22 Joshua called the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-family group of Manasseh. ² He said to them, “You have done all that the Lord’s servant Moses told you to do. You have obeyed me in all I have told you to do. ³ You have not left your brothers alone even to this day. But you have been careful to do what the Lord your God has told you. ⁴ Now the Lord your God has given rest to your brothers, as He promised them. So go now. Return to your homes in your own land, which the Lord’s servant Moses gave you on the other side of the Jordan. ⁵ Only be very careful to obey the Law which the Lord’s servant Moses told you. Love the Lord your God. Walk in all His ways. Obey His Laws. Stay close to Him, and work for Him with all your heart and soul.” ⁶ Joshua prayed that good would come to them, and sent them away. Then they went to their homes.

⁷ Moses had given land in Bashan to the half-family group of Manasseh. But Joshua gave land west of the Jordan to the other half of the family among their brothers. Joshua prayed that good would come to them when he sent them away to their homes. ⁸ He said to them, “Return to your homes with much riches, many animals, silver, gold, brass, iron, and very many clothes. Share with your brothers the riches taken from those who fought against you.” ⁹ The sons of Reuben and Gad and the half-family group of Manasseh returned home. They left the people of Israel at Shiloh in the land of Canaan and went to their own land of Gilead. They had taken this land by the word of the Lord through Moses.

¹⁰ The sons of Reuben and Gad and the half-family group of Manasseh came to the Jordan River. Before they crossed the Jordan, they built a very large altar on the Canaan side of the Jordan. ¹¹ The people of Israel heard the news, “See, the people of Reuben and Gad and the half-family group of Manasseh have built an altar in the land of Canaan by the Jordan. It stands on the side that belongs to the people of Israel.” ¹² When the people of Israel heard about it, all the sons of Israel gathered at Shiloh to make war against them.

¹³ Then the sons of Israel sent Phinehas the son of the religious leader Eleazar into the land of Gilead to the people of Reuben and Gad and the half-family group of Manasseh. ¹⁴ With him were ten leaders, one leader from each ruling house in every family of Israel. Each one was the head of his father’s house among the families of Israel. ¹⁵ They came to the people of Reuben and Gad and the half-family group of Manasseh in the land of Gilead, and said to them, ¹⁶ “All the people of the Lord say, ‘What sin is this that you have done against the God of Israel? You have turned away from following the Lord this day, by building yourselves an altar. Today you have gone against the Lord. ¹⁷ Is not the sin of Peor enough for us? We have made ourselves unclean from that to this day, and much trouble has come upon the people of the Lord. ¹⁸ Now to add to that sin, this day you have turned away from following the Lord. If you go against the Lord today, He will be angry with all the people of Israel tomorrow. ¹⁹ Now if the land you have been given is unclean, cross over into the Lord’s land. There stands the meeting tent of the Lord. Take land for yourselves among us. But do not go against the Lord, or against us, by building an altar other than the altar of the Lord our God. ²⁰ Did not Zerah’s son Achan sin by taking things that should have been destroyed? Anger came upon all the people of Israel. He did not die alone for his sin.’” ²¹ Then the people of Reuben and Gad and the half-family group of Manasseh answered the leaders of the families of Israel, saying, ²² “The Powerful One, the Lord, the Powerful One, God, the Lord! He knows! And may Israel itself know! If it was going against the Lord and not being faithful to Him, do not save us this day! ²³ If we have built an altar to turn away from following the Lord, or to give burnt gifts, grain gifts or peace gifts on it, may the Lord Himself punish us. ²⁴ We have done this because we were afraid that in time to come your children might say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? ²⁵ For the Lord has put the Jordan between us and you people of Reuben and Gad. You have nothing to do with the Lord.’ Then your children might make our children stop worshiping the Lord. ²⁶ So we said, ‘Let us build an altar. It will not be for burnt gifts or killing animals in worship. ²⁷ But it will be something special to be seen between us and you and our children after us. It will show that we are to serve the Lord before Him with our burnt gifts, our gifts of animals and our peace gifts. Then your children will not say to our children in the future, “You have nothing to do with the Lord.”’ ²⁸ We thought that if they say this to us or our children in the future we can say, ‘See the altar we have made like the altar of the Lord which our fathers made. It is not for burnt gifts or killing animals in worship. But it is something special to see between us and you.’ ²⁹ Never let it be said that we went against the Lord and turned away from following the Lord this day by building an altar. It is not for burnt gifts or grain gifts or killing animals in worship. It is not to be used instead of the altar of the Lord our God before His meeting tent.”

³⁰ Phinehas the religious leader and the leaders of the people, the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, were pleased when they heard the words of the people of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh. ³¹ Phinehas the son of Eleazar the religious leader said to the people of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh, “Today we know that the Lord is among us. Because you have not done this as sin against the Lord. Now you have saved the people of Israel from the hand of the Lord.” ³² Then Phinehas the son of the religious leader Eleazar and the leaders left the people of Reuben and Gad. They returned from the land of Gilead to the people of Israel in the land of Canaan. And they told them what had happened. ³³ The news pleased the people of Israel, and they gave thanks to God. They said no more about going against them in war, to destroy the land where the people of Reuben and Gad were living. ³⁴ The people of Reuben and Gad said, “This altar shows the agreement between us that the Lord is God.”

23 A long time after that, the Lord had given Israel rest from all those around them who hated them. Joshua had grown old, and had lived many years. ² Joshua called all Israel, their leaders, their heads, and the men chosen among them who judge between what is right or wrong. Then he said to them, “I am old and have lived many years. ³ And you have seen all the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you. The Lord your God is the One Who has fought for you. ⁴ See, I have given to you as land for your families those nations that are left, with all the nations I have destroyed. They lie from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. ⁵ The Lord your God will send them out from in front of you. He will send them away from you. Then their land will be yours, just as the Lord your God promised you. ⁶ So do not be moved by others. Keep and obey all that is written in the book of the Law of Moses. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left. ⁷ Do not mix with these nations that stay among you. Do not say the names of their gods or make anyone swear by them. Do not work for them or worship them. ⁸ But hold on to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day. ⁹ For the Lord has driven away large and strong nations from in front of you. No man has been able to stand in front of you to this day. ¹⁰ One of your men makes a thousand run away. For the Lord your God is the One Who fights for you, just as He promised you. ¹¹ Be very careful to love the Lord your God. ¹² For if you ever turn away and join the people of these nations left among you and marry some of their people and go among them, ¹³ know for sure that the Lord your God will stop driving these nations away from you. And they will be a net and a trap to you. They will be a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you are destroyed from this good land the Lord your God has given you.

¹⁴ “See, today I am going the way of all the earth. Know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God made to you has been broken. All have come true for you. Not one of them has been broken. ¹⁵ Every good promise the Lord your God made to you has come true. But in the same way, He will keep His promises to punish you. He will punish you until He has destroyed you from this good land the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁶ If you do not keep the agreement the Lord your God made with you, and serve other gods and worship them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you and you will be destroyed from the good land He has given you.”

24 Then Joshua gathered all the families of Israel to Shechem. He called for the leaders of Israel, the heads of the families and those who judged between what is right or wrong. And they showed themselves before God. ² Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your fathers lived on the other side of the River. There was Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor. And they worshiped other gods. ³ Then I took your father Abraham from the other side of the River. I led him through all the land of Canaan. I gave him many children, and I gave him Isaac. ⁴ To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Mount Seir to Esau for his own. But Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. ⁵ I sent Moses and Aaron. I had to bring trouble upon Egypt by what I did among them. Then I brought you out. ⁶ I brought your fathers out of Egypt to the Sea. Egypt went after your fathers to the Red Sea with war-wagons and horsemen. ⁷ But when they cried out to the Lord, He put darkness between you and the Egyptians. He brought the sea upon them and covered them. Your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And you lived in the desert for a long time. ⁸ I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived on the east side of the Jordan. They fought with you, and I gave them to you. You took their land for your own when I destroyed them in front of you.

⁹ ’Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, came and fought against Israel. He sent for Balaam the son of Beor to curse you. ¹⁰ But I would not listen to Balaam. So he had to pray for good to come to you. And I saved you from his hand.

¹¹ ’You crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The people of Jericho fought against you. And the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Hivite and the Jebusite fought against you. So I gave them into your hand. ¹² I sent the hornets ahead of you. They drove out the people and the two kings of the Amorites from in front of you. You did not do it by your sword or bow. ¹³ I gave you a land you did not work for. You live in cities you did not build. You are eating from vines and olive trees you did not plant.’

¹⁴ “So fear the Lord. Serve Him in faith and truth. Put away the gods your fathers served on the other side of the river and in Egypt. Serve the Lord. ¹⁵ If you think it is wrong to serve the Lord, choose today whom you will serve. Choose the gods your fathers worshiped on the other side of the river, or choose the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”

¹⁶ The people answered, “May it never be that we turn away from the Lord and serve other gods. ¹⁷ For the Lord our God is the One Who brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house where we were made to work. He did these powerful works in front of our eyes. He kept us safe everywhere we went, among all the nations we passed through. ¹⁸ The Lord drove away from in front of us all the nations, even the Amorites who lived in the land. So we will serve the Lord. For He is our God.”

¹⁹ Then Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve the Lord. For He is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your wrong-doing or your sins. ²⁰ If you turn away from the Lord and serve strange gods, He will turn and punish you. He will destroy you after He has been good to you.” ²¹ The people said to Joshua, “Not so, for we will serve the Lord.” ²² Then Joshua said to the people, “You have spoken for yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.” And they said, “We have spoken for ourselves.” ²³ Joshua said, “So put away the strange gods that are among you. Give your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” ²⁴ The people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God. We will obey His voice.” ²⁵ So Joshua made an agreement with the people that day. And he made Laws for them in Shechem. ²⁶ Joshua wrote these words in the book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the tree that was by the holy place of the Lord. ²⁷ Joshua said to all the people, “See, this stone will be here to speak against us. For it has heard all the words the Lord spoke to us. So it will be here to speak against you, if you do not stay true to your God.” ²⁸ Then Joshua sent the people away, each to his own land.

The Death of Joshua and Eleazar

²⁹ After this, Joshua the son of Nun, the Lord’s servant, died. He was 110 years old. ³⁰ They buried him in the land he was given in Timnath-serah, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. ³¹ Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and of the leaders who lived after him who had known all the works the Lord had done for Israel.

³² The people of Israel brought the bones of Joseph from Egypt. They buried them in Shechem, in the piece of ground Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for 100 pieces of money. It became the land of Joseph’s children.

³³ Eleazar the son of Aaron died also. They buried him on the hill at Gibeah that was given to his son Phinehas in the hill country of Ephraim.