Joshua Sends the Eastern Tribes Home
1Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh 2and said to them, “You have kept everything Moses, the servant of Yahweh, commanded you, and you have obeyed my voice in everything I commanded you. 3You have not abandoned your brothers these many years, down to this very day, and you have carried out the charge that Yahweh your God gave you. 4Now Yahweh your God has given your brothers rest, just as he promised them. So return to your tents, to the land of your possession that Moses, the servant of Yahweh, gave you across the Jordan. 5Only be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses, the servant of Yahweh, gave you: to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, to hold fast to him, and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul.” 6Then Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents. 7Now to the half-tribe of Manasseh, Moses had given territory in Bashan, while Joshua gave the other half a territory among their brothers west of the Jordan. When Joshua sent them off to their tents, he blessed them 8and said to them, “Return to your tents with great wealth — with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, iron, and a great quantity of clothing. Share the plunder of your enemies with your brothers.” 9So the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh turned back and left the other Israelites at Shiloh, in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, their own possession, which they had received by the command of Yahweh through Moses.
The Altar by the Jordan
10When they came to the region of the Jordan still in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh built an altar there by the Jordan, a great and imposing altar. 11The other Israelites heard that the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh had built an altar facing the land of Canaan, in the region of the Jordan, on the Israelite side. 12When they heard this, the whole assembly of the Israelites gathered at Shiloh to go to war against them. 13So the Israelites sent Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, 14along with ten leaders, one from each of the tribal families of Israel, each the head of an ancestral family among the clans of Israel. 15They came to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, and said to them, 16“This is what the whole assembly of Yahweh says: What is this treachery you have committed against the God of Israel, turning away today from following Yahweh by building yourselves an altar — rebelling against Yahweh this very day? 17Was the sin of Peor not enough for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day, even though a plague struck the assembly of Yahweh? 18And now you would turn away from following Yahweh! If you rebel against Yahweh today, tomorrow he will be angry with the whole assembly of Israel. 19But if the land of your possession is unclean, cross over into Yahweh’s own land, where Yahweh’s tabernacle stands, and take possession among us. Only do not rebel against Yahweh, and do not rebel against us, by building yourselves an altar apart from the altar of Yahweh our God. 20Did not Achan son of Zerah break faith regarding what was devoted to destruction, bringing wrath on the whole assembly of Israel? He was not the only one who died for his sin.”
The Eastern Tribes Explain the Altar
21The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered the heads of the clans of Israel: 22“The Mighty One, God, Yahweh! The Mighty One, God, Yahweh! He knows, and let Israel itself know: if this was in rebellion or in treachery against Yahweh, do not spare us today. 23If we built ourselves an altar to turn away from following Yahweh, or to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings on it, or to sacrifice peace offerings on it, may Yahweh himself hold us accountable. 24No — we did this out of concern for something else: that in the future your children might say to our children, ‘What do you have to do with Yahweh, the God of Israel? 25Yahweh has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you Reubenites and Gadites — you have no share in Yahweh.’ So your children might make our children stop fearing Yahweh. 26That is why we said: Let us act now and build ourselves an altar — not for burnt offering or sacrifice, 27but as a witness between us and you, and between the generations after us, that we may carry out the service of Yahweh in his presence with our burnt offerings, sacrifices, and peace offerings, so that in the future your children cannot say to our children, ‘You have no share in Yahweh.’ 28So we said: if they should ever say this to us or to our descendants, we would answer: Look at the pattern of the altar of Yahweh that our fathers made, not for burnt offering or sacrifice, but as a witness between us and you. 29Far be it from us to rebel against Yahweh and turn away today from following Yahweh by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, apart from the altar of Yahweh our God that stands before his tabernacle.”
Israel Is Satisfied
30When Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the assembly — the heads of the clans of Israel who were with him — heard the words spoken by the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the Manassites, they were satisfied. 31Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest said to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the Manassites, “Today we know that Yahweh is among us, because you have not committed this treachery against Yahweh. Now you have delivered the Israelites from the hand of Yahweh.” 32Then Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest and the leaders returned from the Reubenites and the Gadites, from the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the Israelites, and brought back word to them. 33The Israelites were satisfied with this answer. They blessed God and no longer spoke of going to war against them to destroy the land where the Reubenites and Gadites lived. 34The Reubenites and Gadites said of the altar, “It is a witness between us that Yahweh is God.”
