1 Then Y’hoshua called the Re’uveni, the Gadi and the half-tribe of M’nasheh,
2 and said to them, “You have done everything Moshe the servant ofAdonaiordered you to do and heeded what I said in all the orders I gave you.
3 All this time you have not abandoned your kinsmen but have obeyed your commission, asAdonaiyour God ordered.
4 NowAdonaiyour God has given rest to your kinsmen, as he told them he would. So you too, return to your tents in the land which is your possession, which Moshe the servant ofAdonaigave you beyond the Yarden.
5 Only take great care to obey themitzvahand theTorahwhich Moshe the servant ofAdonaigave you — to loveAdonaiyour God, follow all his ways, observe hismitzvot, cling to him, and serve him with all your heart and being.”
6 Then Y’hoshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.
7 (To the one half-tribe of M’nasheh, Moshe had given an inheritance in Bashan; but to the other half, Y’hoshua gave one among their kinsmen on the west side of the Yarden.) When Y’hoshua sent them away to their tents he blessed them,
8 saying, “Return with great riches to your tents — with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, iron and with great quantities of clothing; share the spoil of your enemies with your kinsmen.”
9 So the descendants of Re’uven, the descendants of Gad and the half-tribe of M’nasheh returned; they left the people of Isra’el in Shiloh, in the land of Kena‘an, to go to the land of Gil‘ad, to the land they were to possess and which they already did possess — according to the order ofAdonaithrough Moshe.
10 When the descendants of Re’uven, the descendants of Gad and the half-tribe arrived in the area of the land of Kena‘an near the Yarden, they built an altar there by the Yarden, a large, impressive altar.
11 The people of Isra’el heard of it and said, “Look! The descendants of Re’uven, the descendants of Gad and the half-tribe of M’nasheh have built an altar by the frontier of the land of Kena‘an, in the area by the Yarden, on the side that belongs to the people of Isra’el.”
12 When the people of Isra’el heard of it, the entire community of Isra’el gathered together in Shiloh to wage war against them.
13 The people of Isra’el sent Pinchas the son of El‘azar thecoheninto the land of Gil‘ad to the descendants of Re’uven, the descendants of Gad and the half-tribe of M’nasheh.
14 With him were ten leaders, one leader of an ancestral clan for each of the tribes of Isra’el; each one was a head of his ancestral clan among the thousands of Isra’el.
15 They came to the descendants of Re’uven, the descendants of Gad and the half-tribe of M’nasheh in the land of Gil‘ad and spoke with them; they said,
16 “Here is what the whole community ofAdonaiis saying: ‘What is this treachery that you have committed against the God of Isra’el, turning away today from followingAdonai, in that you have built yourselves an altar, thus rebelling today againstAdonai?
17 Is the guilt we incurred at P‘or not enough for us? We haven’t cleansed ourselves from it to this day, even though a plague came on the community ofAdonai.
18 Is this why you have to turn away today from followingAdonai? If you rebel againstAdonaitoday, he will be angry tomorrow with the whole community of Isra’el.
19 If the land you have taken possession of is unclean, then cross back over into the land which belongs toAdonai, where the tabernacle ofAdonaiis located, and take a possession among us. But don’t rebel againstAdonai, and don’t rebel against us, by building yourselves an altar other than the altar ofAdonaiour God.
20 Didn’t Achan the son of Zerach commit a sin in regard to things set aside for destruction, and God’s anger fell on the whole community of Isra’el? He was not the only one who died for his crime.’”
21 Then the descendants of Re’uven, the descendants of Gad and the half-tribe of M’nasheh answered the leaders of the thousands of Isra’el:
22 “The Mighty One, God, isAdonai! He knows, and Isra’el will know — if we acted in rebellion or treachery againstAdonai, don’t vindicate us today!
23 We haven’t built an altar in order to turn away from followingAdonaior to offer on it burnt offerings, grain offerings or sacrifices as peace offerings. If we have, letAdonaihimself require us to atone for it.
24 Rather, we did this out of anxiety, because we thought, ‘Sometime in the future, your descendants might say to our descendants, “You don’t have anything to do withAdonai, the God of Isra’el,
25 becauseAdonaimade the Yarden the border between us and you, so you descendants of Re’uven and Gad have no share inAdonai.”’ In this way your descendants could make our descendants stop fearingAdonai.
26 So we said, ‘Let us now make preparations and build ourselves an altar, not for burnt offerings or sacrifices,
27 but as a witness between us and you, and between our generations who will come after us, so that we may perform the service forAdonaiin his presence with our burnt offerings, sacrifices and peace offerings — so that your descendants will not say to our descendants at some future time, “You have no share inAdonai.”’
28 For this reason we said, ‘When they accuse us or future generations in this way, we will say, “Look! Here is a replica of the altar ofAdonaiwhich our ancestors made, not for burnt offerings or sacrifices, but as a witness between us and you.”’
29 Far be it from us that we should rebel againstAdonaiand turn away today from followingAdonaiby building an altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings or sacrifices other than the altar ofAdonaiour God which stands in front of his tabernacle!”
30 When Pinchas thecohenand the leaders of the community, the heads of the thousands of Isra’el who were with him, heard what the descendants of Re’uven, the descendants of Gad and the descendants of M’nasheh said, it satisfied them.
31 Pinchas the son of El‘azar thecohensaid to the descendants of Re’uven, the descendants of Gad and the descendants of M’nasheh, “Today we know thatAdonaiis here with us, because you have not committed this treasonous act againstAdonai.Now you have saved the people of Isra’el from the anger ofAdonai.”
32 So Pinchas the son of El‘azar thecohenand the leaders returned from the descendants of Re’uven and Gad, from the land of Gil‘ad to the land of Kena‘an and the people of Isra’el, bringing word back to them.
33 What they said satisfied the people of Isra’el. The people of Isra’el blessed God and said no more about going to wage war against the descendants of Re’uven and Gad and destroying the land where they lived.
34 The descendants of Re’uven and Gad called the altar “‘Ed[a witness]” between us thatAdonaiis God.