14. and with him ten leaders, one from each tribe of Israel, each one the head of an ancestral house among the clans of Israel.
15. When these came to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead, they said to them:
16. “Thus says the whole community of the Lord: What act of treachery is this you have committed against the God of Israel? This day you have turned from following the Lord; by building an altar of your own you have rebelled against the Lord this day.
17. Is the iniquity of Peor not enough, by which we made ourselves impure, even to this day, and a plague came upon the community of the Lord?
18. If today you turn away from following the Lord, and rebel against the Lord, tomorrow he will be angry with the whole community of Israel!
19. If you consider the land you now possess unclean, cross over to the land the Lord possesses, where the tabernacle of the Lord stands, and share that with us. But do not rebel against the Lord, nor involve us in rebellion, by building an altar of your own in addition to the altar of the Lord, our God.
20. When Achan, son of Zerah, acted treacherously by violating the ban, was it not upon the entire community of Israel that wrath fell? Though he was but a single man, he did not perish alone for his guilt!”
21. The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh replied to the heads of the Israelite clans:
22. “The Lord is the God of gods. The Lord, the God of gods, knows and Israel shall know. If now we have acted out of rebellion or treachery against the Lord, our God, do not try to save us this day,
23. and if we have built an altar of our own to turn from following the Lord, or to sacrifice burnt offerings, grain offerings, or communion sacrifices upon it, the Lord himself will exact the penalty.
24. We did it rather out of our anxious concern lest in the future your children should say to our children: ‘What have you to do with the Lord, the God of Israel?
25. For the Lord has placed the Jordan as a boundary between you and us, you Reubenites and Gadites. You have no share in the Lord.’ Thus your children would prevent ours from revering the Lord.