Joshua 22:1-34
Eastern Tribes Return Home
1 Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh 2 and said to them, “You have done all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and you have obeyed me in everything I commanded. 3 For a long time now—to this very day—you have not deserted your fellow Israelites but have carried out the mission the Lord your God gave you. 4 Now that the Lord your God has given them rest as he promised, return to your homes in the land that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan. 5 But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to keep his commands, to hold fast 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 homes. 7 (To the half-tribe of Manasseh Moses had given land in Bashan, and to the other half of the tribe Joshua gave land on the west side of the Jordan along with their fellow Israelites.) When Joshua sent them home, he blessed them, 8 saying, “Return to your homes with your great wealth—with large herds of livestock, with silver, gold, bronze and iron, and a great quantity of clothing—and divide the plunder from your enemies with your fellow Israelites.”
9 So the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh left the Israelites at Shiloh in Canaan to return to Gilead, their own land, which they had acquired in accordance with the command of the Lord through Moses.
10 When they came to Geliloth near the Jordan in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh built an imposing altar there by the Jordan. 11 And when the Israelites heard that they had built the altar on the border of Canaan at Geliloth near the Jordan on the Israelite side, 12 the whole assembly of Israel gathered at Shiloh to go to war against them.
13 So the Israelites sent Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, to the land of Gilead—to Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh. 14 With him they sent ten of the chief men, one from each of the tribes of Israel, each the head of a family division among the Israelite clans.
15 When they went to Gilead—to Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh—they said to them: 16 “The whole assembly of the Lord says: ‘How could you break faith with the God of Israel like this? How could you turn away from the Lord and build yourselves an altar in rebellion against him now? 17 Was not the sin of Peor enough for us? Up to this very day we have not cleansed ourselves from that sin, even though a plague fell on the community of the Lord! 18 And are you now turning away from the Lord?
“‘If you rebel against the Lord today, tomorrow he will be angry with the whole community of Israel. 19 If the land you possess is defiled, come over to the Lord’s land, where the Lord’s tabernacle stands, and share the land with us. But do not rebel against the Lord or against us by building an altar for yourselves, other than the altar of the Lord our God. 20 When Achan son of Zerah was unfaithful in regard to the devoted things, did not wrath come on the whole community of Israel? He was not the only one who died for his sin.’”
21 Then Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh replied to 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! If this has been in rebellion or disobedience to the Lord, do not spare us this day. 23 If we have built our own altar to turn away from the Lord and to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, or to sacrifice fellowship offerings on it, may the Lord himself call us to account.
24 “No! We did it for fear that some day your descendants might say to ours, ‘What do you have to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? 25 The Lord has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you—you Reubenites and Gadites! You have no share in the Lord.’ So your descendants might cause ours to stop fearing the Lord.
26 “That is why we said, ‘Let us get ready and build an altar—but not for burnt offerings or sacrifices.’ 27 On the contrary, it is to be a witness between us and you and the generations that follow, that we will worship the Lord at his sanctuary with our burnt offerings, sacrifices and fellowship offerings. Then in the future your descendants will not be able to say to ours, ‘You have no share in the Lord.’
28 “And we said, ‘If they ever say this to us, or to our descendants, we will answer: Look at the replica of the Lord’s altar, which our ancestors built, not for burnt offerings and sacrifices, but as a witness between us and you.’
29 “Far be it from us to rebel against the Lord and turn away from him today by building an altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings and sacrifices, other than the altar of the Lord our God that stands before his tabernacle.”
30 When Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the community—the heads of the clans of the Israelites—heard what Reuben, Gad and Manasseh had to say, they were pleased. 31 And Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, said to Reuben, Gad and Manasseh, “Today we know that the Lord is with us, because you have not been unfaithful to the Lord in this matter. Now you have rescued the Israelites from the Lord’s hand.”
32 Then Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, and the leaders returned to Canaan from their meeting with the Reubenites and Gadites in Gilead and reported to the Israelites. 33 They were glad to hear the report and praised God. And they talked no more about going to war against them to devastate the country where the Reubenites and the Gadites lived.
34 And the Reubenites and the Gadites gave the altar this name: A Witness Between Us—that the Lord is God.
Then Joshua called a meeting of all the people from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh...Joshua said to them, “Moses was the LORD’s servant...You obeyed everything that Moses told you to do...And you also obeyed all of my commands...All this time you have supported all the other Israelites...You carefully obeyed all the commands that the LORD your God gave you....The LORD your God promised to give the Israelites peace...And now, he has kept His promise, so now you can go home...The LORD’s servant Moses gave you the land on the east side of the Jordan River...Now you can go home to that land...But remember—continue to obey the law that the LORD’s servant Moses gave you...You must love the LORD your God and obey His commands...You must continue to follow Him and serve Him the very best that you can.”...Then Joshua said goodbye to them, and they left and went home...
Moses had given the land of Bashan to half of the Manasseh tribe...Joshua gave land on the west side of the Jordan River to the other half of the Manasseh tribe...Joshua blessed them and sent them home...He said, “You have become very rich...You have many animals...You have gold, silver, and expensive jewelry...You have many beautiful clothes...You have taken many things from your enemies...Go home and divide these things among yourselves.”...So the people from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh left the other Israelites at Shiloh in Canaan...They went back home to Gilead...This was their own land, the land that Moses gave them, as the LORD had commanded...They went to the place called Geliloth, near the Jordan River in the land of Canaan...There they built a beautiful altar...And upon completion of this altar, it became controversial...The other Israelites who were still at Shiloh heard about the altar that these three tribes built...They heard that the altar was at the border of Canaan at the place called Geliloth...It was near the Jordan River on Israel’s side...All the Israelites became very angry with these three tribes...They met together and decided to fight against them...So the Israelites sent some men to talk to the people of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh...The leader of these men was Phinehas, son of Eleazar the priest...They also sent ten of the leaders of the tribes there...There was one man from each family group of Israel who was at Shiloh...So these eleven men went to Gilead...They went to talk to the people of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh...The eleven men said to them, “All the LORD’s people sent us to ask you this: ‘Why did you do this thing against the God of Israel?...Why did you stop following the LORD?...Why did you build an altar for yourselves?...You know that this is against the LORD’s command...Remember what happened at Peor?...Was the sin we committed there not bad enough?...Because of that sin, the LORD punished His people with a terrible sickness...And we are still suffering from that sin...And now you are doing the same thing...You are turning against the LORD...Will you refuse to follow the LORD?...If you don’t stop what you are doing, He will be angry with everyone in Israel...“‘If your land is not a good place to worship God, come over to the LORD’s land...This is where the LORD’s Tent is...You can have some of the land and live here...But don’t turn against the LORD or against us by building another altar...We already have the altar of the LORD our God at the Meeting Tent...“‘Remember how Achan son of Zerah refused to obey the command about things that must be destroyed...That one man broke God’s law, but all the Israelites were punished...Achan died because of his sin, but also many other people died.’”...
The people from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh answered the eleven men...They said, “The LORD is our God!...Again we say that the LORD is our God!...And God knows why we did this thing...We want you to know also...You can judge what we did...If you think we did it because we are against the LORD or refuse to obey him, you can kill us today...Do you think we built our own altar because we want to turn away from the LORD?...Do you think we built another altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings, and fellowship offerings?...If that is why we built this altar, we ask the LORD himself to punish us...But that is not why we built it...We built it because we were afraid that in the future your descendants might not accept us as part of God’s people...So your children might say to our children, ‘You people have no reason to worship the LORD, the God of Israel...The LORD separated you people of Reuben and Gad from us by giving you the land on the other side of the Jordan River...So you are not part of the LORD’s people.’...If your children said that, it might make our children stop worshiping the LORD...“So we decided to build this altar...But we did not plan to use it for burning offerings and sacrifices...The real reason we wanted our altar was to show our people that we worship the same God you do...This altar will be the proof to you and us and to all our future children that we worship the LORD...We give our sacrifices, grain offerings, and fellowship offerings to the LORD...We wanted your children to grow up and know that we are also Israelites like yourselves...In the future, if it happens that your children say that we don’t belong to Israel, then our children can say, ‘Look, our fathers who lived before us made an altar...That altar is exactly like the LORD’s altar at the Holy Tent...We don’t use this altar for sacrifices—this altar is proof that we are part of Israel.’...“The truth is, we don’t want to be against the LORD...We don’t want to stop following Him now...We know that the only true altar is the one that is in front of the Holy Tent...That altar belongs to the LORD our God.”...Phinehas the priest and the leaders with him heard what the people from Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh said...They were satisfied that they were telling the truth...So Phinehas the priest said, “Now we know that the LORD is with us and that you did not turn against Him...We are happy that the Israelites will not be punished by the LORD.”...Then Phinehas and the leaders left that place and went home...They left the people of Reuben and Gad in the land of Gilead and went back to Canaan...They went back to the Israelites and told them what had happened...The Israelites were also satisfied...They were happy and thanked God...They decided not to go and fight against the people of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh...They decided not to destroy the land where those people live...The people of Reuben and Gad named the altar “Proof That We Believe the LORD is God.”...