Numbers Chapter 35

God had said that for the Levites, He was to be their portion. But God also provided the Levites with places for them to live in the promised land.  One thing that is unique for the Israelites is that when they took possession of the land, they gained cities that had already been built.  God had provided a ready-made existence for these people who were once slaves in a foreign country. 

God did not divide out a section of land as He did with the other tribes for the Levites, but He did give them little allotments of land taken from each of the other allotments to give them a place to live and to pasture livestock.  The language is a bit difficult to understand how this organization worked.  I think the best illustrative example would be our modern suburbs of a major city.  It is like the Levites were given the little suburb cities that surrounded a major city.  They were also given common land to pasture their livestock.

This chapter also explains the requirement of setting aside sanctuary cities for the protection of those people who had killed another human being, but it was accidental.  God clearly stated in His Word that when someone took the life of another they were to be executed (as long as there were two or more witnesses).  But when a death happened accidentally God built into the structure a place where those people could live and be protected from an avenger.