Joshua 22:21-23:16

English Standard Version

²¹ 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, ²² “The Mighty One, ^(A)God, the Lord! The Mighty One, God, the Lord! ^(B)He knows; and let Israel itself know! If it was in rebellion or in breach of faith against the Lord, do not spare us today 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 peace offerings on it, may the Lord himself ^(C)take vengeance. ²⁴ No, but we did it from fear that ^(D)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 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 ^(E)a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we ^(F)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 ^(G)a witness between us and you.”’ ²⁹ Far be it from us that we should ^(H)rebel against the Lord and turn away this day from following the Lord ^(I)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!”

³⁰ When ^(J)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, ^(K)it was good in their eyes. ³¹ 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 ^(L)the Lord is in our midst, because you have not committed this breach of faith against the Lord. Now you have delivered the people of Israel from the hand of the Lord.”

³² Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and the chiefs, returned from the people of Reuben and the people of Gad ^(M)in the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the people of Israel, and brought back word to them. ³³ And the report ^(N)was good in the eyes of the people of Israel. And the people of Israel ^(O)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. ³⁴ The people of Reuben and the people of Gad called the altar Witness, “For,” they said, ^(P)“it is a witness between us that the Lord is God.”

Joshua's Charge to Israel's Leaders

23 A long time afterward, when the Lord had given ^(Q)rest to Israel from all their surrounding enemies, and Joshua ^(R)was old and well advanced in years, ² Joshua ^(S)summoned all Israel, its elders and heads, its judges and officers, and said to them, “I am now old and well advanced in years. ³ And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake, ^(T)for it is the Lord your God who has fought for you. ⁴ Behold, ^(U)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 ^(V)will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight. And you shall possess their land, ^(W)just as the Lord your God promised you. ⁶ Therefore, ^(X)be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, ^(Y)turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, ^7 (Z)that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you ^(AA)or make mention of the names of their gods ^(AB)or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, ^8 (AC)but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day. ^9 (AD)For the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations. And as for you, ^(AE)no man has been able to stand before you to this day. ^10 (AF)One man of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God ^(AG)who fights for you, just as he promised you. ^11 (AH)Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God. ¹² For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you ^(AI)and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, ¹³ know for certain that ^(AJ)the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, ^(AK)but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you.

¹⁴ “And now ^(AL)I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that ^(AM)not one word has failed of all the good things^[a] that the Lord your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed. 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 ^(AN)all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord your God has given you, ¹⁶ if you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded 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 off the good land that he has given to you.”