The children of Israel heard this, “Behold, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar along the border of the land of Canaan, in the region around the Jordan, on the side that belongs to the children of Israel.”
Parallel Translations
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The children of Israel heard this, “Behold, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar along the border of the land of Canaan, in the region around the Jordan, on the side that belongs to the children of Israel.”
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And the children of Israel heard say, Behold, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh have built an altar over against the land of Canaan, in the borders of Jordan, at the passage of the children of Israel.
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And the children of Israel heard say: 'Behold, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar in the forefront of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that pertaineth to the children of Israel.'
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to Joshua 22:11 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 13:12-14 If you hear about one of your cities, which Yahweh your God gives you to dwell there, that certain wicked fellows have gone out from among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods,” which you have not known, then you shall inquire, investigate, and ask diligently. Behold, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination was done among you,
- Leviticus 17:8-9 “You shall say to them, ‘Any man there is of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners among them, who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice, and doesn’t bring it to the door of the Tent of Meeting to sacrifice it to Yahweh, that man shall be cut off from his people.
- Deuteronomy 12:5-7 But to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and you shall come there. You shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, your vows, your free will offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock there. There you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you.
- Joshua 2:7 The men pursued them along the way to the fords of the Jordan River. As soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate.
- John 1:28 These things were done in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
- Joshua 3:14-16 When the people moved from their tents to pass over the Jordan, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant being before the people, and when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark had dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the time of harvest), the waters which came down from above stood, and rose up in one heap a great way off, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those that went down toward the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off. Then the people passed over near Jericho.
- Judges 12:5 The Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. Whenever a fugitive of Ephraim said, “Let me go over,” the men of Gilead said to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No;”
- John 20:1 Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went early, while it was still dark, to the tomb, and saw the stone taken away from the tomb.
- John 20:12 and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head, and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (10 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 11. And the children of Israel heard say, etc…
11. And the children of Israel heard say, etc There is no doubt that they were inflamed with holy zeal, nor ought their vehemence to seem excessive in taking up arms to destroy their countrymen on account of a pile of stones. For they truly and wisely judged that the lawful sanctuary of God was polluted and his worship profaned, that sacred things were violated, pious concord destroyed, and a door opened for the license of superstitious practices, if in two places victims were offered to God, who had for these reasons so solemnly bound the whole people to a single altar. Not rashly, therefore, do the ten tribes, on hearing of a profane altar, detest its sacrilegious audacity.
Here, then, we have an illustrious display of piety, teaching us that if we see the pure worship of God corrupted, we must be strenuous, to the utmost of our ability, in vindicating it. The sword, indeed, has not been committed to the hands of all; but every one must, according to his call and office, study manfully and firmly to maintain the purity of religion against all corruption’s. More especially deserving of the highest praise was the zeal of the half-tribe of Manasseh, who, setting aside all regard to the flesh, did not spare their own family. I admit, however, that this zeal, though pious, was not free from turbulent impetuosity, inasmuch as they hasten to declare war before they inquired concerning the mind of their brethren, and properly ascertained the state of the case. War, I admit, was declared only under conditions; for they send ambassadors to bring back word after they had carefully investigated the matter, and they move not a finger in the way of inflicting punishment till they are certified of the existence of the crime. Excuse, therefore, may be made for the fervor of their passion, while they prepare for battle in the event of any defection being discovered.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jos 22:11 And the children of Israel heard say,…
Jos 22:11 And the children of Israel heard say, Behold, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh have built an altar over against the land of Canaan, in the borders of Jordan, at the passage of the children of Israel.
Ver. 11. And the children of Israel heard say.] Fame had soon blown her trumpet: but is, mostly, a loud liar -
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“ Tam ficti privique tenax quam nuncia veri. ” - Virg.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Where they passed over Jordan, either at their first…
Where they passed over Jordan, either at their first entrance into Canaan, or afterwards, and usually.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And when the children of Israel heard of it,....…
And when the children of Israel heard of it,.... Of the building the altar in the above place, namely, the nine tribes and a half settled in the land of Canaan:
the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered themselves together at Shiloh; where the tabernacle and altar of the Lord were, whose cause they undertook to avenge, being injured as they imagined by the altar the other tribes had built, and where they could consult the Lord by Urim and Thummim, if needful; hither they repaired from the several places around, where their tribes were settled; not the whole body of the people, but their heads and representatives:
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to go up to war against them; to consult about it, and to prepare for it, which they were obliged to do by the law of God, as in the case of a city, so of a tribe drawn aside to idolatry; and which they imagined was the case of these tribes, or at least what they had done had a tendency to apostasy from the true worship of God, which they were zealous to defend at the hazard of their lives, and though it should issue in an extirpation of one or more of their tribes; see Deu 13:12.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain At the passage - Where they passed over Jordan,…
At the passage - Where they passed over Jordan, either at their first entrance into Canaan, or afterwards, and usually.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain CONTENTION THEREUPON. (Jos. 22:11-29)
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.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 11–20. Embassy from Israel to the Two and a…
11–20. Embassy from Israel to the Two and a Half Tribes
11. heard] News of the step taken by the trans-Jordanic tribes so suddenly and without any consultation, reached the ears of their brethren, and gave rise to “great searchings of heart.”
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in the borders] i.e. the circles of Jordan, as in Jos_22:10.
at the passage of the children of Israel] More literally, by the side of the sons of Israel. Comp. Exo_25:37; Exo_32:15.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (11) Have built an altar.—Rather, have built the altar.…
(11) Have built an altar.—Rather, have built the altar. As appears by Jos_22:28, it was a representation of the altar of Jehovah: a copy of the one altar which He had given to Israel for sacrifice. The design was to set up on the east of Jordan a likeness of that altar which was established on the west, that the tribes on the other side of Jordan might appeal to it as a proof that they also were the people of Jehovah.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Half tribe of Manasseh. Throughout this part of the…
Half tribe of Manasseh. Throughout this part of the narrative, when the body politic, rather than the descent of the tribe, is to be indicated, we have, not hFm, but fbv. See above, Jos_13:29.
An altar. The original has the altar. Over against lWmAla. It is difficult to fix the meaning of this expression. lWm seems to have meant the front of anything, and therefore lWmAla would naturally mean towards the front of, or in front of. Thus we have had the expression in Jos_8:33 (where see note), where it seems to mean, in the direction of, and in Jos_9:1, where it seems to have the same meaning. With verbs of motion it signifies towards, as in Exo_34:3, and 1Sa_17:30. Here it clearly cannot be pressed to mean across Jordan. See note below. The borders of Jordan. As above, ver. 10, the circles of Jordan. At the passage of the children of Israel. The word translated "the passage of," literally," unto over," has originally the sense of "across." Here, however, it means towards the region opposite to the sons of Israel," i.e., in the direction of the country on the other side Jordan. The country across Jordan was usually designated as rbeB or rbeme Jordan. rbeAla, the phrase used here, we find in Exo_28:26, apparently in the sense of across . (so Exo_39:19) In Deu_30:13 it is used of moving in the direction of a place, "across" or "over the sea." In Eze_1:9, Eze_1:12, with the addition of wynp, the phrase means "straight forward." In 1Sa_14:40 dha rbel means "on one side." In 1Ki 7 rbel means "over." Thus the altar was not necessarily on the other side Jordan.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 22:11 The tribes referred to here as the rest…
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.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.