Josh 22
1
At the same time Josue called the Rubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of
Manasses,
2
And said to them: You have done all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you:
you have also obeyed me in all things,
3
Neither have you left your brethren this long time, until this present day, keeping
the commandment of the Lord your God.
4
Therefore as the Lord your God hath given your brethren rest and peace, as he promised:
return, and go to your dwellings, and to the land of your possession, which Moses
the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan:
5
Yet so that you observe attentively, and in work fulfil the commandment and the law
which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you: that you love the Lord your God,
and walk in all his ways, and keep all his commandments, and cleave to him, and serve
him with all your heart, and with all your soul.
6
And Josue blessed them, and sent them away, and they returned to their dwellings.
7
Now to half the tribe of Manasses, Moses had given a possession in Basan: and therefore
to the half that remained, Josue gave a lot among the rest of their brethren beyond
the Jordan to the west. And when he sent them away to their dwellings and had blessed
them,
8
He said to them : With much substance and riches, you return to your settlements,
with silver and gold, brass and iron, and variety of raiment: divide the prey of your
enemies with your brethren.
9
So the children of Ruben, and the children of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasses
returned, and parted from the children of Israel in Silo, which is in Chanaan, to
go into Galaad the land of their possession, which they had obtained according to
the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses.
10
And when they were come to the banks of the Jordan, in the land of Chanaan, they built
an altar immensely great near the Jordan.
11
And when the children of Israel had heard of it, and certain messengers had brought
them an account that the children of Ruben, and of Cad, and the half tribe of Manasses
had built an altar in the land of Chanaan, upon the banks of the Jordan, over against
the children of Israel:
12
They all assembled in Silo, to go up and fight against them.
13
And in the mean time they sent to them into the land of Galaad, Phinees the son of
Eleazar the priest,
14
And ten princes with him, one of every tribe.
15
Who came to the children of Ruben, and of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasses, into
the land of Galaad, and said to them:
16
Thus saith all the people of the Lord: What meaneth this transgression? Why have you
forsaken the Lord the God of Israel, building a sacrilegious altar, and revolting
from the worship of him?
17
Is it a small thing to you that you sinned with Beelphegor, and the stain of that
crime remaineth in us to this day? and many of the people perished.
18
And you have forsaken the Lord to day, and to morrow his wrath will rage against all
Israel.
19
But if you think the land of your possession to be unclean, pass over to the land
wherein is the tabernacle of the Lord, and dwell among us: only depart not from the
Lord, and from our society, by building an altar beside the altar of the Lord our
God.
20
Did not Achan the son of Zare transgress the commandment of the Lord, and his wrath
lay upon all the people of Israel? And he was but one man, and would to God he alone
had perished in his wickedness.
21
And the children of Ruben, and of Gad, and of the half tribe of Manasses answered
the princes of the embassage of Israel:
22
The Lord the most mighty God, the Lord the most mighty God, he knoweth, and Israel
also shall understand: If with the design of transgression we have set up this altar,
let him not save us, but punish us immediately:
23
And if we did it with that mind, that we might lay upon it holocausts, and sacrifice,
and victims of peace offerings, let him require and judge:
24
And not rather with this thought and design, that we should say: To morrow your children
will say to our children: What have you to do with the Lord the God of Israel?
25
The Lord hath put the river Jordan for a border between us and you, O ye children
of Ruben, and ye children of Gad: and therefore you have no part in the Lord. And
by this occasion you children shall turn away our children from the fear of the Lord.
We therefore thought, it best,
26
And said: Let us build us an altar, not for holocausts, nor to offer victims,
27
But for a testimony between us and you, and our posterity and yours, that we may serve
the Lord, and that we may have a right to offer both holocausts, and victims and sacrifices
of peace offerings: and that your children to morrow may not say to our children:
You have no part in the Lord.
28
And if they will say so, they shall answer them: Behold the altar of the Lord, which
our fathers made, not for holocausts, nor for sacrifice, but for a testimony between
us and you.
29
God keep us from any such wickedness that we should revolt from the Lord, and leave
off following his steps, by building an altar to offer holocausts, and sacrifices,
and victims, beside the altar of the Lord our God, which is erected before his tabernacle.
30
And when Phinees the priest, and the princes of the embassage, who were with him,
had heard this, they were satisfied: and they admitted most willingly the words of
the children of Ruben, and Gad, and of the half tribe of Manasses.
31
And Phinees the priest the son of Eleazar said to them: Now we know that the Lord
is with us, because you are not guilty of this revolt, and you have delivered the
children of Israel from the hand of the Lord.
32
And he returned with the princes from the children of Ruben and Gad, out of the land
of Galaad, into the land of Chanaan, to the children of Israel, and brought them word
again.
33
And the saying pleased all that heard it. And the children of Israel praised God,
and they no longer said that they would go up against them, and fight, and destroy
the land of their possession.
34
And the children of Ruben, and the children of Cad called the altar which they had
built, Our testimony, that the Lord is God.