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22 It was time for Joshua to discharge the tribes whose land was east of the Jordan, and they came before him—the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
Joshua: 2 You have done all that Moses the servant of the Eternal commanded you to do, and you have done all that I asked of you. 3 You did not abandon your people through all of the many days we struggled, down to this very day, and you have always been faithful to the charge that was laid upon you by the Eternal One, your True God.
4 The Eternal One, your True God, has given rest now to all your people as He promised them. So now it is time for you to return to your tents and your possessions in the land on the far banks of the Jordan that Moses, the Eternal’s servant, granted you. 5 Be very careful always to follow the commandments and teachings of Moses, the Eternal’s servant: love the Eternal your God; walk in His pathways, keep His commandments, be faithful to Him, and serve Him with diligence and devotion.
6 He gave them his blessing and sent them home to their tents, 7 but since Moses had given to the half-tribe of Manasseh an inheritance in Bashan, east of the Jordan, and to the other half Joshua had given an inheritance alongside the other people west of the Jordan, he blessed them and sent them away.
Joshua: 8 You will return now to your tents with great wealth, with herds of livestock and cattle, with silver and gold, bronze and iron, and piles of fine clothing. Be sure to divide these spoils of war among your relatives.
9 So the people of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh departed from the other Israelites at Shiloh, in the land of Canaan, and returned to their homes and families in Gilead, which Moses had given them by order of the Eternal.
10 When the people of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh came to the western bank of the Jordan, although still in the land of Canaan, they built an immense altar there by the river. 11 When the other people of Israel heard that the people of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh had built a huge altar on the frontier of Canaan on the side of the Jordan given to them, they feared the altar was going to be used to worship the gods of the land of Canaan. 12 So the Israelites all gathered at Shiloh and talked of going to war against the tribes across the Jordan. 13-14 But first they appointed the priest Phinehas, son of Eleazar, to travel with 10 chiefs, one from each Israelite tribe and each clan who were settled in the land of Canaan, to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead.
15 When they came to the people of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead, Phinehas and the chiefs delivered the message.
Phinehas: 16 We bring a message from all the Eternal’s people in Canaan. How dare you! How can you commit this treachery against the True God of Israel by turning away from Him and building this altar to be used against Him? 17 Didn’t we learn our lessons about the sin of sacrificing to false gods in Peor? We have not yet cleansed ourselves of the stain or gotten over the plague that the Eternal sent among us because of it; 18 and now, already, you’re turning away from Him? Listen to me: If you rebel against Him today, He will punish the whole assembly of Israel tomorrow!
19 If the problem is that there is no holy site in your country, then come over to us in the country where the Eternal’s congregation tent is standing. Take an inheritance among us. Only don’t rebel against Him or rebel against us by building an altar that isn’t going to be used to sacrifice to the Eternal One, our True God. 20 Don’t you remember what happened when Achan, the son of Zerah, was unfaithful by keeping some of the spoil at Jericho and trying to deceive God and Joshua? His wrath fell upon the whole people, and he was not the only one who perished because of his sin!
21 Then the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered Phinehas and the heads of the clans of Israel:
Leaders of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh: 22 The Eternal One, God of gods! The Eternal One, God of gods! He knows the truth, and Israel should know, too. If it was out of rebellion against Him or faithlessness against Him, then devote us to destruction today! 23 If we have built this altar to renounce our allegiance to Him, or to present burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings on it, then may the Eternal Himself take vengeance on us!
24 No, we were afraid that someday, years from now, your sons and daughters might say to our sons and daughters, “Who are you? What connection do you have with the Eternal God of Israel? 25 Didn’t He set the river Jordan between us, the Reubenites and the Gadites, as a boundary? You have no share in the Eternal One.” So your sons and daughters might prevent ours from worshiping Him. 26-28 And we thought, should that day ever come, we could point to this altar and say, “Look, this constructed altar dedicated to Him was not set up to sacrifice on, but to be a witness here at the border between us that we serve the same God so that your children will not accuse our children of following other gods.”
29 It was the farthest thing from our minds to build an altar so that we could turn away from the Eternal God or to present burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings on anything but the altar that stands in front of His congregation tent, the place of revelation.
30 When the priest Phinehas, and the leaders of the congregation and the heads of the clans of Israel who accompanied him, heard the reply from the people of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, they were satisfied.
Phinehas (to the people of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh): 31 We know now that the Eternal is among us. Because you have not committed some treachery against Him, you have saved all of the Israelites from punishment at His hands.
32 So Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, and the leaders left the people of Reuben and Gad in the land of Gilead and returned to the assembly at Shiloh to tell them what they had heard. 33 Their report pleased the Israelites, and they stopped talking about going to war or destroying the people of Reuben and Gad. 34 The people of Reuben and Gad called the altar “Witness.”
Tribes of Reuben and Gad: We have built this altar as a witness between us that the Eternal is the True God.
In this final section of this book (chapters 23–24), Joshua’s speeches recap the story of their exodus from Egypt, remind the Israelites (and us) that God has been faithful in keeping all His promises, and call the people of Israel to accountability and faithfulness. It is this last charge that they will fail to keep—and that failure will cause the people of Israel so much trouble in the generations to come.
23 After Israel had taken possession of their inheritances and the Eternal had given them peace for many years and when Joshua was very old, 2 he summoned all of Israel, their judges and officers and leaders.
Joshua: I am an old man. 3 You have seen everything the Eternal One, your True God, did to these nations for you; the Eternal One, your True God, fought for you. 4 I have allotted as your tribes’ inheritances the territories of those people who still remain, as well as all the nations I captured from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean. 5 The Eternal your God will push them out of their lands and out of your sight and you will live in their lands, just as He promised you. 6 So be firm and unswerving, observing all that is written in the law of Moses without deviation. 7 That will ensure that you don’t start to blend in with the other nations around you or call upon their gods or worship them or serve them. 8 Just hold tightly to the Eternal One, your True God, as you always have, 9 for He has driven out great and powerful nations before you like leaves in the wind, and you know that no one has ever been able to stand against you. 10 One of you can pursue a thousand because it is He who fights for you, just as He promised.
11 So always be careful to love the Eternal One, your God. 12 If you turn away from Him and toward those left of the foreign nations among you—if your women marry them and their women marry you— 13 you can be sure that the Eternal will turn from you. He won’t remove the nations around you, but instead He will let them be a snare for you to be caught in, a wound in your sides, and thorns in your eyes until you perish from this good land that He has given you.
14 The time has come for me to die and return to the earth. But I want to leave you with these thoughts: Think back and you will know without a doubt that not one single good thing that the Eternal One, your God, promised you has been left undone. Not a single one.
15 But in the same way the Eternal One, your True God, has fulfilled all these blessings, you can be sure that if you turn away from Him, He will fulfill the curses until the Eternal has obliterated you from this good land He gave you. 16 If you break the commandments that He has laid upon you and turn from Him to serve and worship other gods, then His anger will flare white-hot against you, and you will quickly be wiped from the face of this good land He has given you.
The Book of Deuteronomy, which precedes Joshua, records Moses giving a similar farewell speech prior to his death. Moses reminded the people of Israel where they had come from and foretold many of the things that later came to pass when they entered into the promised land of Canaan. Joshua’s speech does the same thing. He reminds the Israelites of their story, and he warns the people of Israel that if they turn from their faith in God they should expect curses instead of the blessings they have experienced.
24 So Joshua summoned all of the tribes of Israel together at Shechem, all the leaders, judges, officers, and elders, and they stood in the presence of the True God.
Joshua: 2 The Eternal One, the True God of Israel has told me to give you this message: “Many years ago, your ancestors, Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River where they served other gods. 3 But I took your father Abraham and led him over the river and into the land of Canaan, and I made his descendants numerous. I gave him Isaac, 4 and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Esau the highlands of Seir for a possession, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. 5 When the time came for them to be delivered, I sent Moses and Aaron, I struck Egypt with plagues, and I brought you out of Egypt.
6 When I brought you out of Egypt, your ancestors were closely pursued by soldiers in their chariots of war to the Red Sea itself. 7 When they cried out to the Eternal, He put darkness between you and the Egyptians and brought the sea to cover and drown them, every one, in the sea. Your own eyes saw this. You lived in the desert for a long time, wandering in the wilderness. 8 Finally I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the east side of the Jordan. They fought against you; but I handed them over to you, and you took possession of their land. I destroyed them before you.
9 When Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab, decided to attack Israel, he called on Balaam, the son of Beor, to curse you, 10 but I would not listen to Balaam. All he could do was bless you. I delivered you out of his clutches.
11 When you crossed over the Jordan into the land of Canaan and came to Jericho, the leaders[a] of Jericho fought against you. So did the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. But I gave them all into your power.
12 I sent hornets ahead of you to run off the two kings of the Amorites; it was not done by your bow or sword. 13 I delivered to you fields you had not worked and towns you had not built, yet today you live in them. You eat the fruit of olive trees and of grape vineyards you did not even have to plant.”
14 So remember: fear the Eternal and serve Him sincerely and faithfully. Put away from you any gods your ancestors served across the Euphrates River or in Egypt, and serve only Him. 15 If you decide that you’re not willing to serve Him, then today is the day for you to choose whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors bowed to in the land beyond the great River, or the gods of the Amorites whose country you possess. But as for me and my family, we will serve the Eternal.
This people that complained in the wilderness now acknowledges that God alone gave them this land, and they pledge their faithfulness to Him.
People of Israel (responding): 16 Nothing could be further from our minds than abandoning the Eternal to serve other gods. 17 We know that the Eternal One our God rescued us and our ancestors from slavery in the land of Egypt. We remember that He performed all those great signs in front of us. He protected us from the people we passed as we traveled. 18 And we know that He removed the Amorites and all the peoples who lived in Canaan. We, too, will serve the Eternal One, for He is our True God.
Joshua (warning them): 19 If you think you will be able to serve the Eternal, you are wrong. He is a holy God and a jealous God; He will not tolerate your shortcomings and your sins. 20 If you desert Him and worship these foreign gods, He will fall upon you and totally consume you, even though He has done all this great good for you.
People of Israel: 21 All the same, we choose to serve the Eternal.
Joshua: 22 All right, then. You are witnesses—against yourselves, if it comes to that—that you have made this choice to serve the Eternal.
Israel: We are witnesses to it.
Joshua (repeating): 23 Then you must put all other gods away from you and turn your hearts to the Eternal God of Israel.
Israel: 24 We will serve the Eternal One, our God, and we will obey His voice.
25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day at Shechem and gave them statutes and ordinances to obey. 26 Joshua wrote the words in the scroll of the law, and he had a large stone set up underneath the oak tree near the Eternal’s holy place.
Joshua (to all the people): 27 This stone will also be a witness to your vow. It has heard all the words the Eternal spoke to us, so it will be a witness if you turn your backs on your True God.
28 So he sent the people away, back to the lands He had given them.
29 After that, Joshua, the son of Nun, the Eternal’s servant, died at the age of 110. 30 They buried him in the land he had been given at Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim to the north of Mount Gaash.
31 And Israel served the Eternal faithfully for as long as Joshua lived, and then throughout the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had seen all the mighty things that the Eternal One did for Israel.
32 The bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had carried out of Egypt, were buried at Shechem, in the land Jacob had bought from the descendants of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for 100 pieces of silver, and which had been passed on to the people of Joseph as an inheritance.
33 Eventually Eleazar, the son of Aaron, died. They buried him at Gibeah, in the city his son Phinehas had been granted in the highlands of Ephraim.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.