Joshua Chapter 22

Eastern Tribes Return Home

¹ Then Joshua called Reuben, Gad, and the Manasseh half-tribe,

² “You’ve done everything Moses and I have commanded you. ³ You haven’t abandoned your fellow Jews. You’ve kept the LORD’s charge, ⁴ and he’s given them peace. Go to your possession beyond the Jordan. ⁵ Observe the Law Moses commanded you: love the LORD your God, follow his ways, hold onto him, and serve him with all your heart and soul.”

⁶ Joshua blessed them and sent them home.

⁷ To the one Manasseh half-tribe, Moses had given a possession in Bashan. To the other half, Joshua had given a possession beside them west of the Jordan. When Joshua sent them home, ⁸ he said, “Go with your considerable wealth in livestock, silver, gold, bronze, iron, and clothing. Divide the spoil from your enemies with your relatives.” ⁹ Reuben, Gad, and the Manasseh half-tribe separated from Israel at Shiloh in Canaan and went to Gilead.

Josh 22:1-9

¹⁰ When they came to the region around the Jordan (which lies in Canaan), Reuben, Gad, and the Manasseh half-tribe built a large altar by the Jordan. ¹¹ People in Israel heard that Reuben, Gad, and the Manasseh half-tribe had built an altar at the frontier with Canaan near the Jordan on Israel’s side. ¹² When they heard about it, they gathered at Shiloh to fight them.

¹³ Israel sent them Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest ¹⁴ and one family head from each tribe. ¹⁵ They said,

¹⁶ “The whole community says, ‘What’s this treachery you’ve committed against the LORD God of Israel by building yourselves an altar in rebellion against him? ¹⁷ Didn’t we have enough sin at Peor that we haven’t yet cleansed ourselves from? Because of it a plague came on the community. ¹⁸ If you rebel against him today, he’ll be angry with the whole community tomorrow. ¹⁹ If your land is ceremonially unclean, pass over to where his Tabernacle stands. Take a possession among us. Just don’t rebel against the LORD or make us rebels by building yourselves an altar other than the altar of the LORD. ²⁰ Didn’t Achan son of Zerah break faith with the devoted things, and wrath fell on the whole community? He didn’t perish alone in his sin.’          

Josh 22:10-20

²¹ Then Reuben, Gad, and the Manasseh half-tribe answered,

²² “The Mighty One, God the LORD! The Mighty One, God the LORD! He knows, and let Israel know! If it’s rebellion or unfaithfulness toward him, don’t spare us. ²³ If we did it to offer burnt offerings, grain offerings, or peace offerings, may he take revenge. ²⁴ No! We did so that later on your descendants couldn’t say to ours, ‘What do you have to do with the LORD God of Israel? ²⁵ He has made the Jordan a boundary between us. You don’t have any territory in him.’ Your descendants might make ours stop worshiping the LORD. ²⁶ So we said we’d build an altar now, not for sacrifice, ²⁷ but to testify that we and our descendants do serve the LORD with our burnt offerings, sacrifices, and peace offerings. We did it for fear that your descendants might tell ours they didn’t have any territory in the LORD. ²⁸ Then we could say, ‘Look at the copy of his altar our ancestors built for a witness between us.’ ²⁹ We’re certainly not rebelling against him by building an altar to replace the one in front of his Tabernacle!”  Josh 22:21-29   

³⁰ Phinehas and the heads of the community liked what they heard. ³¹ He told them, “Now we know the LORD is among us. You haven’t committed treachery. You’ve saved Israel from the LORD.” ³² They left and took word back to Israel in Canaan. ³³ The report pleased them, and they blessed God and didn’t say anything more about fighting. ³⁴ Reuben and Gad called the altar Ed, a ‘witness’ that the LORD is God.       

Josh 22:30-34