Bible Strands
Numbers 32:34
And the Gadites built up Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses records the Gadites’ actions immediately after assigning them the former territory of Sihon and Og alongside the Reubenites and half-tribe of Manasseh. This verse documents their physical settlement rather than a verbal reply.
The words — בְּנֵי־ גָד (benei-Gad) translates literally as “descendants of Gad,” and וַיִּבְנוּ (va-yivnu) means “and they built.” These terms identify the tribe and their direct construction of Dibon and Ataroth.
The thread — The listed cities reappear in Numbers 32:3 as part of the tribal inheritance boundary, while Deuteronomy 2:36 locates Aroer on the Arnon Valley rim. Isaiah 17:2 later cites Aroer as a city that will be abandoned to flocks.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to observe the transition from territorial grant to occupied reality. It demands attention to how allocated land is secured through immediate, named construction rather than abstract promise.
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
And the children of Gad built Dibon, and Ataroth, and Aroer,
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 2:36 From Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley, along with the city in the valley, even as far as Gilead, not one city had walls too high for us. The LORD our God gave us all of them.
- Numbers 32:3 “Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon,
- Isaiah 17:2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they will be left to the flocks, which will lie down with no one to fear.
- Numbers 21:20 and from Bamoth to the valley in Moab where the top of Pisgah overlooks the wasteland.
- Numbers 33:45 They set out from Iyim and camped at Dibon-gad.