Bible Cross References
If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying,
Joshua 22:11-34
11
The rest of the people of Israel were told, "Listen! The people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh have built an altar at Geliloth, on our side of the Jordan!"
12
When the people of Israel heard this, the whole community came together at Shiloh to go to war against the eastern tribes.
13
Then the people of Israel sent Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, to the people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh in the land of Gilead.
14
Ten leading men went with Phinehas, one from each of the western tribes and each one the head of a family among the clans.
15
They came to the land of Gilead, to the people of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh,
16
and speaking for the whole community of the LORD, they said to them, "Why have you done this evil thing against the God of Israel? You have rebelled against the LORD by building this altar for yourselves! You are no longer following him!
17
Remember our sin at Peor, when the LORD punished his own people with an epidemic? We are still suffering because of that. Wasn't that sin enough?
18
Are you going to refuse to follow him now? If you rebel against the LORD today, he will be angry with everyone in Israel tomorrow.
19
Now then, if your land is not fit to worship in, come over into the LORD's land, where his Tent is. Claim some land among us. But don't rebel against the LORD or make rebels out of us by building an altar in addition to the altar of the LORD our God.
20
Remember how Achan son of Zerah refused to obey the command about the things condemned to destruction; the whole community of Israel was punished for that. Achan was not the only one who died because of his sin."
21
The people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh answered the heads of the families of the western tribes:
22
"The Mighty One is God! He is the LORD! The Mighty One is God! He is the LORD! He knows why we did this, and we want you to know too! If we rebelled and did not keep faith with the LORD, do not let us live any longer!
23
If we disobeyed the LORD and built our own altar to burn sacrifices on or to use for grain offerings or fellowship offerings, let the LORD himself punish us.
24
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?
25
He made the Jordan a boundary between us and you people of Reuben and Gad. You have nothing to do with the LORD.' Then your descendants might make our descendants stop worshiping the LORD.
26
So we built an altar, not to burn sacrifices or make offerings,
27
but instead, as a sign for our people and yours, and for the generations after us, that we do indeed worship the LORD before his sacred Tent with our offerings to be burned and with sacrifices and fellowship offerings. This was to keep your descendants from saying that ours have nothing to do with the LORD.
28
It was our idea that, if this should ever happen, our descendants could say, 'Look! Our ancestors made an altar just like the LORD's altar. It was not for burning offerings or for sacrifice, but as a sign for our people and yours.'
29
We would certainly not rebel against the LORD or stop following him now by building an altar to burn offerings on or for grain offerings or sacrifices. We would not build any other altar than the altar of the LORD our God that stands in front of the Tent of his presence."
30
Phinehas the priest and the ten leading men of the community who were with him, the heads of families of the western tribes, heard what the people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh had to say, and they were satisfied.
31
Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, said to them, "Now we know that the LORD is with us. You have not rebelled against him, and so you have saved the people of Israel from the LORD's punishment."
32
Then Phinehas and the leaders left the people of Reuben and Gad in the land of Gilead and went back to Canaan, to the people of Israel, and reported to them.
33
The Israelites were satisfied and praised God. They no longer talked about going to war to devastate the land where the people of Reuben and Gad had settled.
34
The people of Reuben and Gad said, "This altar is a witness to all of us that the LORD is God." And so they named it "Witness."
Judges 20:1
All the people of Israel from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south, as well as from the land of Gilead in the east, answered the call. They gathered in one body in the LORD's presence at Mizpah.
Judges 20:2-17
2
The leaders of all the tribes of Israel were present at this gathering of God's people, and there were 400,000 foot soldiers.
3
Meanwhile the people of Benjamin heard that all the other Israelites had gathered at Mizpah. The Israelites asked, "Tell us, how was this crime committed?"
4
The Levite whose concubine had been murdered answered, "My concubine and I went to Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin to spend the night.
5
The men of Gibeah came to get me and surrounded the house at night. They intended to kill me; instead they raped my concubine, and she died.
6
I took her body, cut it in pieces, and sent one piece to each of the twelve tribes of Israel. These people have committed an evil and immoral act among us.
7
All of you here are Israelites. What are we going to do about this?"
8
All the people stood up together and said, "None of us, whether he lives in a tent or in a house, will go home.
9
This is what we will do: we will draw lots and choose some men to attack Gibeah.
10
One tenth of the men in Israel will provide food for the army, and the others will go and punish Gibeah for this immoral act that they have committed in Israel."
11
So all the men in Israel assembled with one purpose---to attack the town.
12
The Israelite tribes sent messengers all through the territory of the tribe of Benjamin to say, "What is this crime that you have committed?
13
Now hand over those perverts in Gibeah, so that we can kill them and remove this evil from Israel." But the people of Benjamin paid no attention to the other Israelites.
14
From all the cities of Benjamin they came to Gibeah to fight the other people of Israel.
15
They called out twenty-six thousand soldiers from their cities that day. Besides these, the citizens of Gibeah gathered seven hundred specially chosen men who were left-handed. Every one of them could sling a stone at a strand of hair and never miss.
17
Not counting the tribe of Benjamin, the Israelites gathered 400,000 trained soldiers.