Numbers 32:1-26 ▼

1 And much livestock has [belonged] to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad—very many; and they see the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, and behold, the place [is] a place [for] livestock;

2 and the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben come in and speak to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the princes of the congregation, saying,

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

4 the land which YHWH has struck before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.”

5 And they say, “If we have found grace in your eyes, let this land be given to your servants for a possession; cause us not to pass over the Jordan.”

6 And Moses says to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben, “Do your brothers go to the battle, and you—do you sit here?

7 And why discourage the heart of the sons of Israel from passing over to the land which YHWH has given to them?

8 Thus your fathers did in my sending them from Kadesh-Barnea to see the land;

9 and they go up to the Valley of Eshcol, and see the land, and discourage the heart of the sons of Israel so as not to go into the land which YHWH has given to them;

10 and the anger of YHWH burns in that day, and He swears, saying,

11 They do not see—the men who are coming up out of Egypt from a son of twenty years and upward—the ground which I have sworn to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, for they have not been fully after Me,

12 except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenezite and Joshua son of Nun, for they have been fully after YHWH;

13 and the anger of YHWH burns against Israel, and He causes them to wander in the wilderness [for] forty years, until the consumption of all the generation which is doing evil in the eyes of YHWH.

14 And behold, you have risen in the stead of your fathers, an increase of sinful men, to add yet to the fury of the anger of YHWH toward Israel;

15 when you turn back from after Him, then He has added yet to leave him in the wilderness, and you have done corruptly to all this people.”

16 And they come near to him and say, “We build folds for the flock here for our livestock, and cities for our infants;

17 but we are armed, hastening before the sons of Israel until we have brought them to their place; and our infants have dwelt in the cities of defense because of the inhabitants of the land;

18 we do not return to our houses until the sons of Israel have each inherited his inheritance,

19 for we do not inherit with them across the Jordan and beyond, for our inheritance has come to us beyond the Jordan at the [sun]-rising.”

20 And Moses says to them, “If you do this thing, if you are armed before YHWH for battle,

21 and every armed one of you has passed over the Jordan before YHWH, until His dispossessing His enemies from before Him,

22 and the land has been subdued before YHWH, then afterward you return, and have been acquitted by YHWH and by Israel, and this land has been to you for a possession before YHWH.

23 And if you do not do so, behold, you have sinned against YHWH, and know that your sin finds you;

24 build for yourselves cities for your infants and folds for your flock, and that which is going out from your mouth you do.”

25 And the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben speak to Moses, saying, “Your servants do as my lord is commanding;

26 our infants, our wives, our livestock, and all our beasts, are there in cities of Gilead,