Joshua 22 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Then Joshua called together the tribes of and the of
He said to them, "You have done everything commanded you. And you have obeyed everything I have told you as well.
You have not your brothers through this whole long campaign. Right up to today, you have carefully kept the of Yahweh your God.
And now Yahweh your God has given your brothers just as he promised them. So head back now to your homes, to the land that belongs to you — the land Moses, Yahweh's servant, gave you on the other of the
Just be very careful to follow the command and the that Moses, Yahweh's servant, gave you: to Yahweh your God, to in all to keep commands, to to and to serve with you are and you have."
Then Joshua a them and sent them away, and they went to their homes.
Now Moses had given territory in to one half of the tribe of Manasseh, and Joshua gave territory to the other half among their brothers on the west side of the Jordan. When Joshua sent them off to their homes, he also pronounced a good word over them.
He told them, "Go back to your homes with your enormous wealth — huge herds of livestock, silver, gold, bronze, iron, and piles of clothing. Share the from your enemies with your relatives."
So the descendants of Reuben, the descendants of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh left the rest of the Israelites at in the land of Canaan and headed back to the region of — their own territory that they had acquired as Yahweh had directed through Moses.
When they arrived at the Jordan crossings in the land of Canaan, the descendants of Reuben, the descendants of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh built a huge, impressive there by the Jordan.
The rest of the Israelites got word: "The descendants of Reuben, the descendants of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar at the border of the land of Canaan, at the Jordan crossings on the Israelite side!"
When the Israelites heard this, the gathered at Shiloh to go to war against them.
But first, the Israelites sent son of the priest to the descendants of Reuben, the descendants of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead.
With him were ten leaders — one from each of the tribes of Israel. Every one of them was the of their division among the of Israel.
They went to the descendants of Reuben, the descendants of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead and said to them:
"This is what the entire community of Yahweh says: What is this act of you have committed against the God of Israel? You have from following Yahweh today by building yourselves an altar — this is against Yahweh!
Wasn't the at enough for us? We still haven't fully recovered from that — even to this day — despite the that hit Yahweh's entire community.
And now you're turning away from Yahweh? If you rebel against Yahweh today, tomorrow he'll be with the entire community of Israel.
If the land you've settled is somehow then come over to own territory where stands, and settle among us. But don't rebel against Yahweh, and don't drag us into this by building an altar for yourselves other than the altar of Yahweh our God.
Remember son of Zerah — when he was unfaithful with the for didn't fall on the entire community of Israel? And he wasn't the only one who died for his
The descendants of Reuben, the descendants of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered the leaders of the military units of Israel:
"The The He knows — and Israel will know too — if this was rebellion or treachery against then don't spare us today!
If we built an altar to turn away from Yahweh, or to offer or on it, or to make on it — let Yahweh himself us
No! The truth is, we did this out of We thought, 'Someday your descendants might say to our descendants: What do you have to do with Yahweh, the God of Israel?
Yahweh has set the Jordan as a boundary between us and you — you descendants of Reuben and Gad. You have no in Yahweh!' And then your descendants would cause our descendants to stop Yahweh.
So we said, 'Let's take action and build an altar — not for burnt offerings, not for sacrifices —
but as a between us and you, and between our future generations, that we do Yahweh in his presence with our burnt offerings, our sacrifices, and our fellowship offerings.' That way your descendants can never say to our descendants, 'You have no share in Yahweh.'
We thought, 'If they ever say that to us or our descendants in the future, we can reply: Look at this of Yahweh's altar that our ancestors built — not for burnt offerings, not for sacrifices — but as a witness between us and you.'
The last thing we would ever do is rebel against Yahweh or turn away from following him today by building an altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings, or sacrifices other than the altar of Yahweh our God that stands in front of his
When Phinehas the priest and the community leaders — the heads of the military units of Israel who were with him — heard what the descendants of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh had to say, they were
Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest said to the descendants of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, "Today we know that is us, because you have not committed this treachery against You have the Israelites from Yahweh's hand of judgment!"
Then Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest and the leaders returned from the descendants of Reuben and Gad in the land of Gilead back to the Israelites in the land of Canaan and brought them the report.
The Israelites were glad about the report and They stopped talking about going to war to destroy the land where the descendants of Reuben and Gad were living.
The descendants of Reuben and Gad named the altar "A Us" — because, they said, "it is a us that Yahweh is God."