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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://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=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;"/><title>Joshua 22 New American Bible</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></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="/bmcc/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="http://biblehub.com/catholic">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NABRE</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"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New American Bible Revised Edition</td><td width="1%" valign="top"></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><section id="ch06022" class="chapter"> <h1 class="bksect">III. <span class="ac">Return of the Transjordan Tribes and Joshua’s Farewell</span></h1> <h1 id="cn06022" class="cn"></h1> <p class="pf"><span class="hemb">The Eastern Tribes Dismissed.</span> <span id="v06022001" class="ver">1</span>At that time Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh <span id="v06022002" class="ver">2</span>and said to them:<a id="ren06022002-a" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en06022002-a">a</a> “You have observed all that Moses, the servant of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>, commanded you, and have listened to my voice in everything I commanded you. <span id="v06022003" class="ver">3</span>For many years now, even until today, you have not abandoned your allies, but have taken care to observe the commands of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>, your God. <span id="v06022004" class="ver">4</span>Now that the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>, your God, has settled your allies as he promised them, you may return to your tents, to your own land, which Moses, the servant of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>, gave you, across the Jordan.<a id="ren06022004-b" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en06022004-b">b</a> <span id="v06022005" class="ver">5</span>But be very careful to observe the commandment and the law which Moses, the servant of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>, commanded you: love the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>, your God,<a id="ren06022005-c" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en06022005-c">c</a> follow him in all his ways, keep his commandments, hold fast to him, and serve him with your whole heart and your whole self.” <span id="v06022006" class="ver">6</span>Joshua then blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.</p> <p><span id="v06022007" class="ver">7</span>(For, to half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had assigned land in Bashan;<a id="ren06022007-d" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en06022007-d">d</a> and to the other half Joshua had given a portion along with their allies west of the Jordan.) When Joshua sent them away to their tents and blessed them, <span id="v06022008" class="ver">8</span>he said, “Now that you are returning to your own tents with great wealth, with abundant livestock, with silver, gold, bronze and iron, and with a very large supply of clothing, divide these spoils of your enemies with your allies there.”<a id="ren06022008-e" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en06022008-e">e</a> <span id="v06022009" class="ver">9</span>So the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh left the other Israelites at Shiloh in the land of Canaan and returned to the land of Gilead, their own land, which they had received according to the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>’s command through Moses.<a id="ren06022009-f" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en06022009-f">f</a></p> <p class="psec"><span class="hemb">The Altar Beside the Jordan.</span> <span id="v06022010" class="ver">10</span>When the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh came to the region of the Jordan in the land of Canaan, they built an altar there at the Jordan, an impressively large altar. <span id="v06022011" class="ver">11</span>The other Israelites heard the report:<a id="ren06022011-g" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en06022011-g">g</a> “The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar” in the region of the Jordan facing the land of Canaan,<a id="rfn06022011-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn06022011-1">*</a> across from the Israelites. <span id="v06022012" class="ver">12</span>When the Israelites heard this, they assembled at Shiloh, as the entire Israelite community to take military action against them.<a id="rfn06022012-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn06022012-1">*</a></p> <p class="psec"><span class="hemb">Accusation of the Western Tribes.</span> <span id="v06022013" class="ver">13</span>The Israelites sent Phinehas, son of Eleazar the priest, to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead,<a id="ren06022013-h" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en06022013-h">h</a> <span id="v06022014" class="ver">14</span>and with him ten leaders, one from each tribe of Israel, each one the head of an ancestral house among the clans of Israel. <span id="v06022015" class="ver">15</span>When these came to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead, they said to them: <span id="v06022016" class="ver">16</span>“Thus says the whole community of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>: What act of treachery is this you have committed against the God of Israel? This day you have turned from following the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>; by building an altar of your own you have rebelled against the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> this day. <span id="v06022017" class="ver">17</span>Is the iniquity of Peor not enough, by which we made ourselves impure, even to this day, and a plague came upon the community of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>?<a id="ren06022017-i" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en06022017-i">i</a> <span id="v06022018" class="ver">18</span>If today you turn away from following the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>, and rebel against the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>, tomorrow he will be angry with the whole community of Israel! <span id="v06022019" class="ver">19</span>If you consider the land you now possess unclean,<a id="rfn06022019-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn06022019-1">*</a> cross over to the land the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> possesses, where the tabernacle of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> stands, and share that with us. But do not rebel against the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>, nor involve us in rebellion, by building an altar of your own in addition to the altar of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>, our God. <span id="v06022020" class="ver">20</span>When Achan, son of Zerah,<a id="ren06022020-j" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en06022020-j">j</a> acted treacherously by violating the ban, was it not upon the entire community of Israel that wrath fell? Though he was but a single man, he did not perish alone<a id="rfn06022020-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn06022020-1">*</a> for his guilt!”</p> <p class="psec"><span class="hemb">Reply of the Eastern Tribes.</span> <span id="v06022021" class="ver">21</span>The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh replied to the heads of the Israelite clans: <span id="v06022022" class="ver">22</span>“The <span class="tetr">Lord</span> is the God of gods. The <span class="tetr">Lord</span>, the God of gods,<a id="rfn06022022-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn06022022-1">*</a> knows and Israel shall know. If now we have acted out of rebellion or treachery against the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>, our God, do not try to save us this day, <span id="v06022023" class="ver">23</span>and if we have built an altar of our own to turn from following the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>, or to sacrifice burnt offerings, grain offerings, or communion sacrifices upon it, the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> himself will exact the penalty. <span id="v06022024" class="ver">24</span>We did it rather out of our anxious concern lest in the future your children should say to our children: ‘What have you to do with the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>, the God of Israel? <span id="v06022025" class="ver">25</span>For the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> has placed the Jordan as a boundary between you and us, you Reubenites and Gadites. You have no share in the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>.’ Thus your children would prevent ours from revering the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>. <span id="v06022026" class="ver">26</span>So we thought, ‘Let us act for ourselves by building this altar of our own’—not for burnt offerings or sacrifice, <span id="v06022027" class="ver">27</span><a id="ren06022027-k" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en06022027-k">k</a> but as witness between us and you and our descendants, that we have the right to provide for the service of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> in his presence with our burnt offerings, sacrifices, and communion sacrifices. Now in the future your children cannot say to our children, ‘You have no share in the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>.’ <span id="v06022028" class="ver">28</span>Our thought was that, if in the future they should speak thus to us or to our descendants, we could answer: ‘Look at the copy of the altar of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> which our ancestors made, not for burnt offerings or for sacrifices, but to witness<a id="rfn06022028-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn06022028-1">*</a> between you and us.’ <span id="v06022029" class="ver">29</span>Far be it from us to rebel against the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> or to turn now from following the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice in addition to the altar of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>, our God, which stands before his tabernacle.”</p> <p><span id="v06022030" class="ver">30</span>When Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the community, the heads of the Israelite clans, heard what the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the Manassites had to say, they were satisfied. <span id="v06022031" class="ver">31</span>Phinehas, son of Eleazar the priest, said to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the Manassites, “Today we know that the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> is in our midst. Since you have not rebelled against the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> by this act of treachery, you have delivered the Israelites from the hand of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>.”</p> <p><span id="v06022032" class="ver">32</span>Phinehas, son of Eleazar the priest, and the leaders returned from the Reubenites and the Gadites in the land of Gilead to the Israelites in the land of Canaan, and reported the matter to them. <span id="v06022033" class="ver">33</span>The report satisfied the Israelites, who blessed God and decided not to take military action against the Reubenites and Gadites nor to ravage the land where they lived.</p> <p><span id="v06022034" class="ver">34</span>The Reubenites and the Gadites gave the altar its name<a id="rfn06022034-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn06022034-1">*</a> as a witness among them that the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> is God.</p> </section> <br /><h1 class="cn"><a class="xref" href="intro.htm"><span class="ac">Book Introduction</span></a></h1><h1 class="cn"><a class="xref" href="footnotes.htm"><span class="ac">Footnotes</span></a></h1></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the <i>New American Bible, revised edition</i> © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. 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