Joshua 22-24

New Catholic Bible

The Return of the Eastern Tribes and Joshua’s Farewell

Chapter 22

Dismissal of the Tribes. ¹ Joshua then summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites, and one of the halves of the tribe of Manasseh ² and he said to them, “You have done all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you to do, and you have obeyed me in everything. ³ For a long time now, right up to this very day, you have not deserted your brothers. You have fulfilled the task that the Lord, your God, gave you. ⁴ Now that the Lord, your God, has given your brothers the rest that he had promised them, you can return to your homes in the land that Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you as a possession on the other side of the Jordan. ⁵ Take heed to follow the commandments and the laws that Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you: to love the Lord, your God, and to walk in his ways and to observe his commandments, holding fast to him and serving him with all your heart and all your soul.”^[a]

⁶ Joshua then blessed them and sent them away, and they returned to their homes.

⁷ (Moses had given Bashan to one of the halves of the tribe of Manasseh, while Joshua gave the other half some land among their brothers on the western side of the Jordan.) When Joshua sent them to their homes, he blessed them ⁸ saying, “Return to your homes with your great wealth: your numerous cattle as well as silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and your numerous garments. Divide the spoils from your enemies among your brethren.”^[b]

⁹ So the Reubenites, the Gadites, and one of the halves of the tribe of Manasseh left the Israelites at Shiloh, in the land of Canaan, to travel to the land of Gilead, the land they were to possess. They were given possession of it by the word of the Lord through Moses.

¹⁰ The Altar across the Jordan. When they arrived at Geliloth near the Jordan, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and one of the halves of the tribe of Manasseh built an altar there beside the Jordan. It was an impressive altar, something to see.

¹¹ The Israelites then heard that the Reubenites, the Gadites, and one of the halves of the tribe of Manasseh had built an altar at Geliloth, on the border of Canaan, on the Israelite side of the Jordan. ¹² The Israelites heard about this and the whole assembly of the Israelites gathered together at Shiloh to go and attack them.

¹³ The Israelites sent Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and one of the halves of the tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead. ¹⁴ With him they sent ten leaders, a leader for each of the tribes of Israel, each one the head of an ancestral clan among the divisions of Israel. ¹⁵ They came to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and one of the halves of the tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead and they said to them, ¹⁶ “Thus says the whole assembly of the Lord: What is this treachery that you have committed against the God of Israel, turning away from the Lord this day by building an altar for yourselves so that you might rebel against the Lord? ¹⁷ Is the iniquity that was committed at Peor not enough for us? We have not been fully purified from it up to the present even though there was a plague in the assembly of the Lord. ¹⁸ Why do you turn away from following the Lord today? If today you rebel against the Lord, then tomorrow his anger will rage against the whole assembly of Israel. ¹⁹ If the land in your possession is unclean, then cross over to the land in the possession of the Lord where the tabernacle of the Lord is kept. You can share it with us. Only, do not rebel against the Lord, and do not rebel against us by building an altar other than the altar to the Lord, our God. ²⁰ When Achan, the son of Zerah, committed a sin in regard to the things that had been dedicated, did not wrath come upon the whole assembly of Israel? That man was not the only one who perished because of his sin.”

²¹ So the Reubenites, the Gadites, and one of the halves of the tribe of Manasseh replied to the leaders of the divisions of Israel, ²² “The God of gods, the Lord! The God of gods, the Lord! He knows! Let Israel know as well! If this has been an act of rebellion or treachery against the Lord, then may we not be saved today. ²³ If we have built an altar to turn away from the Lord, or to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings, or to make peace offerings on it, may the Lord himself call us to account! ²⁴ No! We did this thing for fear that sometime in the future your descendants might say to our descendants, ‘What do you have to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? ²⁵ The Lord has made the Jordan a boundary between you and us, you Reubenites and Gadites. You have no share in the Lord.’ Then your descendants would have caused our descendants to stop fearing the Lord. ²⁶ This is why we said to ourselves, ‘Let us prepare for it and build an altar, but not for burnt offerings or sacrifices.’ ²⁷ Let it be a witness between ourselves and yourselves as well as for the generations that come after us so that we might continue in the service of the Lord, offering burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings before him. This way, in the future, your descendants will not be able to say to our descendants, ‘You have no share in the Lord.’ ²⁸ We said to ourselves, ‘If they ever say this to us or to our descendants in the future, we will be able to tell them to look at the copy of the Lord’s altar that was built by our fathers. It was not for burnt offerings or sacrifices, but to serve as a witness between ourselves and yourselves. ²⁹ God forbid that we should rebel against the Lord and turn away from the Lord today by building an altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings, and sacrifices in any place other than the altar to the Lord, our God, that stands in front of his tabernacle.”

³⁰ When Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the assembly, the leaders of the divisions of Israel, heard what the Reubenites and the Gadites, and the Manassehites said, it greatly pleased them. ³¹ Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, said to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and to the Manassehites, “Today we are sure that the Lord is with us, for you have not acted unfaithfully against the Lord in this matter. You have now rescued the Israelites out of the hand of the Lord.”

³² Then Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, and the leaders returned from the Reubenites and the Gadites in Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the Israelites, and they brought them a report. ³³ The report greatly pleased the Israelites and they praised God. The Israelites decided not to go up against the Reubenites and the Gadites to fight them and destroy the land in which they dwelt. ³⁴ The Reubenites and the Gadites gave the altar this name: A witness between us that the Lord is God.^[c]

Chapter 23^[d]

Joshua’s Final Discourse. ¹ Quite some time later, after the Lord had given Israel rest from all of its surrounding enemies, and when Joshua had grown old and was well advanced in years, ² Joshua summoned all of Israel including its leaders and officials, their judges and their officers, and he said to them, “I am now an old man, well advanced in years ³ and you have seen all that the Lord, your God, has done to all of these nations on your behalf, for the Lord, your God, has fought for you. ⁴ I have divided up by lot these remaining nations as an inheritance for your tribes, all the nations that I have conquered between the Jordan and the Great Sea to the west. ⁵ The Lord, your God, himself will drive them out before you. He will push them out of your sight so that you can take possession of the land that the Lord, your God, has promised you. ⁶ Be most courageous, and be careful to observe everything that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses. Do not turn away from it to the right or the left. ⁷ Avoid associating with these nations that still remain among you. Do not mention the names of their gods; do not swear by them. Do not serve them; do not worship them. ⁸ Hold fast to the Lord, your God,^[e] as you have done up to the present. ⁹ The Lord has driven out great and powerful nations from before you. To this day no one has been able to stand up against you. ¹⁰ Just one of you has been able to route a thousand, because the Lord, your God, has fought for you, just as he promised you that he would do. ¹¹ So be very careful to love the Lord, your God.

^12 [f]“But if you were to turn away and you were to ally yourselves with the survivors of the nations that remain here, and you were to intermarry with them, and you were to associate with them, ¹³ then you should know for sure that the Lord, your God, will no longer drive out these nations before you. They will be like snares and traps to you, as if they were scourges upon your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you finally vanish from this good land that the Lord, your God, has given you.

¹⁴ “I am now about to go the way of all upon the earth. You know very well in your hearts and your souls that not one of the good things that the Lord, your God, promised you has failed to take place. Every promise has been fulfilled, not one of them has been broken. ¹⁵ Just as all the good things that the Lord, your God, has promised you have come true, so the Lord could bring upon you all the evil that he has threatened until he has wiped you out from this good land that the Lord, your God, has given you. ¹⁶ If you transgress the covenant that the Lord, your God, has commanded you to observe, and you go and serve other gods and worship them, then the Lord’s anger will blaze out against you. You will quickly perish from the good land that the Lord, your God, has given you.”

Chapter 24^[g]

Renewing the Covenant. ¹ Joshua then gathered all of the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders of Israel along with their leaders, their judges, and their officers, and they presented themselves before God. ² Joshua said to all of the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the river in times of old, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods. ³ Then I took Abraham from the other side of the river and I led him all through the land of Canaan. I multiplied his descendants, giving him Isaac. ⁴ I gave Jacob and Esau to Isaac. I gave Mount Seir to Esau to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.

⁵ “I sent Moses and Aaron and I plagued Egypt with what I did in their midst. Afterward, I brought you out. ⁶ Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt. You came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen into the Red Sea. ⁷ They cried to the Lord, and he caused darkness to descend between you and the Egyptians. He brought the sea down upon them, and it covered them. Your own eyes have seen what I did in Egypt. You then dwelt in the wilderness for a long time. ⁸ I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived on the other side of the Jordan. They fought against you, and I gave them up into your hands so that you might take possession of the land, and I crushed them before you. ⁹ Then Balak, the son of Zippor, the king of Moab, rose up and fought against Israel. He sent for and summoned Balaam, the son of Beor, to curse you, ¹⁰ but I would not listen to Balaam. He therefore blessed you, and so I delivered you out of his hands. ¹¹ You crossed over the Jordan and arrived at Jericho. The men of Jericho fought against you along with the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. I delivered them into your hands. ¹² I sent hornets before you to drive them out before you, including the two kings of the Amorites. It was not your sword or your bow that did it. ¹³ I gave you a land on which you did not labor, I gave you cities which you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant. ¹⁴ Therefore, you must fear the Lord and serve him with sincerity and fidelity. Put aside the gods that your fathers served on the other side of the river and in Egypt. Serve the Lord. ¹⁵ If it seems wrong to you to serve the Lord, then today you must choose whom you will serve, whether it be the gods that your fathers served on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites who dwell in the land. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

^16 [h]The people said, “God forbid that we should abandon the Lord to serve other gods. ¹⁷ It was the Lord, our God, who brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, the land of our bondage. He performed great wonders in our sight. He preserved us all along the journey that we made, and among all the people through whom we passed. ¹⁸ The Lord drove out all the people before us, even the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”

¹⁹ But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God, he will not forgive your sins or your transgressions. ²⁰ If you turn away from the Lord to serve foreign gods, then he will turn away from you. He will punish you and wipe you out, even after the good that he has done for you.”

²¹ The people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.” ²² Then Joshua said to the people, “You will serve as your own witnesses that you have chosen to serve the Lord.” They answered, “We are witnesses.” ²³ He continued, “Then put away the foreign gods from among you. Bend your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel.” ²⁴ The people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord, our God, and obey his voice.”

²⁵ So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day. He established statutes and ordinances for them in Shechem. ²⁶ Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God. He took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that is in the sanctuary of the Lord. ²⁷ Joshua said to all the people, “This stone will be a witness for us. It has heard all of the words that the Lord spoke to us. It will therefore be a witness for you, lest you deny your God.” ²⁸ Joshua then sent the people away, each to his own inheritance.

²⁹ The Death of Joshua. After this happened, Joshua, the son of Nun, died. He was one hundred and ten years old. ³⁰ They buried him within his own inheritance in Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. ³¹ Israel served the Lord during Joshua’s entire lifetime, and during the lifetime of the elders who survived Joshua, for they had known all of the works that the Lord had performed on Israel’s behalf. ³² The bones of Joseph, that the Israelites had brought up out of Egypt, were buried in Shechem in the parcel of land that Jacob had bought for one hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, who himself was the father of Shechem. It was an inheritance for the descendants of Joseph. ³³ Eleazar, the son of Aaron, then died. They buried him at Gibeah, the place that Phinehas, his son, had been given in the hill country of Ephraim.