Deuteronomy 3:18

THE MESSAGE

I commanded you at that time, " God , your God, has given you this land to possess. Your men, fit and armed for the fight, are to cross the river in advance of their brothers, the People of Israel. Only your wives, children, and livestock (I know you have much livestock) may go ahead and settle down in the towns I have already given you until God secures living space for your brothers as he has for you and they have taken possession of the country west of the Jordan that God , your God, is giving them. After that, each man may return to the land I've given you here."

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
I commanded you at that time, saying, the LORD your God has given you this land to possess it: you shall pass over armed before your brothers the children of Yisra'el, all the men of valor.

King James Version
And I commanded you at that time, saying, The Lord your God hath given you this land to possess it: ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all that are meet for the war.

Lexham English Bible
"And I charged you all at that time when I said, "Yahweh has given you—to all of you—this land to possess. All the warriors shall cross over, ready to fight, before your brothers, the Israelites.

English Standard Version
"And I commanded you at that time, saying, ‘The Lord your God has given you this land to possess. All your men of valor shall cross over armed before your brothers, the people of Israel.

New Century Version
At that time I gave you this command: "The Lord your God has given you this land as your own. Now your fighting men must take their weapons, and you must lead the other Israelites across the river.

New English Translation
At that time I instructed you as follows: "The Lord your God has given you this land for your possession. You warriors are to cross over before your fellow Israelites equipped for battle.

Amplified Bible
"Then I commanded you [Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh] at that time, saying, 'The LORD your God has given you this land to possess; all you who are brave men shall cross over [the Jordan] armed before your brothers, the sons of Israel.

New American Standard Bible
"Then I commanded you at that time, saying, 'The LORD your God has given you this land to possess it; all you valiant men shall cross over armed ahead of your brothers, the sons of Israel.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And I commanded you the same time, saying, The Lorde your God hath giuen you this lande to possesse it: ye shall goe ouer armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all men of warre.

Legacy Standard Bible
"Then I commanded you at that time, saying, ‘Yahweh your God has given you this land to possess it; all you men of valor shall cross over armed before your brothers, the sons of Israel.

Contemporary English Version
At that time I told the men of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh: The Lord our God told me to give you this land with its towns, and that's what I have done. Now your wives and children can stay here with your large flocks of sheep and goats and your large herds of cattle. But all of you men that can serve in our army must cross the Jordan River and help the other tribes, because they are your relatives.

Complete Jewish Bible
"At that time I gave you this order: ‘ Adonai your God has given you this land to possess. But all of you who are fit to fight must cross over, armed, ahead of your brothers the people of Isra'el.

Darby Translation
And I commanded you at that time, saying, Jehovah your God hath given you this land to take possession of it: ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all [who are] combatants.

Easy-to-Read Version
"At that time I gave those tribes this command: ‘The Lord your God has given you the land on this side of the Jordan River to live in. But now your fighting men must take their weapons and lead the other Israelite tribes across the river.

George Lamsa Translation
And I commanded you at that time, saying, The LORD your God has given you this land to possess it; you shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all of you who are valiant men of war.

Good News Translation
"At the same time, I gave them the following instructions: ‘The Lord our God has given you this land east of the Jordan to occupy. Now arm your fighting men and send them across the Jordan ahead of the other tribes of Israel, to help them occupy their land.

Christian Standard Bible®
“I commanded you at that time: The Lord your God has given you this land to possess. All your valiant men will cross over in battle formation ahead of your brothers the Israelites.

Literal Translation
And I commanded you at that time, saying, Jehovah your God has given you this land to possess it. And you shall pass over armed before your brothers, the sons of Israel, all the warriors.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And I commaunded you at the same tyme, and sayde: The LORDE youre God hath geuen you this londe to take possession of it, Go youre waye forth therfore harnessed before youre brethren the children of Israel, all ye that be mete for the warre.

American Standard Version
And I commanded you at that time, saying, Jehovah your God hath given you this land to possess it: ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all the men of valor.

Bible in Basic English
At that time I gave you orders, saying, The Lord has given you this land for your heritage: all the men of war are to go over armed before your brothers the children of Israel.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And I commaunded you the same tyme, saying: The Lorde your God hath geuen you this lande to enioy it: ye shall go harnessed before your brethren the children of Israel, all that are meete for the warre.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And I commanded you at that time, saying: 'The LORD your God hath given you this land to possess it; ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all the men of valour.

King James Version (1611)
And I commanded you at that time, saying, The Lord your God hath giuen you this land to possesse it: ye shall passe ouer armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all that are meet for the warre.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And I charged you at that time, saying, The Lord your God has given you this land by lot; arm yourselves, every one that is powerful, and go before your brethren the children of Israel.

English Revised Version
And I commanded you at that time, saying, The LORD your God hath given you this land to possess it: ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all the men of valour.

Berean Standard Bible
At that time I commanded you: "The LORD your God has given you this land to possess. All your warriors are to cross over, armed for battle, ahead of your brothers, the Israelites.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Y comaundide to you in that tyme, and seide, Youre Lord God yyueth to you this lond in to erytage;

Young's Literal Translation
`And I command you, at that time, saying, Jehovah your God hath given to you this land to possess it; armed ye pass over before your brethren the sons of Israel, all the sons of might.

Update Bible Version
And I commanded you at that time, saying, Yahweh your God has given you this land to possess it: you shall pass over armed before your brothers the sons of Israel, all the men of valor.

Webster's Bible Translation
And I commanded you at that time, saying, The LORD your God hath given you this land to possess it; ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all [that are] meet for the war.

World English Bible
I commanded you at that time, saying, Yahweh your God has given you this land to possess it: you shall pass over armed before your brothers the children of Israel, all the men of valor.

New King James Version
"Then I commanded you at that time, saying: "The LORD your God has given you this land to possess. All you men of valor shall cross over armed before your brethren, the children of Israel.

New Living Translation
"At that time I gave this command to the tribes that would live east of the Jordan: ‘Although the Lord your God has given you this land as your property, all your fighting men must cross the Jordan ahead of your Israelite relatives, armed and ready to assist them.

New Life Bible
"At that time I told you, ‘The Lord your God has given you this land for your own. All you men with strength of heart will cross over ready to fight before your brothers, the sons of Israel.

New Revised Standard
At that time, I charged you as follows: "Although the Lord your God has given you this land to occupy, all your troops shall cross over armed as the vanguard of your Israelite kin.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
So I commanded you, at that time saying, - Yahweh your God hath given unto you this land to possess it, armed, shall ye pass over before your brethren the sons of Israel all the sons of valour,

Douay-Rheims Bible
And I commanded you at that time, saying: The Lord your God giveth you this land for an inheritance, go ye well appointed before your brethren the children of Israel, all the strong men of you.

Revised Standard Version
"And I commanded you at that time, saying, 'The LORD your God has given you this land to possess; all your men of valor shall pass over armed before your brethren the people of Israel.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Then I commanded you at that time, saying, 'The LORD your God has given you this land to possess it; all you valiant men shall cross over armed before your brothers, the sons of Israel.

Contextual Overview

¹² Of the land that we possessed at that time, I gave the Reubenites and the Gadites the territory north of Aroer along the Brook Arnon and half the hill country of Gilead with its towns. ¹³ I gave the half-tribe of Manasseh the rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, Og's kingdom—all the region of Argob, which takes in all of Bashan. This used to be known as the Land of the Rephaites. ¹⁴ Jair, a son of Manasseh, got the region of Argob to the borders of the Geshurites and Maacathites. He named the Bashan villages after himself, Havvoth Jair (Jair's Tent-Villages). They're still called that. ¹⁵ I gave Gilead to Makir. ¹⁶I gave the Reubenites and Gadites the land from Gilead down to the Brook Arnon, whose middle was the boundary, and as far as the Jabbok River, the boundary line of the People of Ammon. The western boundary was the Jordan River in the Arabah all the way from the Kinnereth (the Sea of Galilee) to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea or Dead Sea) at the base of the slopes of Mount Pisgah on the east. ¹⁸I commanded you at that time, " God , your God, has given you this land to possess. Your men, fit and armed for the fight, are to cross the river in advance of their brothers, the People of Israel. Only your wives, children, and livestock (I know you have much livestock) may go ahead and settle down in the towns I have already given you until God secures living space for your brothers as he has for you and they have taken possession of the country west of the Jordan that God , your God, is giving them. After that, each man may return to the land I've given you here."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I commanded: Numbers 32:20-24, Joshua 1:12-15, Joshua 4:12, Joshua 4:13, Joshua 22:1-9

meet for the war: Heb. sons of power

Reciprocal: Numbers 1:3 - able Numbers 32:17 - General Deuteronomy 9:1 - to pass Joshua 1:13 - Remember

Cross-References

Genesis 3:14
God told the serpent: "Because you've done this, you're cursed, cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals, Cursed to slink on your belly and eat dirt all your life. I'm declaring war between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers. He'll wound your head, you'll wound his heel."

Job 1:21
Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I'll return to the womb of the earth. God gives, God takes. God's name be ever blessed.

Psalms 90:3
So don't return us to mud, saying, "Back to where you came from!" Patience! You've got all the time in the world—whether a thousand years or a day, it's all the same to you. Are we no more to you than a wispy dream, no more than a blade of grass That springs up gloriously with the rising sun and is cut down without a second thought? Your anger is far and away too much for us; we're at the end of our rope. You keep track of all our sins; every misdeed since we were children is entered in your books. All we can remember is that frown on your face. Is that all we're ever going to get? We live for seventy years or so (with luck we might make it to eighty), And what do we have to show for it? Trouble. Toil and trouble and a marker in the graveyard. Who can make sense of such rage, such anger against the very ones who fear you?

Proverbs 22:5
The perverse travel a dangerous road, potholed and mud-slick; if you know what's good for you, stay clear of it.

Isaiah 7:23
But that's not the end of it. This country that used to be covered with fine vineyards—thousands of them, worth millions!—will revert to a weed patch. Weeds and thornbushes everywhere! Good for nothing except, perhaps, hunting rabbits. Cattle and sheep will forage as best they can in the fields of weeds—but there won't be a trace of all those fertile and well-tended gardens and fields.

Jeremiah 4:3
Here's another Message from God to the people of Judah and Jerusalem: "Plow your unplowed fields, but then don't plant weeds in the soil! Yes, circumcise your lives for God's sake. Plow your unplowed hearts, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem. Prevent fire—the fire of my anger— for once it starts it can't be put out. Your wicked ways are fuel for the fire.

Matthew 13:7
A Harvest Story At about that same time Jesus left the house and sat on the beach. In no time at all a crowd gathered along the shoreline, forcing him to get into a boat. Using the boat as a pulpit, he addressed his congregation, telling stories. "What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn't put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams. "Are you listening to this? Really listening?" The disciples came up and asked, "Why do you tell stories?" He replied, "You've been given insight into God's kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn't been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That's why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they're blue in the face and not get it. I don't want Isaiah's forecast repeated all over again: Your ears are open but you don't hear a thing. Your eyes are awake but you don't see a thing. The people are blockheads! They stick their fingers in their ears so they won't have to listen; They screw their eyes shut so they won't have to look, so they won't have to deal with me face-to-face and let me heal them. "But you have God-blessed eyes—eyes that see! And God-blessed ears—ears that hear! A lot of people, prophets and humble believers among them, would have given anything to see what you are seeing, to hear what you are hearing, but never had the chance. "Study this story of the farmer planting seed. When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn't take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person's heart. This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road. "The seed cast in the gravel—this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it. "The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it. "The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams." He told another story. "God's kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too. "The farmhands came to the farmer and said, ‘Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn't it? Where did these thistles come from?' "He answered, ‘Some enemy did this.' "The farmhands asked, ‘Should we weed out the thistles?' "He said, ‘No, if you weed the thistles, you'll pull up the wheat, too. Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I'll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.'" Another story. "God's kingdom is like a pine nut that a farmer plants. It is quite small as seeds go, but in the course of years it grows into a huge pine tree, and eagles build nests in it." Another story. "God's kingdom is like yeast that a woman works into the dough for dozens of loaves of barley bread—and waits while the dough rises." All Jesus did that day was tell stories—a long storytelling afternoon. His storytelling fulfilled the prophecy: I will open my mouth and tell stories; I will bring out into the open things hidden since the world's first day. Jesus dismissed the congregation and went into the house. His disciples came in and said, "Explain to us that story of the thistles in the field." So he explained. "The farmer who sows the pure seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the pure seeds are subjects of the kingdom, the thistles are subjects of the Devil, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, the curtain of history. The harvest hands are angels. "The picture of thistles pulled up and burned is a scene from the final act. The Son of Man will send his angels, weed out the thistles from his kingdom, pitch them in the trash, and be done with them. They are going to complain to high heaven, but nobody is going to listen. At the same time, ripe, holy lives will mature and adorn the kingdom of their Father. "Are you listening to this? Really listening? "God's kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field for years and then accidentally found by a trespasser. The finder is ecstatic—what a find!—and proceeds to sell everything he owns to raise money and buy that field. "Or, God's kingdom is like a jewel merchant on the hunt for excellent pearls. Finding one that is flawless, he immediately sells everything and buys it. "Or, God's kingdom is like a fishnet cast into the sea, catching all kinds of fish. When it is full, it is hauled onto the beach. The good fish are picked out and put in a tub; those unfit to eat are thrown away. That's how it will be when the curtain comes down on history. The angels will come and cull the bad fish and throw them in the garbage. There will be a lot of desperate complaining, but it won't do any good." Jesus asked, "Are you starting to get a handle on all this?" They answered, "Yes." He said, "Then you see how every student well-trained in God's kingdom is like the owner of a general store who can put his hands on anything you need, old or new, exactly when you need it." When Jesus finished telling these stories, he left there, returned to his hometown, and gave a lecture in the meetinghouse. He made a real hit, impressing everyone. "We had no idea he was this good!" they said. "How did he get so wise, get such ability?" But in the next breath they were cutting him down: "We've known him since he was a kid; he's the carpenter's son. We know his mother, Mary. We know his brothers James and Joseph, Simon and Judas. All his sisters live here. Who does he think he is?" They got their noses all out of joint. But Jesus said, "A prophet is taken for granted in his hometown and his family." He didn't do many miracles there because of their hostile indifference.

Romans 14:2
For instance, a person who has been around for a while might well be convinced that he can eat anything on the table, while another, with a different background, might assume he should only be a vegetarian and eat accordingly. But since both are guests at Christ's table, wouldn't it be terribly rude if they fell to criticizing what the other ate or didn't eat? God, after all, invited them both to the table. Do you have any business crossing people off the guest list or interfering with God's welcome? If there are corrections to be made or manners to be learned, God can handle that without your help.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And I commanded you at that time,.... Not all Israel, but the tribes of Reuben and God, and the half tribe of Manasseh; for what follows only concerns them:

saying, the Lord your God hath given you this land to possess it; the land before described, lately in the hands of Sihon and Og; this at their request Moses gave them, by the direction of the Lord, on the following condition:

you shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all [that] are meet for the war; that is, they should pass over Jordan with the rest of the tribes, being armed to assist them in the conquest of Canaan: for this phrase, which we render "before your brethren", does not signify that they went in the forefront of them, only that they were present with them, and joined them in their war against their enemies; see Numbers 32:29 and therefore should be rendered "with your brethren" a; even as many of them as were able to bear arms, at least as many as Joshua would choose to take of them; for he did not take them all by a great many; see Joshua 4:13.

a לפני אחיכם "cum fratribus vestris", Noldius, p. 531, No. 1492.