Joshua 22:24
New International Version
“No! We did it for fear that some day your descendants might say to ours, ‘What do you have to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?

New Living Translation
“The truth is, we have built this altar because we fear that in the future your descendants will say to ours, ‘What right do you have to worship the LORD, the God of Israel?

English Standard Version
No, but we did it from fear that in time to come your children might say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?

Berean Standard Bible
But in fact we have done this for fear that in the future your descendants might say to ours, ‘What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?

King James Bible
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?

New King James Version
But in fact we have done it for fear, for a reason, saying, ‘In time to come your descendants may speak to our descendants, saying, “What have you to do with the LORD God of Israel?

New American Standard Bible
But truly we have done this out of concern, for a reason, saying, ‘In time to come your sons may say to our sons, “What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?

NASB 1995
“But truly we have done this out of concern, for a reason, saying, ‘In time to come your sons may say to our sons, “What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?

NASB 1977
“But truly we have done this out of concern, for a reason, saying, ‘In time to come your sons may say to our sons, “What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?

Legacy Standard Bible
But truly we have done this out of concern, for a reason, saying, ‘In time to come your sons may say to our sons, “What have you to do with Yahweh, the God of Israel?

Amplified Bible
But in truth we have done this out of concern, for a reason, saying, ‘In time to come your sons (descendants) may say to our sons, “What claim do you have to the LORD, the God of Israel?

Christian Standard Bible
We actually did this from a specific concern that in the future your descendants might say to our descendants, ‘What relationship do you have with the LORD, the God of Israel?

Holman Christian Standard Bible
We actually did this from a specific concern that in the future your descendants might say to our descendants, ‘What relationship do you have with the LORD, the God of Israel?

American Standard Version
and if we have not rather out of carefulness done this, and of purpose, saying, In time to come your children might speak unto our children, saying, What have ye to do with Jehovah, the God of Israel?

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
But if it was from his awe we served him, this one and that one of your children will not say tomorrow to our children: ‘What do you have to do with LORD JEHOVAH God of Israel, children of Rubil and children of Gad?

Brenton Septuagint Translation
But we have done this for the sake of precaution concerning this thing, saying, Lest hereafter your sons should say to our sons, What have ye to do with the Lord God of Israel?

Douay-Rheims Bible
And not rather with this thought and design, that we should say: To morrow your children will say to our children: What have you to do with the Lord the God of Israel?

English Revised Version
and if we have not rather out of carefulness done this, and of purpose, saying, In time to come your children might speak unto our children, saying, What have ye to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?

GOD'S WORD® Translation
"We were worried because of the situation we're in. We thought sometime in the future your children might say to our children, 'What relationship do you have with the LORD God of Israel?

Good News Translation
No! We did it because we were afraid that in the future your descendants would say to ours, 'What do you have to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?

International Standard Version
But we did this because we were concerned for a reason, since we thought, 'Sometime in the future your descendants may say to our descendants, "What do you have in common with the LORD, the God of Israel?

JPS Tanakh 1917
and if we have not rather out of anxiety about a matter done this, saying: In time to come your children might speak unto our children, saying: What have ye to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?

Literal Standard Version
And nevertheless, we have done it from fear of [this] thing, saying, Hereafter your sons speak to our sons, saying, And what have you to [do with] YHWH God of Israel?

Majority Standard Bible
But in fact we have done this for fear that in the future your descendants might say to ours, ‘What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?

New American Bible
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?

NET Bible
We swear we have done this because we were worried that in the future your descendants would say to our descendants, 'What relationship do you have with the LORD God of Israel?

New Revised Standard Version
No! We did it from fear that in time to come your children might say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?

New Heart English Bible
If we have not out of concern done this, and for a reason, saying, 'In time to come your descendants might speak to our descendants, saying, "What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?

Webster's Bible Translation
And if we have not rather done it for fear of this thing, saying, In time to come your children may speak to our children, saying, What have ye to do with the LORD God of Israel?

World English Bible
“If we have not out of concern done this, and for a reason, saying, ‘In time to come your children might speak to our children, saying, “What have you to do with Yahweh, the God of Israel?

Young's Literal Translation
And if not, from fear of this thing we have done it, saying, Hereafter your sons do speak to ours sons, saying, What to you and to Jehovah God of Israel?

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Offensive Altar
23If we have built for ourselves an altar to turn away from Him and to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings on it, or to sacrifice fellowship offerings on it, may the LORD Himself hold us accountable. 24But in fact we have done this for fear that in the future your descendants might say to ours, ‘What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel? 25For the LORD has made the Jordan a border between us and you Reubenites and Gadites. You have no share in the LORD!’ So your descendants could cause ours to stop fearing the LORD.…

Cross References
Joshua 22:23
If we have built for ourselves an altar to turn away from Him and to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings on it, or to sacrifice fellowship offerings on it, may the LORD Himself hold us accountable.

Joshua 22:25
For the LORD has made the Jordan a border between us and you Reubenites and Gadites. You have no share in the LORD!' So your descendants could cause ours to stop fearing the LORD.


Treasury of Scripture

And if we have not rather done it for fear of this thing, saying, In time to come your children might speak to our children, saying, What have you to do with the LORD God of Israel?

for fear

Genesis 18:19
For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

In time to come [heb] To-morrow

Joshua 4:6
That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?

Genesis 30:33
So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come for my hire before thy face: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me.

Exodus 13:14
And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the LORD brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage:

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Joshua 22
1. The two tribes and a half with a blessing are sent home,
10. They build the altar of testimony in their journey
11. The Israelites are offended thereat
21. They vindicate their conduct, and give them good satisfaction














Verse 24. - From fear of this thing. This translation cannot be correct. Had the Hebrew original intended to convey this meaning, we should have had מִדְּאָגַת הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה The literal rendering is, "from anxiety, from a word." The word here translated "anxiety" (LXX. εὐλάβεια) is applied to the sea, and is translated "sorrow" in Jeremiah 49:23. It is translated "heaviness" in Proverbs 12:25. In Ezekiel 4:16; Ezekiel 12:18, 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 דְאָגָה here by sollicitudo. Verse 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.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
But in fact
וְאִם־ (wə·’im-)
Conjunctive waw | Conjunction
Strong's 518: Lo!, whether?, if, although, Oh that!, when, not

we have done
עָשִׂ֥ינוּ (‘ā·śî·nū)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - first person common plural
Strong's 6213: To do, make

this
זֹ֖את (zōṯ)
Pronoun - feminine singular
Strong's 2063: Hereby in it, likewise, the one other, same, she, so much, such deed, that,

for fear
מִדְּאָגָה֙ (mid·də·’ā·ḡāh)
Preposition-m | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 1674: Anxiety, anxious care

that in the future
מָחָ֗ר (mā·ḥār)
Adverb
Strong's 4279: Deferred, the morrow, tomorrow, hereafter

your descendants
בְנֵיכֶ֤ם (ḇə·nê·ḵem)
Noun - masculine plural construct | second person masculine plural
Strong's 1121: A son

might say
לֵאמֹ֑ר (lê·mōr)
Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 559: To utter, say

to ours,
לְבָנֵ֙ינוּ֙ (lə·ḇā·nê·nū)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine plural construct | first person common plural
Strong's 1121: A son

‘What
מַה־ (mah-)
Interrogative
Strong's 4100: What?, what!, indefinitely what

have you to do
לָּכֶ֕ם (lā·ḵem)
Preposition | second person masculine plural
Strong's Hebrew

with the LORD,
וְלַֽיהוָ֖ה (Yah·weh)
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-l | Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3068: LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israel

the God
אֱלֹהֵ֥י (’ĕ·lō·hê)
Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

of Israel?
יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ (yiś·rā·’êl)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3478: Israel -- 'God strives', another name of Jacob and his desc


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OT History: Joshua 22:24 If we have not out of concern (Josh. Jos)
Joshua 22:23
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