Thematic Bible: Were required to assist in subduing canaan


Thematic Bible



I commanded you at that time, saying, "The LORD your God has given you this land to possess it: you shall pass over armed before your brothers the children of Israel, all the men of valor. But your wives, and your little ones, and your livestock, (I know that you have much livestock), shall live in your cities which I have given you, until the LORD gives rest to your brothers, as to you, and they also possess the land which the LORD your God gives them beyond the Jordan: then you shall return every man to his possession, which I have given you."

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? Why do you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the LORD has given them? Your fathers did so when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. read more.
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 the LORD had given them. The LORD's anger was kindled in that day, and he swore, saying, '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: except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun; because they have followed the LORD completely.' The LORD'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 the LORD, was consumed. "Behold, you have risen up in your fathers' place, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of the LORD toward Israel. For if you turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and you will destroy all this people." They came near to him, and said, "We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones: 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. We will not return to our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance. 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." Moses said to them, "If you will do this thing, if you will arm yourselves to go before the LORD to the war, and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before the LORD, until he has driven out his enemies from before him, and the land is subdued before the LORD; then afterward you shall return, and be guiltless towards the LORD, and towards Israel; and this land shall be to you for a possession before the LORD. "But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD; and be sure your sin will find you out. Build cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep; and do that which has proceeded out of your mouth." The children of Gad and the children of Reuben spoke to Moses, saying, "Your servants will do as my lord commands. Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our livestock, shall be there in the cities of Gilead; but your servants will pass over, every man who is armed for war, before the LORD to battle, as my lord says." So Moses commanded concerning them to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the ancestral houses of the tribes of the children of Israel. 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 the LORD, and the land shall be subdued before you; then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession: but if they will not pass over with you armed, to battle before the LORD, then you shall bring over their children and their wives and their flocks before you into the land of Canaan, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.? The children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, saying, "As the LORD has said to your servants, so will we do. We will pass over armed before the LORD into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us beyond the Jordan."