I will strike them with the pestilence, ¹  and I will disinherit them; I will make you into a nation that is greater and mightier than they!”

So ¹  now, please come and curse this nation ²  for me, for they are too powerful for me. Perhaps I will prevail so that we may conquer them ³  and drive them out of the land. For I know that whoever you bless is blessed, ⁴  and whoever you curse is cursed.”

¹ 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, ²