1 Chronicles 6:79 Meaning and Explanation
“Kedemoth also with her suburbs, and Mephaath with her suburbs:”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Two place names, both of them east of the Jordan, raise a question worth asking: how far did Israel's worship reach? The tribes that settled across the river could have drifted into the status of outsiders. The allotment recorded here answers that risk directly. Wherever Israelites lived, Levites lived among them, and the border of the covenant community ran wider than the Jordan.
East of the Jordan, in Reuben's territory, the towns of Kedemoth and Mephaath with their pasture lands are assigned to the Levite family of Merari, extending Levi's presence beyond the river.
The Context of 1 Chronicles 6:79
Verses 77 through 81 close the list of Levitical towns by turning to the family of Merari. Zebulun supplies Rimmon and Tabor. Then verse 78 crosses the Jordan by Jericho to the tribe of Reuben, granting Bezer in the wilderness and Jahzah. Our verse continues that Reubenite grant with Kedemoth and Mephaath, and verses 80 and 81 finish with four towns from Gad. Merari was the third son of Levi, named back in verse 1, and his descendants had carried the frames and boards of the tabernacle during the wilderness years.
What Does 1 Chronicles 6:79 Mean?
The word 'also' at the head of the verse links it back to the towns named just before, so that Bezer, Jahzah, Kedemoth, and Mephaath form one Reubenite package. Each name again carries its pasture land, the same phrase used through the whole list, which keeps the grant practical. Kedemoth appears elsewhere as a wilderness area on Israel's approach to Sihon's kingdom, and Mephaath shows up in Reuben's own tribal inventory in Joshua 13. Naming them here reasserts a claim on ground that had been part of Israel's inheritance since the days of Moses.
Placing Levites across the Jordan mattered because that region was vulnerable. It lay open to Moab and Ammon, it was among the first territory lost in later invasions, and its tribes had once needed to defend their loyalty to the rest of Israel at the altar by the Jordan in Joshua 22. Settling Levite families there wove those tribes into the worshipping life of the nation. The list also reaches back to an older mercy: verse 78 names Bezer, one of the cities of refuge, so this eastern cluster held a place where a man who killed by accident could live. Law, worship, and mercy travelled together.
Mephaath has a sober afterlife in Scripture. Jeremiah names it among the towns of the plain when he announces judgment on Moab, which means the town later passed out of Israel's hands. A Levitical city could be lost. That sobering fact gives the chapter's careful record a second purpose for the readers who first received it, people newly back from Babylon who knew what losing a homeland felt like. The list tells them what God gave, and it invites them to hope for what God can restore. Ezekiel's vision of a renewed land, with portions marked out again for the priests, keeps that hope alive.
1 Chronicles 6:79 in the Original Language
Qedemoth (קְדֵמוֹת), 'Kedemoth' -- a town name formed from the Hebrew root for east or what lies in front, a fitting label for a settlement on the eastern side of the Jordan.
Bible Verses Related to 1 Chronicles 6:79
“Kedemoth with her suburbs, and Mephaath with her suburbs; four cities.”
- Joshua 21:37
“And I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth unto Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying,”
- Deuteronomy 2:26
“And Jahaza, and Kedemoth, and Mephaath,”
- Joshua 13:18
“And judgment is come upon the plain country; upon Holon, and upon Jahazah, and upon Mephaath,”
- Jeremiah 48:21
Where 1 Chronicles 6:79 Echoes in Scripture
Joshua 21:37 assigns Kedemoth and Mephaath to the children of Merari in almost the same words, which shows that Chronicles is drawing on the settlement record preserved from the conquest era. The agreement between the two books matters for the returning exiles. Their claim to these towns rested on a distribution made under Joshua and Eleazar the priest, by lot, in obedience to a command God had given through Moses in the wilderness. Old paperwork can be a firm foundation for a people rebuilding.
How to Apply 1 Chronicles 6:79 Today
Borders and distances tend to decide who gets attended to. The people at the edge of a region, a congregation, or a family often receive the least. This list pushes the other way, sending servants of God to the far side of the river. We can look for the edge in our own circles: the person who has moved away, the older member who no longer drives, the small gathering in a hard place. Sending help there costs something. It also keeps the whole body connected, which is exactly what these town grants were designed to do.
Reflection & Prayer
Who lives on the far side of the river from us, near enough to reach and easy to forget? A prayer for the week: God of Israel, You did not leave the eastern tribes without teachers or without a city of refuge. Give me eyes for the people at the edges of my life, and courage to cross whatever river stands between us before the distance hardens.