half of the hill country of Gilead and its towns I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gadites.
Only your wives and your little children and your livestock (I know that {you have much livestock}) must stay in your towns that I have given you,
but the seventh day [is] Sabbath unto Yahweh your God; you shall not do any work, or your son, or your daughter, or your slave, or your slave woman, or your ox, or your donkey, or any of your domestic animals, or your [resident] alien who [is] in your {towns}, so that your slave and your slave woman may rest as you [rest].
And you shall rejoice {before} Yahweh your God, you and your sons and your daughters and your slaves and your slave women and the Levite who [is] in your {towns}, because there is not for him a plot of ground and an inheritance with you.
"But {whenever you desire} you may slaughter, and you may eat meat according to the blessing of Yahweh your God that he has given to you in all [of] your {towns}; the unclean and the clean may eat it [just] as [they would] the gazelle and as the deer.
You are not allowed to eat in your {towns} the tithe of your grain and your wine and your olive oil and the firstborn of your herd and your flock and all [of] your votive gifts that you vowed and your freewill offering and {your donations}.
But only {before} Yahweh your God you shall eat it, at the place that Yahweh your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter and your slave and your slave woman and the Levite who [is] in your {towns}, and you must rejoice {before} your God {in all your undertakings}.
If the place that Yahweh your God will choose to put his name there is [too] far from you, and you slaughter any of your herd and any of your flock that Yahweh has given to you [just] as I have commanded you, then you may eat whenever you desire in your {towns}.
"If you hear in one of your towns which Yahweh your God [is] giving to you to live in, [someone] {saying that}
"You shall not eat any carcass; you may give it to the alien who [is] in your {towns}, and he may eat it, or you may sell [it] to a foreigner, for you [are] a holy people for Yahweh your God; you may not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
And [as to] the Levite who [is] in your {towns}, you shall not neglect him, because there is not a plot of ground for him and an inheritance [along] with you.
"At the end of three years you shall bring out all [of] the tithe of your yield for that year, and you shall store [it] in your {towns}.
And [so] the Levite may come, because there is no plot of ground for him or an inheritance with you, and the alien [also may come] and the orphan and the widow that [are] in your {towns}, and {they may eat their fill}, so that Yahweh your God may bless you in all [of] the work of your hand that you undertake."
If [there] is a poor [person] among you from [among] one of your brothers in one of your {towns} that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you, you shall not harden your heart, and you shall not shut your hand toward {your brother who is poor}.
In your {towns} you shall eat it, the unclean and the clean together [may eat it], [just] as [they eat] the gazelle and as [they eat] the deer.
You are not allowed to offer the Passover sacrifice in one of your {towns} that Yahweh your God is giving to you,
And you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you and your son and your daughter and your slave and your slave woman and the Levite that [is] in your {towns} and the alien and the orphan and the widow who are in your midst in the place that Yahweh your God will choose to let his name dwell there.
and you shall rejoice at your feast, you and your son and your daughter and your slave and your slave woman and the Levite and the orphan and the widow that [are] in your {towns}.
"You shall appoint judges and officials for you in all your {towns} that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you throughout your tribes, and you shall render [for] the people {righteous judgments}.
If [there] is found in one of your {towns} that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you a man or a woman that does evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God to transgress his covenant
"{If a matter is too difficult for you}, [for example disputes] between blood and blood, between legal claim and legal claim and between assault and assault [and between] matters of discernment in your {towns}, then you shall get up and you shall go to the place that Yahweh your God will choose;
And if a Levite comes from one of your {towns} from {anywhere in Israel} where he is residing, {he may come whenever he desires}, to the place that Yahweh will choose,
"When Yahweh your God has {exterminated} the nations [concerning whom] Yahweh your God [is] giving to you their land, and you have dispossessed them, and you have settled in their towns and in their houses,
He shall reside with you in your midst in the place that he chooses in one of {your towns wherever he pleases}; you shall not oppress him.
"You shall not exploit a hired worker, [who is] needy and poor, from among your fellow men or from [among] your aliens who are in your land [and] in your {towns}.
"When you are finished {giving a tithe}, all of the tithe of your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, then you shall give to the Levite, to the alien, to the orphan, and to the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and they may be satisfied.
And it shall besiege you in all your towns {until your high and fortified walls fall}, which you [are] trusting in {throughout your land}; and it shall besiege you in all of your towns in all of your land that Yahweh your God has given to you.
and [even] concerning her afterbirth {that goes out} from between her feet and [also] concerning her children that she bears, because she eats them for lack of anything in secret {during the siege and during the distress} that your enemy inflicts upon her in your {towns}.
Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little children and your aliens that are in your {towns}, so that they may hear and so that they may learn and they may revere Yahweh your God, and {they shall diligently observe} all the words of this law.
Ashdod, its towns and villages; Gaza, its towns and villages, up to the wadi of Egypt and the Great Sea and its coast.
But the descendants of Manasseh were not able to take possession of these towns; the Canaanites were determined to live in this land.
Now the towns of the tribes of the descendants of Benjamin, according to their families, were Jericho, Beth-hoglah, Emek Keziz,
and all the villages that [were] around these towns up to Baalat-Beor, Ramath of the Negev. This [was] the inheritance of the tribe of the descendants of Simeon according to their families.
The allotment {fell} for the families of the Kohathites. The descendants of Aaron the priest, who were of the Levites, {received} by lot thirteen towns from the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin.
Manasseh did not drive out Beth-Sean and its towns, or Taanach and its towns, or the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its towns, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns; the Canaanites [were] determined to live in this land.
And he had thirty sons who would ride on thirty donkeys, and they had thirty towns that [are] in the land of Gilead that they called Havvoth Jair until this day.
When Israel lived in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aroer and its villages, and in all the towns that [are] {along the Arnon}, for three hundred years, why did you not recover [them] at that time?
And he defeated them [with] a very great blow, from Aroer as far as Minnith, twenty towns, up to Abel Keramim. And the {Ammonites} were subdued before the {Israelites}.
The towns which [the] Philistines had taken from Israel [were] returned to Israel from Ekron to Gath, and Israel delivered their territories from the hand of [the] Philistines. Then there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
Then David said to Achish, "Please, if I have found favor in your eyes, then let them give me a place in one of the {country towns} that I can live there. Why should your servant live in {the royal city} with you?"
for those in Racal, for those in the towns of the Jerahmeelites, for those in the towns of the Kenites,
And when the men of Israel who [were] on the other side of the valley and [those] who were beyond the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the towns and fled. Thus [the] Philistines came and lived in them.
Also, David brought up his men who [were] with him, each {with} his household, and they settled in the towns of Hebron.
From Betah and from Berothai, the towns of Hadadezer, King David took very many bronze [items].
Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz returned and took the cities from the hand of Ben-Hadad the son of Hazael which he had taken from the hand of Jehoahaz his father in the war. Three times Jehoash defeated him and recovered the towns of Israel.
The {Israelites} secretly did things which [were] not right, against Yahweh their God; they built high places for themselves in all their towns, from the watchtower up to the fortified city.
Moreover, all of the shrines of the high places which [were] in the towns of Samaria which the kings of Israel had made to provoke [Yahweh], Josiah removed, and he did to them like all of the deeds he had done in Bethel
And they lived in Gilead, in Bashan, and in {its towns}, and in all the pasturelands of Sharon to their limits.
And their property and their dwellings [were] Bethel and {its towns}. And to the east, Naaran. And to the west, Gezer and its towns, and Shechem and its towns, up to Aija and its towns.
And along the borders of the sons of Manasseh: Beth-Shean and its towns, Taanach and its towns, Megiddo and its towns, and Dor and its towns. In these lived the sons of Joseph the son of Israel.
The sons of Elpaal: Eber, Misham, Shemed (he built Ono and Lod with {its towns}),
And we bring the best of our dough, our offerings, the fruit of every tree, new wine, and olive oil to the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and [to bring] the tithe of our soil to the Levites, for the Levites [receive] the tithes in all of our rural towns.
Therefore the Jews in the rural [areas], living in the rural towns, made the fourteenth month of Adar a day of joy and feasting, a festive day of giving gifts to each other.
Beside gates, before towns, [at the] entrance of doors, she cries out:
Let [the] desert and its towns lift up their voice, [the] villages [that] Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy; let them shout loudly from [the] {top} of [the] mountains.
for you will spread out [to the] right and [to the] left. And your descendants will be heir [to the] nations, and they will inhabit desolate towns.
But where [are] your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise if they can save you in the time of your trouble. For [according to] the number of your towns are your gods, Judah.
[Do] you not see what they [are] doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
And I will cause to disappear from the towns of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem [the] sound of jubilation, and [the] sound of joy, [the] voice of [the] bridegroom, and [the] voice of [the] bride, for the land will become a site of ruins.
And I will make Jerusalem as heaps [of ruins], a lair of jackals, and the towns of Judah I will make a desolation, {without inhabitants}.
For the number of your towns are your gods, Judah, and the number of the streets of Jerusalem [are the] altars you have set up to the shameful things, to make smoke offerings to Baal.
The towns of the Negev are shut up, and there is no [one who] opens [them]. All of Judah is deported; it is deported [in] completeness.
And they will come from the towns of Judah, and from all around Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the Shephelah, and from the hill country, and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and grain offerings, and frankincense, and bringing thank offerings [to] the house of Yahweh.
"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Look, I [am] about to bring to this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their neck to not hear my words.'"
Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, and its kings, [and] its officials, to make them a site of ruins, a horror, an [object of] hissing, and a curse, as [it is] this day;
Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "They will again say these words in the land of Judah and in its towns at my restoring their fortunes, 'Yahweh bless you, settlement of righteousness, O hill of holiness.'
And Judah and all of its towns together will live in it, farmers and those who travel with the flocks.
"Thus says Yahweh: 'Again will be heard in this place, [of] which you [are] saying, "It [is] a waste, {without} people and {without} animals," in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, {without} people and {without} inhabitants and {without} animals,
Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'Again there will be in this waste place, {without} people and animals, and in all its towns, pasture for shepherds allowing [their] flock to lie down.
In the towns of the hill country, in the towns of the Shephelah, and in the towns of the Negev, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the surroundings [of] Jerusalem, and in the towns of Judah, flocks will again pass under [the] hands of [the] counter,' says Yahweh.
Look, I [am] going to command,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and I will bring them back to this city, and they will fight against it, and they will capture it, and they will burn it with fire, and the towns of Judah I will make a desolation {without} an inhabitant.'"
So you must go and you shall read aloud from the scroll that you have written from my mouth the words of Yahweh in the hearing of the people [in] the temple of Yahweh on a day of fast, and also you shall read aloud in the hearing of all those of Judah who came from their towns.
{And then} in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the towns of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast {before} Yahweh.
While he still had not turned back, [Nebuzaradan] added, "Return to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed [in an official position] over the towns of Judah, and stay with him in the midst of the people. Or to [wherever it is] right in your eyes to go, [then] go [there]." Then [the] captain of [the] guard gave him an allowance of provisions and a present, and let him go.
{As for me}, look, I [am] staying at Mizpah to represent [you] {before} the Chaldeans who come to us. But you, gather wine and summer fruit and oil, and put [them] in your vessels, and live in your towns that you have seized."
"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen all the disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem, and on all the towns of Judah. And look, they [are] a site of ruins this day, and there is not in them an inhabitant,
So my wrath and my anger were poured out and burned in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they became as a site of ruins, as a desolation, as [they are] this day.'
But certainly we will do {everything} that went out from our mouths, to make smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out to her libations just as we did, we, and our ancestors, our kings, and our officials, in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, [for] then {we had enough to eat}, and we were well-off, and we did not see disaster.
"The offering that you made, smoke offerings in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you, and your ancestors, your kings, and your officials, and the people of the land, [did] not Yahweh remember them, and [did] it [not] come to his {mind}?
Give salt for Moab, for certainly she will go to ruin, and her towns will become as a desolation, {without} an inhabitant in them.
Moab is destroyed, and his towns have gone up, and the choice of his young men have gone down to the slaughtering," {declares} the King, Yahweh of hosts [is] his name.
and on Kerioth, and on Bozrah, and on all the towns of the land of Moab, the far and the near.
Leave [the] towns and dwell on the rock, O inhabitants of Moab, and be like [the] dove, it nests on [the] sides of [the] mouth of a ravine.
Concerning the {Ammonites}: Thus says Yahweh, "Are there no sons for Israel? Or is there no heir for him? Why has Milcom taken possession of Gad, and his people dwelled in its towns?
For I have sworn by myself," {declares} Yahweh, "that Bozrah will become as a horror, as a disgrace, as a waste, and as a curse. And all her towns will be {everlasting sites of ruins}."
And I will cause {your population} to increase for you, all of the house of Israel, all of it, and the towns will be inhabited, and the ruins will be built.
"?"And the inhabitants of the towns of Israel will go out, and they will set ablaze, and they will kindle a fire with a weapon and a small shield and a shield, [with] a bow and with arrows, and with {hand clubs} and with spears, and [so] they will light a fire with them, {a fire lasting seven years}.
[Are] not [these] the words that Yahweh proclaimed {through} the former prophets, when Jerusalem and {its surrounding towns} were inhabited and at ease, and the Negev and the Shephelah were inhabited?'"