¹Now the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad had a lot of cattle – a very great quantity – and when they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, they saw that the place was a place for cattle. ²And the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben came and spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the priest, and to the leaders of the congregation, and they said, ³“Ataroth and Dibon and Jazer and Nimrah and Heshbon and Elealeh and Sebam and Nebo and Beon – ⁴the land which the Lord struck before the congregation of Israel – is a land of cattle, and your servants have cattle.” ⁵And they said, “If we have found grace in your eyes, let this land be given to your servants as a possession, and do not have us cross the Jordan.” ⁶Then Moses said to the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben, “Should your brothers go to war, while you stay here? ⁷Now why should you discourage the sons of Israel from crossing to the land which the Lord has given them? ⁸Your fathers behaved the same way when I sent them from Kadesh-Barnea to see the land, ⁹when they went up to the Brook of Eshcol and saw the land, but they discouraged the sons of Israel so that they wouldn't go to the land which the Lord has given them, ¹⁰so that the Lord's wrath was kindled on that day, and he swore and said, ¹¹‘The men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and above, will certainly not see the land about which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, for they have not fully followed me, ¹²except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have fully followed the Lord.’ ¹³And the Lord's wrath was kindled against Israel, and he caused them to wander in the desert for forty years, until the whole generation which had done wrong in the eyes of the Lord had come to an end. ¹⁴And look, you have risen up in place of your fathers – the progeny of sinful men – to add more to the angry fury of the Lord towards Israel. ¹⁵If you turn away from following him, then he will leave them again in the desert, and you will bring the whole of this people to ruin.” ¹⁶But they approached him and said, “We will build sheepfolds for our livestock here, and cities for our little ones. ¹⁷And we will arm ourselves swiftly before the sons of Israel, until we have brought them to their place, while our little ones remain in fortified cities, because of the inhabitants of the land. ¹⁸We will not return to our houses until the sons of Israel have received their inheritance – each man his inheritance. ¹⁹For we will not inherit with them on the far side of the Jordan, for our inheritance has come to us on the eastern side of the Jordan.” ²⁰Then Moses said to them, “If you do this thing, if you arm yourselves before the Lord for war, ²¹and every armed man of yours crosses the Jordan before the Lord until he has dispossessed his enemies before him, ²²and the land is subdued before the Lord, and afterwards you return, then you will be guiltless with the Lord and with Israel, and this land will be yours as a possession before the Lord. ²³But if you were not to act this way, then in that case you would be sinning against the Lord. And be aware that as for your sin, it would find you out. ²⁴Build yourselves cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep, and do what you have pronounced.” ²⁵Then the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben spoke to Moses and said, “Your servants will do as my lord commands. ²⁶Our little ones, our wives, our cattle and all our livestock will be there in the cities of Gilead, ²⁷and your servants will cross, every one in the army, armed for battle before the Lord, as my lord says.” ²⁸And concerning them Moses commanded Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the paternal heads of the tribes of the sons of Israel, ²⁹and Moses said to them, “If the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben cross the Jordan with you – every one armed for war before the Lord – and the land is subdued before you, then you will give them the land of Gilead as a possession. ³⁰But if they do not cross armed with you, then they will have a possession among you in the land of Canaan.” ³¹And the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben answered and said, “What the Lord said to your servants, we will do. ³²We will cross armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, and we will have the possession of our inheritance on the other side of the Jordan from there.” ³³And Moses gave them – the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben and half of the 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 with its cities, in the territories of the cities of the land round about. ³⁴And the sons of Gad built Dibon and Ataroth and Aroer, ³⁵and Ataroth-Shophan and Jazer and Jogbehah, ³⁶and Beth-Nimrah, and Beth-Haran – fortified cities – and sheepfolds. ³⁷And the sons of Reuben built Heshbon and Elealeh and Kiriathaim, ³⁸and Nebo and Baal-Meon (the names being changed) and Sibmah, and they called the cities which they had built by changed names. ³⁹And the sons of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead and captured it and dispossessed the Amorite who was in it. ⁴⁰And Moses gave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh, and he lived in it. ⁴¹Then Jair the son of Manasseh went out and captured their villages and called them the Villages of Jair. ⁴²And Nobah went out and captured Kenath and its satellite villages, and he called it Nobah after his own name.