Description
Diplomacy thumbs down
They try to sweettalk nations in their way, asking for peaceful access to the road through those nations. Didn't work.
Edom refuses, forcing the Israelites on a long and dangerous bypass around them. Many died of snakebites on that trip (Numbers 21).
Everyone else refused, too, and there weren't any more bypasses. So the Israelites, now young again, fought their way through the enemies. Then they took the land, the livestock, and the kitchen sink. They took it all.
Israel east of the Jordan
Two tribes and half of another didn't go any further to make their home. The tribes of Gad and Reuben and half the tribe of Manasseh settled east of the Jordan River, in what is now the Arab country of Jordan.
They had a lot of livestock, and they fell in love with the green pastures. Who wouldn't, after living 40 years in the desert?
They helped the other tribes conquer some of the land west of the Jordan River, since those tribes had helped East Israel conquer the Moabites, Ammonites, and others in the area.
Centuries later, the Jews got pushed off the eastern land. But the same thing happened to Jews west of the River, too. They disobeyed God and God allowed invaders to conquer them and exile the survivors to what is now Iraq along with parts of Iran.
Read the story in the Bible book ofย Numbers.
Compare other Bible versions withย Bible Gateway.
For overview of the Bible, see Stephen M. Miller'sย Complete Guide to the Bible.
Exodus Route of Israelites into the Promised Land
