Nombres 32

Reuben and Gad ask for land east of the Jordan

¹The Reubenites and the Gadites owned a great deal of livestock, a very large number of animals. They saw that the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead was just the place for livestock. ²So the Gadites and the Reubenites came and spoke to Moses, to Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the congregation. They said, ³“Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo and Beon, ⁴the land that the LORD conquered for the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.”

⁵“If we have found favor with you,” they said, “let this land be given to your servants as their property. Do not make us cross the Jordan.” ⁶Moses said to the Gadites and the Reubenites, “Are your brothers to go to war while you stay here? ⁷Why would you discourage the Israelites from crossing over into the land that the LORD has given them? ⁸That is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to look over the land. ⁹They went up as far as the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, and then they discouraged the Israelites from entering the land that the LORD had given them. ¹⁰The LORD’s anger burned on that day, and he swore this oath: ¹¹‘Not one of the men who came up out of Egypt, twenty years old and over, will see the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, because they have not followed me with all their heart, ¹²except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, for they have followed the LORD with all their heart.’ ¹³The LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness for forty years, until the whole generation that had done what was evil in the sight of the LORD had died out. ¹⁴And now you have taken your fathers’ place, a new generation of sinners, to make the anger of the LORD burn against Israel even more! ¹⁵If you turn away from following him, he will once again leave this people in the wilderness, and you will bring ruin on them all.”

An agreement with Reuben and Gad

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 eagerly 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.^{a 18}We will not go back to our homes until every one of the Israelites has received an inheritance. ¹⁹We will not take an inheritance with them on the far side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan, to the east.”

²⁰Moses answered them, “If you do this, if you arm yourselves for battle before the LORD, ²¹and every armed man among you crosses the Jordan before the LORD until he has driven out his enemies before him, ²²and the land is brought under control before the LORD, then afterward you may return. You will be free of your duty to the LORD and to Israel, and this land will be your property before the LORD. ²³But if you do not do this, then you will have sinned against the LORD, and you can be sure that your sin will catch up with you. ²⁴Build towns for your little ones and pens for your flocks, but do what you have promised.” ²⁵The Gadites and the Reubenites said to Moses, “Your servants will do just as my lord commands. ²⁶Our little ones, our wives, our livestock and all our other animals will stay there in the towns of Gilead, ²⁷but your servants, every man armed for war, will cross over before the LORD to the battle, as my lord says.” ²⁸So Moses gave orders about them to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua son of Nun, and to the heads of the ancestral families of the tribes of the Israelites. ²⁹Moses said to them, “If the Gadites and the Reubenites cross the Jordan with you before the LORD, every man armed for battle, and the land is brought under control before you, then give them the land of Gilead as their property. ³⁰But if they do not cross over with you armed, they are to receive their property among you in the land of Canaan.” ³¹The Gadites and the Reubenites answered, “Your servants will do what the LORD has said. ³²We will cross over armed before the LORD into the land of Canaan, but the property we inherit will be ours on this side of the Jordan.” ³³So Moses gave to the Gadites, the Reubenites and half the 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 their territories, the towns of the whole region. ³⁴The Gadites built Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer, ³⁵Atroth-shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah, ³⁶Beth-nimrah and Beth-haran, as fortified towns, and they built pens for their flocks. ³⁷The Reubenites built Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim, ³⁸Nebo and Baal-meon (their names were changed), and Sibmah. They gave new names to the towns they built.^{b 39}The descendants of Machir son of Manasseh went to Gilead, captured it and drove out the Amorites who lived there. ⁴⁰So Moses gave Gilead to Machir son of Manasseh, and he settled there. ⁴¹Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, went and captured their villages, and he named them Havvoth-jair. ⁴²And Nobah went and captured Kenath and its villages, and he named it Nobah after himself.