Joshua 22:19, commentary and pictures

The verse belongs to the settlement of Gad and Reuben with half Manasseh east of the Jordan, who chose their inheritance there because the upland plains and forests of Gilead and Bashan gave grazing for their flocks and herds. Those tribes had pledged their armed men to go with their brethren across the Jordan and share the battles until Canaan was possessed, and they faithfully kept that pledge with forty thousand passing over to the plains of Jericho and fighting for years beside their brethren. They then returned to the land of their possession with much riches, cattle, silver, gold, brass, iron and raiment to share with those who had remained with the families and flocks. They dwelt at a distance from the sanctuary of the Lord, where their isolated and wandering life brought strong temptation to fall into the customs of the heathen tribes on their borders, a danger viewed with an anxious heart at their departure.

When they built an altar east of the Jordan, the ten tribes of the west feared that people God had accepted as His own would become divided in interest and worship, so in sincere zeal to guard against rebellion and preserve true worship they promptly rebuked their brethren in an effort to maintain the honor of God and the purity of Israel. In the verse a share in the land where the Lord's tabernacle stood, with its land and privileges, is offered to the men of Gad and Reuben if their own land is unclean and keeps them from faithful worship at the Lord's tabernacle. The verse warns them not to rebel against God or against Israel by building an altar beside the altar of the Lord, because the new altar was feared to be a rival place for sacrifice and worship which God had restricted to the tabernacle. Such a rival altar could lead the people away from the true faith and bring judgment on all Israel.

That zeal misjudged and severely reprimanded men who were honestly seeking to promote the cause of true religion, and threatened serious and even fatal results from a simple misunderstanding. Although the concern was sincere, courteous questions should have been asked and the facts learned before judging the brethren, since vigilance against sin can become harsh, groundless suspicion. The wisdom of the accused under that trying rebuke is worthy of imitation: one unjustly suspected or censured by brethren must not yield to anger or cherish desire for retaliation, but must use the occasion to develop the precious grace of meekness and forbearance, and such a course averts great evils in the similar difficulties and misunderstandings that still arise among the people of God.