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.

“Have the Israelites select ¹  the cities of refuge ²  that I told you about through Moses.

Then they went to the fortress of Tyre ¹  and all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites. Then they went on to the Negev of Judah, to Beer Sheba.

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

They were allotted as cities ¹  of refuge Shechem and its pasturelands (in the hill country of Ephraim), Gezer and its pasturelands,

He made upper Beth Horon and lower Beth Horon fortified cities with walls and barred gates, ¹ 

He wisely placed some of his many sons throughout the regions of Judah and Benjamin in the various fortified cities. ¹  He supplied them with abundant provisions and acquired many wives for them. ² 

He built fortified cities throughout Judah, for the land was at rest and there was no war during those years; the Lord gave him peace.

He placed troops in all of Judah’s fortified cities and posted garrisons ¹  throughout the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that his father Asa had seized.

They traveled throughout Judah and assembled the Levites from all the cities of Judah, as well as the Israelite family leaders. They came to Jerusalem, ¹ 

At that time ¹  their fortified cities will be like the abandoned summits of the Amorites, ²  which they abandoned because of the Israelites; there will be desolation.

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, ¹  King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

The Lord said, ¹  “Announce ²  this in Judah and proclaim it in Jerusalem: ³  ‘Sound the trumpet ⁴  throughout the land!’ Shout out loudly, ‘Gather together! Let us flee into the fortified cities!’

They are saying, ¹  ‘Announce to the surrounding nations, ²  “The enemy is coming!” ³  Proclaim this message ⁴  to Jerusalem: “Those who besiege cities ⁵  are coming from a distant land. They are ready to raise the battle cry against ⁶  the towns in Judah.”’

The Lord said, ¹  “I will make Jerusalem ²  a heap of ruins. Jackals will make their home there. ³  I will destroy the towns of Judah so that no one will be able to live in them.”

Listen! News is coming even now. ¹  The rumble of a great army is heard approaching ²  from a land in the north. ³  It is coming to turn the towns of Judah into rubble, places where only jackals live.

Then those living in the towns of Judah and in Jerusalem will ¹  go and cry out for help to the gods to whom they have been sacrificing. However, those gods will by no means ²  be able to save them when disaster strikes them.

I made Jerusalem ¹  and the cities of Judah, its kings and its officials drink it. ²  I did it so Judah would become a ruin. I did it so Judah, its kings, and its officials would become an object ³  of horror and of hissing scorn, an example used in curses. ⁴  Such is already becoming the case! ⁵ 

The exiles of this fortress ¹  of the people of Israel will take possession ²  of what belongs to the people of Canaan, as far as Zarephath, ³  and the exiles of Jerusalem ⁴  who are in Sepharad ⁵  will take possession of the towns of the Negev.

So when God destroyed ¹  the cities of the region, ²  God honored ³  Abraham’s request. He removed Lot ⁴  from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed ⁵  the cities Lot had lived in.