Joshua 20 · a question people ask
Moses had already set apart the three cities east of the Jordan. Why are they given again here?
The chapter doesn't say. Deuteronomy tells it: "Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise" (Deuteronomy 4:41), "Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites" (Deuteronomy 4:43). Joshua 20 names the same three: "Beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer… Ramoth in Gilead… and Golan in Bashan" (20:8). The verbs differ. Moses "set apart" them (Deuteronomy 4:41); here "they assigned" them (20:8), in Hebrew natnu, literally "they gave". Numbers had said the six would be appointed "When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan" (Numbers 35:10), and Joshua 20 lists all six together. The text doesn't say whether the three east of the Jordan were set apart a second time, or only named again beside the other three. Whether three more cities were ever added, as Deuteronomy 19:8-9 allows, is Deuteronomy 19's honest question.
The verses
“Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, that the man slayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally and didn’t hate him in time past, and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live: Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.”
“Beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness in the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.”
““Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall appoint for yourselves cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the man slayer who kills any person unwittingly may flee there. The cities shall be for your refuge from the avenger, that the man slayer not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment. The cities which you shall give shall be for you six cities of refuge. You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and you shall give three cities in the land of Canaan. They shall be cities of refuge.”
“If the LORD your God enlarges your border, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers; and if you keep all this commandment to do it, which I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to walk ever in his ways, then you shall add three cities more for yourselves, in addition to these three.”