Joshua 22:25

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.

Joshua 22:25 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 22:25

For the Lord hath made Jordan a border between us and you,
&c.] And by it separated them from them, as if they were a distinct people; not that this was really the case, but so they feared it would be represented in time to come; for though Jordan was the border of the land of Canaan, strictly so called, eastward, ( Numbers 34:12 ) ; yet it did not exclude the land of the two tribes and a half from being part of the land of promise; for the Amorites, which before inhabited it, and were driven out of it, were Canaanites, and were one part of the people, whose land the Lord promised to Abraham, ( Genesis 15:18-21 ) ;

ye children of Reuben, and children of Gad, have no part in the Lord;
in his covenant and promises, in his worship, word, and ordinances; these are things you have nothing to do with, being separated from us his peculiar people; or "have no part in the Word of the Lord", as the Targum, the promised Messiah, being without, or separated from him, as the Gentiles are said to be, ( Ephesians 2:12 ) ;

so shall your children make our children cease from fearing the Lord;
from worshipping the Lord, the fear of the Lord being often put for the whole worship of God, external and internal, ( Ecclesiastes 12:13 ) ; by behaving in the above manner towards them, they would be the cause and occasion of their apostasy from the true God, and it would be in effect to say to them, "go, serve other gods", ( 1 Samuel 26:19 ) .

Joshua 22:25 In-Context

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,
27 but instead, as a sign for our people and yours, and for the generations after us, that we do indeed worship the Lord before his sacred Tent with our offerings to be burned and with sacrifices and fellowship offerings. This was to keep your descendants from saying that ours have nothing to do with the Lord.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.