Bible Commentaries
Numbers 32

Verse 1

CHAPTER XXXII

The Reubenites and Gadites request Moses to give them their

inheritance on this side of Jordan, 1-5.

Moses expostulates with and reproves them, 6-15.

They explain themselves, and propose conditions, with which

Moses is satisfied-they are to build cities for their wives and

children, and folds for their cattle, and go ever Jordan armed

with the other tribes, and fight against their enemies till the

land is subdued; after which they are to return, 16-27.

Moses proposes the business to Eleazar, Joshua, and the elders,

28-30.

The Gadites and Reubenites promise a faithful observance of the

conditions, 31, 32;

on which Moses assigns to them, and the half tribe of Manasseh,

the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of

Og, king of Bashan, 33.

The cities built by the Gadites, 34-36.

The cities built by the Reubenites, 37, 38.

The children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, expel the Amorites

from Gilead, 39,

which Moses grants to them, 40.

Jair, the son of Manasseh, takes the small towns of Gilead, 41.

And Nobah takes Kenath and its villages, 42.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXXII

Verse 3

Verse Numbers 32:3. Ataroth, and Dibon, &c. — The places mentioned here belonged to Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, which being conquered by the Israelites, constituted ever after a part of their territories, Numbers 32:33.

Verse 5

Verse Numbers 32:5. Let this land be given unto thy servants — Because it was good for pasturage, and they had many flocks, Numbers 32:1.

Verse 12

Verse Numbers 32:12. Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite — It was Jephunneh that was the Kenezite, and not Caleb. Kenaz was probably the father of Jephunneh.

Verse 16

Verse Numbers 32:16. We will build - cities for our little ones — It was impossible for these, numerous as they might be, to build cities and fortify them for the defence of their families in their absence. Calmet supposes they meant no more than repairing the cities of the Amorites which they had lately taken; which work might have been very easily accomplished in the time which they spent on this side of Jordan, before they went over with their brethren, to put them in possession of the land.

Verse 17

Verse Numbers 32:17. Because of the inhabitants of the land. — These were the Ammonites, Moabites, Idumeans, and the remains of the Midianites and Amorites. But could the women and children even keep the defenced cities, when placed in them? This certainly cannot be supposed possible. Many of the men of war must of course stay behind. In the last census, Numbers 26:0, the tribe of Reuben consisted of 43,730 men; the tribe of Gad, 40,500; the tribe of Manasseh, 52,700; the half of whichIsaiah 26:0is 26,350. Add this to the sum of the other two tribes, and the amount is 110,580. Now from Joshua 4:13 we learn that of the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half of the tribe of Manasseh, only 40,000 armed men passed over Jordan to assist their brethren in the reduction of the land: consequently the number of 70,580 men were left behind for the defence of the women, the children, and the flocks. This was more than sufficient to defend them against a people already panic struck by their late discomfitures and reverses.

Verse 34

Verse Numbers 32:34. The children of Gad built - Aroer — This was situated on the river Arnon, Deuteronomy 2:36; 2 Kings 10:33. It was formerly inhabited by the Emim, a warlike and perhaps gigantic people. They were expelled by the Moabites; the Moabites by the Amorites; and the Amorites by the Israelites. The Gadites then possessed it till the captivity of their tribe, with that of Reuben and the half of the tribe of Manasseh, by the Assyrians, 2 Kings 15:29, after which the Moabites appear to have repossessed it, as they seem to have occupied it in the days of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 48:15-20.

Verse 38

Verse Numbers 32:38. And Nebo - their names being changed — That is, Those who conquered the cities called them after their own names. Thus the city Kenath, being conquered by Nobah, was called after his name, Numbers 32:42.

Verse 41

Verse 41. Havoth-jair. — That is, the villages or habitations of Jair; and thus they should have been translated. As these two tribes and a half were the first, says Ainsworth, who had their inheritance assigned to them in the promised land, so they were the first of all Israel that were carried captive out of their own land, because of their sins. "For they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after other gods. And God delivered them into the hands of Pul and Tiglath-Pilneser, kings of Assyria, and they brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and Gozan, unto this day." See 1 Chronicles 5:25-26.