He said to the people of Judah: ¹  “Let’s build these cities and fortify them with walls, towers, and barred gates. ²  The land remains ours because we have followed ³  the Lord our God and he has made us secure on all sides.” ⁴  So they built the cities ⁵  and prospered.

When all this was over, the Israelites ¹  who were in the cities of Judah went out and smashed the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherah poles, and demolished ²  all the high places and altars throughout Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh. ³  Then all the Israelites returned to their own homes in their cities. ⁴ 

These are the provincial leaders ¹  who settled in Jerusalem. (While other Israelites, the priests, the Levites, the temple attendants, and the sons of the servants of Solomon settled in the cities of Judah, each on his own property in their cities,

I will turn the land of Egypt into a desolation in the midst of desolate lands; for forty years her cities will lie desolate in the midst of ruined cities. I will scatter Egypt among the nations and disperse them among foreign countries.

They should gather all the excess food ¹  during these good years that are coming. By Pharaoh’s authority ²  they should store up grain so the cities will have food, ³  and they should preserve it. ⁴ 

Joseph ¹  collected all the excess food ²  in the land of Egypt during the seven years and stored it in the cities. ³  In every city he put the food gathered from the fields around it.

I will bring on you an avenging sword, a covenant vengeance. ¹  Although ²  you will gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you will be given into enemy hands. ³ 

The Lord listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, ¹  and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of the place was called ²  Hormah.

However, you did not approach the land of the Ammonites, the Wadi Jabbok, ¹  the cities of the hill country, or any place else forbidden by the Lord our God.

This is the land we brought under our control at that time: The territory extending from Aroer ¹  by the Wadi Arnon and half the Gilead hill country with its cities I gave to the Reubenites and Gadites. ² 

Then when the Lord your God brings you to the land he promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you – a land with large, fine cities you did not build,

Listen, Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan so you can dispossess the nations there, people greater and stronger than you who live in large cities with extremely high fortifications. ¹ 

some evil people ¹  have departed from among you to entice the inhabitants of their cities, ²  saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods” (whom you have not known before). ³ 

You shall build a roadway and divide into thirds the whole extent ¹  of your land that the Lord your God is providing as your inheritance; anyone who kills another person should flee to the closest of these cities.

and then you are careful to observe all these commandments ¹  I am giving ²  you today (namely, to love the Lord your God and to always walk in his ways), then you must add three more cities ³  to these three.

As for the cities of these peoples that ¹  the Lord your God is going to give you as an inheritance, you must not allow a single living thing ²  to survive.

But don’t you delay! Chase your enemies and catch them! ¹  Don’t allow them to retreat to ²  their cities, for the Lord your God is handing them over to you.” ³ 

They captured it and put the sword to its king, all its surrounding cities, and all who lived in it; they ¹  left no survivors. As they ²  had done at Eglon, they ³  annihilated it and all who lived there.

At that time Joshua attacked and eliminated the Anakites from the hill country ¹  – from Hebron, Debir, Anab, and all the hill country of Judah and Israel. ²  Joshua annihilated them and their cities.

Half of Gilead, Ashtaroth, and Edrei, cities in the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were assigned to the descendants of Makir son of Manasseh, to half the descendants of Makir by their clans.