Joshua 22:16-26

16 and speaking for the whole community of the Lord, they said to them, "Why have you done this evil thing against the God of Israel? You have rebelled against the Lord by building this altar for yourselves! You are no longer following him! ¹

17 Remember our sin at Peor, when the Lord punished his own people with an epidemic? We are still suffering because of that. Wasn't that sin enough? ²

18 Are you going to refuse to follow him now? If you rebel against the Lord today, he will be angry with everyone in Israel tomorrow.

19 Now then, if your land is not fit to worship in, come over into the Lord's land, where his Tent is. Claim some land among us. But don't rebel against the Lord or make rebels out of us by building an altar in addition to the altar of the Lord our God.

20 Remember how Achan son of Zerah refused to obey the command about the things condemned to destruction; the whole community of Israel was punished for that. Achan was not the only one who died because of his sin." ³

21 The people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh answered the heads of the families of the western tribes:

22 "The Mighty One is God! He is the Lord! The Mighty One is God! He is the Lord! He knows why we did this, and we want you to know too! If we rebelled and did not keep faith with the Lord, do not let us live any longer!

23 If we disobeyed the Lord and built our own altar to burn sacrifices on or to use for grain offerings or fellowship offerings, let the Lord himself punish us.

24 No! We did it because we were afraid that in the future your descendants would say to ours, "What do you have to do with the Lord, the God of Israel?

25 He made the Jordan a boundary between us and you people of Reuben and Gad. You have nothing to do with the Lord.' Then your descendants might make our descendants stop worshiping the Lord.

26 So we built an altar, not to burn sacrifices or make offerings,

Joshua 22:16-26 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOSHUA 22

The war with the Canaanites being ended, Joshua called to him the two tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, who came over Jordan with him to assist in it, and commended them for their obedience to Moses and to himself, and to God by them; and then dismissed them, with some instructions to keep the ways and worship of God, and with his blessing upon them, Jos 22:1-8; upon which they returned to their country, and when they came to the borders of it set up an altar by Jordan, Jos 22:9,10; which, when the children of Israel heard of, it gave them great offence, they fearing they were going to make a revolt from the pure worship of God, and therefore sent a deputation of princes to them, with the son of the high priest, to inquire into the matter, and expostulate with them about it, who did, Jos 22:11-20; and who received from them a very satisfactory answer, Jos 22:21-31; with which they returned and reported to the children of Israel, and which gave them pleasure, Jos 22:32-34.

Cross References

• 1. 22.16Deuteronomy 12.13, 14.
• 2. 22.17Numbers 25.1-9.
• 3. 22.20Joshua 7.1-26.