Numbers 32
They Would Not Rest Until Their Brothers Did
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The Petition
32:1The Reubenites and Gadites had a great multitude of livestock. They saw the country of Jazer and the country of Gilead, and the place was suitable for livestock.
32:2The Reubenites and Gadites approached and said to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the rulers of the congregation,
32:3“Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sibmah, Nebo, and Beon—
32:4the land that the Lord handed over before the Israelites—is land that nourishes livestock, and your servants have livestock.”
32:5They said, “If we have found favor before you, let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not make us cross the Jordan.”
The Rebuke
32:6Moses said to the Gadites and Reubenites, “Your brothers are going to war, and will you sit here?
32:7Why do you turn aside the minds of the Israelites so that they do not cross into the land that the Lord is giving them?
32:8Did not your fathers do this when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to examine the land?
32:9They went up to the Ravine of the Cluster and examined the land, but turned away the hearts of the Israelites so that they would not enter the land that the Lord had given them.
32:10The Lord became fiercely angry on that day and swore, saying,
32:11‘Surely these men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, who know evil and good, shall not see the land that I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for they did not follow after Me,
32:12except Caleb son of Jephunneh, the one set apart, and Joshua son of Nun, because he followed after the Lord.’
32:13The Lord became fiercely angry with Israel and whirled them about in the wilderness for forty years, until the whole generation that did evil before the Lord had been consumed.
32:14Look! You have risen in your fathers’ place, a band of sinful men, to add still more to the fury of the Lord’s anger against Israel.
32:15Because you will turn away from Him, He will again leave them in the wilderness, and you will act lawlessly against this whole congregation.”
The Counter-Proposal
32:16They approached him and said, “Let us build sheepfolds here for our livestock and towns for our dependents.
32:17We will equip ourselves as an advance guard ahead of the Israelites until we have brought them to their own place. Our dependents will live in walled towns because of the inhabitants of the land.
32:18We will certainly not return to our homes until the Israelites have each been allotted his inheritance.
32:19We shall not inherit further among them across the Jordan and beyond, because we have received our allotments on the eastern side of the Jordan.”
The Ratified Agreement
32:20Moses said to them, “If you act according to this word, if you equip yourselves before the Lord for war,
32:21and every armed man among you crosses the Jordan before the Lord until His enemy is wiped out from before Him,
32:22and the land is brought under dominion before the Lord, then afterward you may return. You will be guiltless before the Lord and toward Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the Lord.
32:23But if you do not do so, you will sin before the Lord, and you will recognize your sin when evils overtake you.
32:24Build yourselves towns for your dependents and folds for your livestock, and do what comes from your mouth.”
Leadership Charge
32:25The Reubenites and Gadites said to Moses, “Your servants will do as our lord commands.
32:26Our dependents, our wives, and all our livestock will remain in the towns of Gilead.
32:27But your servants will cross over, all armed and drawn up in formation before the Lord for war, as the lord says.”
32:28Moses appointed over them Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the rulers of the ancestral houses of the tribes of Israel.
32:29Moses said to them, “If the Reubenites and Gadites cross the Jordan with you, everyone equipped for war before the Lord, and you gain dominion over the land before you, give them the land of Gilead as a possession.
32:30But if they do not cross over equipped with you for war before the Lord, you shall bring their dependents, their wives, and their livestock across ahead of you into the land of Canaan, and they shall receive an inheritance among you in the land of Canaan.”
32:31The Reubenites and Gadites answered, “Everything the Lord says to His servants, we will do.
32:32We will cross over equipped before the Lord into the land of Canaan, and you shall give us our possession on this side of the Jordan.”
32:33Moses gave to the Gadites, the Reubenites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, of the sons of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan: the land and its towns with its boundaries, the towns of the surrounding land.
City Rebuilding and Settlement
32:34The Gadites built Dibon, Ataroth, and Aroer,
32:35Shophar and Jazer, and raised them up,
32:36Nimrah and Beth-haran, fortified towns and sheepfolds.
32:37The Reubenites built Heshbon, Elealeh, and Kiriathaim,
32:38and Baal-meon, surrounded with defenses, and Sibmah. They named the towns they built according to their names.
32:39A son of Machir son of Manasseh went to Gilead and took it, and destroyed the Amorite who lived there.
32:40Moses gave Gilead to Machir son of Manasseh, and he settled there.
32:41Jair of Manasseh went and took their settlements, and named them Settlements of Jair.
32:42Nabau went and took Kenath and its villages, and named them Naboth after his own name.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.