Josué 22

The eastern tribes sent home

¹Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh. ²He said to them, “You have carried out all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, and in everything I have commanded you, you have obeyed me. ³All this long time, up to this very day, you have not abandoned your fellow Israelites. You have faithfully carried out the duty that the LORD your God commanded. ⁴Now the LORD your God has given your fellow Israelites rest, as he promised them. So turn now and go home to your tents, to the land that is your own, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the other side of the Jordan. ⁵But take great care to carry out the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the LORD laid on you: 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.” ⁶Then Joshua blessed them and sent them off, and they went home to their tents.

⁷Moses had given one half of the tribe of Manasseh land in Bashan; to the other half Joshua had given land west of the Jordan, beside their fellow Israelites. When Joshua sent the eastern tribes home, he blessed them ⁸and said to them, “Go back to your homes with great wealth: large herds of livestock, silver, gold, bronze and iron, and a great amount of clothing. Share the plunder taken from your enemies with your relatives at home.”

An altar by the Jordan

⁹So the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh turned back and parted from the Israelites at Shiloh, in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead. That was their own land, which had become theirs at the command of the LORD given through Moses. ¹⁰When they reached the region along the Jordan that lies in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh built an altar there by the Jordan, an altar of imposing size.^{a 11}Then the Israelites heard the report: “The Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar at the edge of the land of Canaan, in the region along the Jordan, on the Israelite side.”^{b 12}When the Israelites heard this, the whole congregation of the Israelites assembled at Shiloh to march out and fight against them.

Phinehas is sent to Gilead

¹³So 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. ¹⁴With him went ten leaders, one leader from each ancestral family for every tribe of Israel. Each of them was the head of his family among the clans of Israel. ¹⁵They went to the land of Gilead, to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and spoke with them: ¹⁶“The whole congregation of the LORD says this: ‘How could you commit such a breach of faith against the God of Israel? Today you have turned away from following the LORD by building yourselves an altar, rebelling against the LORD this very day. ¹⁷Was the sin at Peor not enough for us? To this day we have not cleansed ourselves from it, even though a plague struck the congregation of the LORD. ¹⁸And now you are turning away from following the LORD today! If you rebel against the LORD today, tomorrow he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel. ¹⁹But if the land you possess is unclean, come over to the LORD’s own land, where the LORD’s tabernacle stands, and take a share of land among us. Only do not rebel against the LORD, and do not rebel against us, by building an altar for yourselves other than the altar of the LORD our God. ²⁰When Achan son of Zerah broke faith over the devoted things, did not wrath fall on the whole congregation of Israel? He was only one man, but he was not the only one to die for his sin.’”^c

The eastern tribes answer

²¹Then the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered the heads of the clans of Israel: ²²“The Mighty One, God, the LORD! The Mighty One, God, the LORD! He knows, and let Israel know too! If this was rebellion or a breach of faith against the LORD, do not spare us today,^{d 23}if we built ourselves an altar to turn away from following the LORD, or to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings on it, or to present peace offerings on it, may the LORD himself call us to account. ²⁴No, we did it because we were worried about what might happen. We thought that someday your descendants might say to ours, ‘What do you have to do with the LORD, the God of Israel? ²⁵The LORD has set the Jordan as a border between us and you, you Reubenites and Gadites. You have no share in the LORD.’ In that way your descendants could make ours stop fearing the LORD. ²⁶So we said, ‘Let us take action and build an altar, not for burnt offerings or for sacrifices, ²⁷but to be a witness between us and you, and between the generations after us, that we are to worship the LORD in his presence by bringing our burnt offerings, sacrifices and peace offerings. So your descendants will never be able to say to ours in days to come, “You have no share in the LORD.”’ ²⁸We said, ‘If that is ever said to us or to our descendants, our answer will be, “Look at this copy of the altar of the LORD, which our ancestors made. It is not for burnt offerings or sacrifices. It is a witness between us and you.”’ ²⁹Far be it from us to rebel against the LORD and to stop following the LORD today by building an altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings or sacrifices apart from the altar of the LORD our God that stands in front of his tabernacle.”

A witness between us

³⁰When Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the congregation, the heads of the clans of Israel who were with him, heard what the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh said, they were satisfied. ³¹Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest said to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, “Today we know that the LORD is in our midst, since you have not broken faith with the LORD in this way. By this you have rescued the Israelites from the hand of the LORD.” ³²Then Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest and the leaders left the Reubenites and the Gadites in the land of Gilead and returned to the land of Canaan, to the Israelites, and gave them their report. ³³The report pleased the Israelites, and they praised God. They did not speak again of going to war against them to lay waste the land where the Reubenites and the Gadites lived. ³⁴The Reubenites and the Gadites named the altar Witness, “because,” they said, “it stands as a witness between us that the LORD is God.”^e