Joshua 21:19 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ver. 19. All the cities of the children of Aaron, the priests, were thirteen— But why thirteen cities to the priests, it may be asked, who were then so few in number? To which we may reply, it is the right, the lordship of these cities which is given them, and that not according to what they then were, but with a view to what they should one day be, and to supply them plentifully with subsistence, when, according to the divine promises, they should be multiplied in the extraordinary degree that they afterwards were. See Psalms 12:8. We are greatly deceived, if we think that the cities given to the Levites were given merely for their habitation, and to dwell in only by themselves: the right which they already had of selling the houses in them, evidently supposes the contrary; and it is easy to conceive, that many private people took a delight in residing there, in order to have more of their acquaintance. Besides, it is plain from the history, that some cities of the Levites were almost entirely filled with Israelites of other tribes. Geba, in Benjamin, for instance, was constantly peopled by Benjamites, as appears from what happened to the Levite who lodged there, and whose concubine was dishonoured in so scandalous a manner, Judges 19. All the other tribes declared war against the single tribe of Benjamin, without ever mentioning a word of the priests and Levites, who, probably, had no concern in this wickedness, and who were so few in number in that city, that no attention was paid to them. We afterwards see Saul and his whole family residing in this same city of Geba. David, and all his court, dwelt at Hebron during the first years of his reign; so that the Levites had the right of choosing for themselves the houses which suited them, in the cities appropriated for their use; and the rest of the houses were let to private persons in the tribe, to whose portion such or such a city fell out; and if the Levites rather chose to reside elsewhere, they were the masters, and might suit themselves; and we know, that after the building of the temple, most of the priests remained at Jerusalem, or in the places adjacent.