Joshua 22–23

The Eastern Tribes Return Home

22At that time Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, ²and said to them, “You have kept ^wall that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you ^xand have obeyed my voice in all that I have commanded you. ³You have not forsaken your brothers these many days, down to this day, but have been careful to keep the charge of the Lord your God. ^4yAnd now the Lord your God has given rest to your brothers, as he promised them. Therefore turn and go to your tents in the land where your possession lies, ^zwhich Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan. ^5aOnly be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, ^bto love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” ⁶So Joshua ^cblessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.

⁷Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given a possession in Bashan, ^dbut to the other half Joshua had given a possession beside their brothers in the land west of the Jordan. And when Joshua sent them away to their homes and blessed them, ⁸he said to them, “Go back to your tents with much wealth and with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and with much clothing. ^eDivide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.” ⁹So the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned home, parting from the people of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go ^fto the land of Gilead, their own land of which they had possessed themselves by command of the Lord through Moses.

The Eastern Tribes’ Altar of Witness

¹⁰And when they came to the region of the Jordan that is in the land of Canaan, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of imposing size. ¹¹And the people of Israel ^gheard it said, “Behold, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built the altar at the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that belongs to the people of Israel.” ¹²And when the people of Israel heard of it, ^hthe whole assembly of the people of Israel gathered at Shiloh to make war against them.

¹³Then the people of Israel sent to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, ⁱPhinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, ¹⁴and with him ten chiefs, one from each of the tribal families of Israel, ^jevery one of them the head of a family among the clans of Israel. ¹⁵And they came to the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, and they said to them, ¹⁶“Thus says the whole congregation of the Lord, ‘What is this breach of faith that you have committed against the God of Israel in turning away this day from following the Lord by building yourselves an altar this day ^kin rebellion against the Lord? ¹⁷Have we not had enough of ^lthe sin at Peor from which even yet we have not cleansed ourselves, and for which there came a plague upon the congregation of the Lord, ¹⁸that you too must turn away this day from following the Lord? And if ^kyou too rebel against the Lord today then tomorrow ^mhe will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel. ¹⁹But now, if the land of your possession is unclean, pass over into the Lord’s land ⁿwhere the Lord’s tabernacle stands, and take for yourselves a possession among us. ^oOnly do not rebel against the Lord or make us as rebels by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of the Lord our God. ^20pDid not Achan the son of Zerah break faith in the matter of the devoted things, and ^mwrath fell upon all the congregation of Israel? And he did not perish alone for his iniquity.’ ”

²¹Then the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel, ²²“The Mighty One, ^qGod, the Lord! The Mighty One, God, the Lord! ^rHe knows; and let Israel itself know! If it was in rebellion or in breach of faith against the Lord, do not spare us today ²³for building an altar to turn away from following the Lord. Or if we did so to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings on it, may the Lord himself ^stake vengeance. ²⁴No, but we did it from fear that ^tin time to come your children might say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? ²⁵For the Lord has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you people of Reuben and people of Gad. You have no portion in the Lord.’ So your children might make our children cease to worship the Lord. ²⁶Therefore we said, ‘Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice, ²⁷but to be ^ua witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we ^vdo perform the service of the Lord in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings, so your children will not say to our children in time to come, “You have no portion in the Lord.” ’ ²⁸And we thought, ‘If this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we should say, “Behold, the copy of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifice, but to be ^ua witness between us and you.” ’ ²⁹Far be it from us that we should ^wrebel against the Lord and turn away this day from following the Lord ^wby building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the Lord our God that stands before his tabernacle!”

³⁰When ^xPhinehas the priest and the chiefs of the congregation, the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh spoke, ^yit was good in their eyes. ³¹And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh, “Today we know that ^zthe Lord is in our midst, because you have not committed this breach of faith against the Lord. Now you have delivered the people of Israel from the hand of the Lord.”

³²Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and the chiefs, returned from the people of Reuben and the people of Gad ^ain the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the people of Israel, and brought back word to them. ³³And the report ^bwas good in the eyes of the people of Israel. And the people of Israel ^cblessed God and spoke no more of making war against them to destroy the land where the people of Reuben and the people of Gad were settled. ³⁴The people of Reuben and the people of Gad called the altar Witness, “For,” they said, ^d“it is a witness between us that the Lord is God.”

Joshua’s Charge to Israel’s Leaders

23A long time afterward, when the Lord had given ^erest to Israel from all their surrounding enemies, and Joshua ^fwas old and well advanced in years, ²Joshua ^gsummoned all Israel, its elders and heads, its judges and officers, and said to them, “I am now old and well advanced in years. ³And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake, ^hfor it is the Lord your God who has fought for you. ⁴Behold, ⁱI have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. ⁵The Lord your God ^jwill push them back before you and drive them out of your sight. And you shall possess their land, ^kjust as the Lord your God promised you. ⁶Therefore, ^lbe very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, ^mturning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, ⁷ⁿthat you may not mix with these nations remaining among you ^oor make mention of the names of their gods ^por swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, ^8qbut you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day. ^9rFor the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations. And as for you, ^sno man has been able to stand before you to this day. ^10tOne man of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God ^uwho fights for you, just as he promised you. ^11vBe very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God. ¹²For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you ^wand make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, ¹³know for certain that ^xthe Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, ^ybut they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you.

¹⁴“And now ^zI am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that ^anot one word has failed of all the good things¹ that the Lord your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed. ¹⁵But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you ^ball the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord your God has given you, ¹⁶if you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.”