¹Then Joshua called for the Reubenites and the Gadites and half of the tribe of Manasseh, ²and he said to them, “You have kept everything Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, and you have obeyed me in everything I have commanded you. ³You did not forsake your brothers during these many days up to this day, and you have kept the charge of the body of commandments of the Lord your God. ⁴And now the Lord your God has given your brothers rest, as he told them, and now, turn and get going to your tents and to the land of your possession which Moses the servant of the Lord has given you across the Jordan. ⁵But be very much on your guard to carry out the body of commandments and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you – to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cling to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” ⁶And Joshua blessed them and dismissed them, and they went to their tents. ⁷Now Moses had given an inheritance to half of the tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, and Joshua gave the other half of it an inheritance with their brothers, across the Jordan to the west. And also when Joshua sent them off to their tents, he blessed them. ⁸And he spoke to them and said, “Return to your tents with great riches and very much cattle, with silver and gold and copper and iron and very many clothes. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.” ⁹So the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh returned and departed from the sons of Israel, from Shiloh which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, to the land of their possession which they became possessors of, according to the pronouncement of the Lord through the intermediacy of Moses. ¹⁰And they came to the regions of the Jordan which are in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh built an altar there – at the Jordan – an altar of grand appearance. ¹¹And the sons of Israel heard it and said, “Look, the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh have built an altar opposite the land of Canaan in the regions of the Jordan, opposite the sons of Israel.” ¹²And when the sons of Israel heard it, the whole congregation of the sons of Israel assembled at Shiloh to go up against them in battle. ¹³And the sons of Israel sent Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad and to half of the tribe of Manasseh, to the land of Gilead, ¹⁴and ten leading people with him – one leading person individually per paternal house – for each of the tribes of Israel, and each was a head of their paternal house, which the thousands of Israel have. ¹⁵And they came to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad and to half of the tribe of Manasseh, to the land of Gilead, and they spoke with them and said, ¹⁶“This is what the whole congregation of the Lord says: ‘What is this treacherous thing that you have treacherously done against the God of Israel, in turning away today from following the Lord, in building yourselves an altar – in rebelling today against the Lord? ¹⁷Is the iniquity of Peor a small matter to us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves up to this day, when there was a plague in the congregation of the Lord? ¹⁸But you have turned away today from following the Lord, and it has come about that you are rebelling against the Lord today, and tomorrow he will become angry with the whole congregation of Israel. ¹⁹And even if the land of your possession is unclean, do cross over to the land of the Lord's possession where the Lord's tabernacle dwells, and come into a possession in our midst, and do not rebel against the Lord, and do not rebel against us, by building yourselves an altar other than the altar to the Lord our God. ²⁰Did not Achan the son of Zerah deal treacherously with an accursed thing, so that there was anger on the whole congregation of Israel? And he did not die in his iniquity on his own.’ ” ²¹Then the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh answered and said to the heads of thousands of Israel, ²²“The Lord God of gods – the Lord God of gods – he knows, and he will know Israel, whether they are in rebellion or whether they are in treachery against the Lord (do not save us on this day) ²³in building ourselves an altar, in turning away from following the Lord. And whether it was to offer on it a burnt offering and a meal-offering, or whether it was to sacrifice peace-offerings on it, the Lord will inquire, ²⁴or whether it is not out of concern, for a reason, that we made this thing and said, ‘In the future your sons will speak to our sons and say, «What is the connection between you and the Lord God of Israel? ²⁵For the Lord has put a border between us and you, you sons of Reuben and you sons of Gad – the Jordan. You have no part in the Lord.» ’ So your sons will stop our sons from fearing the Lord. ²⁶So we said, ‘Let us now undertake to build an altar, but not for a burnt offering and not for sacrifice. ²⁷For it is a testimony between us and you and our generations after us to carry out the Lord's service before him with our burnt offerings and with our sacrifices and with our peace-offerings, so that your sons will not say in the future to our sons, «You have no part in the Lord.» ’ ²⁸So we said, ‘It will be the case that when they speak to us and to our generations in the future, that we will say, «See the edifice – an altar to the Lord – which our fathers made, not for a burnt offering and not for sacrifice, but it is a testimony between us and you.» ’ ²⁹May it be far from us to rebel against the Lord, and to turn away today from following the Lord in building an altar for a burnt offering, for a meal-offering or for a sacrifice other than the altar to the Lord our God which is before his tabernacle.” ³⁰Then Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the congregation and the heads of thousands of Israel who were with him heard the words which the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the sons of Manasseh said, and they were happy with it. ³¹Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Manasseh, “Today we know that the Lord is in our midst, and that you have not committed such a treacherous act against the Lord. You have now delivered the sons of Israel from the hand of the Lord.” ³²Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and the leaders, came back from the sons of Reuben and from the sons of Gad, from the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the sons of Israel, and they reported back to them. ³³And the sons of Israel were happy with the matter, and the sons of Israel blessed God, and they did not speak of going up against them in battle to ruin the land which the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad were living in. ³⁴And the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad called the altar Testimony, for it was a testimony between us, that the Lord is God.