Joshua 22:21-23:16

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²¹ Then the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel, ²² “The Lord, God of gods! The Lord, God of gods! He knows, and let Israel itself know! If it was in rebellion or in breach of faith toward the Lord, do not spare us today^{(A) 23} for building an altar to turn away from following the Lord, or if we did so to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings or offerings of well-being on it, may the Lord himself take vengeance.^{(B) 24} No! We did it from fear that in time to come your children might say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? ²⁵ For the Lord has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you Reubenites and Gadites; 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 witness between us and you and between the generations after us, that we do perform the service of the Lord in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and offerings of well-being, so that your children may never say to our children in time to come, “You have no portion in the Lord.” ’^{(C) 28} And we thought, ‘If this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we could say, “Look at this copy of the altar of the Lord that our ancestors made, not for burnt offerings nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you.” ²⁹ Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord and turn away this day from following the Lord by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice other than the altar of the Lord our God that stands before his tabernacle!’ ”^(D)

³⁰ When the priest Phinehas and the chiefs of the congregation, the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the Reubenites and the Gadites and the Manassites spoke, they were satisfied. ³¹ The priest Phinehas son of Eleazar said to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the Manassites, “Today we know that the Lord is among us, because you have not committed this treachery against the Lord; now you have saved the Israelites from the hand of the Lord.”^(E)

³² Then the priest Phinehas son of Eleazar and the chiefs returned from the Reubenites and the Gadites in the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the Israelites, and brought back word to them. ³³ The report pleased the Israelites, and the Israelites blessed God and spoke no more of making war against them, to destroy the land where the Reubenites and the Gadites were settled.^{(F) 34} The Reubenites and the Gadites called the altar Witness,^[a] “for,” they said, “it is a witness between us that the Lord is God.”^(G)

Joshua Exhorts the People

23 A long time afterward, when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies all around and Joshua was old and well advanced in years,^{(H) 2} Joshua summoned all Israel, their elders and heads, their judges and officers, and said to them, “I am now old and well advanced in years,^{(I) 3} and you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the Lord your God who has fought for you.^{(J) 4} I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. ⁵ The Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight, and you shall possess their land, as the Lord your God promised you.^{(K) 6} Therefore be very steadfast to observe and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right nor to the left,^{(L) 7} so that you may not be mixed with these nations left here among you, or make mention of the names of their gods, or swear by them, or serve them, or bow yourselves down to them,^{(M) 8} but hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day.^{(N) 9} For the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations, and as for you, no one has been able to withstand you to this day.^{(O) 10} One of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God who fights for you, as he promised you.^{(P) 11} Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God. ¹² For if you turn back and join the survivors of these nations left here among you and intermarry with them, so that you marry their women and they yours,^{(Q) 13} know assuredly that the Lord your God will not continue to drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a scourge on your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the Lord your God has given you.^(R)

¹⁴ “And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one thing has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you; all have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed.^{(S) 15} But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the bad things until he has destroyed you from this good land that the Lord your God has given you.^{(T) 16} If you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he enjoined on you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land that he has given to you.”