Reuben and Gad: In the final chapters of Numbers, Israel is on the verge of entering Canaan. This chapter actually begins some of the distribution of the land. Questions of settled life become more pressing.

32:1–5 The chapter opens with a request that generates something of a crisis on the edge of the land. The tribes of Reuben and Gad seek to settle in the Transjordan and not to continue on across the Jordan River into Canaan. Verse 1 describes the Reubenites and Gadites as having very large herds and flocks. They have realized that the land east of the Jordan that was captured from Sihon and Og (21:21–35) is excellent pasture land for their livestock. These two tribes thus come to the community leaders, described in the usual way as Moses and Eleazar the priest and . . . the leaders of t…