Numbers 32:13 - Forerunner Commentary

Numbers 32:13

11 ‘Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt, ^afrom twenty years old and above, shall see the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because ^bthey have not wholly followed Me,

12 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, ^afor they have wholly followed the Lord.’

13 So the Lord’s anger was aroused against Israel, and He made them ^awander in the wilderness forty years, until ^ball the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone.

14 And look! You have risen in your fathers’ place, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the ^afierce anger of the Lord against Israel.

15 For if you ^aturn away from following Him, He will once again leave them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all these people.”

16 Then they came near to him and said: “We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones,

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Numbers 32:6-17

Now Moses reacts quite angrily. Why would he do that? Why would he act so angrily just because they asked for that land? He accused them of abandoning their brethren as the tribes approached the impending war for the land of Israel.

After they were chewed out by Moses, they change their mind and they back-pedaled and decided “we better go to war with the rest of the Israelites.” Once the two tribes explained that, of course, they meant to settle in the trans-Jordan only after helping fight the war of acquisition, Moses was still not placated. He remained critical of them.

So, what still bothered Moses? They betrayed their true interests when they told Moses that they would build enclosures for their animals and cities for their children before joining the war alongside their brothers. When Moses responded, he reversed the order, pointing out that their priority should be their children and not their wealth.

Excerpted from Outside the Normal Pattern of Order by Martin G. Collins

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