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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"><title>Joshua 22 GNT</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/joshua/22.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/joshua/22-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">GNT</a> > Joshua 22</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../joshua/21.htm" title="Joshua 21">◄</a> Joshua 22 <a href="../joshua/23.htm" title="Joshua 23">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Good News Translation</div><div class="chap"><h3 class="s">Joshua Sends the Eastern Tribes Home</h3><p class="par"><span class="v6_22_1"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.1" class="v6_22_1">1</span>Then Joshua called together the people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh. </span><span class="v6_22_2"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.2" class="v6_22_2">2</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Josh.22.2!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> He said to them, “You have done everything that Moses the <span class="nd">Lord</span>'s servant ordered you to do, and you have obeyed all my commands. </span><span class="v6_22_3"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.3" class="v6_22_3">3</span>All this time you have never once deserted the other Israelites. You have been careful to obey the commands of the <span class="nd">Lord</span> your God. </span><span class="v6_22_4"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.4" class="v6_22_4">4</span>Now, as he promised, the <span class="nd">Lord</span> your God has given the other Israelites peace. So go back home to the land which you claimed for your own, the land on the east side of the Jordan, that Moses, the <span class="nd">Lord</span>'s servant, gave you. </span><span class="v6_22_5"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.5" class="v6_22_5">5</span>Make sure you obey the law that Moses commanded you: love the <span class="nd">Lord</span> your God, do his will, obey his commandments, be faithful to him, and serve him with all your heart and soul.” </span><span class="v6_22_6"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.6-Josh.22.8" class="v6_22_6">6-8</span>Joshua sent them home with his blessing and with these words: “You are going back home very rich, with a lot of livestock, silver, gold, bronze, iron, and many clothes. Share with your fellow tribesmen what you took from your enemies.” Then they left for home.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v6_22_6">Moses had given land east of the Jordan to one half of the tribe of Manasseh, but to the other half Joshua had given land west of the Jordan, along with the other tribes.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v6_22_9"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.9" class="v6_22_9">9</span>So the people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh went back home. They left the rest of the people of Israel at Shiloh in the land of Canaan and started out for their own land, the land of Gilead, which they had taken as the <span class="nd">Lord</span> had commanded them through Moses.</span></p><h3 class="s">The Altar by the Jordan</h3><p class="par"><span class="v6_22_10"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.10" class="v6_22_10">10</span>When the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh arrived at Geliloth, still on the west side<a href="#fn" id="link_Josh.22.10!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> of the Jordan, they built a large, impressive altar there by the river. </span><span class="v6_22_11"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.11" class="v6_22_11">11</span>The rest of the people of Israel were told, “Listen! The people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh have built an altar at Geliloth, on our side of the Jordan!” </span><span class="v6_22_12"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.12" class="v6_22_12">12</span>When the people of Israel heard this, the whole community came together at Shiloh to go to war against the eastern tribes.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v6_22_13"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.13" class="v6_22_13">13</span>Then the people of Israel sent Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, to the people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh in the land of Gilead. </span><span class="v6_22_14"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.14" class="v6_22_14">14</span>Ten leading men went with Phinehas, one from each of the western tribes and each one the head of a family among the clans. </span><span class="v6_22_15"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.15" class="v6_22_15">15</span>They came to the land of Gilead, to the people of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh, </span><span class="v6_22_16"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.16" class="v6_22_16">16</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Josh.22.16!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> and speaking for the whole community of the <span class="nd">Lord</span>, they said to them, “Why have you done this evil thing against the God of Israel? You have rebelled against the <span class="nd">Lord</span> by building this altar for yourselves! You are no longer following him! </span><span class="v6_22_17"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.17" class="v6_22_17">17</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Josh.22.17!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> Remember our sin at Peor, when the <span class="nd">Lord</span> punished his own people with an epidemic? We are still suffering because of that. Wasn't that sin enough? </span><span class="v6_22_18"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.18" class="v6_22_18">18</span>Are you going to refuse to follow him now? If you rebel against the <span class="nd">Lord</span> today, he will be angry with everyone in Israel tomorrow. </span><span class="v6_22_19"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.19" class="v6_22_19">19</span>Now then, if your land is not fit to worship in, come over into the <span class="nd">Lord</span>'s land, where his Tent is. Claim some land among us. But don't rebel against the <span class="nd">Lord</span> or make rebels out of us by building an altar in addition to the altar of the <span class="nd">Lord</span> our God. </span><span class="v6_22_20"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.20" class="v6_22_20">20</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Josh.22.20!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> 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.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v6_22_21"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.21" class="v6_22_21">21</span>The people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh answered the heads of the families of the western tribes: </span><span class="v6_22_22"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.22" class="v6_22_22">22</span>“The Mighty One is God! He is the <span class="nd">Lord</span>! The Mighty One is God! He is the <span class="nd">Lord</span>! He knows why we did this, and we want you to know too! If we rebelled and did not keep faith with the <span class="nd">Lord</span>, do not let us live any longer! </span><span class="v6_22_23"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.23" class="v6_22_23">23</span>If we disobeyed the <span class="nd">Lord</span> and built our own altar to burn sacrifices on or to use for grain offerings or fellowship offerings, let the <span class="nd">Lord</span> himself punish us. </span><span class="v6_22_24"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.24" class="v6_22_24">24</span>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 <span class="nd">Lord</span>, the God of Israel? </span><span class="v6_22_25"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.25" class="v6_22_25">25</span>He made the Jordan a boundary between us and you people of Reuben and Gad. You have nothing to do with the <span class="nd">Lord</span>.’ Then your descendants might make our descendants stop worshiping the <span class="nd">Lord</span>. </span><span class="v6_22_26"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.26" class="v6_22_26">26</span>So we built an altar, not to burn sacrifices or make offerings, </span><span class="v6_22_27"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.27" class="v6_22_27">27</span>but instead, as a sign for our people and yours, and for the generations after us, that we do indeed worship the <span class="nd">Lord</span> 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 <span class="nd">Lord</span>. </span><span class="v6_22_28"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.28" class="v6_22_28">28</span>It was our idea that, if this should ever happen, our descendants could say, ‘Look! Our ancestors made an altar just like the <span class="nd">Lord</span>'s altar. It was not for burning offerings or for sacrifice, but as a sign for our people and yours.’ </span><span class="v6_22_29"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.29" class="v6_22_29">29</span>We would certainly not rebel against the <span class="nd">Lord</span> or stop following him now by building an altar to burn offerings on or for grain offerings or sacrifices. We would not build any other altar than the altar of the <span class="nd">Lord</span> our God that stands in front of the Tent of his presence.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v6_22_30"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.30" class="v6_22_30">30</span>Phinehas the priest and the ten leading men of the community who were with him, the heads of families of the western tribes, heard what the people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh had to say, and they were satisfied. </span><span class="v6_22_31"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.31" class="v6_22_31">31</span>Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, said to them, “Now we know that the <span class="nd">Lord</span> is with us. You have not rebelled against him, and so you have saved the people of Israel from the <span class="nd">Lord</span>'s punishment.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v6_22_32"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.32" class="v6_22_32">32</span>Then Phinehas and the leaders left the people of Reuben and Gad in the land of Gilead and went back to Canaan, to the people of Israel, and reported to them. </span><span class="v6_22_33"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.33" class="v6_22_33">33</span>The Israelites were satisfied and praised God. They no longer talked about going to war to devastate the land where the people of Reuben and Gad had settled.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v6_22_34"><span class="reftext" id="Josh.22.34" class="v6_22_34">34</span>The people of Reuben and Gad said, “This altar is a witness to all of us that the <span class="nd">Lord</span> is God.” And so they named it “Witness.”</span></p><a name="fn"></a><br /><br /><br /><b>Footnotes:<br /><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">22.10: </char><char style="fq" closed="false">still on the west side; </char><char style="ft" closed="false">or </char><char style="fq" closed="false">on the east side.</char></note></div></div><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div align="center"><p><span style="font-size:11pt;">Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt;">© 1992 American Bible Society. 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