²⁷ And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be ^(A)a witness to us, for ^(B)it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke to us. It shall therefore be a witness to you, lest you deny your God.”

⁴⁰ But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, ^(A)the stones would immediately cry out.”

³⁴ The children of Reuben and the children of ^[a]Gad called the altar, Witness, “For it is a witness between us that the Lord is God.”

^33 (A)But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.

²⁷ but that it may be ^(A)a ^[a]witness between you and us and our generations after us, that we may ^(B)perform the service of the Lord before Him with our burnt offerings, with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings; that your descendants may not say to our descendants in time to come, “You have no part in the Lord.” ’ ²⁸ Therefore we said that it will be, when they say this to us or to our generations in time to come, that we may say, ‘Here is the replica of the altar of the Lord which our fathers made, though not for burnt offerings nor for sacrifices; but it is a witness between you and us.’