Numbers 32:1–19

Reuben and Gad Possess Gilead

¹Now the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad had an ^aexceedingly large number of livestock. And they saw the land of ^bJazer and the land of Gilead, that ¹it was indeed a place suitable for livestock,

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

³“^aAtaroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon,

⁴the land, ^awhich Yahweh struck before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.”

⁵And they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession; do not take us across the Jordan.”

⁶But Moses said to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben, “Shall your brothers go to war while you yourselves sit here?

⁷“^aNow why are you ¹discouraging the sons of Israel from crossing over into the land which Yahweh has given them?

⁸“¹This is what your fathers did when I sent them from ^aKadesh-barnea to see the land.

⁹“Indeed they went up to ^athe ¹valley of Eshcol and saw the land, and they ²discouraged the sons of Israel so that they did not go into the land which Yahweh had given them.

¹⁰“So ^aYahweh’s anger burned in that day, and He swore an oath, saying,

¹¹‘^aNone of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; for they did not follow Me fully,

¹²except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, ^afor they have followed Yahweh fully.’

¹³“^aSo Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the entire generation of those who had done evil in the sight of Yahweh was brought to an end.

¹⁴“Now behold, you have risen up in your fathers’ place, a brood of sinful men, to add still more to the burning ^aanger of Yahweh against Israel.

¹⁵“For if you ^aturn away from following Him, He will once more abandon them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all these people.”

¹⁶Then they came near to him and said, “We will build here sheepfolds for our livestock and cities for our little ones;

^17abut we ourselves will be armed ready to go before the sons of Israel, until we have brought them to their place, and our little ones live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land.

¹⁸“^aWe will not return to our homes until every one of the sons of Israel has possessed his inheritance.

¹⁹“For we will not have an inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond because our inheritance has fallen to us ^aon this side of the Jordan east.”