brought it into the tabernacle of witness: to be a memorial unto the children of Israel, before the LORD. Chapter .xxxij. The children of Ruben and the children of Gad, had an exceeding great multitude of cattle. And when they saw the land of Iaeser and the land of Gilead that it was an apt place for cattle, they came and spake unto Moses and Eleazer the priest and unto the lords of the congregation saying. The land of Ataroth, Dibo and Beon, which country the LORD smote before the congregation of Israel: is a land for cattle and we thy servants have cattle wherefore (said they) if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants to possess, and bring us not over Iordan. And Moses said unto the children of Gad and of Ruben: shall your brethren go to war and ye tarry here? Wherefore discourage ye the hearts of the children of Israel for to go over into the land which the LORD hath given them? This did your fathers, when I sent them from Cades bernea to see the land. And they went up even unto the river of Escol and saw the land, and discouraged the hearts of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the LORD had given them. And the LORD was wroth the same time and sware saying: None of the men that came out of Egypt from twenty years old and above, shall see the land which I swore unto Abraham, Isaac and Iacob, because they have not continually followed me: save Caleb the son of Iephune the Kenesite, and Iosua the son of Nun, for they have followed me continually. And the LORD was angry with Israel, and made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the LORD were consumed. And behold, ye are risen up in your father's stead, the increase of sinful men, to augment the fierce wrath of the LORD to Israelward. For if ye turn away from after him, he will yet again leave the people in the wilderness, so shall ye destroy all this folk. And they went near him and said: we will build sheepfolds here for our sheep and for our cattle, and cities for our children: But we our selves will go ready armed before the children of Israel, until we have brought them unto their place. And our children shall dwell in the strong {fenced} cities, because of the inhabiters of the land. And we will not return unto our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited: every man his inheritance. For we will not inherit with them on yonder side Iordan forward, because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side Iordan eastward. And Moses said unto them: If ye will do this thing, that ye will go all harnessed before the LORD to war, and will go all of you in harness over Iordan before the LORD, until he have cast out his enemies before him, and until the land be subdued before the LORD, then ye shall return and be without sin against the LORD and against Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the LORD. But and if ye will not do so, behold,