Joshua 22

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

Joshua then summoned the leaders of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh.

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.

He said to them, “You have done everything that Moses, who served Yahweh [well], told you to do. You have also done what I told you to do.

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

For a long time you have helped the other tribes [to defeat their enemies]. You have obeyed everything that Yahweh your God commanded you to do.

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.

He promised to give peace to us Israelis, and he has done what he promised. So now you may go back to your homes, to the land that Moses gave to you, on the east side of the Jordan [River].

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.”

Moses also commanded you to love Yahweh your God and to obey his commands, and to continue to worship him and serve him by everything that you think and everything that you do.”

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

Then Joshua blessed them and said goodbye to them, and they [prepared to] leave and return to their homes [on the east side of the Jordan River].

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,

Moses had given the Bashan region to half the tribe of Manasseh, and land on the west side of the Jordan [River] to the other half of the tribe. Before they left, he [asked God to] bless 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.”

He said, “Go back to your homes and to all the things that you have taken from your enemies—the many animals and silver and gold and [things made of] bronze and iron, and many beautiful clothes. But you should share some of those things with other people of your tribe.”

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 people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh left the other Israelis at Shiloh in Canaan land, to return to their homes in the Gilead region. That was the area that belonged to them. It had been allotted to them by Moses as Yahweh had commanded.

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.

The people from those three tribes arrived near the western side of the Jordan River, at a town called Geliloth. There they built a large altar. [Then they crossed the Jordan River to the Gilead region].

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,

But the other Israelis who were still at Shiloh heard about the altar that those men had built.

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

They became very angry with the men of those tribes, so they decided to fight them.

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

The Israelis sent Phinehas, who was the son of Eleazar the Supreme Priest, to [talk with] the people of those three tribes.

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

They also sent one leader from each of the ten tribes that were still at Shiloh. Each of them was a leader of his clan.

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:

Those leaders went to the Gilead region to talk to the people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh. They said,

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?

“All the other Israelis are asking, ‘Why have you rebelled against the God whom we Israelis [worship] by building an altar for yourselves?

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.

Have you forgotten what happened at Peor, [when some Israelis sinned by worshiping the god that the Moab people-group worship]? Many Israelis became very sick and died because of that sin, and we are still suffering because of their sin.

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

Are you now turning away from obeying Yahweh and refusing to do what he wants? If you do not stop rebelling against Yahweh today, he will be angry with all of us Israelis tomorrow.’

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.

“If [you think that Yahweh considers] that your land here is not suitable for worshiping him, come back to our land where Yahweh’s Sacred Tent is. We can share our land with you. But do not rebel against Yahweh and against us by building another altar for Yahweh 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!”

Do you remember what happened when Zerah’s son Achan refused to obey [Yahweh’s command to destroy everything in Jericho]? That one man disobeyed God’s command, but many [HYP] other Israelis were punished. Achan died because of his sin, but other Israelis also died.”

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:

The [leaders of the] tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh replied,

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.

“Yahweh, the Almighty God, knows [why we did that], and we want you to know, too. If we have done something wrong [against Yahweh], you may kill us.

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.

If we have disobeyed one of Yahweh’s laws, we request that he should punish us. We did not build that new altar to completely burn animals as sacrifices to Yahweh, or to offer on it sacrifices of grain or sacrifices to maintain fellowship with God.

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?

“This is the reason that we built that altar: We were afraid/worried that some day your descendants would say that our descendants are not true Israelis. We were afraid that then they would say, ‘You are not allowed to worship Yahweh, the God whom we Israelis [worship].

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,

Yahweh caused the Jordan River to be a boundary between us and you people of the tribes of Reuben and Gad. So you are not allowed to worship Yahweh.’ We were worried that your descendants would force our descendants to stop worshiping Yahweh.

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

“That is the reason that we decided to build that [new] altar. But it is not an altar for completely burning sacrifices of animals and [burning other] sacrifices.

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.’

We built that new altar to prove/show to you and to us and to all of our descendants that we worship Yahweh by completely burning animal sacrifices and offerings of grain and offerings to maintain fellowship with Yahweh [only at the place Yahweh chooses]. We do not want your descendants to say to our descendants, ‘You do not belong to Yahweh.’

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.’

“In the future, if your descendants say that, our descendants can say, ‘Look at the altar that our ancestors made! It is exactly like Yahweh’s altar [that our ancestors built], but we do not burn sacrifices on it. It only shows that we are Israelis!’

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.”

We certainly do not want to rebel against Yahweh or stop doing what he desires, by building an altar for completely burning some sacrifices and burning grain offerings and making [other] sacrifices. [We know that] there is only one true altar for Yahweh our God, and it is in front of the Sacred Tent [at Shiloh].”

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.

When Phinehas the priest and the other [ten] leaders heard what they said, they were pleased.

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.”

So Phinehas said to them, “Now we know that Yahweh is with all of us Israelis, and that you were not rebelling against him [when you built that altar]. And we know that Yahweh will not punish us Israelis [because of your having done that].”

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.

Then Phinehas and the Israeli leaders left the people of the tribes of Reuben and Gad in the Gilead region, and returned to Canaan. There they told the other Israelis what had happened.

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.

They were pleased, and they thanked God. And they did not talk any more about fighting against the people of the tribes of Reuben and Gad and destroying everything in their land.

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.

The people of the tribes of Reuben and Gad named their new altar ‘A reminder to us all that Yahweh is God’.