Joshua 22:21-29 ▼

21 Then the Reubenites the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh answered and said to Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest and to the heads of the armies of Israel,

22 The LORD is the God of gods, the God of gods is the LORD, and he is our God, and he knows Israel and he knows us also; if we shall depart from him, or if we shall transgress against the worship of the LORD in doing this thing, then let him not save us this day.

23 And if we have built us an altar to turn from the worship of the LORD, or to offer upon it burnt offerings, or use it for any other service, let the LORD himself seek vengeance against us;

24 And if we have not rather done this thing because of reverence to him, so that in time to come your children might not say to our children, What have you to do with the LORD God of Israel, O you Reubenites and Gadites?

25 For the LORD has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you; now therefore you have no part in the LORD; so in time to come shall your children make our children cease from worshipping the LORD.

26 Therefore we said, Let us now prepare to build us an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice;

27 But that it may be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, and between ourselves and our generations after us, that we might do the service of the LORD before him with our burnt offerings and with our sacrifices and with our peace offerings, in the place where the LORD chooses to dwell; so that your children may not say to our children in time to come, You have no part in the LORD.

28 Therefore we said that it shall be, if they should ever speak to us or to our generations in time to come, then we may say to them, Behold the pattern of the altar of the LORD which our fathers made not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifices; but to be a witness between us and you.

29 God forbid that we should reject the worship of the LORD, and turn away from revering him, and build for ourselves an altar for burnt offerings, for gift offerings, or for sacrifices, besides the altar of the LORD God of Israel that is before his tabernacle.