Yet we will not have an inheritance with them across the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on the east side of the Jordan.”
Parallel translations
- WEB For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan, and forward; because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan eastward.”
- KJV For we will not inherit with them on yonder side Jordan, or forward; because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side Jordan eastward.
- NKJV For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has fallen to us on this eastern side of the Jordan.”
- NASB But we will not have an inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan toward the east.”
- NLT But we do not claim any of the land on the other side of the Jordan. We would rather live here on the east side and accept this as our grant of land.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
They explain they will not claim land in Canaan because their inheritance lies east of the Jordan. They accept a distinct portion while still sharing the fight.
Overview
Reuben and Gad clarify that their inheritance has fallen to them on the east side of the Jordan, so they seek no share across the river. Their request is for a defined possession, not an escape from duty. The arrangement shows that diversity of portion within God's people need not undermine common cause, as each receives what God apportions while serving the whole.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Josh 13:8The other half of Manasseh, along with the Reubenites and Gadites, had received the inheritance Moses had given them beyond the Jordan to the east, just as Moses the servant of the LORD had assigned to them:
- Num 34:15These two and a half tribes have received their inheritance across the Jordan from Jericho, toward the sunrise.”
- Josh 12:1–6Now these are the kings of the land whom the Israelites struck down and whose lands they took beyond the Jordan to the east, from the Arnon Valley to Mount Hermon, including all the Arabah eastward:
- Josh 1:14–15Your wives, your young children, and your livestock may remain in the land that Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan. But all your mighty men of valor must be armed for battle to cross over ahead of your brothers and help them,
- 2 Kgs 10:32–33In those days the LORD began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael defeated the Israelites throughout their territory
- 2 Kgs 15:29In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, and he took the people as captives to Assyria.
- 1 Chr 5:25–26But they were unfaithful to the God of their fathers, and they prostituted themselves with the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them.
- Prov 20:21An inheritance gained quickly will not be blessed in the end.
- Gen 14:12They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since Lot was living in Sodom.
- Num 32:32–33We will cross over into the land of Canaan armed before the LORD, that we may have our inheritance on this side of the Jordan.”
- Gen 13:10–12And Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was well watered like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)
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Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 32:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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