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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" /><title>Joshua 22 ESV</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="../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="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">ESV</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">English Standard Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/esv/nas/joshua/22.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div></a><div class="chap"><p class="heading">The Eastern Tribes Return Home</p><p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>At that time Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>and said to them, “You have kept all that Moses the servant of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> commanded you and have obeyed my voice in all that I have commanded you. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>You have not forsaken your brothers these many days, down to this day, but have been careful to keep the charge of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> your God. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>And now the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> your God has given rest to your brothers, as he promised them. Therefore turn and go to your tents in the land where your possession lies, which Moses the servant of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> gave you on the other side of the Jordan. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> commanded you, to love the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given a possession in Bashan, but to the other half Joshua had given a possession beside their brothers in the land west of the Jordan. And when Joshua sent them away to their homes and blessed them, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>he said to them, “Go back to your tents with much wealth and with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and with much clothing. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>So the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned home, parting from the people of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, their own land of which they had possessed themselves by command of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> through Moses.</p> <p class="heading">The Eastern Tribes’ Altar of Witness</p><p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>And when they came to the region of the Jordan that is in the land of Canaan, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of imposing size. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>And the people of Israel heard it said, “Behold, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built the altar at the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that belongs to the people of Israel.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>And when the people of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the people of Israel gathered at Shiloh to make war against them.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>Then the people of Israel sent to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>and with him ten chiefs, one from each of the tribal families of Israel, every one of them the head of a family among the clans of Israel. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>And they came to the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, and they said to them, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>“Thus says the whole congregation of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, ‘What is this breach of faith that you have committed against the God of Israel in turning away this day from following the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> by building yourselves an altar this day in rebellion against the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>Have we not had enough of the sin at Peor from which even yet we have not cleansed ourselves, and for which there came a plague upon the congregation of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>that you too must turn away this day from following the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>? And if you too rebel against the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> today then tomorrow he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>But now, if the land of your possession is unclean, pass over into the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>’s land where the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>’s tabernacle stands, and take for yourselves a possession among us. Only do not rebel against the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> or make us as rebels by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> our God. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>Did not Achan the son of Zerah break faith in the matter of the devoted things, and wrath fell upon all the congregation of Israel? And he did not perish alone for his iniquity.’”</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>Then the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>“The Mighty One, God, the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>! The Mighty One, God, the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>! He knows; and let Israel itself know! If it was in rebellion or in breach of faith against the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, do not spare us today <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>for building an altar to turn away from following the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>. Or if we did so to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings on it, may the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> himself take vengeance. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>No, but we did it from fear that in time to come your children might say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, the God of Israel? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span>For the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you people of Reuben and people of Gad. You have no portion in the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>.’ So your children might make our children cease to worship the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span>Therefore we said, ‘Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span>but to be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we do perform the service of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings, so your children will not say to our children in time to come, “You have no portion in the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>.”’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span>And we thought, ‘If this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we should say, “Behold, the copy of the altar of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you.”’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span>Far be it from us that we should rebel against the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> and turn away this day from following the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> our God that stands before his tabernacle!”</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-30.htm"><b>30</b></a></span>When Phinehas the priest and the chiefs of the congregation, the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh spoke, it was good in their eyes. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-31.htm"><b>31</b></a></span>And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh, “Today we know that the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> is in our midst, because you have not committed this breach of faith against the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>. Now you have delivered the people of Israel from the hand of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>.”</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-32.htm"><b>32</b></a></span>Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and the chiefs, returned from the people of Reuben and the people of Gad in the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the people of Israel, and brought back word to them. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-33.htm"><b>33</b></a></span>And the report was good in the eyes of the people of Israel. And the people of Israel blessed God and spoke no more of making war against them to destroy the land where the people of Reuben and the people of Gad were settled. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/joshua/22-34.htm"><b>34</b></a></span>The people of Reuben and the people of Gad called the altar Witness, “For,” they said, “it is a witness between us that the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> is God.”</p></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">ESV Text Edition® (2016).<br /><br />The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by <a href="http://www.crossway.org/home/esv/">Crossway Bibles</a>, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.<br /><br />The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) is adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. 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