Numbers 35:3, commentary and pictures

The cities were to be dwelling places for the Levites, and the pasturelands around them were set apart for their cattle, their goods or possessions, and all their other animals. The chapter gives directions for setting apart cities of refuge for manslayers, belonging to the instructions concerning the cities given to the tribe of Levi and the laws concerning murder, standing together with the instruction on the marriage of heiresses. The Levites received no single tribal portion of land like the other tribes, but forty-eight cities scattered among all the tribes as their portion, providing homes distributed throughout Israel so they could perform priestly duties and their influence for good might be more widely felt.

Each city assigned to the Levites included large surrounding suburbs, estimated at fifteen acres for each Levite, with room for family gardens and vineyards and the rest devoted to grazing. The land was not designed for financial profit but to provide good health and a clear mind for direct contact with the people, while the cattle from their ranges supplied all the daily national offerings, so that whether at the sanctuary or in their cities the Levites were constantly employed in sanctuary work. The cities provided for the one who kills another unwittingly to flee and dwell in refuge, six in number, where the slayer must remain until the death of the high priest, safe inside from the avenger of blood who might kill him if he left.

The cities are a type of Christ to whom the sinner flees for refuge, and the avenger of blood is a type of God's law relentlessly pursuing the sinner and demanding his life. The sinner abiding in Christ is safe and the law is satisfied to have him there, and because Christ as High Priest after the order of Melchisedec dies no more but is alive forevermore and ever lives to make intercession, the dwelling in refuge never ends and salvation to the uttermost is eternally secure. The scattering fulfilled being divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel, with the curse turned into a blessing, proving that when God pronounces evil against wickedness and people turn from evil He will repent of the evil He thought to do and give blessing instead, for He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. No explanation is given of the provision for cattle, goods, and beasts.