Reuben and Gad bargain: cattle east of Jordan; share war not lot

for the sons of Gad, a multitude very much. And they saw the country of Jazer, and the country of Gilead, and the place was a place for cattle. And coming forward the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad said toward Moses and toward Eleazar the priest, and toward the rulers of the Synagogue saying: Ataroth, and Dibon and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon—the land which the Lord handed over before the sons of Israel—is a cattle-feeding land, and cattle belong to your servants. And they were saying: If we have found favor before you, let this land be given to your household-servants in a holding, and do not bring us across the Jordan. And Moses said to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben: Will your brothers go unto the war, and will you sit here? And why do you twist the minds of the sons of Israel, not to cross into the land which the Lord God gives them?’ Then besides these having reproached them with the fathers’ disobedience, and the things that befell those from there: ‘For they have died in the desert,’ he says, not even, so to speak, having only seen the land of the promise. He brings on again: ‘And behold you have risen up instead of your fathers, a band of sinful humans, to add still upon the wrath of the Lord’s anger upon Israel, because you will turn away from him to add still to leave him in the desert, and you will lawlessly act unto this whole synagogue. And they came forward to him and were saying: We will build folds of sheep here for our cattle, and cities for our baggage; and we having armed ourselves as a forward guard first of the sons of Israel until we lead them into their own place; and our baggage will settle in the walled cities because of those inhabiting the land; we will not turn back unto our houses until the sons of Israel are portioned each unto his inheritance. And we will no longer inherit among them from beyond the Jordan and further, because we have our lots beyond the Jordan in the easts.’ You understand that for the sake of cattle-feeding and possessions, and of love unto wives and children, such ones would not at all have crossed the Jordan, nor would they have endured even so much as to sharpen for war and battle, nor would they have wished to share good-repute with the others, and the goods upon hopes; yet remaining seemed best and much-wished to them, not even, so to speak, setting the foot into Jordan’s streams; yet Moses reproaching and persuading them to dread, and to look askance at the divine anger, they barely promise that they will go across the Jordan together with the others, and will share with them the sweats in war and battles; yet not that they will also share the portion, they say, because of having or keeping off the lot beyond the Jordan. Some such in manner are those compressed by the cares of the present life. And allotting as it were the whole heart to thinking