“But they came up to him and said, “Here we will build enclosures for our livestock and cities for our little ones, but we ourselves will be armed and ready for action to march at the head of the people of Israel, until we have brought them to their place. Our little ones will stay in the fortified cities here because of the people now living in the land.”-Numbers 32:16-17
The Tribes of Reuben and Gad have made it clear to Moses that instead of living inside the Promised Land with their other brothers, they would rather stay in the area of the Transjordan.
However, let’s not get the wrong picture here.
The leaders of Reuben and Gad did not approach Moses in a rude, haughty and demanding manner when they made their request.
This is one of those things that gets lost in translation.
In our English Bibles, it says they “came up” to Moses.
The original Hebrew here is VA-YIGGESHU.
The real meaning and nuance of this phrase is to approach someone in a very humble, gentle and intimate manner.
The leaders of Reuben and Gad were not in any way threatening that their request to stay in the Transjordan be met or else.
Quite the contrary, they simply wanted to state their case why they preferred to stay in Moab and were perfectly willing to do whatever it took to satisfy the others and the Lord that they would be 100% loyal to Israel and to God’s covenants.
They presented the following IF-THEN proposition to Moses.
IF they were allowed to settle in the Transjordan and build places for their animals and towns for their families…
…THEN they would provide the very best of their fighting men, the creme de la creme, to fight alongside the other 10 tribes of Israel.
There is an interesting Hebrew word here being used to describe the exact type of special military soldier Gad and Reuben would provide.
That word is NECHALATS.
It literally means to be “specially chosen” or “cherry picked“.
The idea being expressed is that these soldiers were battle-tested and proven to be the most fierce and most effective warriors in all of Israel.
They were like the Navy Seals in our day.
These NECHALATS would actually be the ones leading the Israelite military as it fought its way through Canaan.
And not only that, Reuben and Gad promised Moses that these soldiers would NOT return back to their territory in the Transjordan until every Israelite tribe had taken possession of the land God had set apart for them in Canaan.
They also reassured Moses that they would NOT be asking for additional land on the west side of the Jordan (inside the Promised Land).
Since it was their own choice, they told Moses they would be more than happy to live only on the east side of the Jordan.
After hearing all this, Moses and Israel’s leadership council agreed to their proposal.
Another interesting point of that conversation is the order in which the two tribes said they would prepare themselves before joining their brothers. The tribal leaders (32:16) said they will build enclosures for their livestock and cities for their little ones and after Moses approved, he said (in 32:24) build cities for your little ones and enclosures for your sheep. Moses reversed the priority of what to do- they were more interested in their possession than their families and Moses corrected that by saying protect the family first, then the possessions.
I missed that little detail. Yes, certainly in the order of priorities, family is more important than livestock. And how many of us mix up that priority even today! Thanks for sharing Steven!