Numbers 32:20-32

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

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) 30} but if they will not cross over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.” ³¹ The Gadites and the Reubenites answered, saying, “As the Lord has spoken to your servants, so we will do. ³² We 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^[a] the Jordan.”