The Wilderness Years

And Moses gave the tribute, which was Jehovah’s heave-offering, unto Eleazar the priest, as Jehovah commanded Moses.

And of the children of Israel’s half, which Moses divided off from the men that warred

(now the congregation’s half was three hundred thousand and thirty thousand, seven thousand and five hundred sheep,

and thirty and six thousand oxen,

and thirty thousand and five hundred asses,

and sixteen thousand persons),

even of the children of Israel’s half, Moses took one drawn out of every fifty, both of man and of beast, and gave them unto the Levites, that kept the charge of the tabernacle of Jehovah; as Jehovah commanded Moses.

And the officers that were over the thousands of the host, the captains of thousands, and the captains of hundreds, came near unto Moses;

and they said unto Moses, Thy servants have taken the sum of the men of war that are under our charge, and there lacketh not one man of us.

And we have brought Jehovah’s oblation, what every man hath gotten, of jewels of gold, ankle-chains, and bracelets, signet-rings, ear-rings, and armlets, to make atonement for our souls before Jehovah.

And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of them, even all wrought jewels.

And all the gold of the heave-offering that they offered up to Jehovah, of the captains of thousands, and of the captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels.

(For the men of war had taken booty, every man for himself.)

And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the tent of meeting, for a memorial for the children of Israel before Jehovah.

Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle;

the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation, saying,

Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon,

the land which Jehovah smote before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle; and thy servants have cattle.

And they said, If we have found favor in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession; bring us not over the Jordan.

And Moses said unto the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to the war, and shall ye sit here?

And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which Jehovah hath given them?

Thus did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land.

For when they went up unto the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which Jehovah had given them.

And Jehovah’s anger was kindled in that day, and he sware, saying,

Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me: