Joshua 22: Summary and Commentary

Verse 1

22:1–24:33 Israel completed the conquest and allotment of the land, but much of the hard work of actually settling it still lay ahead. However, all that remained for Joshua in his role as leader of Israel was to say farewell.

22:1-34 Joshua’s first farewell was to the tribes east of the Jordan as he sent them home. Characteristically, he exhorted them to remain faithful.

Verse 2

22:2-3 Joshua commended the eastern tribes for their faithful obedience and the fulfillment of their promise to help the rest of Israel inhabit Canaan (see 1:12-18; Num 32:1-32).

Verse 4

22:4-6 Joshua’s words recall God’s words to Joshua at the beginning of the conquest (1:1-9). In order to live in the land, Israel needed to be faithful to God by being very careful to obey all the commands and the instructions given to Moses.

Verse 5

22:5 all your heart and all your soul: See Deut 6:5.

Verse 7

22:7 Moses had given: The author takes great care to emphasize that the tribes east of the Jordan were part of Israel.

Verse 8

22:8 The great wealth represented these tribes’ share of the spoils from the cities Israel had taken. • Share . . . with your relatives: While most of the fighting men assisted the rest of Israel, some men had remained to protect the women, children, and herds.

Verse 10

22:10-20 Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh built their own altar, triggering a confrontation with the rest of Israel.

22:10 to a place called Geliloth: It is reasonable to presume that Geliloth and the altar were on the west bank of the Jordan.

Verse 11

22:11 The tribes referred to here as the rest of Israel (literally the sons of Israel) consisted of the tribes given land west of the Jordan River, in Canaan proper. They already referred to themselves as Israel, excluding the tribes east of the Jordan.

Verse 12

22:12 The western tribes were ready to go to war because they saw the altar as violating Lev 17:8-9 and Deut 13:12-15.

Verse 13

22:13-14 delegation: See Deut 13:14. • The ten tribes west of the Jordan included Ephraim and the western half of Manasseh but not the tribe of Levi.

Verse 15

22:15-20 The direct and hard-hitting statements and questions of the delegation made sure that God’s wrath would not come upon the nation because of rebellion like Achan’s (7:1-15) or the episode at Peor (Num 25).

22:15 The delegation crossed the Jordan River to meet the leaders of the eastern tribes in the land of Gilead, probably in southern Gad.

Verse 16

22:16 The delegation brought the message the ten tribes had agreed upon when they met at Shiloh. • The whole community of the Lord demands to know (literally Thus says the whole congregation of the Lord): The formula using “thus says” was a typical introduction to a messenger’s report (e.g., Ezra 1:2; Isa 28:16).

Verse 17

22:17 The sin at Peor was Israel’s idolatrous rebellion in Moab, just at the point of entering the Promised Land (Num 25). Phinehas, now the leader of this delegation, had acted to save Israel from complete destruction at that time. He did not want to see any part of Israel turn away from God again.

Verse 19

22:19 Being defiled was not necessarily the result of rebellion or a moral lapse, but it did prevent persons or groups from participating in regular worship activities, including the offering of sacrifices. If the eastern tribes had defiled the land itself, the Israelites could not offer sacrifices to the Lord within it. This concern provides evidence that the eastern tribes had built their altar on the western bank of the Jordan. • The land west of the Jordan was considered the Lord’s land. The delegation from the western tribes made a very generous offer, inviting the eastern tribes to share their land. This demonstrated their commitment to national unity in faithfulness to God.

Verse 20

22:20 Achan: See ch 7. The delegation of western tribes feared that Achan’s sin and its consequences would be repeated.

Verse 21

22:21-34 The eastern tribes defended their action.

Verse 22

22:22 The Lord . . . is God! The two-fold repetition of this dramatic affirmation indicated how shocked the eastern tribes were when accused of rebellion.

Verse 23

22:23 The eastern tribes swore by the name of the Lord that they were not guilty. • The instructions for sacrifices prescribed burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings (Lev 1–3). At this time, Israel’s worship was centered at the Tabernacle in Shiloh. To offer sacrifices anywhere but the central sanctuary was a violation of God’s covenant.

Verse 24

22:24-29 The eastern tribes feared exclusion from Israel at a later time because the Jordan River divided them from the western tribes.

Verse 27

22:27 The altar near the bank of the Jordan would stand as a memorial (literally witness) through the generations that the eastern tribes were also part of Israel.

Verse 28

22:28 This altar was a copy, intended to be seen, not used.

Verse 31

22:31 you have rescued: In his reply to the eastern tribes, Phinehas used very similar language to the words God had spoken when Phinehas turned God’s anger from Israel at Peor (Num 25:11).

Verse 33

22:33 Both the eastern and western tribes were relieved that the crisis had been averted, and they joyfully praised God to renew their affirmation of national unity in faithfulness to God.

Verse 34

22:34 Witness: Hebrew texts that include this word interpret the last statement as an explanation of the name. Texts that omit the word understand the last quotation to be the name of the altar.

Verse 3

Ye have not left your brethren these many days unto this day—for the space of seven years.

Verse 4

get you unto your tents—that is, home; for their families had been left in fortified towns (Num 32:17).

Verse 8

he spake unto them, saying, Return with much riches—in cattle, clothes, and precious metals.

divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren—(See on Num 31:25-39).

Verse 10

THEY BUILD THE ALTAR OF TESTIMONY ON THEIR JOURNEY. (Jos 22:10)

when they came unto the borders of Jordan, that are in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben . . . built there an altar by Jordan—This altar was probably an immense pile of stones and earth. The generality of our translators supposes that it was reared on the banks of the Jordan, within the limits of Canaan proper. But a little closer examination seems to make the conclusion irresistible that its position was on the eastern side of the river, for these two reasons; first, because it is said (Jos 22:11) to have been built "over against," or in the sight of the land of Canaan—not within it; and secondly, because the declared motive of the trans-jordanic Israelites in erecting it was to prevent their brethren in Canaan ever saying, "in time to come, What have ye to do with the Lord God of Israel? For the Lord hath made Jordan a border between us and you," &c. [Jos 22:24-25]. Such a taunt would be obviously prevented or confuted by the two tribes and a half having on the eastern side of Jordan, within their own land, a facsimile of the altar at Shiloh, as a witness that they acknowledged the same God and practised the same rites of worship as the brethren in Canaan.

Verse 11

CONTENTION THEREUPON. (Jos. 22:11-29)

and the children of Israel heard say—Fame speedily spread intelligence of what the trans-jordanic tribes had done. The act being suspected of some idolatrous design, the tribes rose in a mass, and repairing to the tabernacle at Shiloh, resolved to declare war against the two tribes and a half as apostates from God. On calmer and more mature consideration, however, they determined, in the first instance, to send a deputation consisting of the son of the high priest, and ten eminent persons from each tribe, to make inquiry into this rumored rebellion against God (Deu 13:13-15). The quality of the deputies evinced the deep solicitude that was felt on the occasion to maintain the purity of the divine worship throughout Israel. In the presumptive belief that the two tribes and a half had really built an altar, the deputies expressed astonishment at their so soon falling into such a heinous crime as that of violating the unity of divine worship (Exo 20:24; Lev 17:8-9; Deu 12:5-13). They reminded their eastern brethren of the disastrous consequences that were entailed on the nation at large by the apostasy at Peor and by the sin of Achan, and finally exhorted them, if they felt the want of the tabernacle and altar and repented of their rash choice in preferring worldly advantages to religious privileges, to remove to the western side of the Jordan, where all the tribes would form a united and obedient community of worshippers.

Verse 21

Then the children of Reuben . . . answered—repudiating, in the strongest terms, the alleged crime, and deponing that so far from entertaining the intention imputed to them, their only object was to perpetuate the memory of their alliance with Israel [Jos 22:24-25], and their adherence to the worship of Israel's God [Jos 22:26-27].

Verse 33

THE DEPUTIES SATISFIED. (Jos 22:30-34)

the thing pleased the children of Israel—The explanation not only gave perfect satisfaction to the deputies, but elicited from them expressions of unbounded joy and thankfulness. "This day we perceive that the Lord is among us" [Jos 22:31], that is, by His gracious presence and preventing goodness, which has kept you from falling into the suspected sin and rescued the nation from the calamity of a fratricidal war or providential judgments. This episode reflects honor upon all parties and shows that piety and zeal for the honor and worship of God animated the people that entered Canaan to an extent far beyond what was exemplified in many other periods of the history of Israel.

Next: Joshua Chapter 23