'Towns' in the Bible
They burned all their towns where they lived and all their encampments.
but we will maintain ourselves in armed readiness and go before the Israelites until whenever we have brought them to their place. Our descendants will be living in fortified towns as a protection against the inhabitants of the land.
Now Jair son of Manasseh went and captured their small towns and named them Havvoth Jair.
"Instruct the Israelites to give the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites will possess. You must also give the Levites grazing land around the towns.
Thus they will have towns in which to live, and their grazing lands will be for their cattle, for their possessions, and for all their animals.
The grazing lands around the towns that you will give to the Levites must extend to a distance of 500 yards from the town wall.
"You must measure from outside the wall of the town on the east 1,000 yards, and on the south side 1,000 yards, and on the west side 1,000 yards, and on the north side 1,000 yards, with the town in the middle. This territory must belong to them as grazing land for the towns.
Now from these towns that you will give to the Levites you must select six towns of refuge to which a person who has killed someone may flee. And you must give them forty-two other towns.
"So the total of the towns you will give the Levites is forty-eight. You must give these together with their grazing lands.
The towns you will give must be from the possession of the Israelites. From the larger tribes you must give more; and from the smaller tribes fewer. Each must contribute some of its own towns to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance allocated to each.
you must then designate some towns as towns of refuge for you, to which a person who has killed someone unintentionally may flee.
And they must stand as your towns of refuge from the avenger in order that the killer may not die until he has stood trial before the community.
"You must give three towns on this side of the Jordan, and you must give three towns in the land of Canaan; they must be towns of refuge.
These six towns will be places of refuge for the Israelites, and for the foreigner, and for the settler among them, so that anyone who kills any person accidentally may flee there.