Numbers 32:27

27 but your servants, everyone who is armed for battle, will cross over {before} Yahweh to the war, just as my lord says."

Numbers 32:27 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 32:27

But thy servants will pass over
The river Jordan, and go into the land of Canaan:

every man armed for war;
Moses had required that all should go over, and they consent to it, and promise that everyone should, though this was not insisted on when they came to it, for only about 40,000 went over, ( Joshua 4:13 ) , whereas the two tribes of Gad and Reuben, and the half tribe of Manasseh, numbered more than 110,000; see ( Numbers 26:7 Numbers 26:18 Numbers 26:34 ) :

before the Lord to battle, as my lord saith;
for now, instead of saying, "before the children of Israel", a phrase they first used, they say, "before the Lord", as Moses had expressed it.

Numbers 32:27 In-Context

25 So the descendants of Gad and the descendants of Reuben said to Moses, saying, "Your servants will do just as my lord commands.

26 Our little children, our wives, our livestock, and all of our animals {will remain} in the cities of Gilead,

27 but your servants, everyone who is armed for battle, will cross over {before} Yahweh to the war, just as my lord says."

28 So Moses commanded them, Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of the {families} of the tribes of the {Israelites}.

29 Moses said to them, "If the descendants of Gad and the descendants of Reuben, everyone who is armed for the war, cross over the Jordan {before} Yahweh, and the land is subdued before you, you will give them the land of Gilead as property.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "in the presence of"