Joshua 22:16-26

22:16 “The entire community of the Lord says, ‘Why have you disobeyed the God of Israel by turning back today from following the Lord? You built an altar for yourselves and have rebelled today against the Lord.¹ 22:17 The sin we committed at Peor was bad enough. To this very day we have not purified ourselves; it even brought a plague on the community of the Lord.² 22:18 Now today you dare to turn back³ from following the Lord! You are rebelling today against the Lord; tomorrow he may break out in anger against⁴ the entire community of Israel. 22:19 But if your own land⁵ is impure,⁶ cross over to the Lord’s own land,⁷ where the Lord himself lives,⁸ and settle down among us.⁹ But don’t rebel against the Lord or us¹⁰ by building for yourselves an altar aside from the altar of the Lord our God. 22:20 When Achan son of Zerah disobeyed the command about the city’s riches, the entire Israelite community was judged,¹¹ though only one man had sinned. He most certainly died for his sin!’”¹²

22:21 The Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered the leaders¹³ of the Israelite clans: 22:22 “El, God, the Lord!¹⁴ El, God, the Lord! He knows the truth!¹⁵ Israel must also know! If we have rebelled or disobeyed the Lord,¹⁶ don’t spare us¹⁷ today! 22:23 If we have built¹⁸ an altar for ourselves to turn back from following the Lord by making¹⁹ burnt sacrifices and grain offerings on it, or by offering²⁰ tokens of peace²¹ on it, the Lord himself will punish us.²² 22:24 We swear we have done this because we were worried that²³ in the future your descendants would say to our descendants, ‘What relationship do you have with the Lord God of Israel?²⁴ 22:25 The Lord made the Jordan a boundary between us and you Reubenites and Gadites. You have no right to worship the Lord.’²⁵ In this way your descendants might cause our descendants to stop obeying²⁶ the Lord. 22:26 So we decided to build this altar, not for burnt offerings and sacrifices,

¹tn Heb “What is this unfaithfulness with which you have been unfaithful against the God of Israel, turning today from after the Lord, when you built for yourselves an altar, rebelling today against the Lord?”

²tn Heb “Was the sin of Peor too insignificant for us, from which we have not made purification to this day? And there was a plague in the assembly of the Lord.”

³tn Heb “you are turning back.”

⁴tn Or “he will be angry with.”

⁵tn Heb “the land of your possession.”

⁶sn The western tribes here imagine a possible motive for the action of the eastern tribes. T. C. Butler explains the significance of the land’s “impurity”: “East Jordan is impure because it is not Yahweh’s possession. Rather it is simply ‘your possession.’ That means it is land where Yahweh does not live, land which his presence has not sanctified and purified” (Joshua [WBC], 247).

⁷tn Heb “the land of the possession of the Lord.”

⁸tn Heb “where the dwelling place of the Lord resides.”

sn The phrase where the Lord himself lives refers to the tabernacle.

⁹tn Heb “and take for yourselves in our midst.”

¹⁰tc Heb “and us to you rebel.” The reading of the MT, the accusative sign with suffix (וְאֹתָנוּ, vÿ’otanu), is problematic with the verb “rebel” (מָרַד, marad). Many Hebrew mss correctly read the negative particle אַל (’al) for the preposition אֶל (’el, “to”).

¹¹tn Heb “Is it not [true that] Achan son of Zerah was unfaithful with unfaithfulness concerning what was set apart [to the Lord] and against all the assembly of Israel there was anger?”

¹²tn The second half of the verse reads literally, “and he [was] one man, he did not die for his sin.” There are at least two possible ways to explain this statement: (1) One might interpret the statement to mean that Achan was not the only person who died for his sin. In this case it could be translated, “and he was not the only one to die because of his sin.” (2) Another option, the one reflected in the translation, is to take the words וְהוּא אִישׁ אֶחָד (vÿhu’ ’ish ’ekhad, “and he [was] one man”) as a concessive clause and join it with what precedes. The remaining words (לֹא גָוַע בַּעֲוֹנוֹ, lo’ gava’ ba’avono) must then be taken as a rhetorical question (“Did he not die for his sin?”). Taking the last sentence as interrogative is consistent with the first part of the verse, a rhetorical question introduced with the interrogative particle. The present translation has converted these rhetorical questions into affirmative statements to bring out more clearly the points they are emphasizing. For further discussion, see T. C. Butler, Joshua (WBC), 240.

¹³tn Heb “answered and spoke to the heads of.”

¹⁴sn 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.”

¹⁵tn Heb “he knows.”

¹⁶tn Heb “if in rebellion or if in unfaithfulness against the Lord.”

¹⁷tn 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.

¹⁸tn Heb “by building.” The prepositional phrase may be subordinated to what precedes, “if in unfaithfulness…by building.”

¹⁹tn Heb “or if to offer up.”

²⁰tn Heb “or if to make.”

²¹tn Or “peace offerings.”

²²tn Heb “the Lord, he will seek.” Perhaps this is a self-imprecation in an oath, “may the Lord himself punish us.”

²³tn Heb “Surely, from worry concerning a matter we have done this, saying.”

²⁴tn 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!”

²⁵tn Heb “You have no portion in the Lord.”

²⁶tn Heb “fearing.”