Joshua 22

1 Then Joshua called together the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, 2 and said to them, “You have heard everything that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, and you have listened to my voice in everything that I commanded you. 3 You have not abandoned your brothers all these many days and more, right up to this day; you have kept the command of the Lord your God.

4 And now the Lord our God has given our brothers rest, just as he said to them. So turn back now and go to your homes, and to the land of your holding, which Moses gave you across the Jordan. 5 But take great care to do the commands and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded us to do: to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commands, and to hold fast to him, and to serve him with your whole mind and with your whole soul.”

6 And Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their homes. 7 To the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given land in Bashan, and to the other half Joshua gave land with their brothers across the Jordan, toward the sea. And when Joshua sent them away to their homes and blessed them, 8 they went to their homes with great wealth, and with very much cattle, and silver and gold and iron and a great deal of clothing; and they divided the plunder of their enemies with their brothers.

9 So the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half tribe of the sons of Manasseh went away from the children of Israel out of Shiloh in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, to the land of their holding, which they had received as their inheritance by the decree of the Lord, by the hand of Moses. 10 And they came to Gilgal of the Jordan, which is in the land of Canaan; and the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben and the half tribe of Manasseh built an altar there by the Jordan, a great altar to look at. [a]

11 And the children of Israel heard it said, “Look — the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben and the half tribe of Manasseh have built an altar at the borders of the land of Canaan, at Gilead of the Jordan, on the far side, opposite the children of Israel.” 12 And all the children of Israel gathered together at Shiloh, to go up and make war on them.

13 And the children of Israel sent to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad and to the half tribe of Manasseh, into the land of Gilead, Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the chief priest, 14 and ten of the leaders with him — one leader from a father's house, out of all the tribes of Israel; they are heads of the fathers' houses, the heads of thousands of Israel.

15 And they came to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben and to the half tribe of Manasseh, into the land of Gilead, and spoke to them and said, 16 “This is what the whole gathering of the Lord says: What is this wrong you have done before the God of Israel, turning away today from the Lord by building yourselves an altar, so as to become deserters from the Lord? 17 Is the sin of Peor too small a thing for us? We have not been cleansed from it to this day, and there was a plague on the gathering of the Lord. 18 And will you turn away today from the Lord? If you break away from the Lord today, then tomorrow there will be anger on all Israel.

19 And now, if the land of your holding is too small for you, cross over into the land of the Lord's holding, where the tent of the Lord is pitched, and take an inheritance among us. Only do not become deserters from God, and do not break away from the Lord by building yourselves an altar apart from the altar of the Lord our God. 20 Was it not Achan son of Zerah who did a wrong in the matter of the thing devoted, and anger came on the whole gathering of Israel? And he was one man alone. Did he die alone in his own sin?” [c]

21 And the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh answered, and spoke to the heads of thousands of Israel and said, 22 “God is God, the Lord; and God is God, the Lord. He himself knows, and Israel itself will know: if it was in desertion that we did this wrong before the Lord, may he not deliver us this day. 23 And if we built ourselves an altar so as to break away from the Lord our God, or to bring up on it a sacrifice of whole burnt offerings, or to make on it a sacrifice of well-being — the Lord will require it.

24 No — we did this out of caution about this matter. We said: so that tomorrow your children will not say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? 25 The Lord has set borders between us and you — the Jordan — and you have no share in the Lord.’ So your sons will make strangers of our sons, and they will not revere the Lord.

26 And we said, let us do this: let us build this altar, not for altar offerings and not for sacrifices, 27 but so that it may be a witness between us and you, and between the generations that come after us, that we do serve the service of the Lord before him with our altar offerings and with our sacrifices and with our sacrifices of well-being. Then your children will not say to our children tomorrow, ‘You have no share in the Lord.’ 28 And we said: if it should ever happen that they speak to us and to our generations tomorrow, then they will say, ‘Look at the likeness of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made — not for altar offerings and not for sacrifices, but it is a witness between you and us and between our sons.’ 29 So far be it from us to turn away from the Lord in these days of ours, to break away from the Lord by building ourselves an altar for altar offerings and for the sacrifices *salamin* and for the sacrifice of well-being, apart from the altar of the Lord which stands before his tent.” [d]

30 And Phinehas the priest and all the leaders of the gathering of Israel who were with him heard the words that the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh spoke, and it pleased them. 31 And Phinehas the priest said to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad and to the half tribe of Manasseh, “Today we know that the Lord is with us, because you have not done a wrong before the Lord, and because you have delivered the children of Israel out of the hand of the Lord.”

32 So Phinehas the priest and the leaders turned back from the sons of Reuben and from the sons of Gad and from the half tribe of Manasseh, out of the land of Gilead into the land of Canaan, to the children of Israel; and they brought back word to them. 33 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 said they would go up against them no more for war, to destroy the land of the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh. And they settled on it.

34 And Joshua gave a name to the altar of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, and said, “It is a witness among them that the Lord is their God.” [e]