Numbers 32:33

"And Moses gave unto them, even to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and unto the half-tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land, according to the cities thereof with their borders, even the cities of the land round about. And the children of Gad built Dibon, and Ataroth, and Aroer, and Atroth-shophan, and Jazer, and Jogbehah, And Beth-nimrah, and Beth-haran: fortified cities, and folds for sheep. And the children of Reuben built Heshbon, and Elealeh and Kiriathaim, and Nebo, and Baal-meon, (their names being changed,) and Sibmah: and they gave other names unto the cities which they builded. And the children of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead, and took it, and dispossessed the Amorites that were therein. And Moses gave Gilead unto Machit the son of Manasseh; and he dwelt therein. And Jair the son of Manasseh went and took the towns thereof, and called them Havvoth-jair. And Nobah went and took Kenath, and the villages thereof, and called it Nobah, after his own name."

In these verses there first emerges the ambitious, aggressive, and egotistical Josephites who eventually rebelled against the Davidic monarchy and established themselves under Jeroboam I as "The Israel." The leaders of that coup were Ephraimites, and they gave their own name also to the northern kingdom. One may see the same attitude here in the Manassehites.

The statement in Numbers 32:29 regarding Israel's giving other names to the cities "they builded" should be understood as their changing the names of the cities which they rebuilt. This reference obviously was associated with this chapter at a time subsequent to the death of Moses, the person responsible for it, no doubt being Joshua, who, it will be remembered had the same inspiration that Moses had. The account of Moses' death in Deuteronomy was also doubtless added by Joshua. Here also is the explanation of why the half-tribe of Manasseh suddenly appears in this chapter as sharers in Gilead, along with the two tribes which had requested it. "It seems clear from Numbers 32:39 here, and from Joshua 17:1, that the claims of Machir were honored because of their military exploits."[19] It is said here that Gad built Dibon (Numbers 32:34), "it was later assigned to Reuben (Joshua 13:9), and after being recovered by the Moabites, it became one of their strongholds. The Moabite Stone was found here at Dibon."[20] This indicates, of course, that these two tribes alone were not able to hold all of the territory they seized under the permission they sought and received here. This is another indication of the folly in the choice they made. Israel's "building" these cities should be understood as their "rebuilding them," since "Some of them existed already (Numbers 21:30; 33:3)."[21] "The word `build' as used here means to reconstruct or to fortify."[22] The Israelites were very diligent to change any names founded upon pagan deities. Even the names of two of King Saul's sons, Esh-Baal, and Merib-Baal in 2 Samuel 4:4,8, were changed to Ish-bosheth and Mephibosheth. "Bosheth means shame; and it replaced the pagan Baal in these Biblical names."[23] Such alterations of ancient names has made it exceedingly difficult to identify certain places mentioned in ancient writings.