Verse 26. - In the cities of Gilead. The name is used here in a vague sense for all the central and southern trans-Jordanic districts.

32:16-27 Here is the good effect of plain dealing. Moses, by showing their sin, and the danger of it, brought them to their duty, without murmuring or disputing. All men ought to consider the interests of others as well as their own; the law of love requires us to labour, venture, or suffer for each other as there may be occasion. They propose that their men of war should go ready armed before the children of Israel into the land of Canaan, and that they should not return till the conquest of Canaan was ended. Moses grants their request, but he warns them of the danger of breaking their word. If you fail, you sin against the Lord, and not against your brethren only; God will certainly reckon with you for it. Be sure your sin will find you out. Sin will surely find out the sinner sooner or later. It concerns us now to find our sins out, that we may repent of them, and forsake them, lest they find us out to our ruin.Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our cattle,.... Their families, and their substance:

shall be there in the cities of Gilead; such as are before mentioned, Numbers 32:3 and which they proposed to repair and fortify, to preserve their families and possessions from the Amorites about them.