A city of refuge needed to be a place a person in trouble could reach quickly. Golan was one of those cities, set in Bashan, east of the Jordan, and given to the Levites from the half tribe of Manasseh. Moses names it with Bezer and Ramoth in Deuteronomy, and Joshua and First Chronicles list it again among the towns handed to the sons of Gershon. It is a small name, but it shows how the land was arranged so that safety and the care of the Levites had a place in every region. Start with Deuteronomy 4:43 and read on to Joshua 21.
3 verses
Namely, Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, of the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, of the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, of the Manassites.
And unto the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, out of the other half tribe of Manasseh they gave Golan in Bashan with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Beeshterah with her suburbs; two cities.
Unto the sons of Gershom were given out of the family of the half tribe of Manasseh, Golan in Bashan with her suburbs, and Ashtaroth with her suburbs:
Matthew George Easton, 1897
Exile, a city of Bashan (Deut. 4:43), one of the three cities of refuge east of Jordan, about 12 miles north-east of the Sea of Galilee (Josh. 20:8). There are no further notices of it in Scripture. It became the head of the province of Gaulanitis, one of the four provinces into which Bashan was divided after the Babylonish captivity, and almost identical with the modern Jaulan, in Western Hauran, about 39 miles in length and 18 in breath.
William Smith, 1884
(circle), a city of Bashan, (4:43) allotted out of the half tribe of Manasseh to the Levites, (Joshua 21:27) and one of the three cities of refuge east of the Jordan. ch (Joshua 20:8) Its very site is now unknown. It gave its name to the province of Gaulanitis. It lay east of Galilee and north of Gadaritis [GADARA], and corresponds to the modern province of Jaulan .