13:31a

half of Gilead: The phrase half of Gilead indicates half of the region of Gilead. The other half of the Gilead region was captured from King Sihon and was mentioned in 12:2. You should translate the term Gilead the same way in both places.

and Ashtaroth and Edrei, the royal cities of Og in Bashan: Ashtaroth and Edrei were two important towns in the kingdom of King Og.

In some languages it may be more natural to begin a new sentence here. Here is another way to translate this verse:

It included half of Gilead, as well as Ashtaroth and Edrei (Good News Translation)

Ashtaroth: The town of Ashtaroth was the capital town of King Og of Bashan. Ashtaroth was mentioned in Joshua 9:10 and you should translate it the same way in both places.

Edrei: King Og also had a residence where he sometimes lived in the town of Edrei. Edrei was mentioned in Joshua 12:4, and you should translate it the same way in both places.

13:31b

All this was for the clans of the descendants of Machir son of Manasseh: The word All this indicates the towns that were listed in verses 13:30-31.

was for: The verb phrase was for is not in the Hebrew text. The Hebrew text has no verb, but in English a verb must be supplied.

the clans of the descendants: The phrase the clans of the descendants indicates that each clan or group of families within half of the tribe of Manasseh that was descended from Machir received their own portion of the land on the east side of the Jordan River.

Here is another way to translate this phrase:

Moses gave these towns to the people of Machir the son of Manasseh

Machir son of Manasseh: Machir was the first-born son of Manasseh.

Here is another way to spell Machir:

Makir (NET Bible, New International Version)

13:31c

that is, half of the descendants of Machir: The phrase half of the descendants of Machir contains similar information to the phrase in verse 13:31b “the people of Machir the son of Manasseh.” In some languages it is more natural to leave one of these phrases as implicit information.

Here is another way to translate verse 13:31b-c:

Moses gave these towns to the families in this half-tribe of Manasseh. These families were the descendants of Machir the son of Manasseh.

© 2001, 2011, 2020, 2022, 2023 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.