The country east of the Jordan, which the Israelites had now wrested from Sihon and Og, was to a great extent a long table-land of undulating downs famed for its rich pasturage[136], and clothed with luxuriant vegetation. It was the forest-land, the pasture-land of Palestine, _a place for cattle_ (Num. xxxii. 1). Of the tribes of Israel, as we have already noticed[137], Reuben and Gad were eminently pastoral, _they had a very great multitude of cattle_ (Num. xxxii. 1). On the conclusion, therefore, of the Sacred War against the Midianites, they approached Moses and the elders of Israel with the petition that they might be allowed to settle down in a region so peculiarly suited to their requirements. This request seemed to the Israelitish leader to savour of a desire to shrink from the arduous work which lay before the nation, and as likely to discourage the people from crossing over and attempting the conquest of the rugged western country, and he reproached them for their apparent selfishness and indifference to the welfare of their brethren. But the two tribes protested their perfect sympathy with the great national cause; they were ready to send the flower of their troops across the river, and only wished for the present _to build sheepfolds for their cattle, and cities for their little ones_, whither they might return on the conquest of the western country. This promise was deemed sufficient, and Moses distributed between them the lately conquered territory, assigning to Reuben and Gad the kingdom of Sihon from the Arnon to the Jabbok[138], and intrusting to the half of the warlike tribe of Manasseh, whose warriors had taken so prominent a part in the conquest of the east of Jordan (Num. xxxii. 39; Deut. iii. 13–15), the inaccessible heights and impassible ravines of Bashan, and the almost impregnable tract of Argob[139], the chief stronghold of the giant Og. Meanwhile it had been once and again intimated to the Israelitish leader that the day drew near, when he must be gathered unto his fathers. Under the special direction, therefore, of Jehovah, he now occupied himself with giving final and specific instructions respecting the future government of the nation. Joshua “his minister” was solemnly appointed to be his successor; the boundaries of the Promised Land were definitely marked out (Num. xxxiv.); its cities with their suburbs, including six “cities of refuge” for the unwitting manslayer, were assigned to the tribe of Levi (Num. xxxv.), and other necessary regulations were made.