Dual Panel1AT that time Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh,
2and said to them, “You have observed all the commands of Moses the servant of the LORD, and you have obeyed me in every command I laid on you.
3All this time you have not deserted your kinsmen; right up to the present day you have faithfully observed the charge laid on you by the LORD your God.
4The LORD your God has now given your kinsmen security as he promised them. Now you may return to your homes, to your own land which Moses the servant of the LORD assigned to you east of the Jordan.
5But be very careful to keep the commands and the law which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God; to conform to all his ways; to observe his commandments; to hold fast to him; to serve him with your whole heart and soul.”
6Joshua blessed them and dismissed them, and they went to their homes.
7When he sent them away with his blessing, he said: “Go to your homes richly laden, with great herds, with silver and gold, copper and iron, and with large stores of clothing. See that you share with your kinsmen the spoil you have taken from your enemies.” To one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given territory in Bashan; to the other half Joshua gave territory west of the Jordan among their kinsmen.
8(22:7)
9So at Shiloh in Canaan the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh parted from the rest of the Israelites to go into Gilead, the land which belonged to them according to the decree of the LORD given through Moses.
10When these tribes came to Geliloth by the Jordan, they built there by the river a great altar for all to see.
11The Israelites heard that the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh had built the altar facing the land of Canaan, at Geliloth by the Jordan opposite the Israelite side,
12and, at the news, the whole Israelite community assembled at Shiloh to march against them.
13At the same time the Israelites sent Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest into the land of Gilead, to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh;
14he was accompanied by ten leading men, one from each of the tribes of Israel, all of them heads of households among the clans of Israel.
15They came to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead, and remonstrated with them:
16“We speak for the whole community of the LORD,” they declared. “What is this treachery you have committed against the God of Israel? Are you ceasing to follow the LORD, and are you building your own altar this day in defiance of the LORD?
17Remember our offence at Peor, for which a plague struck the community of the LORD; to this day we have not been purified from it. Was that offence so slight
18that you dare cease to follow the LORD today? If today you defy the LORD, tomorrow he will be angry with the whole community of Israel.
19If the land you have taken is unclean, then cross over to the LORD's own land, where the Tabernacle of the LORD now rests, and take a share of it with us. But do not defy the LORD and involve us in your defiance by building an altar of your own besides the altar of the LORD our God.
20Remember the treachery of Achan son of Zerah, who defied the ban, and the whole community of Israel suffered for it; he was not the only one who paid with his life for that sin.”
21In reply the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh said to the heads of the clans of Israel:
22“The LORD the God of gods, the LORD the God of gods, he knows, and Israel must know: if this had been an act of defiance or treachery against the LORD, you could not save us today.
23If we had built ourselves an altar and meant to forsake the LORD, or had offered whole-offerings and grain-offerings on it, or had presented shared-offerings, the LORD himself would exact punishment.
24The truth is that we have done this for fear that the day may come when your children will say to ours, ‘What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?
25The LORD put the Jordan as a boundary between us and you. You have no share in the LORD, you Reubenites and Gadites.’ So your children would prevent ours from worshipping the LORD.
26“We resolved to build an altar, not for whole-offerings and sacrifices,
27but as a witness between us and you, and between the generations to come. Thus we shall be able to perform service before the LORD, as we do now, with our whole-offerings, our sacrifices, and our shared-offerings; and your children will never be able to say to our children in time to come, ‘You have no share in the LORD.’
28And we thought, if ever they do say this to us and to our descendants, we will point to this copy of the altar of the LORD which we have made, not for whole-offerings and not for sacrifices, but as a witness between us and you.
29God forbid that we should defy the LORD and forsake him now by building another altar for whole-offerings, grain-offerings, and sacrifices, in addition to the altar of the LORD our God which stands in front of his tabernacle.”
30When Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the community, the heads of the Israelite clans, who were with him, heard what the Reubenites, Gadites, and Manassites had to say, they were satisfied.
31Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest said to the Reubenites, Gadites, and Manassites, “Now we know that the LORD is in our midst; you have not acted treacherously against the LORD, but have preserved all Israel from punishment at his hand.”
32Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest and the leaders left the Reubenites and the Gadites in Gilead and made their report to the Israelites in Canaan.
33The Israelites were satisfied, and they blessed God and thought no more of attacking and ravaging the land where Reuben and Gad had settled.
34The Reubenites and Gadites declared, “The altar is a witness between us that the LORD is God,” and they named it “Witness”.