Joshua 22

1 Then Joshua summoned the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

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

2 He told them, “You have done everything that Moses, the servant of the Lord, told you to do, and you have followed all the commands I gave you.

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 You have never abandoned your brothers all this time, right up to the present day. You have carefully followed what the Lord your God ordered you to do.

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 Now that the Lord your God has given peace to your brothers, as he promised, go back home to your land that Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you on the other side of 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 But make sure you keep the commandments and the law as Moses instructed you. Love the Lord your God, follow all his ways, keep his commandments, stay close to him, and serve him with your whole being.”

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 Joshua blessed them, sent them on their way, and they went home.

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 Moses had given to the half-tribe of Manasseh the land of Bashan, and to the other half of the tribe Joshua had given land west of the Jordan. Joshua blessed them and sent them home.

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 told them, “Take all the wealth you have gained back home: the great herds of livestock, the things made of gold, silver, copper, and iron, the huge quantity of clothes. Share all this plunder 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 So the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh left the rest of the Israelites at Shiloh in the land of Canaan and went home to their land in Gilead that they had received at the Lord's command through 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 When they approached the Jordan region, still in the land of Canaan, the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh built a large and impressive altar beside the Jordan River.

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 The Israelites were told, “Look, the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar in the Jordan region of the land of Canaan, on the side belonging to the Israelities.”

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

12 The Israelites gathered at Shiloh to go to war against them.

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

13 Before they did so, they sent Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead.

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

14 Ten leaders went with him, one from each of the ten tribes of Israel, and each the head of his family.

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 After they arrived they told the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh,

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 “This is what all of the Lord's people say, ‘What is this disloyal act you have committed against the God of Israel by building an altar for yourselves? How could you turn away from him now in such rebellion?

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

17 Wasn't our sin at Peor enough? Even now we're still not clean from the plague that attacked the Lord's people.

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 So why are you turning away from the Lord now? If you rebel against the Lord today, he will be angry with all of us tomorrow!

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 think your land is tainted then come over to the land of the Lord where the Tabernacle of the Lord is located and share some of our land with us. Just don't rebel against the Lord, or against us, by building for yourselves an altar other than 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 When Achan, son of Zerah, acted disloyally in taking consecrated things, didn't the whole of Israel suffer punishment? He wasn't the only one who died because of his sin!”

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 Then the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered the Israelite leaders,

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

22 “The Lord is God of gods, the Lord is God of gods, and he knows! May Israel also know! If we're in rebellion against God or being disloyal to him then kill us right now!

“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 If our action of building an altar was to turn away from the Lord, or to use the altar to make burnt offerings or grain offerings or friendship offerings, then may the Lord punish us.

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 We did this because we were worried that in the future your descendants might say to ours, ‘What have you got to do with 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 put a border—the Jordan River—between us and you, descendants of Reuben and Gad. You don't belong to the Lord.’ So your descendants might stop our descendants from worshiping the Lord.

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 So we said to ourselves, ‘Let's build an altar, not for burnt offerings or for sacrifices,

“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 witness between us and you, and for the generations that come after us, that we will come to worship the Lord in his presence with our burnt offerings, sacrifices, and friendship offerings.’ Then your descendants will not be able to say to ours in the future, ‘You don't belong to 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 If they were to do so in the future, our descendants could reply, ‘Look at this copy of the Lord's altar which our forefathers made, not for burnt offerings or for sacrifices, but as a witness 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 We would never think to rebel against the Lord or to turn away from him now by building an altar to make burnt offerings or grain offerings or sacrifices. The only altar of the Lord our God is the one stands in front of 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 When Phinehas and the Israelite leaders heard this from the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh they were delighted.

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

31 Phinehas replied to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, “Today we know that the Lord is with us because you have not acted disloyally in doing this. Now you have saved the Israelites from being punished by 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 Then Phinehas and the Israelite leaders left the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead and returned to the land of Canaan to explain the situation to the Israelites.

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 The Israelites were pleased with the report and God blessed them. They didn't talk about going to war any more to destroy the land where the tribes of Reuben and Gad were living.

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 The tribes of Reuben and Gad called the altar, “Witness,” because they said, “It is a witness between us that the Lord is also our God.”

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