Thematic Bible: Reuben, gad and half manasseh


Thematic Bible



At that time I gave you orders, saying, The Lord has given you this land for your heritage: all the men of war are to go over armed before your brothers the children of Israel. But your wives and your little ones and your cattle (for it is clear that you have much cattle) may go on living in the towns I have given you; Till the Lord has given rest to your brothers as to you, and till they have taken for themselves the land which the Lord your God is giving them on the other side of Jordan: then you may go back, every man of you, to the heritage which I have given you.

And Moses said to the children of Gad and the children of Reuben, Are your brothers to go to the war, while you take your rest here? Why would you take from the children of Israel the desire to go over into the land which the Lord has given them? So did your fathers, 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 took from the children of Israel the desire to go into the land which the Lord had given them. And at that time the Lord was moved to wrath, and made an oath, saying, Truly, not one of the men of twenty years old and over who came out of Egypt will see the land which I gave by oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; because they have not been true to me with all their heart; But only Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua, the son of Nun: because they have been true to the Lord. Then the Lord was angry with Israel, and he made them wanderers in the waste land for forty years? till all that generation who had done evil in the eyes of the Lord was dead. And now you have come to take the place of your fathers, another generation of sinners, increasing the wrath of the Lord against Israel. For if you are turned away from him, he will send them wandering again in the waste land; and you will be the cause of the destruction of all this people. Then they came to him, and said, We will make safe places for our cattle here, and towns for our little ones; But we ourselves will be ready armed to go before the children of Israel till we have taken them to their place: but our little ones will be safe in the walled towns against the people of the land. We will not come back to our houses till every one of the children of Israel has come into his heritage. For we will not have our heritage with them on the other side of Jordan and forward; because our heritage has come to us on this side of Jordan to the east. Then Moses said to them, If you will do this, arming yourselves to go before the Lord to the war, Every armed man of you going across Jordan before the Lord till he has overcome and sent in flight all who are against him, And the land is under the rule of the Lord: then after that you may come back, having done no wrong to the Lord and to Israel; and this land will be yours for your heritage before the Lord. But if you do not do this, then you are sinners against the Lord; and you may be certain that your sin will have its reward. So get to work building your towns for your little ones, and safe places for your sheep; and do as you have said. And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben said to Moses, Your servants will do as my lord says. Our little ones, our wives, and our flocks, and all our cattle, will be there in the towns of Gilead; But your servants will go over, every man armed for war, before the Lord to the fight, as my lord says. So Moses gave orders about them to Eleazar the priest and to Joshua, the son of Nun, and to the heads of families of the tribes of the children of Israel. And Moses said to them, If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben go with you over Jordan, every man armed for the fight before the Lord, and all the land is given into your hands, then let them have the land of Gilead for a heritage: But if they do not go over with you armed, they will have to take their heritage with you in the land of Canaan. Then the children of Gad and the children of Reuben said, As the Lord has said to your servants, so will we do. We will go over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, and you will give us our heritage on this side of Jordan.


And this land which we took at that time, from Aroer by the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill-country of Gilead with its towns, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites. The rest of Gilead and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, all the land of Argob, together with Bashan, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (This land is named the land of the Rephaim. Jair, the son of Manasseh, took all the land of Argob, as far as the country of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, naming it, Bashan, Havvoth-Jair after himself, as it is to this day.) read more.
And Gilead I gave to Machir. And the land from Gilead to the valley of the Arnon, with the middle of the valley as a limit, as far as the river Jabbok which is the limit of the country of the children of Ammon, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites; As well as the Arabah, with the river Jordan as their limit, from Chinnereth to the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah to the east.

And the limit of the children of Reuben was the edge of Jordan. This was the heritage of the children of Reuben by their families, with its towns and its unwalled places. And Moses gave their heritage to the tribe of Gad by their families. And their limit was Jazer, and all the towns of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon, to Aroer before Rabbah; read more.
And from Heshbon to Ramath-mizpeh, and Betonim; and from Mahanaim to the edge of Debir; And in the valley, Beth-haram, and Beth-nimrah, and Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon, king of Heshbon, having Jordan for its limit, to the end of the sea of Chinnereth on the east side of Jordan. This is the heritage of the children of Gad by their families, with its towns and its unwalled places And Moses gave their heritage to the half-tribe of Manasseh by their families. And their limit was from Mahanaim, all Bashan, all the kingdom of Og, king of Bashan, and all Havvoth-Jair, in Bashan, sixty towns; And half Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, towns of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were for the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, for half of the children of Machir by their families. These are the heritages of which Moses made distribution in the lowlands of Moab, on the other side of Jordan in Jericho, to the east.


Basic English, produced by Mr C. K. Ogden of the Orthological Institute - public domain