Verses 13-14 deal with the number and location of the cities of refuge. These cities are named in Josh 20.7-8. A city of refuge had to be within feasible reach everywhere in the country.

And the cities which you give shall be your six cities of refuge: In languages where the verb give is unnatural or cannot stand without an indirect object, this sentence may be rendered “Of the cities which you will appoint, six will be cities of refuge for you” (La Nouvelle Bible Segond; similarly Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Reina-Valera revisida, De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling) or “Of the cities that you give to the Levites, six will be cities of refuge” (Reina-Valera Contemporánea). These renderings are closer to the meaning of the Hebrew here than the one in Good News Translation, which has simply “Choose six cities.” The six cities of refuge stand in contrast to the other forty-two cities in verse 6.

You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities in the land of Canaan, to be cities of refuge: Beyond the Jordan refers to “east of the Jordan River” (New International Readers Version), where the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh settled. A possible model for this sentence is “Assign three on this side of the Jordan and three in Canaan as cities of refuge” (similarly TNIV).

Quoted with permission from de Regt, Lénart J. and Wendland, Ernst R. A Handbook on Numbers. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .