13. So the Lord’s anger was kindled against the Israelites, and he made them wander in the wilderness for forty years, until all that generation that had done wickedly before the Lord was finished.
14. Now look, you are standing in your fathers’ place, a brood of sinners, to increase still further the fierce wrath of the Lord against the Israelites.
15. For if you turn away from following him, he will once again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will be the reason for their destruction.”
16. Then they came very close to him and said, “We will build sheep folds here for our flocks and cities for our families,
17. but we will maintain ourselves in armed readiness and go before the Israelites until whenever we have brought them to their place. Our descendants will be living in fortified towns as a protection against the inhabitants of the land.
18. We will not return to our homes until every Israelite has his inheritance.
19. For we will not accept any inheritance on the other side of the Jordan River and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on this eastern side of the Jordan.”
20. Then Moses replied, “If you will do this thing, and if you will arm yourselves for battle before the Lord,