Joshua 22:12

12 When the children of Yisra'el heard of it, the whole congregation of the children of Yisra'el gathered themselves together at Shiloh, to go up against them to war.

Joshua 22:12 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 22:12

And when the children of Israel heard [of it]
Of the building the altar in the above place, namely, the nine tribes and a half settled in the land of Canaan:

the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered themselves
together at Shiloh;
where the tabernacle and altar of the Lord were, whose cause they undertook to avenge, being injured as they imagined by the altar the other tribes had built, and where they could consult the Lord by Urim and Thummim, if needful; hither they repaired from the several places around, where their tribes were settled; not the whole body of the people, but their heads and representatives:

to go up to war against them;
to consult about it, and to prepare for it, which they were obliged to do by the law of God, as in the case of a city, so of a tribe drawn aside to idolatry; and which they imagined was the case of these tribes, or at least what they had done had a tendency to apostasy from the true worship of God, which they were zealous to defend at the hazard of their lives, and though it should issue in an extirpation of one or more of their tribes; see ( Deuteronomy 13:12-16 ) .

Joshua 22:12 In-Context

10 When they came to the region about the Yarden, that is in the land of Kana`an, the children of Re'uven and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Menashsheh built there an altar by the Yarden, a great altar to look on.

11 The children of Yisra'el heard say, Behold, the children of Re'uven and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Menashsheh have built an altar in the forefront of the land of Kana`an, in the region about the Yarden, on the side that pertains to the children of Yisra'el.

12 When the children of Yisra'el heard of it, the whole congregation of the children of Yisra'el gathered themselves together at Shiloh, to go up against them to war.

13 The children of Yisra'el sent to the children of Re'uven, and to the children of Gad, and to the half-tribe of Menashsheh, into the land of Gil`ad, Pinechas the son of El`azar the Kohen,

14 and with him ten princes, one prince of a fathers' house for each of the tribes of Yisra'el; and they were everyone of them head of their fathers' houses among the thousands of Yisra'el.