Numbers 32:11-42 ▼

11 None of the men twenty years old or more who have come up from Egypt will see the land I promised under oath to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, because they have not followed me unreservedly—

12 except the Kenizzite Caleb, son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua, son of Nun, since they have followed the LORD unreservedly.

13 So the anger of the LORD flared up against the Israelites and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the whole generation that had done evil in the sight of the LORD had disappeared.

14 And now here you are, offspring of sinful stock, rising up in your ancestors’ place to add still more to the LORD’s blazing anger against the Israelites.

15 If you turn away from following him, he will again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will bring about the ruin of this entire people.”

16 But they approached him and said: “We will only build sheepfolds here for our flocks and towns for our families;

17 but we ourselves will march as troops in the vanguard before the Israelites, until we have led them to their destination. Meanwhile our families will remain in the fortified towns because of the land’s inhabitants.

18 We will not return to our homes until all the Israelites have taken possession of their heritage.

19 But we will not claim any heritage with them across the Jordan and beyond, because we have received a heritage for ourselves on the eastern side of the Jordan.”

20 Moses said to them in reply: “If you do this—if you march as troops before the LORD into battle

21 and cross the Jordan in full force before the LORD until he has driven his enemies out of his way

22 and the land is subdued before the LORD, then you may return here, free from every obligation to the LORD and to Israel, and this land will be your possession before the LORD.

23 But if you do not do this, you will have sinned against the LORD, and you can be sure that the consequences of your sin will overtake you.

24 Build the towns, then, for your families, and the folds for your flocks, but fulfill what you have promised.”

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

26 While our wives and children, our livestock and other animals remain there in the towns of Gilead,

27 all your servants will go across as armed troops before the LORD to battle, just as my lord says.”

28 So Moses gave this command in their regard to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua, son of Nun, and to the heads of the ancestral houses of the Israelite tribes:

29 He said to them, “If all the Gadites and Reubenites cross the Jordan with you in full force before the LORD into battle, the land will be subdued before you, and you will give them Gilead as a possession.

30 But if they will not go across in force with you before the LORD, you will bring their wives and children and livestock across before you into Canaan, and they will possess a holding among you in the land of Canaan.”

31 To this the Gadites and Reubenites replied, “We will do what the LORD has ordered your servants.

32 We ourselves will go across in force before the LORD into the land of Canaan, but we will retain our hereditary property on this side of the Jordan.”

33 So Moses gave them— the Gadites and Reubenites, as well as 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 the districts of the surrounding towns.

34 The Gadites rebuilt the cities of Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer,

35 Atroth-shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah,

36 Beth-nimrah and Beth-haran—fortified cities—and sheepfolds.

37 The Reubenites rebuilt Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim,

38 Nebo, Baal-meon (names to be changed!), and Sibmah. These towns, which they rebuilt, they called by their old names.

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

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

41 Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, went and captured their tent villages, and called them Havvoth-jair.

42 Nobah went and captured Kenath with its dependencies and called it Nobah after his own name.