Joshua 22:11

11 And the people of Israel 1heard it said, "Behold, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built the altar at the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that belongs to the people of Israel."

Joshua 22:11 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 22:11

And the children of Israel heard say
Those that dwelt in the land of Canaan, for otherwise, as before observed, the two tribes and a half on the other side Jordan were Israelites also; and this is a further proof that the altar was built on their side, or those in the land of Canaan would have known of the building of it, and have seen them at it, and not come at the knowledge of it by hearsay only, as it seems they did, it being reported to them by some who had been in those parts, and had seen the structure:

behold, the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and the half
tribe of Manasseh, have built an altar over against the land of Canaan;
which clearly shows it was on the other side Jordan, though Noldius, who places it in the land of Canaan, renders the words, "in the neighbourhood of" it F12; which will not much help him, since it might be in the neighbourhood of it, and yet not in it:

in the borders of Jordan;
on the banks of it, or in one of the meanders and windings of it, at a place where it ran out and fetched a compass in the land of Canaan:

at the passage of the children of Israel;
where they passed over when they first came into Canaan, and where those tribes also passed over at their return; supposed to be the Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing, ( John 1:28 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F12 (lwm la) "in vicinia", Noldius, No. 369. p. 80.

Joshua 22:11 In-Context

9 So the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned home, parting from the people of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, their own land of which they had possessed themselves by command of the LORD through Moses.
10 And when they came to the region of the Jordan that is in the land of Canaan, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of imposing size.
11 And the people of Israel heard it said, "Behold, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built the altar at the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that belongs to the people of Israel."
12 And when the people of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the people of Israel gathered at Shiloh to make war against them.
13 Then the people of Israel sent to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest,

Cross References 1

  • 1. See Deuteronomy 13:12-15
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.