Alastair's Adversaria - Biblical Reading and Reflection: Numbers 32

Episode Date: May 23, 2022

The Transjordanian tribes. My reflections are searchable by Bible chapter here: https://audio.alastairadversaria.com/explore/. If you are interested in supporting this project, please consider supporting my work on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/zugzwanged), using my PayPal account (https://bit.ly/2RLaUcB), or buying books for my research on Amazon (https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/36WVSWCK4X33O?ref_=wl_share). You can also listen to the audio of these episodes on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/alastairs-adversaria/id1416351035?mt=2.

Numbers chapter 32 Now the people of Rubin and the people of Gad had a very great number of livestock and they saw the land of Jaze and the land of Gilead and behold the place was a place for livestock so the people of Gad and the people of Rubin came and said to Moses and to Eliezer the priest and to the chiefs of the congregation. Ataroth, Daibon, Jazeer, Nimra, Heshbon, Eliella, Seabum, Nebo and Beon, the land that the Lord struck down before the congregation of Israel

is a land for livestock and your servants have livestock. And they said, If we have found favour in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession. Do not take us across the Jordan. But Moses said to the people of Gad and to the people of Rubin, Shall your brothers go to the war while you sit here? Why will you discourage the heart of the people of Israel

from going over into the land that the Lord has given them? Your fathers did this when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. For when they went up to the valley of Eshkol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the people of Israel from going into the land that the Lord had given them. The Lord's anger was kindled on that day, and he swore saying, surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt from 20 years old and upward, shall see the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me, none except Caleb the son of Jifuna the Kenazite, and Joshua the son of none, for they have wholly followed

the Lord. And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness 40 years until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone. And behold, you have risen in your father's place, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the fierce anger of the Lord against Israel. For if you turn away from following him, he will again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all this people. Then they came near to him and said, We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock and cities for our little ones,

but we will take up arms ready to go before the people of Israel, we have brought them to their place, and our little one shall live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. We will not return to our homes until each of the people of Israel has gained his inheritance, for we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan to the east. So Moses said to them, if you will do this, if you will take up arms to go before the Lord for the war, and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before the Lord, until he has driven out his enemies from before him, and the land is subdued before the Lord. Then after that

you shall return and be free of obligation to the Lord and to Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the Lord. But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. Build cities for your little ones, and foals for your sheep, and do what you have promised. And the people of Gad and the people of Rubin said to Moses, your servants will do as my Lord commands. Our little ones, our wives, our livestock, and and all our cattle shall remain there in the cities of Gilead. But your servants will pass over, every man who is armed for war before the Lord to battle,

as my Lord orders. So Moses gave command concerning them to Eliezer the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the father's houses of the tribes of the people of Israel. And Moses said to them, if the people of Gad and the people of Rubin, every man who is armed to battle before the Lord, will pass with you over the Jordan,

and the land shall be subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead, a possession. However, if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan. And the people of Gad and the people of Rubin answered, what the Lord has said to your servants, we will do. We will pass over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us beyond the Jordan. And Moses gave to them, to the people of Gad and to the people of Rubin, and to the half tribe of Manassah, the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of

Og, king of Beishan, the land and its cities with their territories, the cities of the land throughout the country. And the people of Gad built Daibon, Ataroth, Aroa, Atroche-Shofan, Jazeer, Jaze, Jogbiha, Beth Nimra and Beth Hadran, fortified cities and foals for sheep. And the people of Rubin built Hesbon, Iliela, Kiriatham, Nibo and Bail-Meon, their names were changed, and Sibmer, and they gave other names to the cities that they built. And the sons of Meekir, the son of Manasseh, went to Gilead and captured it, and dispossed it, and dispossessed. the Amorites who were in it, and Moses gave Gilead to Makir the son of Manasa, and he settled in it, and Jaya the son of Manasa went and captured their villages, and called them Havath Jaya,

and Nobah went and captured Kinath in its villages, and called it Nobba after his own name. In Numbers chapter 32, an event occurs that makes us at first wonder whether Israel is going to fall at the final hurdle, just as they are about to enter into the land, it seems like Ruben and Gad are drawing back. When Ruben and Gad tell Moses and Eleazar that they plan to stay back in the land of the Transjordan, Moses is clearly angry and also distressed. It seems like the events of Chapter 13 and 14 are playing out all over again. The people had once been discouraged from entering into the promised land by the bad report of the spies. And now as Gad and Rubin draw back at the last moment, they might be discouraged once more. Following Israel's victories against

the Amarites and the Midianites in the land of the Transjordan, they enjoyed possessions outside of the promised land proper, and the land of these possessions looked very promising to Rubin and Gad, who needed extensive grazing land for their flocks. Moses is furious, and although the people would not have forgotten, he recounts the entire history of what had happened 38 years ago. Because of the bad reports of the spies and the people's refusal to enter into the promised land, the Lord was angry with his people, and all except Caleb and Joshua, of that generation had died out as a result. Moses, however, is misreading the intentions of Gad and Ruben.

Gad and Rubin relieve Moses' fears and set his mind at rest by communicating their true intent. They come near to him to communicate to him. Rabbi David Foreman seizing the wording here an expression of Rubin and Gad's willingness to cross the gap. They are not going to stand over against Moses and argue with him. They will go to whatever extent is necessary to allay his concerns. Having settled their wives and families within their territory, they offer to go ahead of the rest of the tribes to lead them into the promised land.

Far from avoiding the battle for the land, they commit themselves to being found in the thickest part of it. Moses accepts their requests but requires of them that they cross over before the people and do not return until the land has been conquered. If they fail to do this, the Lord will hold them accountable. Moses gathers the people together and reports on the decision that has been made, to the terms by which Gad and Rubin had bound themselves. Moses adds the condition that if they fail to do what they have committed themselves to do,

they will forfeit their title to the Transjordanian land and be given land alongside the other tribes. There is a surprising addition in verse 33. Alongside Rubin and Gad, the half tribe of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, will inherit land to the east of the Jordan. The tribe of Manassah then will straddle the Jordan River, one half in the promised land proper, and the other half in the transjordan. Jordan. In such a manner, the tribe of Manasseh would be a bridge tribe, connecting the two halves of the land together. The Jordan River was a geographical seam on which the nation was always in danger of being torn apart. We see this especially in the story of Joshua chapter 22, where the distrust

between the people on the different sides of the Jordan nearly led to all-out war. In that chapter, Ruben, Gad, and the half-trived of Manasseh built an altar on their side of the Jordan, which was intended, they argued, to be a memorial, not to be a rival altar or an alternative site of worship. The two and a half tribes explain their reasoning in verses 24 to 29 of that chapter. No, but we did it from fear that in time to come, your children might say to our children, what have you to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? For the Lord has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you people of Rubin and people of Gad. You have no portion in the Lord. So your children might make our children cease to worship

the Lord. Therefore we said, let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we do perform the service of the Lord in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings, so your children will not say to our children in time to come, you have no portion in the Lord. And we thought, if this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we should say, behold the copy of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you. Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord and turn away this day from following the Lord by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering or sacrifice,

other than the altar of the Lord our God that stands before his tabernacle. This expression of the fears of the two and a half tribes gives a window into the tensions and anxieties that existed on that fault line. In Deuteronomy chapter 3, Moses describes the allocation of the land to these two and a half tribes, in verses 12 to 20 of that chapter. When we took possession of this land at that time, I gave to the Rubinites and the Gadites the territory beginning at Aroa, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead with its cities, the rest of Gilead and all Bayshan, the kingdom of Og, that is, all the region of Agob, I gave to the half tribe of Manassah. All that portion of Bayshan has called the land of Refame.

Jaya, the Manassite, took all the region of Agob, that is Bashan, as far as the border of the Gesherites and the Mayakthites, and called the villages after his own name, Habath Jaya, as it is to this day. To make here I gave Gilead, and to the Rubinites and the Gadites, I gave the territory from Gilead as far as the valley of the Arnon, with the middle of the valley as a border, as far over as the river Jabok, the border of the Ammonites, the Araba all sorts. with the Jordaners the border from Kinnarath as far as the sea of the Araba, the Salt Sea,

under the slopes of Pisgah on the east. I commanded you at that time, saying, The Lord your God has given you this land to possess. All your men of valor shall cross over-armed before your brothers, the people of Israel. Only your wives, your little ones, and your livestock. I know that you have much livestock, shall remain in the cities that I have given you, until the Lord gives rest to your brothers as to you. and they also occupy the land that the Lord your God gives them beyond the Jordan,

then each of you may return to his possession which I have given you. Moses himself would die in the Transjordan, and the fact that Ruben Gad and the half-trived of Manassah took their possessions there meant that Moses, even though he would die outside the promised land, would not die outside the possessions of his people. He died in the land of Rubin. Gordon Wenham writes of the land of Gilead. Gilead designates a variety of areas in the Old Testament.

His primary meaning, as here, is the hilly district south of the Jabok, but it may also refer to the area north of the Jabok as well, and sometimes it designates the whole of the Transjordanian territory held by Israel, for instance in Joshua chapter 22 verse 9 and 13, etc. These high lands, around 2,500 feet, overlooking the Jordan Valley, enjoy a good rainfall and are therefore very fertile. Gilead was an important site in the history of Israel. It was to Gilead that Jacob had been pursued by Laban.

At Gilead, they had entered into a covenant, and Jacob, not knowing that his wife Rachel, had taken his father-in-law's household gods, declared a death sentence on the person in whose possession they were found. Later, that death sentence, perhaps coming back to haunt him, Ishmaelites had come from Gilead on camels, and had brought his son Joseph down into Egypt. It might be illuminating to read the end of this chapter

against the background of that history. Foreman observes an unusual detail, although Jayae is described as a monasite here, in First Chronicles chapter 2 verses 21 and 22, he is described as a descendant of Judah. Afterwards, Hezran went into the daughter of Meekir, the father of Gilead, whom he married when he was 60 years old, and she bore him Sagar, and Sagar father Jaya, who had 23 cities in the land of Gilead. Surprisingly then, Jaya is truly a descendant of Judah, although he has a monasai'i'i. grandmother. That he has considered a manasside is surprising, considering that tribal ancestry is usually reckoned on the father's side. In Genesis chapter 37, when the camels had come down from

Gilead, Judah had led the brothers against Joseph. Here, however, a man of Judah is numbered among the sons of Joseph, and leads them in their conquest of the land. Together they take Gilead, this place of painful memory, the place of the dreadful curse against the matriarch, Rachel. There is something of the redemption of the history here. In Genesis chapter 37, Jacob was devastated when he discovered that his son Joseph was likely torn. In Numbers chapter 32,

there is a sort of tearing of Joseph. Part of Manasse is on one side of the Jordan, and part of Manassah is on the other side of the Jordan. However, this tearing and two serves to hold a nation more firmly together, so it would not be torn asunder. By entrusting one half of Joseph's

firstborn son Manasa to the firstborn tribe of Leah, Rubin, and gad the first-born tribe of leah's handmaid zilper and the other half of manasseh to the tribes that crossed over the jordan brothers that had once sold joseph into slavery would be bound together by a shared commitment to the tribe named after his first-born son a question to consider how does the character of hesron who married the daughter of makia the father of gilead resonate with the story of some other characters who had descended from maykia that we read of in the book of numbers