Page 288 - bible

282 Book of Josue

13 And in the mean time they sent to them victims of peace offerings, let him require and
into the land of Galaad, Phinees the son of judge:
Eleazar the priest, 24 And not rather with this thought and de-
14 And ten princes with him, one of every sign, that we should say: To morrow your chil-
tribe. dren will say to our children: What have you to
15 Who came to the children of Ruben, and do with the Lord the God of Israel?
of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasses, into the 25 The Lord hath put the river Jordan for
land of Galaad, and said to them: a border between us and you, O ye children of
16 Thus saith all the people of the Lord: What Ruben, and ye children of Gad: and therefore
meaneth this transgression? Why have you for- you have no part in the Lord. And by this occa-
saken the Lord the God of Israel, building a sac- sion your children shall turn away our children
rilegious altar, and revolting from the worship of from the fear of the Lord. We therefore thought
him? it best,
17 Is it a small thing to you that you sinned 26 And said: Let us build us an altar, not for
with Beelphegor, and the stain of that crime re- holocausts, nor to offer victims,
maineth in us to this day? and many of the 27 But for a testimony between us and you,
people perished. and our posterity and yours, that we may serve
18 And you have forsaken the Lord to day, and the Lord, and that we may have a right to of-
to morrow his wrath will rage against all Israel. fer both holocausts, and victims and sacrifices of
19 But if you think the land of your possession peace offerings: and that your children to mor-
to be unclean, pass over to the land wherein is row may not say to our children: You have no
the tabernacle of the Lord, and dwell among us: part in the Lord.
only depart not from the Lord, and from our 28 And if they will say so, they shall answer
society, by building an altar beside the altar of them: Behold the altar of the Lord, which our
the Lord our God. fathers made, not for holocausts, nor for sacri-
20 Did not Achan the son of Zare transgress fice, but for a testimony between us and you.
the commandment of the Lord, and his wrath 29 God keep us from any such wickedness that
lay upon all the people of Israel? And he was we should revolt from the Lord, and leave off
but one man, and would to God he alone had following his steps, by building an altar to of-
perished in his wickedness. fer holocausts, and sacrifices, and victims, beside
21 And the children of Ruben, and of Gad, the altar of the Lord our God, which is erected
and of the half tribe of Manasses answered the before his tabernacle.
princes of the embassage of Israel: 30 And when Phinees the priest, and the
22 The Lord the most mighty God, the Lord princes of the embassage, who were with him,
the most mighty God, he knoweth, and Israel had heard this, they were satisfied: and they ad-
also shall understand: If with the design of trans- mitted most willingly the words of the children
gression we have set up this altar, let him not of Ruben, and Gad, and of the half tribe of Man-
save us, but punish us immediately: asses,
23 And if we did it with that mind, that we 31 And Phinees the priest the son of Eleazar
might lay upon it holocausts, and sacrifice, and said to them: Now we know that the Lord is with