Detailed Description of the Cities Given.
‘ And the children of Israel gave by lot to the Levites these cities with their suburbs, as YHWH commanded by the hand of Moses.'
As mentioned above this ‘giving' of the cities did not indicate that the Levites took full possession of them, although from this point in time they were levitical cities under the final jurisdiction of the Levites. The children of Aaron would not be numerous enough to take full possession of thirteen cities, indeed they were probably stretched to even provide a few inhabitants for each, although of course provision was being made for the future. The ‘suburbs' were the lands directly surrounding the city, and did not include general lands and the villages round about (verse 12).
“As YHWH commanded by the hand of Moses” (see Numbers 35:2-8).