“You shall designate cities for you” – and it is written: “Six cities of refuge.… three cities […and three cities]” (Numbers 35:13–14) – three in the Land of Israel in the west, and three across the Jordan in the east. The children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh, as it is stated: “Betzer in the wilderness, in the land of the plain, for the Reubenite; Ramot in Gilad for the Gadite; and Golan in the Bashan for the Manassite” (Deuteronomy 4:43) – these are the three in the east.
And three in the west: Hebron from Judah, Shekhem in the Ephraim highlands, which is Neopolis, and Kedesh in the Galilee from the tribe of Naphtali. Moses distributed [land] for Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, and designated from them three cities, as it is stated: “Then, Moses designated three cities” (Deuteronomy 4:41). But Joshua distributed for all the tribes and gave the tribe of Levi forty-eight cities.
The priests took thirteen, and the rest was for the Levites. They took three cities of refuge in their allotted portion. But the tribe of Levi did not take a portion of the land. Why?
It is because “the fire offerings of the Lord and His inheritance they shall eat” (Deuteronomy 18:1). You find that Sennacherib exiled them [in] three exiles. The first exile, he exiled the Reubenite, the Gadite, and half the tribe of Manasseh. The second, the tribe of Zebulun and the tribe of Naphtali, as it is stated: “Like the first time he was lenient with the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali” (Isaiah 8:23).25This second exile was lighter, like the first exile, since only a small number of tribes were exiled (see Radak, Isaiah 8:23).
The third, he exiled the rest of the tribes, as it is stated: “But with the last he was severe [hikhbid]” (Isaiah 8:23) – he swept [hikhbidan] them away as with a broom. Nebuchadnezzar, too, exiled them in three exiles from the tribe of Judah and Benjamin. In the first, he exiled Yehoyakim, and in the second, Yehoyakhin. What did he do?
He bound them in his honored royal chariot, as it is stated: “Behold, I am sending you away like the queen mother”26There is no such verse. It is unclear what the intended verse is. – just as the queen mother, a person honors her, so he did to him. Nevuzaradan27Nevuzaradan was a high official of Nebuchadnezzar and was in charge of the actual destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem, and also the exile which followed. exiled Zedekiah.
These are three exiles. From where is it derived that Sennacherib was the ruler of the world? It is because he would exile these to there and those to here, and he exiled Israel to Babylon and brought those in Babylon to here. The Holy One blessed be He said: In this world, due to iniquities, they were exiled and scattered in the cities of the world.
But in the future: “If your banished will be at the ends of the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will take you” (Deuteronomy 30:4). “He will assemble the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth” (Isaiah 11:12). Likewise, Isaiah says: “The redeemed of the Lord will return, and they will come to Zion with song and everlasting joy on their heads; gladness and joy they will attain, and sorrow and sighing will flee” (Isaiah 35:10).