The Eastern Tribes' Altar of Witness

¹⁰ 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.

²⁶ And Joshua ^(A)wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And ^(B)he took a large stone and set it up there ^(C)under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. ²⁷ And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, ^(D)this stone shall be a witness against us, for ^(E)it has heard all the words of the Lord that he spoke to us. Therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God.”

²⁵ For the Lord has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you people of Reuben and people of Gad. You have no portion in the Lord.’ So your children might make our children cease to worship the Lord. ²⁶ Therefore we said, ‘Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice, ²⁷ but to be ^(A)a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we ^(B)do perform the service of the Lord 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 Lord.”’ ²⁸ 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 Lord, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifice, but to be ^(C)a witness between us and you.”’

⁵ And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, ⁶ that this may be a sign among you. ^(A)When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ ⁷ then you shall tell them that ^(B)the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel ^(C)a memorial forever.”

⁸ And the people of Israel did just as Joshua commanded and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, just as the Lord told Joshua. And they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged and laid them down^[a] there. ⁹ And Joshua set up^[b] twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, ^(D)in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood; and they are there to this day.

⁴⁶ And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. ⁴⁷ Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha,^[a] but Jacob called it Galeed.^{[b] 48} Laban said, ^(A)“This heap is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore he named it Galeed, ^49 (B)and Mizpah,^[c] for he said, “The Lord watch between you and me, when we are out of one another's sight. ⁵⁰ If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, ^(C)God is witness between you and me.”

⁵¹ Then Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap and the pillar, which I have set between you and me. ^52 (D)This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm.