¹ Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that behold, the place was a place for livestock;

² the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the princes of the congregation, saying,

³ "Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon,

⁴ the land which Yahweh struck before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock; and your servants have livestock."

⁵ They said, "If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession; don't bring us over the Jordan."

⁶ Moses said to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, "Shall your brothers go to the war, and shall you sit here?

⁷ Why do you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which Yahweh has given them?

⁸ Your fathers did so when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land.

⁹ For when they went up to the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which Yahweh had given them.

¹⁰ Yahweh's anger was kindled in that day, and he swore, saying,

¹¹ 'Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me:

¹² except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun; because they have followed Yahweh completely.'

¹³ Yahweh's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander back and forth in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, who had done evil in the sight of Yahweh, was consumed.

¹⁴ "Behold, you have risen up in your fathers' place, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of Yahweh toward Israel.

¹⁵ For if you turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and you will destroy all this people."

¹⁶ They came near to him, and said, "We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones:

¹⁷ but we ourselves will be ready armed to go before the children of Israel, until we have brought them to their place: and our little ones shall dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land.

¹⁸ We will not return to our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance.

¹⁹ For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan, and forward; because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side of the Jordan eastward."

²⁰ Moses said to them, "If you will do this thing, if you will arm yourselves to go before Yahweh to the war,

²¹ and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before Yahweh, until he has driven out his enemies from before him,

²² and the land is subdued before Yahweh; then afterward you shall return, and be guiltless towards Yahweh, and towards Israel; and this land shall be to you for a possession before Yahweh.

²³ "But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against Yahweh; and be sure your sin will find you out.

²⁴ Build cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep; and do that which has proceeded out of your mouth."

²⁵ The children of Gad and the children of Reuben spoke to Moses, saying, "Your servants will do as my lord commands.

²⁶ Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our livestock, shall be there in the cities of Gilead;

²⁷ but your servants will pass over, every man who is armed for war, before Yahweh to battle, as my lord says."

²⁸ So Moses commanded concerning them to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the tribes of the children of Israel.

²⁹ Moses said to them, "If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you over the Jordan, every man who is armed to battle, before Yahweh, and the land shall be subdued before you; then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession:

³⁰ but if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan."

³¹ The children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, saying, "As Yahweh has said to your servants, so will we do.

³² We will pass over armed before Yahweh into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance [shall remain] with us beyond the Jordan."

³³ Moses gave to them, even to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land, according to the cities of it with [their] borders, even the cities of the surrounding land.

³⁴ The children of Gad built Dibon, and Ataroth, and Aroer,

³⁵ and Atrothshophan, and Jazer, and Jogbehah,

³⁶ and Beth Nimrah, and Beth Haran: fortified cities, and folds for sheep.

³⁷ The children of Reuben built Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Kiriathaim,

³⁸ and Nebo, and Baal Meon, (their names being changed), and Sibmah: and they gave other names to the cities which they built.

³⁹ The children of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead, and took it, and dispossessed the Amorites who were therein.

⁴⁰ Moses gave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh; and he lived therein.

⁴¹ Jair the son of Manasseh went and took its towns, and called them Havvoth Jair.

⁴² Nobah went and took Kenath, and its villages, and called it Nobah, after his own name.

¹ All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.

² All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would that we had died in this wilderness!

³ Why does Yahweh bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey: wouldn't it be better for us to return into Egypt?"

⁴ They said one to another, "Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt."

⁵ Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.

⁶ Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of those who spied out the land, tore their clothes:

⁷ and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, "The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land.

⁸ If Yahweh delights in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us; a land which flows with milk and honey.

⁹ Only don't rebel against Yahweh, neither fear the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is removed from over them, and Yahweh is with us. Don't fear them."

¹⁰ But all the congregation threatened to stone them with stones. The glory of Yahweh appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the children of Israel.

¹¹ Yahweh said to Moses, "How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them?

¹² I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they."

¹³ Moses said to Yahweh, "Then the Egyptians will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from among them;

¹⁴ and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you Yahweh are in the midst of this people; for you Yahweh are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.

¹⁵ Now if you killed this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak, saying,

¹⁶ 'Because Yahweh was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.'

¹⁷ Now please let the power of the Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying,

¹⁸ 'Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and that will by no means clear [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.'

¹⁹ Please pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loving kindness, and according as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now."

²⁰ Yahweh said, "I have pardoned according to your word:

²¹ but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Yahweh;

²² because all those men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice;

²³ surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it:

²⁴ but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him will I bring into the land into which he went; and his seed shall possess it.

²⁵ Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: tomorrow turn, and go into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea."

²⁶ Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

²⁷ "How long [shall I bear] with this evil congregation, that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.

²⁸ Tell them, 'As I live, says Yahweh, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you:

²⁹ your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me,

³⁰ surely you shall not come into the land, concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

³¹ But your little ones, that you said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected.

³² But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.

³³ Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness.

³⁴ After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, you will bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you will know my alienation.'

³⁵ I, Yahweh, have spoken, surely this will I do to all this evil congregation, who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die."

³⁶ The men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land,

³⁷ even those men who did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before Yahweh.

³⁸ But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men who went to spy out the land.

³⁹ Moses told these words to all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.

⁴⁰ They rose up early in the morning, and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, "Behold, we are here, and will go up to the place which Yahweh has promised: for we have sinned."

⁴¹ Moses said, "Why now do you disobey the commandment of Yahweh, since it shall not prosper?

⁴² Don't go up, for Yahweh isn't among you; that you not be struck down before your enemies.

⁴³ For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and you shall fall by the sword: because you are turned back from following Yahweh, therefore Yahweh will not be with you."

⁴⁴ But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and Moses, didn't depart out of the camp.

⁴⁵ Then the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite who lived in that mountain, and struck them and beat them down, even to Hormah.