Numbers 32–33

The Tribes Settling East of the Jordan

32Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock; and when they saw the land of ^aJazer and the land of ^bGilead, that indeed the region was a place for livestock, ²the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the leaders of the congregation, saying, ³“Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, ^cNimrah, ^dHeshbon, Elealeh, ^eShebam, Nebo, and ^fBeon, ⁴the country ^gwhich the Lord defeated before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.” ⁵Therefore 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 over the Jordan.”

⁶And Moses said to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben: “Shall your brethren go to war while you sit here? ⁷Now why will you ^hdiscourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord has given them? ⁸Thus your fathers did ⁱwhen I sent them away from Kadesh Barnea ^jto see the land. ⁹For ^kwhen they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, so that they did not go into the land which the Lord had given them. ^10lSo the Lord’s anger was aroused on that day, and He swore an oath, saying, ¹¹‘Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt, ^mfrom twenty years old and above, shall see the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because ⁿthey have not wholly followed Me, ¹²except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, ^ofor they have wholly followed the Lord.’ ¹³So the Lord’s anger was aroused against Israel, and He made them ^pwander in the wilderness forty years, until ^qall the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone. ¹⁴And look! You have risen in your fathers’ place, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the ^rfierce anger of the Lord against Israel. ¹⁵For if you ^sturn away from following Him, He will once again leave them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all these people.”

¹⁶Then they came near to him and said: “We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones, ¹⁷but ^twe ourselves will be armed, ready to go before the children of Israel until we have brought them to their place; and our little ones will dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. ^18uWe will not return to our homes until every one of the children of Israel has ¹received his inheritance. ¹⁹For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, ^vbecause our inheritance has fallen to us on this eastern side of the Jordan.”

²⁰Then ^wMoses said to them: “If you do this thing, if you arm yourselves before the Lord for the war, ²¹and all your armed men cross over the Jordan before the Lord until He has driven out His enemies from before Him, ²²and ^xthe land is subdued before the Lord, then afterward ^yyou may return and be blameless before the Lord and before Israel; and ^zthis land shall be your possession before the Lord. ²³But if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the Lord; and be sure ^ayour sin will find you out. ^24bBuild cities for your little ones and folds for your sheep, and do ²what has proceeded out of your mouth.”

²⁵And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben spoke to Moses, saying: “Your servants will do as my lord commands. ^26cOur little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our livestock will be there in the cities of Gilead; ^27dbut your servants will cross over, every man armed for war, before the Lord to battle, just as my lord says.”

²⁸So Moses gave command ^econcerning them to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the chief fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel. ²⁹And Moses said to them: “If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben cross over the Jordan with you, every man armed for battle before the Lord, and the land is subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead as a possession. ³⁰But if they do not cross over armed with you, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.”

³¹Then the children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, saying: “As the Lord has said to your servants, so we will do. ³²We will cross over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, but the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us on this side of the Jordan.”

³³So ^fMoses gave to the children of Gad, to the children of Reuben, and to half the tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, ^gthe kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land with its cities within the borders, the cities of the surrounding country. ³⁴And the children of Gad built ^hDibon and Ataroth and ⁱAroer, ³⁵Atroth and Shophan and ^jJazer and Jogbehah, ^36kBeth Nimrah and Beth Haran, ^lfortified cities, and folds for sheep. ³⁷And the children of Reuben built ^mHeshbon and Elealeh and Kirjathaim, ³⁸ⁿNebo and ^oBaal Meon ^p(their names being changed) and Shibmah; and they gave other names to the cities which they built.

³⁹And the children of ^qMachir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead and took it, and ³dispossessed the Amorites who were in it. ⁴⁰So Moses ^rgave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh, and he dwelt in it. ⁴¹Also ^sJair the son of Manasseh went and took its small towns, and called them ^tHavoth Jair. ⁴⁴²Then Nobah went and took Kenath and its villages, and he called it Nobah, after his own name.

Israel’s Journey from Egypt Reviewed

33These are the journeys of the children of Israel, who went out of the land of Egypt by their armies under the ^ahand of Moses and Aaron. ²Now Moses wrote down the starting points of their journeys at the command of the Lord. And these are their journeys according to their starting points:

³They ^bdeparted from Rameses in ^cthe first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the day after the Passover the children of Israel went out ^dwith boldness in the sight of all the Egyptians. ⁴For the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, ^ewhom the Lord had killed among them. Also ^fon their gods the Lord had executed judgments.

^5gThen the children of Israel moved from Rameses and camped at Succoth. ⁶They departed from ^hSuccoth and camped at Etham, which is on the edge of the wilderness. ⁷ⁱThey moved from Etham and turned back to Pi Hahiroth, which is east of Baal Zephon; and they camped near Migdol. ⁸They departed ¹from before Hahiroth and ^jpassed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness, went three days’ journey in the Wilderness of Etham, and camped at Marah. ⁹They moved from Marah and ^kcame to Elim. At Elim were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there.

¹⁰They moved from Elim and camped by the Red Sea. ¹¹They moved from the Red Sea and camped in the ^lWilderness of Sin. ¹²They journeyed from the Wilderness of Sin and camped at Dophkah. ¹³They departed from Dophkah and camped at Alush. ¹⁴They moved from Alush and camped at ^mRephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.

¹⁵They departed from Rephidim and camped in the ⁿWilderness of Sinai. ¹⁶They moved from the Wilderness of Sinai and camped ^oat ²Kibroth Hattaavah. ¹⁷They departed from Kibroth Hattaavah and ^pcamped at Hazeroth. ¹⁸They departed from Hazeroth and camped at ^qRithmah. ¹⁹They departed from Rithmah and camped at Rimmon Perez. ²⁰They departed from Rimmon Perez and camped at Libnah. ²¹They moved from Libnah and camped at Rissah. ²²They journeyed from Rissah and camped at Kehelathah. ²³They went from Kehelathah and camped at Mount Shepher. ²⁴They moved from Mount Shepher and camped at Haradah. ²⁵They moved from Haradah and camped at Makheloth. ²⁶They moved from Makheloth and camped at Tahath. ²⁷They departed from Tahath and camped at Terah. ²⁸They moved from Terah and camped at Mithkah. ²⁹They went from Mithkah and camped at Hashmonah. ³⁰They departed from Hashmonah and ^rcamped at Moseroth. ³¹They departed from Moseroth and camped at Bene Jaakan. ³²They moved from ^sBene Jaakan and ^tcamped at Hor Hagidgad. ³³They went from Hor Hagidgad and camped at Jotbathah. ³⁴They moved from Jotbathah and camped at Abronah. ³⁵They departed from Abronah ^uand camped at Ezion Geber. ³⁶They moved from Ezion Geber and camped in the ^vWilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh. ³⁷They moved from ^wKadesh and camped at Mount Hor, on the boundary of the land of Edom.

³⁸Then ^xAaron the priest went up to Mount Hor at the command of the Lord, and died there in the fortieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, on the first day of the fifth month. ³⁹Aaron was one hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor.

⁴⁰Now ^ythe king of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the South in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the children of Israel.

⁴¹So they departed from Mount Hor and camped at Zalmonah. ⁴²They departed from Zalmonah and camped at Punon. ⁴³They departed from Punon and ^zcamped at Oboth. ^44aThey departed from Oboth and camped at Ije Abarim, at the border of Moab. ⁴⁵They departed from ³Ijim and camped ^bat Dibon Gad. ⁴⁶They moved from Dibon Gad and camped at ^cAlmon Diblathaim. ⁴⁷They moved from Almon Diblathaim ^dand camped in the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo. ⁴⁸They departed from the mountains of Abarim and ^ecamped in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho. ⁴⁹They camped by the Jordan, from Beth Jesimoth as far as the ^fAbel Acacia Grove ⁴in the plains of Moab.

Instructions for the Conquest of Canaan

⁵⁰Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho, saying, ⁵¹“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ^g‘When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ^52hthen you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their engraved stones,…