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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Joshua 22:21 - 22:34
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The Explanation made and Accepted
v. 21. Then the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh answered, in defending themselves against the reproach and charge made against them, and said unto the heads of the thousands of Israel,
v. 22. The Lord God of gods, the Lord God of gods, or, God, God Jehovah, repeated for the sake of impressiveness, in the form of a solemn oath, He knoweth, and Israel, he shall know; if it be in rebellion, or if in transgression against the Lord, or, Surely not in rebellion and surely not in disloyalty toward Jehovah was this done. And in order to remove every doubt concerning the truth of their assertion, they include an imprecation upon themselves in case their words should be found false: (Save us not this day,) namely, if it was done in apostasy. The oath is now continued,
v. 23. That we have built us an altar to turn from following the Lord, with idolatrous intention, or if to offer thereon burnt offering or meat-offering, or if to offer peace-offerings thereon, in flagrant disobedience against the Lord's command, let the Lord Himself require it, by visiting the transgressors with His punishment;
v. 24. and if we have not rather done it for fear of this thing, saying, In time to come your children, those of the Israelites west of Jordan, might speak unto our children, saying, What have ye to do with the Lord God of Israel?
v. 25. For the Lord hath made Jordan a border between us and you, ye children of Reuben and children of Gad; ye have no part in the Lord; so shall your children make our children cease from fearing the Lord. So it was their anxiety for their children and for the latter's possible exclusion from the worship of Jehovah, the true God, which had prompted the two and one half tribes to erect the great altar on the bank of the Jordan.
v. 26. Therefore we said, Let us now prepare to build us an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice,
v. 27. but that it may be a witness between us and you and our generations after us, that we might do the service of the Lord before Him, have the right to appear at the Tabernacle and worship Jehovah, with our burnt offerings and with our sacrifices and with our peace-offerings; that your children may not say to our children in time to come, Ye have no part in the Lord.
v. 28. Therefore said we that it shall be, when they should so say to us or to our generations in time to come, that we may say again, Behold the pattern, copy, likeness, of the altar of the Lord which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings nor for sacrifices; but it is a witness between us and you.
v. 29. God forbid that we should rebel against the Lord, and turn this day from following the Lord, to build an altar for burnt offerings, for meat-offerings, or for sacrifices, beside the altar of the Lord, our God, that is before His Tabernacle. So this copy of Jehovah's altar was simply to serve as a witness of the fact that the tribes on both sides of Jordan worshiped the same God.
v. 30. And when Phinehas, the priest, and the princes of the congregation and heads of the thousands of Israel which were with him heard the words that the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh spake, it pleased them, the explanation satisfied them in every way.
v. 31. And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the priest, said unto the children of Reuben and to the children of Gad and to the children of Manasseh, This day we perceive that the Lord is among us, the entire nation, because ye have not committed this trespass against the Lord, the disloyalty of which the western tribes suspected them; now ye have delivered the children of Israel out of the hand of the Lord, for He would surely have visited the iniquity of the offending tribes upon the whole people if they had been guilty.
v. 32. And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the priest, and the princes returned from the children of Reuben and from the children of Gad out of the land of Gilead, east of Jordan, unto the Land of Canaan, the Land of Promise in the narrower sense, to the children of Israel, the ten western tribes, and brought them word again.
v. 33. And the thing pleased the children of Israel; and the children of Israel blessed God, thanking Him for adjusting the matter in such a satisfactory way, and did not intend, had no further thought, to go up against them in battle, to destroy, devastate, the land wherein the children of Reuben and Gad dwelt.
v. 34. And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad called the altar Ed; for it shall be a witness between us that the Lord is God. The entire sentence served as the name of the altar, for it should be regarded as a continual witness, for all times, that the tribes east of Jordan also accepted Jehovah as the one true God. It is well-pleasing to God if Christians are zealous for His honor, but He also expects us to discuss matters which may lead to quarrels in a proper, brotherly manner, lest we harm some one by an unjust suspicion.