Numbers 32

¹ And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had ^[1]a multitude of cattle, very great; and they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Galaad; and the place was a place for cattle: ² and the children of Reuben and the children of Gad came, and spake to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the princes of the congregation, saying, ³ Ataroth, and Daebon, and Jazer, and Namra, and Esebon, and Eleale, and Sebama, and Nabau, and Baean, ⁴ the land which the Lord hath delivered up before the children of Israel, is pasture land, and thy servants have cattle. ⁵ And they said, If we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given to thy servants for a possession, and do not cause us to pass over Jordan.

⁶ And Moses said to the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here? ⁷ And why do ye pervert the minds of the children of Israel, that they should not cross over into the land, which the Lord giveth them? ⁸ Did not your fathers thus, when I sent them from Cades Barne to spy out the land? ⁹ and they went up to the valley of the cluster, and spied the land, and turned aside the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land, which the Lord gave them. ¹⁰ And the Lord was very angry in that day, and sware, saying, ¹¹ Surely these men who came up out of Egypt from twenty years old and upward, who know good and evil, shall not see the land which I sware to give to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, for they have not closely followed after me: ¹² save Caleb the son of Jephunne, who was set apart, and Jesus the son of Navi, for they closely followed after the Lord. ¹³ And the Lord was very angry with Israel; and for forty years he caused them to wander in the wilderness, until all the generation which did evil ^[2]in the sight of the Lord was extinct. ¹⁴ Behold, ye are risen up in the room of your fathers, a ^[3]combination of sinful men, to increase yet further the fierce wrath of the Lord against Israel. ¹⁵ For ye will turn away from him to desert him yet once more in the wilderness, and ye will sin against this whole congregation.

¹⁶ And they came to him, and said, We will build here folds for our cattle, and cities for our possessions; ¹⁷ and we will arm ourselves and go as an advanced guard before the children of Israel, until we shall have brought them into their place; and our possessions shall remain in walled cities because of the inhabitants of the land. ¹⁸ We will not return to our houses till the children of Israel shall have been distributed, each to his own inheritance. ¹⁹ And we will not any longer inherit with them from the other side of Jordan and onwards, because we have our full inheritance on the side beyond Jordan eastward.

²⁰ And Moses said to them, If ye will do according to ^[4]these words, if ye will arm yourselves before the Lord for battle, ²¹ and every one of you will pass over Jordan fully armed before the Lord, until his enemy be destroyed from before his face, ²² and the land shall be subdued before the Lord, then afterwards ye shall return, and be guiltless before the Lord, and as regards Israel; and this land shall be to you for a possession before the Lord. ²³ But if ye will not do so, ye will sin against the Lord; and ye shall know your sin, when afflictions shall come upon you. ²⁴ And ye shall build for yourselves cities for your store, and folds for your cattle; and ye shall do that which proceedeth out of your mouth.

²⁵ And the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad spake to Moses, saying, Thy servants will do as our lord commandeth. ²⁶ Our store, and our wives, and all our cattle shall be in the cities of Galaad. ²⁷ But thy servants will go over all armed and set in order before the Lord to battle, as our lord saith.

²⁸ And Moses appointed to them for judges Eleazar the priest, and Jesus the son of Navi, and the chiefs of the families of the tribes of Israel. ²⁹ And Moses said to them, If the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad will pass over Jordan with you, every one armed for war before the Lord, and ye shall subdue the land before you, then ye shall give to them the land of Galaad for a possession. ³⁰ But if they will not pass over armed with you to war before the Lord, then shall ye cause to pass over their possessions and their wives and their cattle before you into the land of Canaan, and they shall inherit with you in the land of Canaan. ³¹ And the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad answered, saying, Whatsoever ^[5]the Lord saith to his servants, that will we do. ³² We will go over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, and ye shall give us our inheritance beyond Jordan.

³³ And Moses gave to them, even to the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben, and to the half tribe of Manasses of the sons of Joseph, the kingdom of Seon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og king of Basan, the land and ^[6]its cities with its coasts, the cities of the land round about. ³⁴ And the sons of Gad built Daebon, and Ataroth, and Aroer, ³⁵ and Sophar, and Jazer, and they set them up, ³⁶ and Namram, and Baetharan, strong cities, and folds for sheep. ³⁷ And the sons of Reuben built Esebon, and Eleale, and Kariatham, ³⁸ and Beelmeon, surrounded with walls, and Sebama; and they called the names of the cities which they built, after their own names. ³⁹ And a son of Machir the son of Manasses went to Galaad, and took it, and destroyed the Amorite who dwelt in it. ⁴⁰ And Moses gave Galaad to Machir the son of Manasses, and he dwelt there. ⁴¹ And Jair the son of Manasses went and took their ^[7]villages, and called them the villages of Jair. ⁴² And Nabau went and took Caath and her villages, and called them Naboth after his name.

Notes

32:1 a multitude of cattle, very great: Gr. cattle, a multitude, greatly a multitude ↩
32:13 in the sight of: or, before ↩
32:14 combination of sinful men: or, an evil race, lit. a destruction, but some read, σύστρεμμα ↩
32:20 these words: Gr. this word ↩
32:31 the Lord: or, our Lord, or, our master, i.e., Moses ↩
32:33 its cities: Gr. the cities ↩
32:41 their villages: or, their folds ↩