The Wilderness Years

And Moses delivered the number of the firstfruits of the Lord to Eleazar the priest, as had been commanded him,

Out of the half of the children of Israel, which he had separated for them that had been in the battle.

But out of the half that fell to the rest of the multitude, that is to say, out of the three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep,

And out of the thirty-six thousand oxen,

And out of the thirty thousand five hundred asses,

And out of the sixteen thousand persons,

Moses took the fiftieth head, and gave it to the Levites that watched in the tabernacle of the Lord, as the Lord had commanded.

And when the commanders of the army, and the tribunes and centurions were come to Moses, they said:

We thy servants have reckoned up the number of the fighting men, whom we had under our hand, and not so much as one was wanting.

Therefore we offer as gifts to the Lord what gold every one of us could find in the booty, in garters and tablets, rings and bracelets, and chains, that thou mayst pray to the Lord for us.

And Moses and Eleazar the priest received all the gold in divers kinds,

In weight sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty sicles, from the tribunes and from the centurions.

For that which every one had taken in the booty was his own.

And that which was received they brought into the tabernacle of the testimony, for a memorial of the children of Israel before the Lord.

And the sons of Ruben and Gad had many flocks of cattle, and their substance in beasts was infinite. And when they saw the lands of Jazer and Galaad fit for feeding cattle,

They came to Moses and Eleazar the priest, and the princes of the multitude, and said:

Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nemra, Hesebon, and Eleale, and Saban, and Nebo, and Beon,

The land, which the Lord hath conquered in the sight of the children of Israel, is a very fertile soil for the feeding of beasts: and we thy servants have very much cattle:

And we pray thee, if we have found favour in thy sight, that thou give it to us thy servants in possession, and make us not pass over the Jordan.

And Moses answered them: What, shall your brethren go to fight, and will you sit here?

Why do ye overturn the minds of the children of Israel, that they may not dare to pass into the place which the Lord hath given them?

Was it not thus your fathers did, when I sent from Cadesbarne to view the land?

And when they were come as far as the valley of the cluster, having viewed all the country, they overturned the hearts of the children of Israel, that they should not enter into the coasts, which the Lord gave them.

And he swore in his anger, saying:

If these men, that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land, which I promised with an oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: because they would not follow me,