1Then did Joshua call to the Reubenites and the Gadites and to the half-tribe of Manesseh, 2and he said to them, “You have kept all that Moses, servant of the LORD, charged you, and you have heeded my voice in all that I have charged you. 3You have not forsaken your brothers for many days until this day, and you have kept the watch of the LORD your God. 4And now the LORD your God has granted rest to your brothers, as He had spoken to them, so now turn and go off to your tents, to the land of your holding that Moses, servant of the LORD, gave to you across the Jordan. 5Only watch carefully to do the command and the teaching that Moses, servant of the LORD, charged you, to love the LORD your God and to walk in all His ways, to keep His commands and to cling to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your being.” 6And Joshua blessed them and sent them off, and they went to their tents. 7And to the half-tribe of Manasseh Moses had given land in Bashan, and to the other half Joshua gave land with their brothers west of the Jordan. And what’s more, when Joshua sent them off to their tents and blessed them, 8he said to them, saying, “With many possessions return to your tents and with very abundant livestock, with silver and with gold and with bronze and with iron and with a great many cloaks. Share the booty of your enemies with your brothers.” 9And the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh turned back and went from Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, to the land of their holding in which they had taken hold at the behest of the LORD through Moses. 10And they came to the Jordan districts that are in the land of Canaan, and the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there a great altar to be seen by all. 11And the Israelites heard, saying, “Look, the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar over against the land of Canaan in the Jordan districts across from the Israelites.” 12And the Israelites heard, and all the community of the Israelites assembled at Shiloh to go up against them as an army. 13And the Israelites sent Phineas son of Eleazar the priest to the Reubenites and to the Gadites and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, 14and ten chieftains were with him, one chieftain for a patriarchal house for each of the tribes of Israel, each the head of a patriarchal house for the clan-groups of Israel. 15And they came to the Reubenites and to the Gadites and to the half-tribe of Manasseh and spoke with them, saying: 16“Thus said the whole community of the LORD: ‘What is this violation that you have committed against the God of Israel, to turn back today from the LORD by building for yourselves an altar to rebel today against the LORD? 17Is the crime of Peor, from which we have not been cleansed to this day, too little for us, as the scourge came upon the community of the LORD? 18As for you, you turn back today from the LORD, and it will happen that should you rebel today against the LORD, tomorrow His fury will be against the whole community of Israel. 19And if indeed the land of your holding is unclean, cross over to the land of the LORD’s holding where the LORD’s sanctuary dwells and take a holding within it, but do not rebel against the LORD, and against us do not rebel, in your building yourselves an altar other than the altar of the LORD our God. 20Did not Achan son of Zerah violate the ban, and the fury was against the whole community of Israel while he, a single man, did not perish through his crime?’” 21And the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered and spoke to the heads of the clan-groups of Israel: 22“God of gods is the LORD. God of gods is the LORD! He knows, and Israel shall know. If in rebellion and in violation against the LORD, 23to build us an altar to turn back from the LORD, do not rescue us this day. And if to offer up on it burnt offering and grain offering, and if to prepare on it well-being offerings—let the LORD seek it out. 24Or if not from concern for one thing we have done this, saying, ‘Tomorrow your sons will say to our sons, saying, What do you have to do with the LORD God of Israel, 25when the LORD has fixed a boundary, the Jordan, between you and us, O Reubenites and Gadites? You have no share in the LORD.’ And your children will prevent our children from fearing the LORD. 26And so we thought, ‘Let us act, pray, to build an altar not for burnt offerings and not for sacrifices, 27but let it be a witness between you and us and for our generations after us to do the service of the LORD before Him with our burnt offerings and our sacrifices and our well-being offerings, that your children say not tomorrow to our children, You have no share in the LORD.’ 28And we thought, when it happens that our generations tomorrow say to us, we shall say, ‘See the image of the LORD’s altar that your forefathers made, not for burnt offerings and not for sacrifices but as a witness between you and us. 29Far be it from us to rebel against the LORD and to turn back today from the LORD to build an altar for burnt offerings and for grain offerings and for sacrifice other than the altar of the LORD our God which is before His sanctuary.’” 30And Phineas the priest, and the chieftains of the community and the heads of the clan-groups of Israel with him, heard what the Reubenites and the Gadites and the Manassites had spoken, and it was good in their eyes. 31And Phineas son of Eleazar the priest said to the Reubenites and to the Gadites and to the Manassites, “Today we know that the LORD is in our midst, for you have not committed this violation against the LORD, and so you have saved the Israelites from the LORD’s hand.” 32And Phineas son of Eleazar the priest, and the chieftains with him, turned back from the Reubenites and from the Gadites, from the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the Israelites, and they brought back word to them. 33And the thing was good in the eyes of the Israelites, and the Israelites blessed God, and they did not think to go up as an army to lay ruin to the land in which the Reubenites and the Gadites were dwelling. 34And the Reubenites and the Gadites called the altar Witness, “for it is a witness among us that the LORD is God.”
CHAPTER 22 NOTES
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1. Then did Joshua call. Boling aptly describes the Hebrew phrasing ʾaz yiqraʾ yehoshuʿa as “an expansive opening to a climactic unit.” The small stylistic flourish in the translation seeks to mirror this effect.
the Reubenites and the Gadites and to the half-tribe of Manasseh. The book began with the necessity for the trans-Jordanian tribes to join their brothers in the conquest of the land west of the Jordan. Now that the conquest is complete, we come back to these tribes, in an envelope structure, as they are sent back to their own territory.
3. for many days. These are the days, or period, of the conquest.
4. granted rest. As elsewhere, this idiom indicates subduing all enemies.
5. to do the command and the teaching . . . to keep His commands and to cling to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your being. This string of phrases is a hallmark of Deuteronomistic prose.
8. Share the booty of your enemies. The source of the great abundance of possessions just listed is here spelled out.
10. the Jordan districts. These lie evidently alongside the Jordan, though one cannot determine a precise location.
to be seen by all. The words “by all” have been added in the translation because of the requirements of English usage. The literal sense is “a great altar for sight.”
16. Thus said. This is the so-called messenger-formula, regularly used to introduce the text of a message, whether oral or written.
to turn back today from the LORD by building for yourselves an altar. The idiom “to turn back” is repeated five times in this single episode, always in the sense of “to fall away from,” “to abandon.” The objection to building an altar east of the Jordan is a little odd because regional altars were permissible in this period, and the trans-Jordanian territory, allotted by God through Moses to the two and a half tribes, could not plausibly be defined as “unclean” land. There was, however, an officially authorized altar in front of the sanctuary at Shiloh, and this new altar was thought to set up illegitimate competition to the cis-Jordanian one. Many scholars have detected a Priestly agenda in this story.
17. the crime of Peor, from which we have not been cleansed to this day. This episode, which involves an orgiastic sexual rite in which Israelite men are lured by Midianite women, is recounted in Numbers 25. The punishment for the transgression is a plague that sweeps through the ranks of Israel. The Israelites’ claim here that they still have not been cleansed of the crime of Peor may reflect some present-day epidemic, which is construed theologically as continuing punishment for that initial crime. Perhaps, then, the Israelites understand the erection of an altar east of the Jordan, where the hinterland is pagan, as the top of a slippery slope leading to corruption by pagan practices.
19. an altar other than the altar of the LORD our God. Although the first part of this verse introduces the notion of trans-Jordan as an “unclean” land, the emphasis here is on the idea that there should be no alternative to the nationally recognized shrine at Shiloh.
20. Achan. Achan’s transgression in violating the ban (chapter 7) is comparable to the putative transgression of the tribes east of the Jordan only in regard to its consequences—it is not the transgressor but the whole people that suffers because of the violation.
22. God of gods is the LORD. This solemn, repeated pronouncement marks the beginning of a sacred vow in which the two and a half tribes declare the innocence of their intentions before God and Israel.
He knows, and Israel shall know. The difference in tense is significant: God knows that we did not intend to betray Him in building this grand altar, and when we have finished making our declaration, Israel will know as well.
23. do not rescue us this day. If in fact the building of the altar was meant as an act of rebellion against God, let your assembled army destroy us.
25. your children will prevent our children from fearing the LORD. The phrase “fearing the LORD” does not indicate an inner state of piety but rather participation in the national cult: the cis-Jordanian tribes, seeing that the two and a half tribes live beyond the Jordan in territory that the Israelite majority may not regard as an intrinsic part of the land, will exclude them from nation and cult.
28. See the image of the LORD’s altar. The altar we have built is a symbolic altar, the image or simulacrum (tavnit) of the LORD’s altar that we, like you, recognize as the authorized site of public worship.
31. and so you have saved the Israelites from the LORD’s hand. That is, you have saved us from attacking you without warrant, an act that would then have brought down retribution on us.
33. the Israelites blessed God, and they did not think to go up as an army to lay ruin to the land. This concluding narrative episode of the Book of Joshua is a story of civil war averted and national reconciliation, whereas the Book of Judges concludes with the story of a bloody civil war.
34. called the altar Witness. The received text says only “called the altar,” but some Hebrew manuscripts as well as the Targum Yonatan show the more coherent text with the additional word as it is translated here. Rashi arrives at the same conclusion by inferring an ellipsis: “This is one of the abbreviated biblical texts, and it is necessary to add to it one word: ‘and the Reubenites and the Gadites and the Manassites called the altar Witness.’”