Numbers 32:1-22 ▼

1 Now the people of Reuben and the people of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that look, the place was a place for livestock;

2 the people of Gad and the people of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the leaders of the congregation, saying,

3 |Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Sibmah, and Nebo, and Beon,

4 the land which the LORD struck before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock; and your servants have livestock.|

5 They said, |If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession; do not bring us over the Jordan.|

6 Moses said to the people of Gad, and to the people of Reuben, |Shall your brothers go to the war, and shall you sit here?

7 Why do you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the LORD has given them?

8 Your fathers did so when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land.

9 For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the LORD had given them.

10 The LORD's anger was kindled in that day, and he swore, saying,

11 'Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me:

12 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun; because they have followed the LORD completely.'

13 The LORD's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander back and forth in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, who had done evil in the sight of the LORD, was consumed.

14 |Look, you have risen up in your fathers' place, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of the LORD toward Israel.

15 For if you turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and you will destroy all this people.|

16 They came near to him, and said, |We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones:

17 but we ourselves will be ready armed to go before the children of Israel, until we have brought them to their place: and our little ones shall dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land.

18 We will not return to our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance.

19 For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan, and forward; because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side of the Jordan eastward.|

20 Moses said to them, |If you will do this thing, if you will arm yourselves to go before the LORD to the war,

21 and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before the LORD, until he has driven out his enemies from before him,

22 and the land is subdued before the LORD; then afterward you shall return, and be guiltless towards the LORD, and towards Israel; and this land shall be to you for a possession before the LORD.