Joshua 22
22
Three Tribes Go Home
1Then Joshua called a meeting of all the people from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh. 2He said to them, “You have done everything Moses, the Lord’s servant, told you to do. You have also obeyed all my commands. 3For a long time you have supported the other Israelites. You have been careful to obey the commands the Lord your God gave you. 4The Lord your God promised to give the Israelites peace, and he has kept his promise. Now you may go back to your homes, to the land that Moses, the Lord’s servant, gave you, on the east side of the Jordan River. 5But be careful to obey the teachings and laws Moses, the Lord’s servant, gave you: to love the Lord your God and obey his commands, to continue to follow him and serve him the very best you can.”
6Then Joshua said good-bye to them, and they left and went away to their homes. 7Moses had given the land of Bashan to East Manasseh. Joshua gave land on the west side of the Jordan River to West Manasseh. And he sent them to their homes and he blessed them. 8He said, “Go back to your homes and your riches. You have many animals, silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and many beautiful clothes. Also, you have taken many things from your enemies that you should divide among yourselves.”
9So the people from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh left the other Israelites at Shiloh in Canaan and went back to Gilead. It was their own land, given to them by Moses as the Lord had commanded.
10The people of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh went to Geliloth, near the Jordan River in the land of Canaan. There they built a beautiful altar. 11The other Israelites still at Shiloh heard about the altar these three tribes built at the border of Canaan at Geliloth, near the Jordan River on Israel’s side. 12All the Israelites became very angry at these three tribes, so they met together and decided to fight them.
13The Israelites sent Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest to Gilead to talk to the people of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh. 14They also sent one leader from each of the ten tribes at Shiloh. Each of them was a leader of his family group of Israelites.
15These leaders went to Gilead to talk to the people of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh. They said: 16“All the Israelites ask you: ‘Why did you turn against the God of Israel by building an altar for yourselves? You know that this is against God’s law. 17Remember what happened at Peor? We still suffer today because of that sin, for which God made many Israelites very sick. 18And now are you turning against the Lord and refusing to follow him?
“ ‘If you don’t stop what you’re doing today, the Lord will be angry with everyone in Israel tomorrow. 19If your land is unclean, come over into our land where the Lord’s Tent is. Share it with us. But don’t turn against the Lord and us by building another altar for the Lord our God. 20Remember how Achan son of Zerah refused to obey the command about what must be completely destroyed. That one man broke God’s law, but all the Israelites were punished. Achan died because of his sin, but others also died.’ ”
21The people from Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh answered, 22“The Lord is God of gods! The Lord is God of gods! God knows, and we want you to know also. If we have done something wrong, you may kill us. 23If we broke God’s law, we ask the Lord himself to punish us. We did not build this altar to offer burnt offerings or grain and fellowship offerings.
24“We did not build it for that reason. We feared that someday your people would not accept us as part of your nation. Then they might say, ‘You cannot worship the Lord, the God of Israel. 25The Lord made the Jordan River a border between us and you people of Reuben and Gad. You cannot worship the Lord.’ So we feared that your children might make our children stop worshiping the Lord.
26“That is why we decided to build this altar. But it is not for burnt offerings and sacrifices. 27This altar is proof to you and us and to all our children who will come after us that we worship the Lord with our whole burnt offerings, grain, and fellowship offerings. This was so your children would not say to our children, ‘You are not the Lord’s.’
28“In the future if your children say that, our children can say, ‘See the altar made by our ancestors. It is exactly like the Lord’s altar, but we do not use it for sacrifices. It shows that we are part of Israel.’
29“Truly, we don’t want to be against the Lord or to stop following him by building an altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings, or sacrifices. We know the only true altar to the Lord our God is in front of the Holy Tent.”
30When Phinehas the priest and the ten leaders heard the people of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh, they were pleased. 31So Phinehas, son of Eleazar the priest, said, “Now we know the Lord is with us and that you didn’t turn against him. Now the Israelites will not be punished by the Lord.”
32Then Phinehas and the leaders left the people of Reuben and Gad in Gilead and went back to Canaan where they told the Israelites what had happened. 33They were pleased and thanked God. So they decided not to fight the people of Reuben and Gad and destroy those lands.
34And the people of Reuben and Gad named the altar Proof That We Believe the Lord Is God.
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Joshua 22: NCV
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The Holy Bible, New Century Version, Copyright © 2005 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Joshua 22
22
Joshua 22
1¶ Then Joshua called the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh
2and said unto them, Ye have kept all that Moses the slave of the Lord commanded you and have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you.
3Ye have not left your brethren these many days unto this day but have kept the charge of the commandment of the Lord your God.
4And now the Lord your God has given rest unto your brethren, as he promised them; therefore now return and go to your tents and unto the land of your possessions which Moses the slave of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan.
5Only that with diligence ye keep yourselves doing the commandment and the law, which Moses, the slave of the Lord, charged you: to love the Lord your God and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cleave unto him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.
6So Joshua, blessing them, sent them; and they went unto their tents.
7Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh, Moses had given possession in Bashan; but unto the other half Joshua gave inheritance among their brethren on this side of the Jordan to the west. And Joshua also sent these to their tents, after having blessed them,
8And he spoke unto them, saying, Return with great riches unto your tents and with a great amount of cattle with silver, with gold, with brass, with iron, and with very much clothing; divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren.
9And the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh returned, departing from the sons of Israel out of Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go unto the country of Gilead, to the land of their possession, of which they were the possessors, according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses.
10¶ And when they came unto the borders of the Jordan, which is in the land of Canaan, the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh built an altar there next to the Jordan, a great altar to look upon.
11And the sons of Israel heard it said, Behold, the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh have built an altar over against the land of Canaan, in the borders of the Jordan, at the passage of the sons of Israel.
12And when the sons of Israel heard of it, the whole congregation of the sons of Israel gathered themselves together at Shiloh, to go up to war against them.
13And the sons of Israel sent unto the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad and to the half tribe of Manasseh into the land of Gilead, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest,
14and with him ten princes, of each chief house a prince throughout all the tribes of Israel; and each one was the head of the house of their fathers among the thousands of Israel.
15And they came unto the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad and to the half tribe of Manasseh unto the land of Gilead, and they spoke with them, saying,
16Thus saith the whole congregation of the Lord, What trespass is this that ye have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away this day from following the Lord in that ye have built an altar, that ye might rebel this day against the Lord?
17 Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we are not cleansed until this day, for which there was a plague in the congregation of the Lord?
18And ye turn away this day from following the Lord; and it will be, seeing ye rebel today against the Lord, that tomorrow he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel.
19If the land of your possession seems unto you to be unclean, then pass ye over unto the land of the possession of the Lord, in which the Lord’s tabernacle dwells and take possession among us; but do not rebel against the Lord, nor rebel against us, in building yourselves an altar in addition to the altar of the Lord our God.
20Peradventure did Achan, the son of Zerah, not commit a trespass in the anathema, and wrath fell on all the congregation of Israel? And that man did not perish alone in his iniquity.
21¶ Then the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh answered and said unto the heads of the thousands of Israel,
22The Lord God of gods, the Lord God of gods, he knows and let Israel also know; if it is in rebellion, or if in transgression against the Lord (save us not this day)
23that we have built us an altar to turn from following the Lord or if to offer thereon burnt offering or present or if to offer peace offerings thereon, let the Lord himself require it;
24likewise, if we have not rather done it for fear of this thing, saying, Peradventure tomorrow your children shall speak unto our children, saying, What have ye to do with the Lord God of Israel?
25The Lord has put the Jordan for a border between us and you, O sons of Reuben and sons of Gad; ye have no part in the Lord, so shall your sons make our sons cease from fearing the Lord.
26Therefore we said, Let us now work to build us an altar, not for burnt offering nor for sacrifice,
27but that it may be a witness between us and you and our generations after us, to do the service of the Lord before him with our burnt offerings and with our sacrifices and with our peace offerings that your children may not say to our children in time to come, Ye have no part in the Lord.
28Therefore we said, that it shall be, if they should so say to us or to our generations in time to come, that we may reply, Behold the pattern of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings nor for sacrifices, but it is a witness between us and you.
29Let it never happen that we should rebel against the Lord or that we should turn today from following the Lord, to build an altar for burnt offerings, for presents, or for sacrifices, in addition to the altar of the Lord our God that is before his tabernacle.
30¶ And when Phinehas the priest and the princes of the congregation and heads of the thousands of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the sons of Manasseh spoke, it pleased them.
31And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, said unto the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Manasseh, This day we perceive that the Lord is among us because ye have not intended to trespass against the Lord. Now ye have delivered the sons of Israel from the wrath of the Lord.
32And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, and the princes, returned from the sons of Reuben and from the sons of Gad, out of the land of Gilead, unto the land of Canaan, to the sons of Israel and brought them word again.
33And the thing pleased the sons of Israel; and the sons of Israel blessed God and did not speak again of going up against them in battle to destroy the land in which the sons of Reuben and Gad dwelt.
34And the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad called the altar Ed; for it is a witness between us that the Lord is God.
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The Jubilee Bible 2000 (JUB) by Ransom Press International