25The LORD said to Moses: 26“You and Eleazar the priest and the family heads of the community take an inventory of the booty that was captured, man and beast. 27and divide the booty equally between the combatants who engaged in the campaign and the rest of the community. 28You shall exact a levy for the LORD: in the case of the warriors who engaged in the campaign, one item in five hundred, of persons, oxen, asses, and sheep, 29shall be taken from their half-share and given to Eleazar the priest as a contribution to the LORD; 30and from the half-share of the other Israelites you shall withhold one in every fifty human beings as well as cattle, asses, and sheep—all the animals—and give them to the Levites, who attend to the duties of the LORD’s Tabernacle.”
31Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the LORD commanded Moses. 32The amount of booty, other than the spoil that the troops had plundered, came to 675,000 sheep, 3372,000 head of cattle, 3461,000 asses, 35and a total of 32,000 human beings, namely, the women who had not had carnal relations.
36Thus, the half-share of those who had engaged in the campaign [was as follows]: The number of sheep was 337,500, 37and the LORD’s levy from the sheep was 675; 38the cattle came to 36,000, from which the LORD’s levy was 72; 39the asses came to 30,500, from which the LORD’s levy was 61. 40And the number of human beings was 16,000, from which the LORD’s levy was 32. 41Moses gave the contributions levied for the LORD to Eleazar the priest, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
42As for the half-share of the other Israelites, which Moses withdrew from the men who had taken the field, 43that half-share of the community consisted of 337,500 sheep, 4436,000 head of cattle, 4530,500 asses, 46and 16,000 human beings. 47From this half-share of the Israelites, Moses withheld one in every fifty humans and animals; and he gave them to the Levites, who attended to the duties of the LORD’s Tabernacle, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
48The commanders of the troop divisions, the officers of thousands and the officers of hundreds, approached Moses. 49They said to Moses, “Your servants have made a check of the warriors in our charge, and not one of us is missing. 50So we have brought as an offering to the LORD such articles of gold as each of us came upon: armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and pendants,c that expiation may be made for our persons before the LORD.” 51Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted the gold from them, all kinds of wrought articles. 52All the gold that was offered by the officers of thousands and the officers of hundreds as a contribution to the LORD came to 16,750 shekels. 53—But in the ranks, everyone kept his booty for himself.—54So Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted the gold from the officers of thousands and the officers of hundreds and brought it to the Tent of Meeting, as a reminder in behalf of the Israelites before the LORD.
32 The Reubenites and the Gadites owned cattle in very great numbers. Noting that the lands of Jazer and Gilead were a region suitable for cattle, 2the Gadites and the Reubenites came to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the chieftains of the community, and said, 3“Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon—4the land that the LORD has conquered for the community of Israel is cattle country, and your servants have cattle. 5It would be a favor to us,” they continued, “if this land were given to your servants as a holding; do not move us across the Jordan.”
6Moses replied to the Gadites and the Reubenites, “Are your brothers to go to war while you stay here? 7Why will you turn the minds of the Israelites from crossing into the land that the LORD has given them? 8That is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to survey the land. 9After going up to the wadi Eshcol and surveying the land, they turned the minds of the Israelites from invading the land that the LORD had given them. 10Thereupon the LORD was incensed and He swore, 11‘None of the men from twenty years up who came out of Egypt shall see the land that I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for they did not remain loyal to Me—12none except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, for they remained loyal to the LORD.’ 13The LORD was incensed at Israel, and for forty years He made them wander in the wilderness, until the whole generation that had provoked the LORD’s displeasure was gone. 14And now you, a breed of sinful men, have replaced your fathers, to add still further to the LORD’s wrath against Israel. 15If you turn away from Him and He abandons them once more in the wilderness, you will bring calamity upon all this people.”
16Then they stepped up to him and said, “We will build here sheepfolds for our flocks and towns for our children. 17And we will hastena as shocktroops in the van of the Israelites until we have established them in their home, while our children stay in the fortified towns because of the inhabitants of the land. 18We will not return to our homes until every one of the Israelites is in possession of his portion. 19But we will not have a share with them in the territory beyond the Jordan, for we have received our share on the east side of the Jordan.”
20Moses said to them, “If you do this, if you go to battle as shocktroops, at the instance of the LORD, 21and every shock-fighter among you crosses the Jordan, at the instance of the LORD, until He has dispossessed His enemies before Him, 22and the land has been subdued, at the instance of the LORD, and then you return—you shall be clear before the LORD and before Israel; and this land shall be your holding under the LORD. 23But if you do not do so, you will have sinned against the LORD; and know that your sin will overtake you. 24Build towns for your children and sheepfolds for your flocks, but do what you have promised.”
25The Gadites and the Reubenites answered Moses, “Your servants will do as my lord commands. 26Our children, our wives, our flocks, and all our other livestock will stay behindb in the towns of Gilead; 27while your servants, all those recruited for war, cross over, at the instance of the LORD, to engage in battle—as my lord orders.”
28Then Moses gave instructions concerning them to Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the family heads of the Israelite tribes. 29Moses said to them, “If every shock-fighter among the Gadites and the Reubenites crosses the Jordan with you to do battle, at the instance of the LORD, and the land is subdued before you, you shall give them the land of Gilead as a holding. 30But if they do not cross over with you as shock-troops, they shall receive holdings among you in the land of Canaan.”
31The Gadites and the Reubenites said in reply, “Whatever the LORD has spoken concerning your servants, that we will do. 32We ourselves will cross over as shock-troops, at the instance of the LORD, into the land of Canaan; and we shall keep our hereditary holding across the Jordan.”c
33So Moses assigned to them—to the Gadites, the Reubenites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph—the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of King Og of Bashan, the land with its various cities and the territories of their surrounding towns. 34The Gadites rebuilt Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer, 35Atroth-shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah, 36Beth-nimrah, and Beth-haran as fortified towns or as enclosures for flocks. 37The Reubenites rebuilt Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim, 38Nebo, Baal-meon— some names being changed—and Sibmah; they gave [their own] names to towns that they rebuilt.d 39The descendants of Machir son of Manasseh went to Gilead and captured it, dispossessing the Amorites who were there; 40so Moses gave Gilead to Machir son of Manasseh, and he settled there. 41Jair son of Manasseh went and captured e-their villages,-e which he renamed Havvoth-jair.f 42And Nobah went and captured Kenath and its dependencies, renaming it Nobah after himself.
33 These were the marches of the Israelites who started out from the land of Egypt, troop by troop, in the charge of Moses and Aaron. 2Moses recorded the starting points of their various marches as directed by the LORD. Their marches, by starting points, were as follows:
3They set out from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month. It was on the morrow of the passover offering that the Israelites started out defiantly,a in plain view of all the Egyptians. 4The Egyptians meanwhile were burying those among them whom the LORD had struck down, every first-born—whereby the LORD executed judgment on their gods.
5The Israelites set out from Rameses and encamped at Succoth. 6They set out from Succoth and encamped at Etham, which is on the edge of the wilderness. 7They set out from Etham and turned about toward Pihahiroth, which faces Baal-zephon, and they
