John Gill Commentary Joshua 21:37

"Kedemoth with its suburbs, and Mephaath with its suburbs; four cities." — Joshua 21:37 (ASV)

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

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

four cities ,
(Joshua 21:35Joshua 21:36), 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 ^F5 ; and the same words are to be, found in (1 Chronicles 6:78 1 Chronicles 6:79), 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).

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FOOTNOTES:

• F5: Thesaur. Philolog. l. 1. c. 2. p. 181