Chapter 32

Request of Gad and Reuben. ¹ Now the Reubenites and Gadites had a very large number of livestock. Noticing that the land of Jazer and of Gilead^[a] was a place suited to livestock, ² the Gadites and Reubenites came to Moses and Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the community and said, ^3 [b]“The region of Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo and Baal-meon— ⁴ the land which the Lord has laid low before the community of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.” ⁵ They continued, “If we find favor with you, let this land be given to your servants as their possession. Do not make us cross the Jordan.”

Moses’ Rebuke. ⁶ But Moses answered the Gadites and Reubenites: “Are your kindred, then, to go to war, while you remain here? ⁷ Why do you wish to discourage the Israelites from crossing to the land the Lord has given them? ⁸ That is just what your ancestors did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to reconnoiter the land.^{(A) 9} They went up to the Wadi Eshcol and reconnoitered the land, then so discouraged the Israelites that they would not enter the land the Lord had given them. ^10 (B)At that time the anger of the Lord flared up, and he swore: ¹¹ None of the men twenty years old or more who have come up from Egypt will see the land I promised under oath to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, because they have not followed me unreservedly— ^12 (C)except the Kenizzite^[c] Caleb, son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua, son of Nun, since they have followed the Lord unreservedly. ¹³ So the anger of the Lord flared up against the Israelites and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the whole generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord had disappeared. ¹⁴ And now here you are, offspring of sinful stock, rising up in your ancestors’ place to add still more to the Lord’s blazing anger against the Israelites. ¹⁵ If you turn away from following him, he will again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will bring about the ruin of this entire people.”

Counter Proposal. ¹⁶ But they approached him and said: “We will only build sheepfolds here for our flocks and towns for our families; ¹⁷ but we ourselves will march as troops in the vanguard before the Israelites,^(D) until we have led them to their destination. Meanwhile our families will remain in the fortified towns because of the land’s inhabitants. ¹⁸ We will not return to our homes until all the Israelites have taken possession of their heritage. ^19 (E)But we will not claim any heritage with them across the Jordan and beyond, because we have received a heritage for ourselves on the eastern side of the Jordan.”

Agreement Reached. ^20 [d]Moses said to them in reply: “If you do this—if you march as troops before the Lord into battle ²¹ and cross the Jordan in full force before the Lord until he has driven his enemies out of his way ²² and the land is subdued before the Lord, then you may return here, free from every obligation to the Lord and to Israel, and this land will be your possession before the Lord.^{(F) 23} But if you do not do this, you will have sinned against the Lord, and you can be sure that the consequences of your sin will overtake you. ²⁴ Build the towns, then, for your families, and the folds for your flocks, but fulfill what you have promised.”

²⁵ The Gadites and Reubenites answered Moses, “Your servants will do as my lord commands. ^26 (G)While our wives and children, our livestock and other animals remain there in the towns of Gilead, ²⁷ all your servants will go across as armed troops before the Lord to battle, just as my lord says.”

²⁸ So Moses gave this command in their regard to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua, son of Nun, and to the heads of the ancestral houses of the Israelite tribes: ²⁹ He said to them, “If all the Gadites and Reubenites cross the Jordan with you in full force before the Lord into battle, the land will be subdued before you, and you will give them Gilead as a possession. ³⁰ But if they will not go across in force with you before the Lord, you will bring their wives and children and livestock across before you into Canaan, and they will possess a holding among you in the land of Canaan.”

³¹ To this the Gadites and Reubenites replied, “We will do what the Lord has ordered your servants. ³² We ourselves will go across in force before the Lord into the land of Canaan, but we will retain our hereditary property on this side of the Jordan.”^{[e] 33} So Moses gave them—^[f]the Gadites and Reubenites, as well as half the tribe of Manasseh, son of Joseph—the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og, king of Bashan, the land with its towns, and the districts of the surrounding towns.^(H)

³⁴ The Gadites rebuilt the cities of Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer, ³⁵ Atroth-shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah, ³⁶ Beth-nimrah and Beth-haran—fortified cities—and sheepfolds. ³⁷ The Reubenites rebuilt Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim, ³⁸ Nebo, Baal-meon (names to be changed!),^[g] and Sibmah. These towns, which they rebuilt, they called by their old names.

Other Conquests. ³⁹ The descendants of Machir, son of Manasseh, went to Gilead and captured it, dispossessing the Amorites who were there. ⁴⁰ (Moses gave Gilead to Machir,^(I) son of Manasseh, and he settled there.) ⁴¹ Jair,^(J) a descendant of Manasseh, went and captured their tent villages, and called them Havvoth-jair.^{[h] 42} Nobah went and captured Kenath with its dependencies and called it Nobah after his own name.

The Eastern Tribes. ^8 (A)Now the other half of the tribe of Manasseh, as well as the Reubenites and Gadites, had taken as their heritage what Moses, the servant of the Lord, had given them east of the Jordan: ⁹ from Aroer on the bank of the Wadi Arnon and the city in the wadi itself, through the tableland of Medeba and Dibon, ¹⁰ with the rest of the cities of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, to the boundary of the Ammonites; ¹¹ also Gilead and the territory of the Geshurites and Maacathites, all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan as far as Salecah, ¹² the entire kingdom in Bashan of Og, who was king at Ashtaroth and Edrei (he was a holdover from the remnant of the Rephaim). These Moses defeated and dispossessed. ¹³ But the Israelites did not dispossess the Geshurites and Maacathites, so that Geshur and Maacath dwell in the midst of Israel to this day. ^14 (B)However, Moses assigned no heritage to the tribe of Levi; the Lord, the God of Israel, is their heritage, as the Lord had promised them.

Reuben. ^15 (C)This is what Moses gave to the tribe of the Reubenites by their clans:^{(D) 16} Their territory reached from Aroer, on the bank of the Wadi Arnon, and the city in the wadi itself, through the tableland about Medeba, ¹⁷ to include Heshbon and all its towns on the tableland, Dibon, Bamoth-baal, Beth-baal-meon, ¹⁸ Jahaz, Kedemoth, Mephaath, ¹⁹ Kiriathaim, Sibmah, Zereth-shahar on the knoll within the valley, ²⁰ Beth-peor, the slopes of Pisgah, Beth-jeshimoth, ²¹ and the other cities of the tableland and of the whole kingdom of Sihon. This Amorite king, who reigned in Heshbon, Moses had defeated, with the princes of Midian, vassals of Sihon who were settled in the land: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba;^{(E) 22} Balaam, son of Beor, the diviner, the Israelites killed with the sword, together with those they struck down.^{(F) 23} The boundary of the Reubenites was the Jordan. These cities and their villages were the heritage of the Reubenites by their clans.

Gad. ^24 (G)This is what Moses gave to the tribe of the Gadites by their clans: ²⁵ Their territory included Jazer, all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the Ammonites as far as Aroer, toward Rabbah ²⁶ (that is, from Heshbon to Ramath-mizpeh and Betonim, and from Mahanaim to the boundary of Lo-debar); ²⁷ and in the Jordan valley: Beth-haram, Beth-nimrah, Succoth, Zaphon, the other part of the kingdom of Sihon, king of Heshbon, with the bank of the Jordan to the southeastern tip of the Sea of Chinnereth. ²⁸ These cities and their villages were the heritage of the clans of the Gadites.

Manasseh. ^29 (H)This is what Moses gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh; the half-tribe of the Manassites, by their clans, had ³⁰ territory including Mahanaim, all of Bashan, the entire kingdom of Og, king of Bashan, and all the villages of Jair, which are sixty cities in Bashan. ³¹ Half of Gilead, with Ashtaroth and Edrei, royal cities of Og in Bashan, fell to the descendants of Machir, son of Manasseh, to half the Machirites, by their clans.

³² These are the heritages which Moses gave when he was in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan east of Jericho. ³³ But Moses gave no heritage to the tribe of Levi: the Lord, the God of Israel, is their heritage, as he had promised them.^(I)