Numbers
Numbers 32
1Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock. They saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead. Behold, the place was a place for livestock. 2Then 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, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon, 4the land which Yahweh struck before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock; and your servants have livestock.” 5They 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.”
6Moses said to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, “Shall your brothers go to war while you sit here? 7Why do you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which Yahweh has given them? 8Your fathers did so when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. 9For 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. 10Yahweh’s anger burned 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, 12except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, because they have followed Yahweh completely.’ 13Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he made them wander back and forth in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation who had done evil in Yahweh’s sight was consumed.
14“Behold, you have risen up in your fathers’ place, an increase of sinful men, to increase the fierce anger of Yahweh toward Israel. 15For if you turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and you will destroy all these people.”
16They came near to him, and said, “We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones; 17but we ourselves will be ready armed to go before the children of Israel, until we have brought them to their place. Our little ones shall dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. 18We will not return to our houses until the children of Israel have all received their inheritance. 19For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan eastward.”
20Moses said to them: “If you will do this thing, if you will arm yourselves to go before Yahweh to the war, 21and every one of your armed men will pass over the Jordan before Yahweh until he has driven out his enemies from before him, 22and the land is subdued before Yahweh; then afterward you shall return, and be clear of obligation to Yahweh and to Israel. Then this land shall be your 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. 24Build cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep; and do that which has proceeded out of your mouth.”
25The children of Gad and the children of Reuben spoke to Moses, saying, “Your servants will do as my lord commands. 26Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our livestock shall be there in the cities of Gilead; 27but your servants will pass over, every man who is armed for war, before Yahweh to battle, as my lord says.”
28So Moses commanded concerning them to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the fathers’ households of the tribes of the children of Israel. 29Moses 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 is subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession; 30but if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.”
31The children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, saying, “As Yahweh has said to your servants, so will we do. 32We will pass over armed before Yahweh into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us beyond the Jordan.”
33Moses 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 its cities and borders, even the cities of the surrounding land. 34The children of Gad built Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer, 35Atroth-shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah, 36Beth Nimrah, and Beth Haran: fortified cities and folds for sheep. 37The children of Reuben built Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim, 38Nebo, and Baal Meon, (their names being changed), and Sibmah. They gave other names to the cities which they built. 39The children of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead, took it, and dispossessed the Amorites who were therein. 40Moses gave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh; and he lived therein. 41Jair the son of Manasseh went and took its villages, and called them Havvoth Jair. 42Nobah went and took Kenath and its villages, and called it Nobah, after his own name.
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3 commentators · 69 notes on this chapter
John Gill42
The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.
Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.
Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle,.... By which it seems that they had more in proportion than any of the other tribes; by what means it is not easy to say; very probably they were more addicted to the…
The children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses,.... The children of Gad are mentioned first, though Reuben was the firstborn, and had a standard under which Gad pitched: it may be, as Aben Ezra thinks, the Gadites were the first…
Ataroth, Dibon, and Jazer,.... These were places which belonged to the Amorites, and were taken from Sihon, their king: of Ataroth we read nowhere else but in this chapter; of Dibon see Isaiah 15:2, Jazer was a city, from whence the land about it had its…
Keil & Delitzsch15
The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.
Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.
The Reubenites and Gadites, who had very large flocks and herds, petitioned Moses, Eleazar, and the princes of the congregation, to give them the conquered land of Gilead for a possession, as a land that was peculiarly adapted for flocks, and not to make them…
In Num 32:3 the country is more distinctly defined by the introduction of the names of a number of important towns, whilst the clause "the country which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel," in which the defeat of Sihon is referred to, describes…
Moses first of all blames their want of brotherly feeling: "Shall your brethren go into the war, and ye sit here?" He then calls their attention to the fact, that by their disinclination they would take away the courage and inclination of the other tribes to…
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown12
The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.
Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.
Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here--Their language was ambiguous; and Moses, suspicious that this proposal was an act of unbelief, a scheme of self-policy and indolence to…
they came near--The narrative gives a picturesque description of this scene. The suppliants had shrunk back, dreading from the undisguised emotions of their leader that their request would be refused. But, perceiving, from the tenor of his discourse, that his…
and our little ones shall dwell in the fenced cities because of the inhabitants of the land--There was good policy in leaving a sufficient force to protect the conquered region lest the enemy should attempt reprisals; and as only forty thousand of the…
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