1. Now the Reubenites and Gadites had a very large number of livestock. Noticing that the land of Jazer and of Gilead was a place suited to livestock,
2. the Gadites and Reubenites came to Moses and Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the community and said,
3. “The region of Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo and Baal-meon—
4. the land which the Lord has laid low before the community of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.”
5. They continued, “If we find favor with you, let this land be given to your servants as their possession. Do not make us cross the Jordan.”
6. But Moses answered the Gadites and Reubenites: “Are your kindred, then, to go to war, while you remain here?
7. Why do you wish to discourage the Israelites from crossing to the land the Lord has given them?
8. That is just what your ancestors did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to reconnoiter the land.
9. They went up to the Wadi Eshcol and reconnoitered the land, then so discouraged the Israelites that they would not enter the land the Lord had given them.
10. At that time the anger of the Lord flared up, and he swore:
11. None of the men twenty years old or more who have come up from Egypt will see the land I promised under oath to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, because they have not followed me unreservedly—