Numbers 32:1–19

Reuben and Gad Settle in Gilead

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

²the 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 the Lord ¹conquered before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.”

⁵They 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 the Lord has given them?

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

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

¹⁰“So ^athe Lord’s anger burned in that day, and He swore, 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 the Lord fully.’

¹³“^aSo the Lord’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 the Lord was destroyed.

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 the Lord 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, while 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 toward the east.”