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Context No. 235 of 4322 · Numbers

Context · Reflection

Numbers 32:31-42: in context

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.

Israel is camped on the east bank of the Jordan, about to cross into the promised land. Two and a half tribes, Gad and Reuben and half of Manasseh, have large herds, and they have asked Moses to let them settle in the good grazing country they just captured on this side of the river, rather than cross over into Canaan. Moses agrees, on the condition that their fighting men cross first and help conquer the land for everyone else.

Most of the passage is then a builder's record. They put up fortified cities and sheepfolds and take possession of the eastern kingdoms of Sihon and Og. Tucked into the list is a small note about names. Some of the towns they rebuilt were renamed, and the reason is easy to miss. Places like Nebo and Baal Meon were named after the gods Nebo and Baal, so Israel changed them to get the idols off the map of the land. But a few verses later, two men named Jair and Nobah capture villages and name them after themselves, Havvoth Jair and Nobah. In the space of a few lines the same act happens for opposite reasons, once to erase a false god's name and once to carve a man's own name into the ground.

It is worth noticing which impulse is which. Renaming can clear away what should not be worshiped, or it can quietly raise a monument to the one doing the naming. Whose name am I really writing on the things I build, and which of the two reasons is it?

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