Joshua 22:24

Jos 22:24 And if we have not [rather] done it for fear of [this] thing, saying, In time to come your children might speak unto our children, saying, What have ye to do with the LORD God of Israel?

Ver. 24. And if we have not rather done it.] In communionis symbolum: to a quite contrary purpose. The ten tribes therefore were to blame for misconstruing them. Quid minus est non dico Oratoris sed hominis, quam id obiecere adversario quod si ille verbo negarit, ulterius progredi non possis? {a} Say the best of things.

{a} Cicero.

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.

22:24-29 The eastern tribes feared exclusion from Israel at a later time because the Jordan River divided them from the western tribes.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 24. For fear of this thing] The motive that actuated us was directly the reverse of that of which we have been suspected.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

24. and if we have not] More literally, and if not rather from anxiety, for a reason we have done this thing. The word rendered “fear” is translated “care” in Eze_4:16; “carefulness” Eze_12:18-19.

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.

For the Lord hath made Jordan a border between us and you,.... And by it separated them from them, as if they were a distinct people; not that this was really the case, but so they feared it would be represented in time to come; for though Jordan was the border of the land of Canaan, strictly so called, eastward, Num 34:12; yet it did not exclude the land of the two tribes and a half from being part of the land of promise; for the Amorites, which before inhabited it, and were driven out of it, were Canaanites, and were one part of the people, whose land the Lord promised to Abraham, Gen 15:18,

ye children of Reuben, and children of Gad, have no part in the Lord; in his covenant and promises, in his worship, word, and ordinances; these are things you have nothing to do with, being separated from us his peculiar people; or "have no part in the Word of the Lord", as the Targum, the promised Messiah, being without, or separated from him, as the Gentiles are said to be, Eph 2:12,

so shall your children make our children cease from fearing the Lord; from worshipping the Lord, the fear of the Lord being often put for the whole worship of God, external and internal, Ecc 12:13; by behaving in the above manner towards them, they would be the cause and occasion of their apostasy from the true God, and it would be in effect to say to them, "go, serve other gods", Sa1 26:19.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

To-morrow. At any future period. (Haydock) --- Israel. The same idea is expressed, ver. 27. You have no part in the Lord. You are not his peculiar people. Of this title the Israelites were always very jealous, even when they neglected the worship and covenant of the Lord. (Calmet) --- Hence these tribes take these precautions, that they may not be excluded from the society and privileges of their brethren on the other side of the Jordan. They profess openly that they do not esteem it lawful to offer sacrifice in any other place, besides that which God had chosen. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

You have no relation to him, nor interest in him, or his worship.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

24. For fear — The Hebrew word indicates great and distressing solicitude. The motive of their action was just the opposite of that ascribed to them. It was their intense desire to preserve themselves and their children in the worship of Jehovah that had induced the erection of the memorial altar.

Our children — The truly pious man will seek to place the safeguards of piety about the path of his offspring. These eastern tribes had received by far the best portion of the Holy Land, yet they are not satisfied with worldly good. Their broad acres and vast herds are worthless without a portion in the God of Israel.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

From fear of this thing. This translation cannot be correct. Had the Hebrew original intended to convey this meaning, we should have had hZh rbDh tgaDmi. The literal rendering is, "from anxiety, from a word." The word here translated "anxiety" (LXX eulabeia ) is applied to the sea, and is translated "sorrow" in Jer_49:23. It is translated "heaviness" in Pro_12:25. In Eze_4:16 Eze_12:18, Eze_12:19, it is translated "care," "carefulness," and is applied to eating food. It obviously refers to agitation or anxiety of mind, and the proper translation here is, "we did it out of anxiety, for a cause." So Masius and Rosenmuller, who render the word hgad here by sollicitudo.

Ver. 24, 25. What have you to do with the Lord God of Israel? For the Lord hath made Jordan a border. Literally, What to you and to Jehovah the God of Israel, since He hath given a border between us and between you, sons of Reuben and sons of Gad, even the Jordan. Thus the reason for the erection of the altar was the very converse of what it had been supposed to be. So far from considering themselves as shut out from the communion of Israel by the natural boundary formed by Jordan, the two and a half tribes were resolved that no one else should ever think so. If the descendants of the remainder of the Israelites should ever venture to assert anything of the kind, there was the altar, erected in a conspicuous position on the west side of Jordan, left as a perpetual memorial of the great struggle in which Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh had taken part, and which had resulted in the final occupation of the land of Canaan. Keil and Delitzsch remark that there was some reason for this anxiety. The promises made to Abraham and his posterity related only to the land of Canaan. For their own advantage these tribes had chosen to remain in the trans-Jordanic territory conquered by Moses. It was quite possible that in future ages they might be regarded as outside the blessings and privileges of the Mosaic covenant. For the present, at least, they value those blessings and privileges, and desired to have some permanent memorial of the fact that they had a right to share them. From fearing. It may be worth while to notice, as a sign of later, or at least of different authorship, that the Pentateuch employs a different (the feminine) form of the infinitive for the form found here.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

With the Lord - You have no relation to him, nor interest in him, or his worship.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

General Information:

The tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh now give their answer.

your children might say to our children ... God of Israel?

This is a hypothetical accusation that the three tribes think the children of the other tribes may make sometime in the future. (See: Hypothetical Situations)

What have you to do with Yahweh, the God of Israel?

The three tribes use this rhetorical question to emphasize the situation they are trying to avoid. This can be written as a statement. AT: "You have nothing to do with Yahweh, the God of Israel!" (See: Rhetorical Question)

translationWords

children

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Our anxiety of this. Because of anxiety, and the fear of insulting words, have we done this, as is further explained in the Scripture: ‘Lest tomorrow your children will say,’ Lest they insult our children— when they go to bring sacrifices in the Mishkan at Shiloh— lest they say to them, ‘What have you to do with Adonoy?’ Did he not set a boundary between us and you, namely, the Jordan. This was our fear and thus we made it. Every word, דְּאָגָה, found in Scripture expresses fear, similar to, “I am concerned [fear] that the Jews etc.” [These were the words] of Tzidkiahu.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.