Numbers 32

1 And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great deal of cattle; and they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, and the place was a place for cattle. 2 And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad came and spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the gathering. They said, 3 “Ataroth and Dibon and Jazer and Nimrah and Heshbon and Elealeh and Sibmah and Nebo and Beon — 4 the land the Lord handed over in front of the children of Israel — is pasture land, and your servants have cattle.” 5 And they said, 5 “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants to hold, and do not make us cross the Jordan.”

6 And Moses said to the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben, 6 “Are your brothers to go to war while you sit here? 7 And why are you turning the minds of the children of Israel against crossing over into the land the Lord is giving them? 8 Is this not exactly what your fathers did, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land? 9 They went up to the Valley of the Cluster and looked over the land, and turned the heart of the children of Israel away from going into the land the Lord had given them. 10 And the Lord was very angry that day, and swore: 11 ‘These men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and up, who know good and evil, will certainly not see the land I swore to give to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, because they did not follow closely after me — 12 except Caleb son of Jephunneh, the one who was set apart, and Joshua son of Nun, because they followed closely after the Lord.’ [a] 13 And the Lord was very angry with Israel, and for forty years he made them wander in the wilderness, until the whole generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone. 14 And look at you — risen up in your fathers' place, a pack of sinful men, to make the Lord's fierce anger against Israel greater still. 15 For you will turn away from him and desert him once more in the wilderness, and you will sin against this whole gathering.”

16 And they came up to him and said, 16 “We will build pens for our cattle here, and towns for our households; 17 and we will arm ourselves and go as the advance guard ahead of the children of Israel, until we have brought them to their place; and our households will stay in walled towns because of the people who live in the land. 18 We will not go back to our houses until the children of Israel have each been settled in their own inheritance. 19 And we will not take any further inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because we have our full inheritance on this side of the Jordan, to the east.” 20 And Moses said to them, 20 “If you do as you have said — if you arm yourselves before the Lord for battle, 21 and every one of you crosses the Jordan fully armed before the Lord until his enemy is destroyed from in front of him, 22 and the land is brought under before the Lord — then afterward you may come back, and you will be clear before the Lord and clear with Israel; and this land will be yours to hold before the Lord. 23 But if you do not do so, you will sin against the Lord; and you will know your sin when trouble finds you. 24 So build yourselves towns for your goods and pens for your cattle; and do what has come out of your own mouth.”

25 And the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad spoke to Moses. They said, 25 “Your servants will do as our lord commands. 26 Our goods and our wives and all our cattle will be in the towns of Gilead, 27 but your servants will cross over, all armed and drawn up before the Lord for battle, as our lord says.” 28 And Moses appointed for them as judges Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun and the heads of the families of the tribes of Israel. 29 And Moses said to them, 29 “If the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad cross the Jordan with you, every man armed for war before the Lord, and you bring the land under in front of you, then you are to give them the land of Gilead to hold. 30 But if they will not cross over armed with you to the battle before the Lord, then you are to bring their goods and their wives and their cattle over ahead of you into the land of Canaan, and they will take their inheritance among you in the land of Canaan.” 31 And the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad answered, 31 “Whatever the Lord says to his servants, that is what we will do. 32 We will cross over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, and you are to give us our inheritance across the Jordan.”

33 And Moses gave to them — to the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben and to 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 with its cities and their territories, the cities of the land all around. 34 And the sons of Gad built Dibon and Ataroth and Aroer, 35 and Sophar and Jazer, and set them up, 36 and Nimrah and Beth-haran, strong cities, and pens for sheep. 37 And the sons of Reuben built Heshbon and Elealeh and Kiriathaim, 38 and Baal-meon, ringed with walls, and Sibmah; and they gave the towns they built the names of their own. 39 And a son of Machir son of Manasseh went to Gilead and took it, and destroyed the Amorite who lived in it. 40 And Moses gave Gilead to Machir son of Manasseh, and he lived there. 41 And Jair son of Manasseh went and took their villages, and called them the villages of Jair. 42 And Nobah went and took Kenath and its villages, and called them Nobah, after his own name. [b]