It is important to note that the Levites probably never came to live in all of these cities. Like the rest of the land allotment they are the ideal. These were the cities that ought to be have been inhabited by Levites, if that land was conquered by Israel.1 1 Chronicles 6:54–81 also gives a list of the Levitical cities, but the list is shorter than the one in Joshua, reflecting the reality of occupation rather than the ideal.
41 The cities of the Levites in the midst of the possession of the people of Israel were in all forty-eight cities with their pasturelands.