Text -- Joshua 22:22-34 (NET)

22:22 “El, God, the Lord! El, God, the Lord! He knows the truth! Israel must also know! If we have rebelled or disobeyed the Lord, don’t spare us today! 22:23 If we have built an altar for ourselves to turn back from following the Lord by making burnt sacrifices and grain offerings on it, or by offering tokens of peace on it, the Lord himself will punish us. 22:24 We swear we have done this because we were worried that in the future your descendants would say to our descendants, ‘What relationship do you have with the Lord God of Israel? 22:25 The Lord made the Jordan a boundary between us and you Reubenites and Gadites. You have no right to worship the Lord.’ In this way your descendants might cause our descendants to stop obeying the Lord. 22:26 So we decided to build this altar, not for burnt offerings and sacrifices, 22:27 but as a reminder to us and you, and to our descendants who follow us, that we will honor the Lord in his very presence with burnt offerings, sacrifices, and tokens of peace. Then in the future your descendants will not be able to say to our descendants, ‘You have no right to worship the Lord.’ 22:28 We said, ‘If in the future they say such a thing to us or to our descendants, we will reply, “See the model of the Lord’s altar that our ancestors made, not for burnt offerings or sacrifices, but as a reminder to us and you.”’ 22:29 Far be it from us to rebel against the Lord by turning back today from following after the Lord by building an altar for burnt offerings, sacrifices, and tokens of peace aside from the altar of the Lord our God located in front of his dwelling place!” 22:30 When Phinehas the priest and the community leaders and clan leaders who accompanied him heard the defense of the Reubenites, Gadites, and the Manassehites, they were satisfied. 22:31 Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the priest, said to the Reubenites, Gadites, and the Manassehites, “Today we know that the Lord is among us, because you have not disobeyed the Lord in this. Now you have rescued the Israelites from the Lord’s judgment.” 22:32 Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the priest, and the leaders left the Reubenites and Gadites in the land of Gilead and reported back to the Israelites in the land of Canaan. 22:33 The Israelites were satisfied with their report and gave thanks to God. They said nothing more about launching an attack to destroy the land in which the Reubenites and Gadites lived. 22:34 The Reubenites and Gadites named the altar, “Surely it is a Reminder to us that the Lord is God.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jos 22:22

¹ sn Israel’s God is here identified with three names: (1) אֵל (’el), “El” (or “God”); (2) אֱלֹהִים (’elohim), “Elohim” (or “God”), and (3) יְהוָה (yÿhvah), “Yahweh” (or “the Lord”). The name אֵל (’el, “El”) is often compounded with titles, for example, El Elyon, “God Most High.”

² tn Heb “he knows.”

³ tn Heb “if in rebellion or if in unfaithfulness against the Lord.”

⁴ tn Heb “do not save us.” The verb form is singular, being addressed to either collective Israel or the Lord himself. The LXX translates in the third person.

NET Notes: Jos 22:23

¹ tn Heb “by building.” The prepositional phrase may be subordinated to what precedes, “if in unfaithfulness…by building.”

² tn Heb “or if to offer up.”

³ tn Heb “or if to make.”

⁴ tn Or “peace offerings.”

⁵ tn Heb “the Lord, he will seek.” Perhaps this is a self-imprecation in an oath, “may the Lord himself punish us.”

NET Notes: Jos 22:24

¹ tn Heb “Surely, from worry concerning a matter we have done this, saying.”

² tn Heb “What is there to you and to the Lord God of Israel?” The rhetorical question is sarcastic in tone and anticipates a response, “Absolutely none!”

NET Notes: Jos 22:25

¹ tn Heb “You have no portion in the Lord.”

² tn Heb “fearing.”

NET Notes: Jos 22:27

¹ tn Heb “but it is a witness between us and you.”

² tn Heb “to do the service of the Lord before him.”

³ tn Or “peace offerings.”

⁴ tn Heb “You have no portion in the Lord.”

NET Notes: Jos 22:28

¹ tn The words “such a thing” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

² tn Heb “fathers.”

³ tn Heb “but it is a witness between us and you.”

NET Notes: Jos 22:29

¹ tn Or “peace offerings.”

² sn The Lord’s dwelling place here refers to the tabernacle.

NET Notes: Jos 22:30

¹ tn Heb “the sons of Reuben, and the sons of Gad, and the sons of Manasseh.”

² tn Heb “it was good in their eyes.”

NET Notes: Jos 22:31

¹ tn Heb “the sons of Reuben, and the sons of Gad, and the sons of Manasseh.”

² tn Heb “because you were not unfaithful with this unfaithfulness against the Lord.”

³ tn On the use of אָז in a logical sense, see Waltke-O’Connor, Hebrew Syntax, 667.

⁴ tn Heb “the hand (i.e., power) of the Lord.”

NET Notes: Jos 22:32

¹ tn Heb “and Phinehas…returned 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 brought back to them a word.”

NET Notes: Jos 22:33

¹ tn Heb “and the word was good in the eyes of the sons of Israel and the sons of Israel blessed God.”

² tn Heb “and they did not speak about going up against them for battle to destroy the land in which the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad were living.”

NET Notes: Jos 22:34

¹ tn Heb “a witness between us.”