Numbers 32:34-38

Many of these towns have been identified with some probability. But the list represents a tradition very different from that in Joshua 13:15-28 (P), and must be ultimately derived from an earlier source, though in its present form it was probably written by a priestly writer. In Joshua 13:15-28 Reuben occupies the position which is ordinarily represented on modern maps, on the south of Gad, the dividing line between them running east from about the northern point of the Dead Sea. But in the present passage Reuben's position is not so independent. Five of the six towns assigned to them in Numbers 32:37 are situated in a district about midway between the Jabbok and the Arnon, and lie betweenGadite towns to the north and south of them. They are thus represented as occupying an enclavewithin the Gadite area. Sibmah is unknown, as also are Atroth-shophan and Beth-nimrah. See G. A. Smith, Hist. Geogr.p. 567.