Numbers 32

1The Reubenites and the Gadites had a very large number of livestock. When they saw that the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead was a place suited for livestock,

2the Gadites and the Reubenites came to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the leaders of the congregation and said,

3“Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon,

4the land that Yahweh struck down before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.”

5They said, “If we have found favor in your eyes, let this land be given to your servants as our property. Do not take us across the Jordan.”

6Moses said to the Gadites and the Reubenites, “Should your brothers go to war while you sit here?

7Why would you discourage the Israelites from crossing over into the land that Yahweh has given them?

8That is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to look over the land.

9They went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, and then they discouraged the Israelites from going into the land that Yahweh had given them.

10Yahweh’s anger burned that day, and he swore,

11‘Not one of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, will see the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they have not followed me wholeheartedly,

12except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, because they followed Yahweh wholeheartedly.’

13Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness for forty years, until the whole generation that had done evil in Yahweh’s sight was gone.

14And now here you are, a brood of sinners, standing up in your fathers’ place to add still more to Yahweh’s fierce anger against Israel!

15If you turn away from following him, he will once again leave them in the wilderness, and you will bring destruction on this whole people.”

16Then they came up to him and said, “We will build pens here for our livestock and towns for our little ones.

17But we ourselves will arm for battle and go quickly ahead of the Israelites until we have brought them to their place. Meanwhile our little ones will live in fortified towns, safe from the people of the land.

18We will not return to our homes until every one of the Israelites has received his inheritance.

19We will not take an inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan, to the east.”

20Moses said to them, “If you will do this, if you will arm yourselves for battle before Yahweh,

21and all of you who are armed cross the Jordan before Yahweh until he has driven his enemies out before him,

22and the land is subdued before Yahweh, then afterward you may return. You will be free of your obligation to Yahweh and to Israel, and this land will be your property before Yahweh.

23But if you do not do this, you will have sinned against Yahweh, and you can be sure that your sin will find you out.

24Build towns for your little ones and pens for your flocks, and do what you have promised.”

25The Gadites and the Reubenites said to Moses, “Your servants will do as my lord commands.

26Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our livestock will stay there in the towns of Gilead,

27but your servants, every man armed for war, will cross over before Yahweh to battle, just as my lord says.”

28So Moses gave orders concerning them to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua son of Nun, and to the heads of the ancestral houses of the tribes of the Israelites.

29Moses said to them, “If the Gadites and the Reubenites cross the Jordan with you, every man armed for battle before Yahweh, and the land is subdued before you, then you are to give them the land of Gilead as their property.

30But if they do not cross over with you armed, they must accept their property among you in the land of Canaan.”

31The Gadites and the Reubenites answered, “What Yahweh has said to your servants, we will do.

32We will cross over armed before Yahweh into the land of Canaan, but the property we inherit will remain ours on this side of the Jordan.”

33So Moses gave to the Gadites, the Reubenites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land with its towns and the territory around those towns.

34The Gadites built Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer,

35Atroth-shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah,

36Beth-nimrah, and Beth-haran as fortified towns, and built pens for their flocks.

37The Reubenites built Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim,

38Nebo and Baal-meon, whose names were changed, and Sibmah. They gave new names to the towns they built.

39The descendants of Machir son of Manasseh went to Gilead, captured it, and drove out the Amorites who were there.

40So Moses gave Gilead to Machir son of Manasseh, and he settled there.

41Jair son of Manasseh went and captured their villages and called them Havvoth-jair.

42Nobah went and captured Kenath and its villages, and called it Nobah after his own name.