UST JOS Chapter 22

◄ JOS 22 ► ║ ═ ©

22 Joshua then summoned the leaders of the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh. 2 He told them, “You have done everything that Moses the servant of Yahweh, commanded you to do. You have also done what I commanded you to do. 3 For a long time you have helped the other tribes to defeat their enemies. You have obeyed everything that Yahweh your God taught you and commanded you to do. 4 He promised to settle your fellow Israelites peacefully in this land, and he has done what he promised. So now you may go back to your homes in the land that Moses gave to you on the east side of the Jordan River. 5 But now you must be careful to do what Moses commanded and taught you to do. You must love Yahweh your God and live your life as he wants you to live. You must obey his commands and be loyal only to him. Do this as you worship him and serve him by everything that you think and everything that you do.” 6 Then Joshua wished for Yahweh to do good things for them, and he sent them back to their homes. 7 The people Joshua sent back to the east side of the Jordan River included half of the tribe of Manasseh. Moses had given them the region of Bashan there. Joshua had given the other half of that tribe land on the west side of the Jordan River with the other Israelites. When Joshua sent them away to their homes, he wished for Yahweh to do good things for them too. 8 He said to them, “You may take back to your homes much money, many animals, and silver, gold, bronze, iron, and very many beautiful clothes. You got these things from your enemies when you defeated them. Share them with the people of your tribes back home.” 9 So the people of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh left the other people of Israel at Shiloh in the region of Canaan. They returned home to the region of Gilead, which belonged to them because they had conquered it when Moses told them that Yahweh had said they could do that. 10 They arrived at the western bank of the Jordan River, still in the land of Canaan. There the people of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh built an altar. It was a very large and impressive altar. 11 People from that area began to report to the other Israelites, “The people of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh have built an altar at the entrance to the land of Canaan. It is on the banks of the Jordan River, on the western side where most of the Israelites live.” 12 When the other Israelites heard this, they all met together at the city of Shiloh. They decided they would fight against those tribes to make them tear down that altar. 13 But first, the Israelites sent Phinehas son of Eleazar, who was the leader of all the priests, across the river to talk with the people of Reuben, Gad, and eastern Manasseh. 14 They also sent one leader from each of the ten tribes of Israel that had settled west of the Jordan River. Each of those men was an important person within his own clan. 15 Those leaders went to the region of Gilead to talk with the people of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh. They said, 16 “All the other Israelites want to know why you have been so disloyal to the God whom we Israelites worship! He commanded that there should only be one altar, at his sacred tent. But you have now disobeyed Yahweh by building your own altar here in this place. You have rebelled against Yahweh! 17 You are acting as if we did not disobey Yahweh badly enough at Mount Peor, where we worshiped a false god. We still feel very ashamed for doing that. As a punishment, Yahweh sent a deadly sickness among the Israelites, and many of them died from it. 18 So you should not disobey Yahweh like this! If you rebel against Yahweh like this now, soon he will severely punish all of the Israelites. 19 You seem to think you need your own altar, but you have built it on our side of the Jordan River. If you built it there because you think your land is ritually impure, move back to the land that belongs to Yahweh, where Yahweh’s sacred tent is. We will share our land with you. But do not rebel against Yahweh or against us by building yourselves an altar other than the one at the sacred tent. 20 Recall how Achan son of Zerah was so disloyal to Yahweh and kept some things from Jericho even though we were supposed to destroy everything there. This made Yahweh angry with all of us Israelites. Because of what that one man did wrong, many other Israelites died.” 21 The leaders of the tribes of Reuben and Gad and of the half tribe of Manasseh replied to the Israelite clan leaders, 22 “We affirm that Yahweh is the only true God! He knows why we built this altar, and we want all the Israelites to know why as well. If we have broken our promise to obey Yahweh, punish us by killing us right now! 23 If we have disobeyed Yahweh’s command by building ourselves an altar other than the one at the sacred tent, or if we have built this altar so we can offer sacrifices, grain offerings, or sacrifices to promise friendship with him, in violation of the law, Yahweh will find out what we have done and punish us. 24 But that is not why we built this altar. We built it because we were afraid that your descendants might speak to our descendants at some future time and tell them that they had no right to worship Yahweh, the God whom Israelites worship. 25 We were afraid that they would tell our descendants that Yahweh had made the Jordan River a boundary between themselves and the people of the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half of Manasseh. We were afraid that your descendants would tell our descendants that they had nothing to do with Yahweh. And then they might try to stop our descendants from worshiping Yahweh. 26 So we decided that we should build an altar, but not for burning sacrifices or making offerings. 27 Instead, we wanted it to be a monument to prove to you, to ourselves, and to all of our descendants after us that we will truly worship Yahweh. We will indeed worship him by bringing to his sacred tent our sacrifices to burn and our other sacrifices and the other offerings we make to promise friendship with him. We built this altar so your descendants would never say to our descendants in the future that they had nothing to do with Yahweh. 28 In the future, if your descendants said that, then our descendants could tell them to look at the altar that we, their ancestors, had made. They would see that it was exactly like the altar at Yahweh’s sacred tent. Our descendants would tell them that they do not burn sacrifices on it, but it is a monument that proves that Israelites on both sides of the Jordan River worship Yahweh. 29 We certainly do not want to rebel against Yahweh or disobey him. We never intended to use this altar for burning sacrifices, making flour offerings, or making any other sacrifices. We know that there is only one true altar for Yahweh our God, and that is the one in front of the sacred tent.” 30 When Phinehas the priest and the clan leaders whom the Israelites had chosen when they met together heard what the people of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh had said, they were pleased. 31 And Phinehas said to them, “Now we recognize that Yahweh is helping all of us Israelites. We understand that you were not being disloyal to him when you built that altar. Because you have not disobeyed Yahweh, we are sure that he will not punish us.” 32 Then Phinehas son of Eliazar, the high priest, and the Israelite leaders who had accompanied him left the people of the tribes of Reuben and Gad. They returned from the region of Gilead to Canaan, where the other Israelites were. There they told them what had happened. 33 They were all pleased, and they thanked God. They did not talk anymore about fighting against the people of the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half of Manasseh to destroy them in the land where they lived. 34 The other Israelites no longer planned to attack the people of the tribes of Reuben and Gad and Manasseh because they had explained that the altar was a monument that proved to the eastern tribes that the western tribes also worshiped Yahweh as their God.

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