Reading: Numbers: Chapter 32

~Reading: Numbers: Chapter 32

(1-24) Now the Reubenites and Gadites had a very large number of livestock. Noticing that the land of Jazer and of Gilead was grazing country, they came to Moses and the priest Eleazar and to the princes of the community and said, "The region of Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo and Baal-meon, which the Lord has laid low before the community of Israel, is grazing country. Now, since your servants have livestock," they continued, "If we find favor with you, let this land be given to your servants as their property. Do not make us cross the Jordan."

But Moses answered the Gadites and Reubenites: "Are your kinsmen, then, to engage in war, while you remain here? Why do you wish to discourage the Israelites from crossing to the land the Lord has given them? That is just what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to reconnoiter the land. 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. At that time the wrath of the Lord flared up, and He swore, 'Because they have not followed me unreservedly, none of these men of twenty years or more who have come up from Egypt shall ever see this country I promised under oath to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, except the Kenizzite Caleb, son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, son of Nun, who have followed the Lord unreservedly.' So in his anger with the Israelites the Lord make them wander in the desert forty years, until the whole generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord had died out. And now here you are, a brood of sinners, rising up in your fathers' place to add still more to the Lord's blazing wrath against the Israelites. If you turn away from following him, he will make them stay still longer in the desert, and so you will bring about the ruin of this whole nation."

But they were insistent with him: "We wish only to build sheepfolds here for our flocks, and towns for our families; but we ourselves will march as troops in the van of the Israelites, until we have led them to their destination. Meanwhile our families can remain here in the fortified towns, safe from attack by the natives. We will not return to our homes until every one of the Israelites has taken possession of his heritage, and will not claim any heritage with them once we cross the Jordan, so long as we receive a heritage for ourselves on this eastern side of the Jordan."

Moses said to them in reply: "If you keep your word to march as troops in the Lord's vanguard and to cross the Jordan in full force before the Lord until he has driven his enemies out of his way and the land is subdued before him, then you may return here, quit of every obligation to the Lord and Israel, and this region shall be your possession before the Lord. But it you do not do this, you will sin against the Lord, and you can be sure that you will not escape the consequences of your sin. Build the towns, then, for your families, and the folds for your flock, but also fulfill you express promise."