² and said to them, “You have observed all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you and have obeyed me in all that I have commanded you;^(A)

¹² But to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh Joshua said,^{(A) 13} “Remember the word that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, ‘The Lord your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land.’^{(B) 14} Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land that Moses gave you beyond the Jordan. But all the warriors among you shall cross over armed before your kindred and shall help them, ¹⁵ until the Lord gives rest to your kindred as well as to you, and they also take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them. Then you shall return to your own land and take possession of it, the land that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan to the east.”^(C)

¹⁶ They answered Joshua, “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. ¹⁷ Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses!^{(D) 18} Whoever rebels against your orders and disobeys your words, whatever you command, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.”

¹⁶ And to the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead as far as the Wadi Arnon, with the middle of the wadi as a boundary, and up to the Jabbok, the wadi being boundary of the Ammonites; ¹⁷ the Arabah also, with the Jordan and its banks, from Chinnereth down to the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea,^[a] with the lower slopes of Pisgah on the east.^(A)

¹⁸ “At that time, I charged you as follows: ‘Although the Lord your God has given you this land to occupy, all your troops shall cross over armed as the vanguard of your Israelite kin.^{(B) 19} Only your wives, your children, and your livestock—I know that you have much livestock—shall stay behind in the towns that I have given to you. ²⁰ When the Lord gives rest to your kindred, as to you, and they also have occupied the land that the Lord your God is giving them beyond the Jordan, then each of you may return to the property that I have given to you.’^(C)

²⁰ So Moses said to them, “If you do this—if you take up arms to go before the Lord for the war^{(A) 21} and all those of you who bear arms cross the Jordan before the Lord, until he has driven out his enemies from before him ²² and the land is subdued before the Lord—then after that you may return and be free of obligation to the Lord and to Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the Lord.^{(B) 23} But if you do not do this, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. ²⁴ Build towns for your little ones and folds for your flocks, but do what you have promised.”^(C)

²⁵ Then the Gadites and the Reubenites said to Moses, “Your servants will do as my lord commands. ²⁶ Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our livestock shall remain there in the towns of Gilead,^{(D) 27} but your servants will cross over, everyone armed for war, to do battle for the Lord, just as my lord orders.”^(E)

²⁸ So Moses gave command concerning them to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua son of Nun, and to the heads of the ancestral houses of the Israelite tribes.^{(F) 29} And Moses said to them, “If the Gadites and the Reubenites, everyone armed for battle before the Lord, will cross over the Jordan with you and the land shall be subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession,^(G)