Numbers 32:4

32:4 the land that the Lord subdued ¹  before the community of Israel, is ideal for cattle, and your servants have cattle.”

Numbers 32:16

The Offer of the Reubenites and Gadites

32:16 Then they came very close to him and said, “We will build sheep folds here for our flocks and cities for our families, ² 

Numbers 32:26

32:26 Our children, our wives, our flocks, and all our livestock will be there in the cities of Gilead,

Numbers 32:1

The Petition of the Reubenites and Gadites

32:1 ³ Now the Reubenites and the Gadites possessed a very large number of cattle. When they saw that the lands of Jazer and Gilead were ideal for cattle, ⁴ 

Numbers 20:19

20:19 Then the Israelites said to him, “We will go along the highway, and if we ⁵  or our cattle drink any of your water, we will pay for it. We will only pass through on our feet, without doing anything else.”

Numbers 31:9

31:9 The Israelites took the women of Midian captives along with their little ones, and took all their herds, all their flocks, and all their goods as plunder.

[32:4]  ¹ tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect of נָכָה (nakhah), a term that can mean “smite, strike, attack, destroy.”

[32:16]  ² tn Heb “our little ones.”

[32:1]  ³ sn While the tribes are on the other side of Jordan, the matter of which tribes would settle there has to be discussed. This chapter begins the settlement of Israel into the tribal territories, something to be continued in Joshua. The chapter has the petitions (vv. 1-5), the response by Moses (vv. 6-15), the proposal (vv. 16-27), and the conclusion of the matter (vv. 28-42). For literature on this subject, both critical and conservative, see S. E. Loewenstein, “The Relation of the Settlement of Gad and Reuben in Numbers 32:1-38, Its Background and Its Composition,” Tarbiz 42 (1972): 12-26; J. Mauchline, “Gilead and Gilgal, Some Reflections on the Israelite Occupation of Palestine,” VT 6 (1956): 19-33; and A. Bergmann, “The Israelite Tribe of Half-Manasseh,” JPOS 16 (1936): 224-54.

[32:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “the place was a place of/for cattle.”

[20:19]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text uses singular pronouns, “I” and “my,” but it is the people of Israel that are intended, and so it may be rendered in the plural. Similarly, Edom speaks in the first person, probably from the king. But it too could be rendered “we.”