For Teaching

Joshua 22: What the Passage Says

106 claims across 34 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Joshua 22 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Joshua sends the Reubenites, Gadites, and half-tribe of Manasseh home to their land east of the Jordan, praising their help in the war and telling them to keep the law Moses gave them and to share the plunder with their families. On the way they build a large altar by the Jordan, and the rest of Israel gathers at Shiloh to go to war against them for it. A delegation led by Phinehas the priest confronts them, and the eastern tribes explain that the altar is not for sacrifices but a copy meant as a witness that they too belong to the LORD. Phinehas and the leaders accept the answer, report back, and Israel drops the plan to attack.

Claim by Claim

22:1
- Joshua called the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh.
22:2
- Joshua said to them that they had kept all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded them.
- Joshua said they had obeyed his voice in all that he commanded them.
22:3
- Joshua said they had not left their brothers these many days up to this day.
- Joshua said they had kept the charge of the commandment of the LORD their God.
22:4
- Joshua said the LORD their God had now given rest to their brothers.
- Joshua said the LORD had given that rest as he had spoken to them.
- Joshua told them to turn and go to their tents.
- Joshua told them to go to the land of their possession.
- Moses the servant of the LORD gave them that land across the Jordan.
22:5
- Joshua told them to take great care to do the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded them.
- The commandment and law were to love the LORD their God.
- The commandment and law were to walk in all his ways.
- The commandment and law were to keep his commandments.
- The commandment and law were to cling to him.
- The commandment and law were to serve him with all their heart and with all their soul.
22:6
- Joshua blessed them.
- Joshua sent them away.
- They went to their tents.
22:7
- Moses had given possession in Bashan to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh.
- Joshua gave the other half of the tribe of Manasseh possession among their brothers on the west side of the Jordan.
- Joshua sent them away to their tents.
- Joshua blessed them.
22:8
- Joshua spoke to them, telling them to return to their tents with much wealth.
- Joshua told them to return with very much livestock.
- Joshua told them to return with silver and gold and bronze and iron.
- Joshua told them to return with very much clothing.
- Joshua told them to divide the spoil of their enemies with their brothers.
22:9
- The children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh returned and departed from the children of Israel at Shiloh.
- Shiloh is in the land of Canaan.
- They went to the land of Gilead, the land of their possession.
- They had taken possession of that land according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses.
22:10
- They came to the region of the Jordan that is in the land of Canaan.
- The children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh built an altar there by the Jordan.
- The altar was great to look upon.
22:11
- The children of Israel heard a report.
- The report said that the children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh had built an altar facing the land of Canaan.
- The report said the altar was in the region of the Jordan, on the side belonging to the children of Israel.
22:12
- The children of Israel heard of it.
- The whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered at Shiloh.
- They gathered to go up against them to war.
22:13
- The children of Israel sent Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest to the children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead.
22:14
- Ten princes went with Phinehas.
- There was one prince for each ancestral house for all the tribes of Israel.
- Each of them was a head of his ancestral house among the thousands of Israel.
22:15
- They came to the children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead.
- They spoke with them.
22:16
- They said this is what the whole congregation of the LORD says.
- They asked what this treachery was that they had committed against the God of Israel.
- They said it was turning away this day from following the LORD.
- They said the treachery was in building themselves an altar.
- They said the building was so that they might rebel this day against the LORD.
22:17
- They asked whether the iniquity of Peor was too little for them.
- They said they had not cleansed themselves from that iniquity until this day.
- They said a plague came upon the congregation of the LORD.
22:18
- They asked whether the Reubenites, Gadites, and half tribe of Manasseh would turn away this day from following the LORD.
- They said that if they rebelled today against the LORD, tomorrow he would be angry with the whole congregation of Israel.
22:19
- They said that if the land of their possession was unclean, they should cross over to the land of the LORD's possession.
- They said the LORD's tabernacle dwells in that land.
- They told them to take possession among them.
- They told them not to rebel against the LORD.
- They told them not to rebel against them.
- They said the rebellion was in building themselves an altar besides the altar of the LORD our God.
22:20
- They asked whether Achan the son of Zerah did not commit treachery in the devoted thing.
- They said wrath fell on the whole congregation of Israel.
- They said that man did not perish alone in his iniquity.
22:21
- The children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh answered.
- They spoke to the heads of the thousands of Israel.
22:22
- They said the LORD God of gods knows, saying it twice.
- They said Israel shall know.
- They said that if it was in rebellion or in treachery against the LORD, do not save us this day.
22:23
- They said that if they built themselves an altar to turn away from following the LORD, or to offer on it burnt offering or grain offering, or to make on it peace offerings, the LORD himself would require it.
22:24
- They said they had rather done this out of anxiety about a matter.
- They said they feared that in time to come the children of Israel's children would say to their children, What have you to do with the LORD God of Israel?
22:25
- They said the children of Israel's children would say that the LORD had made the Jordan a border between them and the children of Reuben and the children of Gad.
- They said the children would say that the Reubenites and Gadites have no portion in the LORD.
- They said that in this way their children would make their own children cease from fearing the LORD.
22:26
- They said they had decided to build the altar.
- They said the altar was not for burnt offering.
- They said the altar was not for sacrifice.
22:27
- They said the altar was to be a witness between them and the children of Israel and between their generations after them.
- They said it was a witness that they would do the service of the LORD before him with their burnt offerings, their sacrifices, and their peace offerings.
- They said it was so that the children of Israel's children would not say to their children in time to come, You have no portion in the LORD.
22:28
- They said that if in time to come the others said this to them or to their generations, they would answer.
- They said they would tell them to look at the pattern of the altar of the LORD that their fathers made.
- They said that altar was not for burnt offering and not for sacrifice.
- They said it is a witness between them and the children of Israel.
22:29
- They said far be it from them to rebel against the LORD.
- They said far be it from them to turn this day from following the LORD.
- They said far be it from them to build an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, besides the altar of the LORD their God.
- They said the altar of the LORD their God is before his tabernacle.
22:30
- Phinehas the priest, the princes of the congregation, and the heads of the thousands of Israel who were with him heard the words that the children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and the children of Manasseh spoke.
- It was good in their eyes.
22:31
- Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest spoke to the children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and the children of Manasseh.
- Phinehas said that this day they knew the LORD is among them.
- Phinehas said this was because they had not committed this treachery against the LORD.
- Phinehas said they had now delivered the children of Israel out of the hand of the LORD.
22:32
- Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest and the princes returned from the children of Reuben and the children of Gad.
- They returned from the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the children of Israel.
- They brought back word to them.
22:33
- The matter was good in the eyes of the children of Israel.
- The children of Israel blessed God.
- They did not speak of going up against them in battle.
- They did not speak of destroying the land in which the children of Reuben and the children of Gad dwelt.
22:34
- The children of Reuben and the children of Gad named the altar Ed, meaning Witness.
- They said it is a witness between them that the LORD is God.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

22:1: Reuben, Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh had asked Moses for land east of the Jordan River, outside Canaan proper, because it was good grazing country. Moses agreed on one condition: their fighting men had to cross the river and fight alongside the other tribes until the conquest of Canaan was finished. That is the debt Joshua is now releasing them from.
22:2: Moses led Israel out of Egypt and gave them God's laws. He died before Israel entered Canaan, and Joshua took his place.
22:3: These three tribes already had their land east of the river. Their soldiers still crossed over and fought for years to help the other tribes get land.
22:4: "Rest" here is not sleep or leisure but a settled, secure life, the fighting is over, and each tribe is living on its own land without an enemy driving it out.
22:5: "Cleave unto him" is not about splitting something apart. In 1611 "cleave" also meant to stick fast to something, the way glue holds, and that is the sense here.
22:6: To bless someone was to ask God out loud to protect them and give them good things. Leaders often did this when people left on a journey.
22:7: Bashan was the fertile high plateau east of the Sea of Galilee, known for its cattle and oaks. The tribe of Manasseh was unusual in being split: half settled east of the Jordan, half west of it.
22:8: Dividing plunder with those who stayed behind was a fixed custom in Israel's wars: the men who guarded the camp, the families, and the herds received an equal share with the men who fought. Joshua is telling the returning soldiers to apply that rule to the families waiting at home.
22:9: Shiloh, in the hill country west of the Jordan, was where the tent of worship was set up after the conquest; it functioned as Israel's central sanctuary for generations. Gilead was the hill country east of the Jordan, the territory these tribes were returning to.
22:10: An altar was a raised platform, usually of stone or earth, on which animals and grain were burned as offerings. Altars were also sometimes built purely as markers or monuments, which is what these tribes will claim theirs is. "A great altar to look upon" means it was large and conspicuous, built to be seen from a distance.
22:11: The Hebrew here is unclear about which bank of the river the altar stood on. The phrase rendered "on the Israelite side" can mean the western, Canaan side; it can also be read as "opposite" or "at the crossing place." The ambiguity is in the original text, not in the translation.
22:12: "The whole community" (older translations: "the congregation") is the assembled body of Israel acting as a legal and military whole, the nation gathered to make a binding decision, not merely a crowd.
22:13: Phinehas was the grandson of Aaron and next in line for the high priesthood. He is chosen for this errand because he had personally intervened during the Peor incident mentioned in verse 17, which makes him the obvious envoy in a case of suspected unfaithfulness.
22:14: Israel was organized in descending units: tribe, then clan (literally "thousand," a military and family grouping rather than an exact count of 1,000 men), then "father's house" or extended family. Sending one head of a father's house from each of the ten western tribes made the delegation officially representative of the whole nation.
22:16: The word behind "unfaithful thing" (older translations: "trespass") means a serious breach of trust, treachery against someone who relied on you, or misuse of what is sacred. The specific accusation depends on a rule the reader needs to know: Israel was to offer sacrifices at one authorized sanctuary only, wherever the tent of worship stood. A second altar therefore looked like the start of a rival religion.
22:17: At Peor, on the journey to Canaan, Israelites joined in the worship and sexual rites of a local god, and a deadly epidemic followed. The delegation's point is that the whole nation suffered for the act of some of its members.
22:18: "Wroth" is an old word for very angry.
22:19: "Unclean" here is a ritual term, not a comment on soil or hygiene: land outside the area where the LORD's tent stood could be regarded as unfit for worship. The delegation is offering a drastic remedy (abandon your territory, move west, and share ours), rather than let a second altar exist. The "tent of worship" (older translations: "tabernacle") was the portable sanctuary Israel carried through the wilderness, now pitched at Shiloh.
22:20: At the capture of Jericho, everything in the city had been placed under a ban, "devoted" to God, meaning it had to be destroyed or given to the sanctuary rather than taken as loot. Achan secretly kept some of it, and Israel's army was defeated until the theft was found out. Achan and his household died. The delegation cites the case as proof that one family's offense can bring disaster on everyone.
22:22: This is a doubled oath formula using a stack of divine names (literally something like "God, God, the LORD") repeated twice for maximum solemnity. Translations differ on whether to render it as a title ("the God of gods") or as a declaration ("The Mighty One, God, is the LORD!"). The speakers are swearing in the strongest terms available, and then calling down destruction on themselves if they are lying.
22:23: Three standard kinds of offering are named. A burnt offering was an animal burned whole. A grain offering (older translations: "meat offering", in 1611 "meat" meant food of any kind, not flesh) was flour, oil, and incense. A peace or fellowship offering was an animal partly burned and partly eaten by the worshipers as a shared meal. Listing all three amounts to saying: we built nothing that any sacrifice was ever meant to happen on.
22:25: "You have no share in the LORD" is the language of inheritance law. Each tribe held a "share" or "portion" of the land; the eastern tribes fear that being outside Canaan will one day be used to argue they hold no portion in Israel's God either, and so have no claim to worship at the sanctuary.
22:27: In Israelite legal practice a heap of stones, a pillar, or a well could serve as a formal "witness", a permanent physical object that testified to an agreement long after the people who made it had died. That is the role the eastern tribes claim for this altar: a monument, not a place of sacrifice.
22:28: "Pattern" here means a copy or model, like a scale replica. The point is that the structure looks exactly like the real altar but was never lit, which is their proof that it was built as a monument rather than a place of sacrifice.
22:29: "It would be unthinkable" (older translations: "God forbid") translates an idiom meaning roughly "far be it from us", a strong formula of denial and self-distancing from a suggested act.
22:31: "Saved the Israelites from the LORD's punishment" is idiomatic: to be in someone's "hand" is to be in their power. Phinehas means that by explaining themselves the eastern tribes have prevented the nationwide disaster the delegation feared in verse 18.
22:34: "Ed" is simply the Hebrew word for "witness," so the altar's name states its purpose. The name is missing from most Hebrew manuscripts, which read only "they called the altar, for it is a witness between us"; older English translations supplied "Ed" from the context and from other ancient copies.

Read Joshua 22