Joshua 22:29

_THEREFORE WE SAID, LET US NOW PREPARE TO BUILD US AN ALTAR, NOT FOR BURNT OFFERING, NOR FOR SACRIFICE:_ No JFB commentary on these verses....

21-29 The tribes took the reproofs of their brethren in good part. With solemnity and meekness they proceeded to give all the satisfaction in their power. Reverence of God is expressed in the form of their appeal. This brief confession of faith would remove their brethren's suspicion that they intended to worship other gods. Let us always speak of God with seriousness, and mention his name with a solemn pause. Those who make appeals to Heaven with a careless "God knows," take his name in vain: it is very unlike this. They express great confidence of their own uprightness in the matter of their appeal. "God knows it," for he is perfectly acquainted with the thoughts and intents of the heart. In every thing we do in religion, it highly concerns us to approve ourselves to God, remembering that he knows the heart. And if our sincerity be known to God, we should study likewise to let others...

Verse Joshua 22:29. _GOD FORBID THAT WE SHOULD REBEL_] These words not only express their strong abhorrence of this crime, but also show that without God they could do no good thing, and that they depended upon him for that strength by which alone they could abstain from evil....

EXPOSITION JOSHUA 22:1 THE REUBENITES AND THE GADITES. According to the Hebrew idiom, these are in the original in the singular, as in Genesis 12:6. Thus a tribe, as has been before remarked, or even a family (Joshua 6:25), is spoken of frequently as a single individual (cf. Joshua 17:14, Joshua 17:15, Joshua 17:17, Joshua 17:18). It seems prob

GOD FORBID THAT WE SHOULD REBEL AGAINST THE LORD,.... Against the command of the Lord, who ordered one altar to be made, to which all sacrifices were to be brought from the several parts of the land of Israel, and there to be offered on it; or "against the Word of the Lord,'' as the Targum, Christ typified both by the altar and the sacrifices on it; and who is but one, one priest, one sacrifice, one altar, one Mediator and Saviour: AND TURN THIS DAY FROM FOLLOWING THE LORD; apostatize from him, and from his worship: TO BUILD AN ALTAR FOR BURNT OFFERINGS, FOR MEAT OFFERINGS, OR FOR SACRIFICES; which was never our intention, or ever entered into our hearts to erect one for such a purpose: BESIDES THE ALTAR OF THE LORD OUR GOD, THAT [IS] BEFORE HIS TABERNACLE; it standing in the court of the tabernacle before the holy place....

III. THE FINAL WORDS OF JOSHUA AND THE EPILOGUE 1. The Two and One-half Tribes and the Altar Ed CHAPTER 22 _ 1. Joshua's address (Joshua 22:1)_ 2. The tribes dismissed and their return (Joshua 22:7) 3. The great altar erected (Joshua 22:10) 4. War proposed (Joshua 22:11) 5. The mission of Phinehas and the explanation (Joshua 22:13) 6. The explanation accepted (Joshua 22:30) 7. The altar Ed ...

THE ALTAR OF WITNESS ERECTED BY THE E. JORDAN TRIBES. This narrative is clearly not historical, and the question arises, Why should it have been composed? The answer is that it is a Midrash (p. 314, 2 Chronicles 13:22 *) of the same nature as those in Numbers 15:32, the man gathering sticks on the Sabbath, and Numbers 31:25, the law for the division of the spoil. In this connexion we may quote the admirable words of Mr. Ball: We have to bear in mind a fact familiar enough to students of Talmudic and Midrashic literature, the inveterate tendency to convey their doctrine not in the form of abstract discourse, but in a mode appealing directly to the imagination.. The Rabbi embodies his lesson in a story, whether

GOD FORBID. far be it from us....

Defence of the Two Tribes and a Half 21. _Then the children of Reuben_ The two tribes and a half proceed to defend themselves and to shew that their object was in all respects the very reverse of that imputed to them....

_VER._ 29. _GOD FORBID THAT WE SHOULD REBEL AGAINST THE LORD,_ &C.— They conclude, as they began, by protesting in the most sacred manner before God, that they have an utter abhorrence of the very idea, of the least tendency to rebellion _against Jehovah;_ or, as the Chaldee paraphrase, both here and in the foregoing verses, has it, _against the word of the Lord._ Thus ended the conference in behalf of the Israelites beyond Jordan: how admirable is the mildness with which their judicious apologist repels the most dreadful suspicions, and the most ignominious accusations! using for this purpose no offensive retort, over-bearing arrogance, or affronting language. Happy they who can imitate the amiable example, and have virtue enough never to oppose to the false judgments passed upon them, and the groundless accusations they undergo, aught but proofs demonstrative of their innocence, and of...