Paragraph 4:12–13
4:12a
The Reubenites: The word Reubenites refers to men of the tribe of Reuben.
Here is another way to translate this phrase:
men from the tribe of Reuben
the Gadites: The word Gadites refers to men of the tribe of Gad.
Here is another way to translate this phrase:
men from the tribe of Gad
and the half-tribe of Manasseh: The phrase the half-tribe of Manasseh refers to the families of the tribe of Manasseh who asked Moses for permission to settle on the east side of the Jordan River along with the tribes of Reuben and Gad. This request and Moses’ answer is found in Numbers 32:16–33.
Here is another way to translate this phrase:
men from the east part of the tribe of Manasseh
There is implied information here. These men were also soldiers. This is made clear in 4:12b. For example:
The armed warriors from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh (New Living Translation (2004))
4:12b
crossed over before the Israelites, armed for battle: The phrase crossed over…armed for battle indicates that the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh took their weapons with them when they crossed over the Jordan River. They were ready to fight. They did this to show that they would keep the promise they made to Joshua in 1:16-18. They promised to help the other tribes of Israel conquer the land of Canaan.
Here is another way to translate this phrase:
they crossed the river carrying their weapons
before the Israelites: The phrase before the Israelites indicates that the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed the river ahead of the other tribes.
4:12c
as Moses had instructed them: The phrase as Moses had instructed them indicates that these tribes obeyed the command that Moses gave them before he died. This command is recorded in Numbers 32:16–32 and Deuteronomy 3:12–20.
had instructed: The phrase had instructed means “had commanded.”
© 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.