Joshua 21:37 - John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Bible Comments

Kedemoth with her suburbs,.... Near to which was a wilderness of that name; see Deuteronomy 2:26;

and Mephaath with her suburbs; of which Joshua 13:18; where the two preceding cities are mentioned along with it:

four cities, Joshua 21:35, are not in some ancient copies of the Hebrew Bible, as is noted by the Masorites; but are in some others, as Kimchi owns, and stand in the Targum, in the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and in a manuscript referred to by Hottinger e; and the same words are to be, found in 1 Chronicles 6:78, and are absolutely necessary to be retained, since without them there would be but eight cities for the Merarites, whereas they are expressly said to be twelve,

Joshua 21:40.

e Thesaur. Philolog. l. 1. c. 2. p. 181, &c.

Joshua 21:37

37 Kedemoth with her suburbs, and Mephaath with her suburbs; four cities.