"Now the people of Reuben and the people of Gad had a very great number of livestock. And they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, and behold, the place was a place for livestock. 2 So the people of Gad and the people of Reuben came and said to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the chiefs of the congregation, 3 “Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon, 4 the land that the Lord struck down before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.” 5 And they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession. Do not take us across the Jordan.”
6 But Moses said to the people of Gad and to the people of Reuben, “Shall your brothers go to the war while you sit here? 7 Why will you discourage the heart of the people of Israel from going over into the land that the Lord has given them? 8 Your fathers did this, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land. 9 For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the people of Israel from going into the land that the Lord had given them. 10 And the Lord's anger was kindled on that day, and he swore, saying, 11 ‘Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me, 12 none except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord.’ 13 And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone. 14 And behold, you have risen in your fathers' place, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the fierce anger of the Lord against Israel! 15 For if you turn away from following him, he will again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all this people.”
16 Then they came near to him and said, “We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones, 17 but we will take up arms, ready to go before the people of Israel, until we have brought them to their place. And our little ones shall live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. 18 We will not return to our homes until each of the people of Israel has gained his inheritance. 19 For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan to the east.” 20 So Moses said to them, “If you will do this, if you will take up arms to go before the Lord for the war, 21 and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before the Lord, until he has driven out his enemies from before him 22 and the land is subdued before the Lord; then after that you shall return and be free of obligation to the Lord and to Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the Lord. 23 But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. 24 Build cities for your little ones and folds for your sheep, and do what you have promised."
Numbers 32:1-24
There can be very little doubt that the proper interpretation of this story is that Reuben, Gad and Manasseh made a grave error in what they proposed to Moses, and that their action was in fact correctly estimated by the man of God in his first reaction to it. Consider first of all some very revealing notes in the text itself. For one thing, we need to compare 1 with 16 and 17. There is a discrepancy here in their report of themselves. In 16 and 17 they say and indicate that the reason for their request is concern for their families and little ones. But the sacred record says very differently in 1: 'They saw that Gilead was a place for cattle.' Moreover, they said this to Moses (4, 5) and made this the ground of their request. What does this mean, but that they saw something materially profitable, and they lost interest in going over Jordan (5) in their desire for it. One is reminded of the story in Genesis 13:10, when Lot lifted up his eyes toward the plain of Jordan and beheld that it was well watered everywhere, and chose it, despite the fact that he was choosing an environment that was spiritually and morally dangerous. The very wording of 1 is reminiscent of that earlier, fateful choice made by Lot, to his ultimate discomfiture and loss. And this choice was likewise fateful for Reuben, Gad and Manasseh, for repeatedly, in later years, that was the portion of Israel that bore the first brunt of enemy attack, because they were so vulnerable, and because they did not have the protection of the river they refused to cross (see Judges 10:8, 17, 18; 1 Kings 22:3; 2 Kings 10:32, 33; 2 Kings 15:29; 1 Chronicles 5:26).