Genesis 49:19

¹¹Leah said, “How fortunate!” She named him Gad.

²⁰About Gad he said, “He who enlarges Gad is blessed. He dwells as a lioness, and tears the arm and the crown of the head. ²¹He provided the first part for himself, for the lawgiver’s portion was reserved for him. He came with the heads of the people. He executed the righteousness of the LORD, His ordinances with Israel.”

¹¹The sons of Gad lived beside them in the land of Bashan to Salecah: ¹²Joel the chief, Shapham the second, Janai, and Shaphat in Bashan. ¹³Their brothers of their fathers’ houses: Michael, Meshullam, Sheba, Jorai, Jacan, Zia, and Eber, seven. ¹⁴These were the sons of Abihail, the son of Huri, the son of Jaroah, the son of Gilead, the son of Michael, the son of Jeshishai, the son of Jahdo, the son of Buz; ¹⁵Ahi the son of Abdiel, the son of Guni, chief of their fathers’ houses. ¹⁶They lived in Gilead in Bashan and in its towns, and in all the pasture lands of Sharon as far as their borders. ¹⁷All these were listed by genealogies in the days of Jotham king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel.

¹⁸The sons of Reuben, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, of valiant men, men able to bear buckler and sword, able to shoot with bow, and skillful in war, were forty-four thousand seven hundred sixty that were able to go out to war. ¹⁹They made war with the Hagrites, with Jetur, and Naphish, and Nodab. ²⁰They were helped against them, and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand, and all who were with them; for they cried to God in the battle, and he answered them because they put their trust in him. ²¹They took away their livestock: of their camels fifty thousand, and of sheep two hundred fifty thousand, and of donkeys two thousand, and of men one hundred thousand. ²²For many fell slain, because the war was of God. They lived in their place until the captivity.

²⁶So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgath Pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried away the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and to the river of Gozan, to this day.

¹⁸Malchiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama, and Nedabiah. ¹⁹The sons of Pedaiah: Zerubbabel and Shimei. The sons of Zerubbabel: Meshullam and Hananiah; and Shelomith was their sister; ²⁰and Hashubah, Ohel, Berechiah, Hasadiah, and Jushab Hesed, five. ²¹The sons of Hananiah: Pelatiah and Jeshaiah; the sons of Rephaiah, the sons of Arnan, the sons of Obadiah, the sons of Shecaniah. ²²The son of Shecaniah: Shemaiah. The sons of Shemaiah: Hattush, Igal, Bariah, Neariah, and Shaphat, six.

¹Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock. They saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead. Behold, the place was a place for livestock. ²Then the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the princes of the congregation, saying, ³“Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon, ⁴the land which the LORD struck before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock; and your servants have livestock.” ⁵They said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession. Don’t bring us over the Jordan.”

⁶Moses said to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, “Shall your brothers go to war while you sit here? ⁷Why do you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the LORD has given them? ⁸Your fathers did so when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. ⁹For when they went up to the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the LORD had given them. ¹⁰The LORD’s anger burned in 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 which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me, ¹²except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, because they have followed the LORD completely.’ ¹³The LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he made them wander back and forth in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation who had done evil in the LORD’s sight was consumed.

¹⁴“Behold, you have risen up in your fathers’ place, an increase of sinful men, to increase the fierce anger of the LORD toward Israel. ¹⁵For if you turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and you will destroy all these people.”

¹⁶They came near to him, and said, “We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones; ¹⁷but we ourselves will be ready armed to go before the children of Israel, until we have brought them to their place. Our little ones shall dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. ¹⁸We will not return to our houses until the children of Israel have all received their inheritance. ¹⁹For 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 eastward.”

²⁰Moses said to them: “If you will do this thing, if you will arm yourselves to go before the LORD to the war, ²¹and every one of your armed men will pass over the Jordan before the LORD until he has driven out his enemies from before him, ²²and the land is subdued before the LORD; then afterward you shall return, and be clear of obligation to the LORD and to Israel. Then 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. ²⁴Build cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep; and do that which has proceeded out of your mouth.”

²⁵The children of Gad and the children of Reuben spoke to Moses, saying, “Your servants will do as my lord commands. ²⁶Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our livestock shall be there in the cities of Gilead; ²⁷but your servants will pass over, every man who is armed for war, before the LORD to battle, as my lord says.”

²⁸So Moses commanded concerning them to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the fathers’ households of the tribes of the children of Israel. ²⁹Moses said to them, “If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you over the Jordan, every man who is armed to battle before the LORD, and the land is subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession; ³⁰but if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.”

³¹The children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, saying, “As the LORD has said to your servants, so will we do. ³²We will pass over armed before the LORD into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us beyond the Jordan.”

³³Moses gave to them, even to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan; the land, according to its cities and borders, even the cities of the surrounding land. ³⁴The children of Gad built Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer, ³⁵Atroth-shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah, ³⁶Beth Nimrah, and Beth Haran: fortified cities and folds for sheep. ³⁷The children of Reuben built Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim, ³⁸Nebo, and Baal Meon, (their names being changed), and Sibmah. They gave other names to the cities which they built. ³⁹The children of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead, took it, and dispossessed the Amorites who were therein. ⁴⁰Moses gave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh; and he lived therein. ⁴¹Jair the son of Manasseh went and took its villages, and called them Havvoth Jair. ⁴²Nobah went and took Kenath and its villages, and called it Nobah, after his own name.

¹After Abimelech, Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, arose to save Israel. He lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. ²He judged Israel twenty-three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir.

³After him Jair, the Gileadite, arose. He judged Israel twenty-two years. ⁴He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkey colts. They had thirty cities, which are called Havvoth Jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead. ⁵Jair died, and was buried in Kamon.

⁶The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, and served the Baals, the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines. They abandoned the LORD, and didn’t serve him. ⁷The LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the children of Ammon. ⁸They troubled and oppressed the children of Israel that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the children of Israel that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. ⁹The children of Ammon passed over the Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was very distressed. ¹⁰The children of Israel cried to the LORD, saying, “We have sinned against you, even because we have forsaken our God, and have served the Baals.”

¹¹The LORD said to the children of Israel, “Didn’t I save you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines?

⁸With him the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond the Jordan eastward, even as Moses the servant of the LORD gave them:

¹⁶The sons of Gad: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.