Study Desk

and ten leaders with him, one leader for each family from each of the tribes of Israel; and each one was the head of his family among the clans of Israel.

"Thus says all the congregation of Yahweh: ‘What is this treachery that you have committed against the God of Israel by turning away today from following Yahweh, by building for yourselves an altar to rebel today against Yahweh?

Is not the sin of Peor enough for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves today, and for which a plague came to the congregation of Yahweh,

if, however, the land of your property is unclean, cross over to the land of Yahweh's property, where Yahweh's tabernacle resides, and take possession among us. But you must not rebel against Yahweh or against us by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of Yahweh our God.

for building for ourselves an altar to turn away from Yahweh, or if it was to offer burnt offerings, grain offerings, or fellowship offerings on it, may Yahweh himself take vengeance.

So we said, ‘Let us build immediately for ourselves an altar, not for burnt offerings or for sacrifices;

instead, it is a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us for performing the serving of Yahweh in his presence with our burnt offerings, sacrifices, and fellowship offerings; so that your children may not say in the future to our children, "You have no portion in Yahweh."'

And we thought, if they say to us and to our children in the future, we can say, ‘Look at this replica of the altar of Yahweh, which our ancestors made, not for burnt offerings or sacrifices; rather, it is a witness between us and you.'

Far be it from us to rebel against Yahweh, to turn today from following Yahweh, to build an altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings, or sacrifices, instead of the altar of Yahweh our God that is before his tabernacle."

The report satisfied the Israelites; they blessed God, and they did not speak of going up for battle against them to destroy the land in which the descendants of Reuben and Gad were living.

and you have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for Yahweh your God is fighting for you.

Look! I have allotted to you these remaining nations as an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, to the Great Sea in the west.

Yahweh has driven out before you great and strong nations; and as for you, nobody has withstood you to this day.

One of your men put to flight a thousand, for Yahweh your God is fighting for you, just as he promised you.

Take utmost care for the sake of your life to love Yahweh your God,

for if indeed you turn back and join these remaining nations among you, and you intermarry with them, marrying their women and they yours,

know for certain that Yahweh your God will not continue to drive out these nations from before you; they will be for you a snare and a trap, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that Yahweh your God has given to you.

They cried out to Yahweh, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and he brought the sea over them and covered them; your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt. Then you lived in the wilderness for many days.

But if it is bad in your eyes to serve Yahweh, choose for yourselves today whom you want to serve, whether it is the gods that your ancestors served beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve Yahweh."

for Yahweh our God brought us and our ancestors from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery, and did these great signs before our eyes. He protected us along the entire way that we went, and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed.