Numbers 32:6-9

Moses Is Angry At Them For Discouraging The Other Tribes (Numbers 32:6).

Numbers 32:6

‘And Moses said to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, “Shall your brethren go to the war, and shall you sit here?” '

Moses took their words as an indication that they were trying to find an easy way out and were unwilling to enter Canaan and confront the nations there. He had cause to remember how Yahweh had punished their fathers for backing down from a conquest of the land. He asked them whether it was really their intention to leave their fellow Israelites to invade Canaan on their own.

Numbers 32:7

“ And for what reason do you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which Yahweh has given them?”

Did they not recognise that this would discourage the others from going forward into the land which Yahweh had given them? Why then were they doing it?

Numbers 32:8

“ Thus did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land. For when they went up unto 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 Yahweh had given them.”

By discouraging the people in this way they were no different from the scouts who went to the valley of Eshcol and saw the land, and also discouraged the hearts of the people (Numbers 13:21), thus preventing them from going into the land which Yahweh had given them, thus rejecting His gift.