Numbers 32:1-19

Complete Jewish Bible

32 (RY: iii; LY: vi) The descendants of Re’uven and the descendants of Gad had vast quantities of livestock. When they saw that the land of Ya‘zer and the land of Gil‘ad were good for livestock, ² the descendants of Gad and of Re’uven came and spoke to Moshe, El‘azar the cohen and the community leaders. They said, ³ “‘Atarot, Divon, Ya‘zer, Nimrah, Heshbon, El‘aleh, S’vam, N’vo and Be‘on, ⁴ the country that Adonai conquered before the community of Isra’el, is livestock country; and your servants have livestock. ⁵ If you regard us favorably,” they went on, “let this land be given to your servants as their possession; and don’t have us cross the Yarden.”

⁶ Moshe answered the descendants of Gad and of Re’uven: “Are your brothers to go to war while you stay here? ⁷ Besides, why are you trying to discourage the people of Isra’el from crossing into the land Adonai gave them? ⁸ This is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-Barnea to see the land. ⁹ For when they went up to the Eshkol Valley and saw the land, they disheartened the people of Isra’el, so that they wouldn’t enter the land Adonai had given them. ¹⁰ Adonai’s anger blazed up on that day; and he swore, ¹¹ ‘None of the people aged twenty or more who came out of Egypt will see the land I swore to Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov; because they haven’t followed me unreservedly — ¹² except Kalev the son of Y’funeh the K’nizi and Y’hoshua the son of Nun, because they have followed Adonai unreservedly.’ ¹³ Thus Adonai’s anger blazed against Isra’el, so that he made them wander here and there in the desert forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of Adonai had died out. ¹⁴ Now you, another brood of sinners, have arisen in your fathers’ place to increase still more the fierce anger of Adonai toward Isra’el! ¹⁵ For if you turn away from him, he will leave them in the desert again, and thus you will cause the destruction of all these people!”

¹⁶ But they came up to him and said, “Here we will build enclosures for our livestock and cities for our little ones, ¹⁷ but we ourselves will be armed and ready for action to march at the head of the people of Isra’el, until we have brought them to their place. Our little ones will stay in the fortified cities here because of the people now living in the land. ¹⁸ However, we will not return to our own homes until every man in Isra’el has taken possession of his land for inheritance. ¹⁹ We will not have an inheritance with them on the other side of the Yarden, westward; because our inheritance has fallen to us on this side of the Yarden, eastward.”