Joshua 22

22 ¹ Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, ² and said to them, "You have kept everything that Moses the servant of our Father commanded you, and you have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you. ³ You have not deserted your brothers all this long while, down to this very day, but you have kept the charge of the commandment of your Father. ⁴ And now your Father has given rest to your brothers, just as he promised them. So turn now and go to your tents, to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of our Father gave you beyond the Jordan. ⁵ Only be very careful to do the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of our Father commanded you: to love your Father, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, to cling to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul."

⁶ Then Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents. ⁷ To the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given a possession in Bashan, but to the other half Joshua gave a possession alongside their brothers west of the Jordan. And when Joshua sent them away to their tents, he blessed them ⁸ and said to them, "Return to your tents with great wealth, with very many livestock, with silver and gold, bronze and iron, and a great quantity of clothing. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers."

An Altar to Witness Their Father

⁹ So the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh turned back, parting from the people of Israel at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, the land of their possession, which they had taken hold of at the command of our Father through Moses. ¹⁰ When they came to the region of the Jordan that is 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. ¹¹ And the people of Israel heard it said, "Look, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar facing the land of Canaan, in the region of the Jordan, on the side belonging to the people of Israel." ¹² And when the people of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the people of Israel gathered at Shiloh to go to war against them. ¹³ Then the people of Israel sent Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead, ¹⁴ and with him ten chiefs, one chief from each ancestral house out of all the tribes of Israel, each of them the head of his ancestral house among the clans of Israel. ¹⁵ When they came to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead, they said to them, ¹⁶ "Thus says the whole congregation of our Father: What is this breach of faith you have committed against our Father, the God of Israel, by turning away this day from following him, building yourselves an altar this day in rebellion against him? ¹⁷ Was the sin of Peor not enough for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day, though a plague came upon the congregation of our Father, ¹⁸ that you must turn away this day from following our Father? If you rebel against him today, then tomorrow he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel. ¹⁹ But if the land of your possession is unclean, then cross over into the land of our Father's possession, where his tabernacle dwells, and take possession among us. Only do not rebel against our Father, and do not draw us into rebellion with you, by building yourselves an altar other than the altar of our Father. ²⁰ Did not Achan the son of Zerah break faith in the matter of the devoted things, and wrath fell upon the whole congregation of Israel? And he was not the only one who perished for his iniquity."

²¹ Then the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered the heads of the clans of Israel, ²² "The Mighty One, our Father! The Mighty One, our Father! He knows, and let Israel itself know! If this was in rebellion or in breach of faith against our Father, do not spare us this day, ²³ that we built ourselves an altar to turn away from following our Father, or to offer on it burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings — may our Father himself call us to account!

²⁴ On the contrary, we did this out of fear of what might come — that in time to come your children might say to our children, 'What have you to do with our Father, the God of Israel? ²⁵ For our Father has set the Jordan as a boundary between us and you, you Reubenites and Gadites. You have no portion in him.' So your children might make our children stop revering our Father. ¹ 1 v25 The eastern tribes' deepest fear was not about land but about belonging — that one day their children would be told they had no share in the Father. The whole quarrel is really about who still belongs to him.

²⁶ Therefore we said, 'Let us build ourselves an altar, not for burnt offering and not for sacrifice, ²⁷ but to be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we do perform the service of our Father in his presence with our burnt offerings, our sacrifices, and our peace offerings, so that your children will not say to our children in time to come, "You have no portion in our Father."'

²⁸ And we thought, if they should say this to us or to our generations in time to come, we would answer, 'Look at the replica of the altar of our Father that our ancestors made, not for burnt offering nor for sacrifice, but as a witness between us and you.'

²⁹ Far be it from us that we should rebel against our Father and turn away this day from following him by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of our Father that stands before his tabernacle!"

³⁰ When Phinehas the priest and the chiefs of the congregation, the heads of the clans of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the Manassites spoke, it was good in their eyes. ³¹ And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the Manassites, "Today we know that our Father is in our midst, because you have not committed this breach of faith against him. Now you have delivered the people of Israel from the hand of our Father." ³² Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest and the chiefs returned from the Reubenites and the Gadites in the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the people of Israel, and brought back word to them. ³³ The report was good in the eyes of the people of Israel, and the people of Israel blessed our Father and spoke no more of going to war against them to destroy the land where the Reubenites and the Gadites were living. ³⁴ The Reubenites and the Gadites called the altar Witness, "For," they said, "it is a witness between us that our Father is God."