Joshua 22:23

23 for building for ourselves an altar to turn away from Yahweh, or if [it was] to offer burnt offerings, grain offerings, or fellowship offerings on it, may Yahweh himself take vengeance.

Joshua 22:23 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 22:23

That we have built us an altar, to turn from following the
Lord
That is, we desire, as we deserve, to be cut to pieces, and not saved, if it should appear to be our view, in building this altar, to revolt from the pure worship of God:

or if to offer thereon burnt offering, or meat offering, or if to
offer peace offerings;
even to the Lord himself: they declare that as they had no design to apostatize from God, and worship idols, so it was not their intention to offer any kind of sacrifice on the altar they had built, even to the Lord himself; and they take notice of every kind of offering, to remove every charge of this sort from them, and to purge themselves of every imputation of this nature: then

let the Lord himself require [it];
seek it out, who is the omniscient God, and revenge it, who is the Lord God Almighty, just and true.

Joshua 22:23 In-Context

21 And the descendants of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh spoke with the heads of the clans of Israel,
22 "Yahweh, God of gods! Yahweh, God of gods knows. And let Israel itself know, if [it was] in rebellion or treachery against Yahweh, do not spare us this day
23 for building for ourselves an altar to turn away from Yahweh, or if [it was] to offer burnt offerings, grain offerings, or fellowship offerings on it, may Yahweh himself take vengeance.
24 But in fact, we have done this because of anxiety, because of a reason, saying, 'In the future your children may say to our children, '{What is the relationship between you and Yahweh the God of Israel}?
25 Yahweh has made the Jordan a border between us and you, the descendants of Reuben and Gad; you have no portion in Yahweh.' So your children may put an end to our children worshiping Yahweh.

Footnotes 2

Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.