Numbers 32:15-17

Revised Standard Version

¹⁵ For if you turn away from following him, he will again abandon them in the wilderness; and you will destroy all this people.”

¹⁶ Then they came near to him, and said, “We will build sheepfolds here for our flocks, and cities for our little ones, ¹⁷ but we will take up arms, ready to go before the people of Israel, until we have brought them to their place; and our little ones shall live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land.