Why does Israel abandon its plan to fight the tribes that built an altar by the Jordan?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The tribes explain that the altar is a testimony for their children’s right to serve the Lord, not an altar for offering sacrifices. Phinees and the ten princes accept the explanation, bring it back, and Israel praises God and drops its plan to fight and destroy their land.

Chapter breakdown

Josue calls the Rubenites, the Gadites and half the tribe of Manasses. He says they have done everything Moses, the Lord’s servant, commanded, obeyed Josue in all things and stayed with their brethren through this long time, keeping the Lord’s command. Because the Lord has given their brethren the promised rest and peace, they may return to their dwellings and the possession Moses gave them beyond the Jordan. They must still carefully fulfill the law and command Moses gave: love the Lord their God, walk in all his ways, keep all his commandments, hold fast to him and serve him with all their heart and soul. Josue blesses them and sends them away to their dwellings.

Moses has given half Manasses a possession in Basan; Josue gives the remaining half a lot among their brethren beyond the Jordan to the west. When he blesses the departing tribes and sends them home, he says they return with much substance and riches: silver, gold, brass, iron and varied clothing. They must divide the prey of their enemies with their brethren. Ruben, Gad and half Manasses leave Israel in Silo in Chanaan and return to Galaad, the possession received according to the Lord’s command through Moses.

On reaching the Jordan’s banks in Chanaan, they build an immensely great altar near the river. Israel hears reports from messengers that Ruben, Gad and half Manasses have built it in Chanaan on the Jordan’s banks opposite Israel. All assemble in Silo to go up and fight them. Meanwhile they send Phinees son of Eleazar the priest into Galaad, with ten princes, one from every tribe. The group reaches Ruben, Gad and half Manasses in Galaad and speaks to them.

Speaking for all the Lord’s people, the messengers ask why the tribes have committed this transgression, forsaken the Lord God of Israel and built what the messengers call a sacrilegious altar in revolt from his worship. They recall Beelphegor: its stain remains to this day and many people perished. They warn that forsaking the Lord today will bring his wrath against all Israel tomorrow. If the tribes think their possession is unclean, the messengers offer to have them cross to the land containing the Lord’s tabernacle and dwell among them. They must not depart from the Lord or the community by building an altar beside the Lord’s altar. The messengers also recall Achan son of Zare: his transgression brought wrath on all Israel, and although he was one man, he did not perish alone in his wickedness.

Ruben, Gad and half Manasses answer Israel’s princes. They twice invoke the Lord, the most mighty God, saying he knows and Israel will understand. If they set up the altar to transgress, they ask that God not save them but punish them immediately. If they intended to put burnt offerings, sacrifices or peace-offering victims on it, they ask him to require an account and judge. Their stated concern is different: in days to come, Israel’s children may tell their children that the Jordan is a border set by the Lord and that Ruben and Gad have no part in him, turning their children away from the fear of the Lord. They therefore build the altar as a testimony between both groups and their descendants, not for burnt offerings or victims. It is to attest their right to serve the Lord and offer burnt offerings, victims and peace offerings, so future children cannot deny their part in him. If such a denial comes, their children can point to the altar their fathers made as a testimony rather than a place for offerings. They reject revolt, abandoning the Lord’s ways, or building an altar for offerings and sacrifices beside the Lord’s altar before his tabernacle.

Phinees the priest and the princes with him are satisfied and willingly accept the tribes’ words. Phinees son of Eleazar says they now know the Lord is with them: the tribes are not guilty of this revolt and have delivered Israel from the Lord’s hand. He and the princes return from Ruben and Gad in Galaad to Israel in Chanaan and bring back the report. The words please everyone who hears; Israel praises God and no longer speaks of going up to fight and destroy the tribes’ possession. Ruben and Gad call their altar “Our testimony, that the Lord is God.”

The story inside

Josue releases the tribes after their obedience and their brethren’s promised rest, while requiring continued obedience and sharing of the enemy’s prey. Their great altar by the Jordan leads Israel to assemble for war and send Phinees with ten princes. The messengers charge revolt, point to Beelphegor and Achan as cases with wider consequences, and offer land near the tabernacle if the eastern possession is considered unclean. The tribes answer with their stated concern about future exclusion and explain the altar’s purpose as testimony rather than sacrifice. Phinees and the princes accept this account. Their report leads Israel to praise God and abandon its plan to fight and destroy the possession. The chapter records this actual resolution without claiming that later generations never disagreed.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The return includes duties. Josue’s release follows the tribes’ obedience and their brethren’s rest, but he still commands wholehearted service to the Lord and sharing the enemy’s prey. Returning home does not erase those stated commands.
2
The accusation is followed by a reply before the war plan is carried out. The messengers explain their fear of wider punishment and offer land near the tabernacle; the accused tribes explain their purpose. Keeping each speech attributed makes clear why the assembly’s first charge is not the chapter’s final finding.
3
The reply turns on the use of the altar. The tribes deny using it for sacrifices and describe it as testimony for their children’s right to worship. Phinees accepts this, and Israel drops the plan to fight and destroy their land. That is the recorded result, without an invented guarantee about the future.

Test your recall

What feared statement by future children led the tribes to build their altar, and how did hearing its stated purpose change Israel’s plan to fight them?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 24637–24665
Josue Chapter 22 The tribes of Ruben and Gad, and half the tribe of Manasses return to their possessions. They build an altar by the side of the Jordan, which alarms the other tribes. An embassage is sent to them, to which they give a satisfactory answer. 22:1. At the same time Josue called the Rubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasses, 22:2. And said to them: You have done all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you: you have also obeyed me in all things, 22:3. Neither have you left your brethren this long time, until this present day, keeping the commandment of the Lord your God. 22:4. Therefore as the Lord your God hath given your brethren rest and peace, as he promised: return, and go to your dwellings, and to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan: 22:5. Yet so that you observe attentively, and in work fulfil the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you: that you love the Lord your God, and walk in all his ways, and keep all his commandments, and cleave to him, and serve him with all your heart, and with all your soul. 22:6. And Josue blessed them, and sent them away, and they returned to their dwellings.
Lines 24667–24680
22:7. Now to half the tribe of Manasses, Moses had given a possession in Basan: and therefore to the half that remained, Josue gave a lot among the rest of their brethren beyond the Jordan to the west. And when he sent them away to their dwellings and had blessed them, 22:8. He said to them: With much substance and riches, you return to your settlements, with silver and gold, brass and iron, and variety of raiment: divide the prey of your enemies with your brethren. 22:9. So the children of Ruben, and the children of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasses returned, and parted from the children of Israel in Silo, which is in Chanaan, to go into Galaad the land of their possession, which they had obtained according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses.
Lines 24682–24699
22:10. And when they were come to the banks of the Jordan, in the land of Chanaan, they built an altar immensely great near the Jordan. 22:11. And when the children of Israel had heard of it, and certain messengers brought them an account that the children of Ruben, and of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasses had built an altar in the land of Chanaan, upon the banks of the Jordan, over against the children of Israel: 22:12. They all assembled in Silo, to go up and fight against them. 22:13. And in the mean time they sent to them into the land of Galaad, Phinees the son of Eleazar the priest, 22:14. And ten princes with him, one of every tribe. 22:15. Who came to the children of Ruben, and of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasses, into the land of Galaad, and said to them:
Lines 24701–24719
22:16. Thus saith all the people of the Lord: What meaneth this transgression? Why have you forsaken the Lord the God of Israel, building a sacrilegious altar, and revolting from the worship of him? 22:17. Is it a small thing to you that you sinned with Beelphegor, and the stain of that crime remaineth in us to this day? and many of the people perished. 22:18. And you have forsaken the Lord to day, and to morrow his wrath will rage against all Israel. 22:19. But if you think the land of your possession to be unclean, pass over to the land wherein is the tabernacle of the Lord, and dwell among us: only depart not from the Lord, and from our society, by building an altar beside the altar of the Lord our God. 22:20. Did not Achan the son of Zare transgress the commandment of the Lord, and his wrath lay upon all the people of Israel? And he was but one man, and would to God he alone had perished in his wickedness.
Lines 24721–24759
22:21. And the children of Ruben, and of Gad, and of the half tribe of Manasses answered the princes of the embassage of Israel: 22:22. The Lord the most mighty God, the Lord the most mighty God, he knoweth, and Israel also shall understand: If with the design of transgression we have set up this altar, let him not save us, but punish us immediately: 22:23. And if we did it with that mind, that we might lay upon it holocausts, and sacrifice, and victims of peace offerings, let him require and judge: 22:24. And not rather with this thought and design, that we should say: To morrow your children will say to our children: What have you to do with the Lord the God of Israel? 22:25. The Lord hath put the river Jordan for a border between us and you, O ye children of Ruben, and ye children of Gad: and therefore you have no part in the Lord. And by this occasion your children shall turn away our children from the fear of the Lord. We therefore thought it best, 22:26. And said: Let us build us an altar, not for holocausts, nor to offer victims, 22:27. But for a testimony between us and you, and our posterity and yours, that we may serve the Lord, and that we may have a right to offer both holocausts, and victims and sacrifices of peace offerings: and that your children to morrow may not say to our children: You have no part in the Lord. 22:28. And if they will say so, they shall answer them: Behold the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for holocausts, nor for sacrifice, but for a testimony between us and you. 22:29. God keep us from any such wickedness that we should revolt from the Lord, and leave off following his steps, by building an altar to offer holocausts, and sacrifices, and victims, beside the altar of the Lord our God, which is erected before his tabernacle.
Lines 24761–24782
22:30. And when Phinees the priest, and the princes of the embassage, who were with him, had heard this, they were satisfied: and they admitted most willingly the words of the children of Ruben, and Gad, and of the half tribe of Manasses, 22:31. And Phinees the priest the son of Eleazar said to them: Now we know that the Lord is with us, because you are not guilty of this revolt, and you have delivered the children of Israel from the hand of the Lord. 22:32. And he returned with the princes from the children of Ruben and Gad, out of the land of Galaad, into the land of Chanaan, to the children of Israel, and brought them word again. 22:33. And the saying pleased all that heard it. And the children of Israel praised God, and they no longer said that they would go up against them, and fight, and destroy the land of their possession. 22:34. And the children of Ruben, and the children of Gad called the altar which they had built, Our testimony, that the Lord is God.