Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 3:19
But your wives, your children, and your livestock—I know that you have much livestock—may remain in the cities I have given you,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the Transjordan tribes at the edge of the conquest, granting a specific exception to the battle command in Deuteronomy 3:19. He permits their families and animals to stay in the already-captured cities while the fighting men cross over.
The words — רַק (rak) means "only" or "but," marking the sole departure from the combat order. יָדַ֕עְתִּי (ya.Da'.ti) translates "I know," directly acknowledging the tribes' substantial herds before granting the stay.
The thread — This logistical exception operates within the conditional framework of Deuteronomy 3:18 and 3:20, where the deployment of armed men is strictly tied to the collective possession of the land across the Jordan. The permission to remain is explicitly bounded by the timeline of that broader conquest.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to see that the allowance for non-combatants to stay is grounded in the speaker’s direct awareness of the tribes’ material holdings, not in a permanent exemption from the military mandate. It establishes that logistical accommodations are measured against, and limited by, the collective mission.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
But your wives, and your little ones, and your cattle, (for I know that ye have much cattle,) shall abide in your cities which I have given you;