Joshua 22

1 In the same time, Joshua called the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the one half tribe of Manasseh.

Then Joshua called together the sons of Ruben, and the sons of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasse,

2 And he said to them: “You have done all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, instructed you. You have also obeyed me in all things.

and said to them, You have heard all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, and you have listened to my voice in all that he commanded you.

3 Neither have you forsaken your brothers during this long time, even to the present day, keeping the orders of the Lord your God.

You have not deserted your brethren these many days: until this day you have kept the commandment of the Lord your God.

4 Therefore, since the Lord your God has given your brothers peace and quiet, just as he promised: return, and go into your tents and into the land of your possession, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, delivered to you beyond the Jordan.

And now the Lord our God has given our brethren rest, as he told them: now then return and depart to your homes, and to the land of your possession, which Moses gave you on the other side Jordan.

5 And may you continue to observe attentively, and to work to fulfill, the commandment and the law that Moses, the servant of the Lord, instructed to you, so that you may love the Lord your God, and walk in all his ways, and keep all his commandments, and cling to him, and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

But take great heed to do the commands and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you to do; to love the Lord our God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commands, and to cleave to him, and serve him with all your mind, and with all your soul.

6 And Joshua blessed them, and he sent them away. And they returned to their tents.

And Joshua blessed them, and dismissed them; and they went to their homes.

7 Now to the one half tribe of Manasseh, Moses had given a possession in Bashan. And therefore, to the one half that was left over, Joshua gave a lot among the remainder of their brothers across the Jordan, in the western region. And when he had blessed them and dismissed them to their tents,

And to [one] half the tribe of Manasse Moses gave a portion in the land of Basan, and to [the other] half Joshua gave a portion with his brethren on the other side of Jordan westward: and when Joshua sent them away to their homes, then he blessed them.

8 he said to them: “Return to your settlements with much substance and wealth, with silver and gold, brass and iron, and a multitude of garments. Divide the spoils of your enemies with your brothers.”

And they departed with much wealth to their houses, and they divided the spoil of their enemies with their brethren; very much cattle, and silver, and gold, and iron, and much raiment.

9 And the sons of Reuben, and the sons of Gad, and the one half tribe of Manasseh returned, and they went away from the sons of Israel at Shiloh, which is situated in Canaan, so that they might enter into Gilead, the land of their possession, which they had obtained according to the order of the Lord, by the hand of Moses.

So the sons of Ruben, and the sons of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasse, departed from the children of Israel in Selo in the land of Chanaan, to go away into Galaad, into the land of their possession, which they inherited by the command of the Lord, by the hand of Moses.

10 And when they had arrived at the hills of the Jordan in the land of Canaan, they built an altar of immense magnitude beside the Jordan.

And they came to Galaad of Jordan, which is in the land of Chanaan: and the children of Ruben, and the children of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasse built there an altar by Jordan, a great altar to look at.

11 And when the sons of Israel had heard of it, and certain messengers had reported to them that the sons of Reuben, and of Gad, and of the one half tribe of Manasseh had built an altar in the land of Canaan, upon the hills of the Jordan, facing the sons of Israel,

And the children of Israel heard say, Behold, the sons of Ruben, and the sons of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasse have built an altar at the borders of the land of Chanaan at Galaad of Jordan, on the opposite side to the children of Israel.

12 they all assembled at Shiloh, so that they might go up and battle against them.

And all the children of Israel gathered together to Selo, so as to go up and fight against them.

13 And in the interim, they sent to them, in the land of Gilead, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the priest,

And the children of Israel sent to the sons of Ruben, and the sons of Gad, and to the sons of the half tribe of Manasse into the land of Galaad, both Phinees the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest,

14 and ten leaders with him, one from each tribe.

and ten of the chiefs with him; [there was] one chief of every household out of all the tribes of Israel; (the heads of families are the captains of thousands in Israel.)

15 And they went to the sons of Reuben, and of Gad, and of the one half tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, and they said to them:

And they came to the sons of Ruben, and to the sons of Gad, and to the half tribe of Manasse into the land of Galaad; and they spoke to them, saying,

16 “All the people of the Lord declare this: What is this transgression? Why have you forsaken the Lord, the God of Israel, by building a sacrilegious altar, and by withdrawing from the worship of him?

Thus says the whole congregation of the Lord, What [is] this transgression that you have transgressed before the God of Israel, to turn away today from the Lord, in that you have built for yourselves an altar, so that you should be apostates from the Lord?

17 Is it a small thing to you that you have sinned with Baal of Peor, and that the stain of that crime continues among us, even to the present day? And many of the people have fallen.

Is the sin of Phogor too little for you, whereas we have not been cleansed from it until this day, though there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord?

18 And yet you have forsaken the Lord today, and tomorrow his wrath will rage against all of Israel.

And you have this day revolted from the Lord; and it shall come to pass if you revolt this day from the Lord, that to-morrow there shall be wrath upon all Israel.

19 But if you consider the land of your possession to be unclean, cross over to the land in which is the tabernacle of the Lord, and live among us. But do not withdraw from the Lord, and from our fellowship, by building an altar contrary to the altar of the Lord our God.

And now if the land of your possession [be too] little, cross over to the land of the possession of the Lord, where the tabernacle of the Lord dwells, and receive you an inheritance among us; and do not become apostates from God, neither do you apostatize from the Lord, because of your having built an altar apart from the altar of the Lord our God.

20 Did not Achan, the son of Zerah, go against the commandment of the Lord, and so his wrath was laid over all the people of Israel? And he was only one man. If only he had perished in his wickedness alone!”

Behold! did not Achar the [son] of Zara commit a trespass [taking] of the accursed thing, and there was wrath on the whole congregation of Israel? and he himself died alone in his own sin.

21 And the sons of Reuben, and of Gad, and of the one half tribe of Manasseh responded to the leaders of the delegation from Israel:

And the sons of Ruben, and the sons of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasse answered, and spoke to the captains of the thousands of Israel, saying,

22 “The Lord, the almighty God, the Lord, the almighty God, he knows, and also Israel will understand: If we have constructed this altar with intent of transgression, let him not preserve us, but instead punish us immediately.

God [even] God is the Lord, and God [even] God himself knows, and Israel he shall know; if we have transgressed before the Lord by apostasy, let him not deliver us this day.

23 And if we have acted with a mind so that we might present upon it holocausts, and sacrifice, and victims of peace offerings, let him inquire and judge.

And if we have built to ourselves an altar, so as to apostatize from the Lord our God, so as to offer upon it a sacrifice of whole burnt offerings, so as to offer upon it a sacrifice of peace-offering, —the Lord shall require it.

24 Instead, we have acted with this greater thought and design, that we would say: Tomorrow your sons will say to our sons: ‘What is there between you and the Lord, the God of Israel?

But we have done this for the sake of precaution [concerning this] thing, saying, Lest hereafter your sons should say to our sons, What have you to do with the Lord God of Israel?

25 The Lord has stationed the river Jordan as the border between us and you, O sons of Reuben, O sons of Gad. And therefore, you have no part in the Lord.’ And by this occasion, your sons would turn away our sons from the fear of the Lord. And so we sought something better,

Whereas the Lord has set boundaries between us and you, even Jordan, and you have no portion in the Lord: so your sons shall alienate our sons, that they should not worship the Lord.

26 and we said: Let us build us an altar, not for holocausts, and not to offer victims,

And we gave orders to do thus, to build this altar, not for burnt offerings, nor for meat-offerings;

27 but as a testimony between us and you, and between our descendants and your progeny, so that we may serve the Lord, and so that it may be our right to offer holocausts, and victims, and peace offerings, and so that tomorrow your sons may not say to our sons: ‘You have no part in the Lord.’

but that this may be a witness between you and us, and between our posterity after us, that we may do service to the Lord before him, with our burnt offerings and our meat-offerings and our peace-offerings: so your sons shall not say to our sons, hereafter, You have no portion in the Lord.

28 And if they decide to say this, they shall respond to them: ‘Behold, the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for holocausts, and not for sacrifice, but instead as a testimony between us and you.’

And we said, If ever it should come to pass that they should speak [so] to us, or to our posterity hereafter; then shall they say, Behold the likeness of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for the sake of burnt offerings, nor for the sake of meat-offerings, but it is a witness between you and us, and between our sons.

29 May this wickedness be far from us, such that we would withdraw from the Lord, and would forsake his paths, by constructing an altar to offer holocausts, and sacrifices, and victims, contrary to the altar of the Lord our God, which was built before his tabernacle.”

Far be it from us therefore that we should turn away from the Lord this day so as to apostatize from the Lord, so as that we should build an altar for burnt offerings, and for peace-offerings, besides the altar of the Lord which is before his tabernacle.

30 And when Phinehas, the priest, and the leaders of the delegation who were with him, had heard this, they were pleased. And they accepted very willingly the words of the sons of Reuben, and of Gad, and of the one half tribe of Manasseh.

And Phinees the priest and all the chiefs of the congregation of Israel who were with him heard the words which the children of Ruben, and the children of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasse spoke; and it pleased them.

31 And Phinehas, the priest, the son of Eleazar, said to them: “Now we know that the Lord is with us. For you are a stranger to this transgression. And so you have freed the sons of Israel from the hand of the Lord.”

And Phinees the priest said to the sons of Ruben, and to the sons of Gad, and to the half of the tribe of Manasse, To-day we know that the Lord [is] with us, because you have not trespassed grievously against the Lord, and because you have delivered the children of Israel out of the hand of the Lord.

32 And he returned with the leaders, from the sons of Reuben and of Gad, out of the land of Gilead, into the parts of Canaan, to the sons of Israel. And he reported to them.

So Phinees the priest and the princes departed from the children of Ruben, and from the children of Gad, and from the half tribe of Manasse out of Galaad into the land of Chanaan to the children of Israel; and reported the words to them.

33 And the word pleased all who heard it. And the sons of Israel praised God, and they no longer said that they would go up against them, and fight, and destroy the land of their possession.

And it pleased the children of Israel; and they spoke to the children of Israel, and blessed the God of the children of Israel, and told them to go up no more to war against the others to destroy the land of the children of Ruben, and the children of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasse: so they lived upon it.

34 And the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad called the altar that they had built: Our testimony that the Lord himself is God.

And Joshua gave a name to the altar of the children of Ruben, and the children of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasse; and said, It is a testimony in the midst of them, that the Lord is their God.