Joshua 22:2-21

²He said to them, “You have done everything that Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded you. You have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you.

³You have not deserted your brothers these many days, down to this present day, and you have fulfilled the duties required by the commandments of Yahweh your God.

⁴Now Yahweh your God has given rest to your brothers, just as he promised them. Therefore turn and go to your tents in the land you own, which Moses the servant of Yahweh gave you on the other side of the Jordan.

⁵Just be very careful to observe the commandments and the law that Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded you, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, and to cling to him and worship him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

⁶So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went back to their tents.

⁷Now to one-half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given an inheritance in Bashan, but to the other half Joshua gave an inheritance beside their brothers in the land west of the Jordan. Joshua sent them away to their tents; he blessed them

⁸and said to them, “Return to your tents with much money, and with very much livestock, and with silver and gold, and with bronze and iron, and with very many garments. Divide the plunder from your enemies with your brothers.”

⁹So the descendants of Reuben, the descendants of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh returned home, leaving the people of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan. They left to go to the region of Gilead, to their own land, which they themselves possessed, in obedience to the commandment of Yahweh, by the hand of Moses.

¹⁰When they came to the Jordan that is in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh built an altar beside the Jordan, a very large and prominent altar.

¹¹The people of Israel heard about this and said, “Look! The people of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh have built an altar at the front of the land of Canaan, at Geliloth, in the region near the Jordan, on the side that belongs to the people of Israel.”

¹²When the people of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the people of Israel gathered together at Shiloh to go up to make war against them.

¹³Then the people of Israel sent messengers to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead. They also sent Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest,

¹⁴and with him ten leaders, one from each of the tribal families of Israel, and every one of them was the head of a family among the clan of Israel.

¹⁵They came to the people of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, and they spoke to them:

¹⁶“The whole assembly of Yahweh says this, 'What is this unfaithfulness that you have committed against the God of Israel, by turning this day from following Yahweh by building yourself an altar this day in rebellion against Yahweh?

¹⁷Was our sin at Peor not enough for us? Yet we have not even now cleansed ourselves from it. For that sin there came a plague on the assembly of Yahweh.

¹⁸Must you also turn away from following Yahweh at this present day? If you also rebel against Yahweh today, tomorrow he will be angry with the whole assembly of Israel.

¹⁹If the land that you possess is defiled, then you should pass over into the land where Yahweh's tabernacle stands and take for yourselves a possession among us. Only do not rebel against Yahweh, nor rebel against us by building an altar for yourselves other than the altar of Yahweh our God.

²⁰Did not Achan son of Zerah break faith in the matter of those things that had been reserved for God? Did not wrath fall on all the people of Israel? That man did not perish alone for his iniquity.'”

²¹Then the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh replied in answer to the heads of the clans of Israel: