This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
View text chunked by:
[100]
Now when the tribe of Reuben, and that of Gad, and as many of the
Manassites as followed them, were passed over the river, they built an
altar on the banks of Jordan, as a monument to posterity, and a sign of
their relation to those that should inhabit on the other side. But when
those on the other side heard that those who had been dismissed had built
an altar, but did not hear with what intention they built it, but supposed
it to be by way of innovation, and for the introduction of strange gods,
they did not incline to disbelieve it; but thinking this defamatory report,
as if it were built for divine worship, was credible, they appeared in
arms, as though they would avenge themselves on those that built the altar;
and they were about to pass over the river, and to punish them for their
subversion of the laws of their country; for they did not think it fit
to regard them on account of their kindred or the dignity of those that
had given the occasion, but to regard the will of God, and the manner wherein
he desired to be worshipped; so these men put themselves in array for war.
But Joshua, and Eleazar the high priest, and the senate, restrained them;
and persuaded them first to make trial by words of their intention, and
afterwards, if they found that their intention was evil, then only to proceed
to make war upon them. Accordingly, they sent as ambassadors to them Phineas
the son of Eleazar, and ten more persons that were in esteem among the
Hebrews, to learn of them what was in their mind, when, upon passing over
the river, they had built an altar upon its banks. And as soon as these
ambassadors were passed over, and were come to them, and a congregation
was assembled, Phineas stood up and said, That the offense they had been
guilty of was of too heinous a nature to be punished by words alone, or
by them only to be amended for the future; yet that they did not so look
at the heinousness of their transgression as to have recourse to arms,
and to a battle for their punishment immediately, but that, on account
of their kindred, and the probability there was that they might be reclaimed,
they took this method of sending an ambassage to them: "That when
we have learned the true reasons by which you have been moved to build
this altar, we may neither seem to have been too rash in assaulting you
by our weapons of war, if it prove that you made the altar for justifiable
reasons, and may then justly punish you if the accusation prove true; for
we can
hardly suppose that you, have been acquainted with the will of God and
have been hearers of those laws which he himself hath given us, now you
are separated from us, and gone to that patrimony of yours, which you,
through the grace of God, and that providence which he exercises over you,
have obtained by lot, can forget him, and can leave that ark and that altar
which is peculiar to us, and can introduce strange gods, and imitate the
wicked practices of the Canaanites. Now this will appear to have been a
small crime if you repent now, and proceed no further in your madness,
but pay a due reverence to, and keep in mind the laws of your country;
but if you persist in your sins, we will not grudge our pains to preserve
our laws; but we will pass over Jordan and defend them, and defend God
also, and shall esteem of you as of men no way differing from the Canaanites,
but shall destroy you in the like manner as we destroyed them; for do not
you imagine that, because you are got over the river, you are got out of
the reach of God's power; you are every where in places that belong to
him, and impossible it is to overrun his power, and the punishment he will
bring on men thereby: but if you think that your settlement here will be
any obstruction to your conversion to what is good, nothing need hinder
us from dividing the land anew, and leaving this old land to be for the
feeding of sheep; but you will do well to return to your duty, and to leave
off these new crimes; and we beseech you, by your children and wives, not
to force us to punish you. Take therefore such measures in this assembly,
as supposing that your own safety, and the safety of those that are dearest
to you, is therein concerned, and believe that it is better for you to
be conquered by words, than to continue in your purpose, and to experience
deeds and war therefore."
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.