Joshua 22
1 Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
2 He said to them, “You have kept everything that Moses, the servant of the LORD, commanded you, and you have obeyed me in everything I commanded you.
3 You have not abandoned your brothers throughout all this long time, up to this very day, and you have kept the charge of the commandment of the LORD your God.
4 Now the LORD your God has given your brothers rest, just as he promised them. So now return and go to your tents, to the land you possess, which Moses, the servant of the LORD, gave you across the Jordan.
5 Only be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses, the servant of the LORD, commanded you: to love the LORD your God, walk in all his ways, keep his commandments, hold fast to him, and serve him with all your heart and all your soul.”
6 Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.
7 Moses had given land in Bashan to half the tribe of Manasseh, and Joshua had given land to the other half, with their brothers on the west side of the Jordan. When Joshua sent them away to their tents, he also blessed them.
8 He said to them, “Return to your tents with great wealth, very many livestock, silver, gold, bronze, iron, and a great many garments. Share the spoils from your enemies with your brothers.”
9 The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned and departed from the Israelites at Shiloh, in the land of Canaan, to go to Gilead, the land they possessed, which they had taken as their property according to the LORD’s command through Moses.
10 When the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh came to the districts of the Jordan in the land of Canaan, they built an altar there by the Jordan, an altar impressive to look at.
11 The Israelites heard it said, “Look, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar across from the land of Canaan, in the districts of the Jordan, on the Israelites’ side.”
12 When the Israelites heard this, the whole community of Israel gathered at Shiloh to go up against them in war.
13 The Israelites sent Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead.
14 With him they sent ten leaders, one leader from each ancestral family among all the tribes of Israel. Each was head of his family among the thousands of Israel.
15 They went to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead and spoke to them:
16 “The whole community of the LORD says: ‘What is this unfaithfulness you have committed against the God of Israel? Why have you turned away from the LORD today by building an altar for yourselves, rebelling against the LORD today?
17 Was the guilt of Peor too little for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves even to this day, and because of which the plague came upon the community of the LORD?
18 And now you are turning away from the LORD! If you rebel against the LORD today, tomorrow he will be angry with the whole community of Israel.
19 If the land you possess is unclean, cross over to the land the LORD possesses, where the LORD’s dwelling place stands, and take possession among us. But do not rebel against the LORD or against us by building an altar for yourselves besides the altar of the LORD our God.
20 Was it not Achan son of Zerah who acted unfaithfully with the devoted things, bringing anger upon the whole community of Israel? He was only one man, yet he did not die alone for his guilt.’”
21 The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered and spoke to the heads of the thousands of Israel:
22 “God, God, the LORD! God, God, the LORD! He knows, and Israel will know: if this was rebellion or unfaithfulness against the LORD, do not save us today.
23 If we built an altar for ourselves to turn away from the LORD, or to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings on it, or to make fellowship offerings on it, may the LORD himself call us to account.
24 “In fact, we did this because we feared something: tomorrow your children might say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?
25 The LORD has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, Reubenites and Gadites. You have no share in the LORD.’ Then your children would make our children stop fearing the LORD.
26 So we said, ‘Let us build an altar for ourselves, not for burnt offerings or sacrifices.
27 It will be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we serve the LORD before him with our burnt offerings, sacrifices, and fellowship offerings. Then tomorrow your children will not say to our children, “You have no share in the LORD.”’
28 We said, ‘If they say this to us and to our generations tomorrow, we will answer, “Look at the replica of the LORD’s altar that our ancestors made, not for burnt offerings or sacrifices, but as a witness between us and you.”’
29 Far be it from us to rebel against the LORD and turn away from him today by building an altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings, and sacrifices besides the altar of the LORD our God, which stands before his dwelling place.”
30 When Phinehas the priest, the leaders of the community, and the heads of the thousands of Israel who were with him heard what the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the people of Manasseh said, it seemed good to them.
31 Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest said to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the people of Manasseh, “Today we know that the LORD is among us, because you have not committed this unfaithfulness against the LORD. In this way you have rescued the Israelites from the LORD’s hand.”
32 Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest and the leaders returned from the Reubenites and the Gadites in the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the Israelites, and brought back their report.
33 The report seemed good to the Israelites. They praised God and no longer spoke of going up against them in war to devastate the land where the Reubenites and the Gadites lived.
34 The Reubenites and the Gadites named the altar, “It is a witness between us that the LORD is God.”
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