Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

But that it may be a witness between us and you, and our generations after us,.... That we are one people, worship one God, and serve at one altar, of which this built was a resemblance, and would put them in mind of it:

that we might do the service of the Lord before him; in the tabernacle, and at the altar, in the place where he had chosen to put his name and dwell:

with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings; to be brought at stated times, or as occasion required:

that your children may not say to our children, in time to come, ye have no part in the Lord; nor right to his altar, and so forbid them offering their sacrifices on it; or"have no part in the Word of the Lord,'as the Targum; the Messiah, whose sacrifice was typified by the sacrifices of the legal dispensation, and all such, who offered theirs in the faith of that, had a part in it, and their sins were expiated by it.

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

But that it may be a witness between us, and you, 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; that your children may not say to our children in time to come, Ye have no part in the LORD.

Before him — That we and ours may have and hold our privilege of serving and worshiping God, not upon this altar, but in the place of God's presence, in your tabernacle, and upon your altar.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

Joshua 22:27 But [that] it [may be] a witness between us, and you, 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; that your children may not say to our children in time to come, Ye have no part in the LORD.

Ver. 27. But that it may be a witness.] Of our care to hold communion with you in the sincere service of God, by our engraving some inscription upon it, or keeping in our treasury of monuments some public record, when, by whom, or to what end that altar was built.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

That we might do the service of the Lord before him; that we and ours may have and hold our privilege of serving and worshipping God, not upon this altar, but in the office of God’s presence, in your tabernacle, and upon your altar.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

27.That it may be a witness — Having disavowed that their altar was intended for sacrificial uses, they now plainly declare that it was intended for a memorial that their children were entitled to appear as worshippers before that altar in Shiloh of which this was a facsimile.

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments

Joshua 22:27. But that it may be a witness — It was an ancient way of preserving the remembrance of things to raise such structures. That we might do the service of the Lord before him — That we and ours may have and retain the privilege of serving and worshipping God, not upon this altar, but in the place of God’s presence, in your tabernacle, and upon your altar.

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

a witness. Compare Genesis 31:48, and see Joshua 22:34 below, and Ch. Joshua 24:27.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(27) Ye have no part in the Lord.—Something of the kind was insinuated in the abuse of the Gileadites by the men of Ephraim (Judges 12:4), when they said, “Ye Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites, and among the Manassites.” That taunt cost the Ephraimites the lives of 42,000 men. The person who made it the law of Israel to have no part in Jehovah was “Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin” by setting up the calves, and thus diverting the stream of national worshippers from Jerusalem, the place chosen by the Lord. It may be further observed that Joshua’s efforts under the direction of Jehovah for the establishment of national unity in Israel are proved by the narrative in this chapter to have taken considerable effect. At whatever cost, it was felt that the unity of national worship must be maintained. Rebellion “against Jehovah” is treated by the heads of Israel (Joshua 22:19) as rebellion “against us.”

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

But that it may be a witness between us, and you, 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; that your children may not say to our children in time to come, Ye have no part in the LORD.

a witness

10,34; 24:27; Genesis 31:48,52; 1 Samuel 7:12

that we

Deuteronomy 12:5,6,11,17,18,26,27

Reciprocal: Genesis 21:30 - a witness;  Genesis 31:44 - a witness;  Joshua 4:6 - a sign;  Joshua 22:25 - ye have;  Isaiah 19:20 - for a