Unless one works at a refinery, prison, or some other NIMBY, I'm guessing that most people would prefer not to drive too far to work. Unfortunately, it seems that many people with lower-paying jobs are often forced to live far away from work; those who have the least to spend often pay the most for transportation. The ancient Israelites had to walk everywhere; they didn't have planes, trains, and automobiles. And when everyone had to walk everywhere, they often worked in or around their hometowns. Still, I'm sure some Israelites grumbled a bit if they had to walk further to get to their jobs. Although the Israelites divided up most of the land by lot, the Levites got special consideration. Even though they didn't get their own allotment of land, they were still granted choice cities to live in--cities surrounded by pasturelands (21:42).
We learned about the cities of refuge back in Numbers 35, and now it's time for the Israelites to actually pick these cities. I don't have much more to point out about the cities of refuge that I haven't already written, but I do want to note a detail in 20:4: Once the accused reaches the city of refuge, he is to stand at the city to state his "case before the elders of that city." If the accused arrived at night when all the elders were sawing logs, I guess he just had to stand there for hours until daybreak, hoping all the while that the avenger of blood wouldn't find him and beat him down.
It's like the Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Quasimodo's mother, fleeing from the genocidal Judge Claude Frollo, knocks on the door of the Notre Dame cathedral, asking for sanctuary. However, the Archdeacon takes his sweet time answering the door, allowing Frollo to kill the mother. Fortunately, he does answer the door fast enough to keep Frollo from dropping baby Quasimodo down a well. How lovely of you, Disney.
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