Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Joshua sends back the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh to their homes on this side of the Jordan with a blessing. They build an altar there: at which the other tribes are stirred up for war, but having sent delegates they accept their excuse, namely that they had built the altar not for sacrifice but as a memorial of fellowship.
Vulgate Text: Joshua 22:1-34
1. At that time Joshua called the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. 2. And he said to them: You have done all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you; you have also obeyed me in all things, 3. nor have you left your brothers for a long time until this present day, keeping the commandment of the Lord your God. 4. Since therefore the Lord your God has given your brothers rest and peace, as He promised, return and go to your tents, and to the land of your possession which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan: 5. only be very careful to observe and carry out in practice the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, that you love the Lord your God, and walk in all His ways, and keep His commandments, and cling to Him, and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 6. And Joshua blessed them and sent them away. And they returned to their tents. 7. Now to the half-tribe of Manasseh Moses had given a possession in Bashan: and therefore to the other half that remained, Joshua gave a lot among their other brothers beyond the Jordan to the west. And when he sent them away to their tents and had blessed them, 8. he said to them: Return to your homes with much substance and riches, with silver and gold, bronze and iron, and many garments; divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers. 9. And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned and departed from the children of Israel at Shiloh, which is in Canaan, to enter Gilead, the land of their possession, which they had obtained according to the commandment of the Lord through Moses. 10. And when they came to the mounds of the Jordan in the land of Canaan, they built an altar beside the Jordan of immense size. 11. And when the children of Israel heard this, and reliable messengers had reported to them that the children of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh had built an altar in the land of Canaan, upon the mounds of the Jordan, opposite the children of Israel; 12. they all assembled at Shiloh, to go up and fight against them. 13. And meanwhile they sent to them in the land of Gilead Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, 14. and ten princes with him, one from each tribe. 15. And they came to the children of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, and said to them: 16. Thus says the whole people of the Lord: What is this transgression? Why have you forsaken the Lord God of Israel, building a sacrilegious altar and withdrawing from His worship? 17. Is it a small thing for you that you sinned at Baal-peor, and to this present day the stain of this crime remains upon us? And many of the people perished. 18. And you today have forsaken the Lord, and tomorrow His wrath will rage against all Israel. 19. But if you think the land of your possession is unclean, cross over to the land where the tabernacle of the Lord is, and dwell among us: only do not depart from the Lord and from our fellowship by building an altar besides the altar of the Lord our God. 20. Did not Achan the son of Zerah violate the commandment of the Lord, and His wrath fell upon the whole people of Israel? And he was but one man, and would that he alone had perished in his crime! 21. And the children of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered the leaders of the delegation of Israel: 22. The Lord God of gods, the Lord God of gods, He knows, and Israel shall also understand; if we built this altar with a spirit of rebellion, let Him not protect us, but punish us now; 23. and if we did it with the intention of offering holocausts, and sacrifice, and peace offerings upon it, let Him Himself inquire and judge: 24. and was it not rather with this thought and purpose, that we said: Tomorrow your children will say to our children: What have you to do with the Lord God of Israel? 25. The Lord has set the Jordan as a boundary between us and you, O children of Reuben and children of Gad: and therefore you have no share in the Lord. And by this occasion your children will turn our children away from the fear of the Lord. We therefore thought it better, 26. and said: Let us build an altar for ourselves, not for holocausts, nor for offering victims, 27. but as a testimony between us and you, and our offspring and your descendants, that we may serve the Lord, and that it is our right to offer both holocausts, and victims, and peace offerings; and by no means shall your children say tomorrow to our children: You have no share in the Lord. 28. And if they wish to say this, they shall answer them: Behold the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for holocausts, nor for sacrifice, but as a testimony between us and you. 29. Far be it from us to commit this crime, that we should depart from the Lord and abandon His ways, by building an altar for holocausts, and sacrifices, and victims to be offered, besides the altar of the Lord our God, which was built before His tabernacle. 30. And when Phinehas the priest and the princes of the delegation of Israel who were with him heard these things, they were appeased: and they most willingly accepted the words of the children of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh. 31. And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to them: Now we know that the Lord is with us, because you are innocent of this transgression, and you have delivered the children of Israel from the hand of the Lord. 32. And he returned with the princes from the children of Reuben and Gad, from the land of Gilead, of the borders of Canaan, to the children of Israel, and reported to them. 33. And the report pleased all who heard it. And the children of Israel praised God, and no longer spoke of going up against them to fight and to destroy the land of their possession. 34. And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad called the altar which they had built, Our Testimony that the Lord Himself is God.
Verse 3: Seven Years of Faithful Service
3. NOR HAVE YOU LEFT YOUR BROTHERS FOR A LONG TIME. — The Hebrews in Seder Olam say it was two seven-year periods, or fourteen years; for they say the fighting lasted seven years before the first allotment, as is gathered from chapter 14, verse 10, and just as many years passed from the first allotment to the second, by which the division of the promised land was completed at chapter 15 and following. Masius, Magalianus and others follow the Hebrews. But it is more true that there was only one seven-year period, during which the fighting took place: for these three tribes had come only for the purpose of fighting; therefore when the wars were finished after seven years, they returned home, as I discussed at chapter 18, verse 1 and following.
These three tribes indeed displayed great faith, obedience, and patience, since for seven years they were absent from home, children, and wives, in order to go before their brothers in battle and settle them in Canaan beyond the Jordan.
Verse 4: Return to Your Tents
4. TO YOUR TENTS, — to your homes: for the camp dwellings of soldiers are tents. And these men had been, and were, soldiers.
Verse 6: Joshua Blesses Them
6. AND JOSHUA BLESSED THEM, — that is, he wished them well and prayed for their prosperity.
Verse 8: Dividing the Spoil with the Brothers
8. RETURN WITH (that is, with) MUCH SUBSTANCE AND RICHES. — It is an imperative, not an indicative, as is clear from the Hebrew shuvu, for which the Septuagint, reading with different vowel points shavu, translate, they returned.
DIVIDE THE SPOIL OF YOUR ENEMIES WITH YOUR BROTHERS. — He does not advise, but commands, say Abulensis, Serarius and Masius. "Divide," namely into two equal parts, so that half the spoil goes to you who went out to battle, and the other half to your brothers who stayed at the baggage in Gilead and guarded it: but in this half, more fell to those who went out to fight than to those who remained in Gilead; for few had gone out, while many had stayed behind. For only forty thousand had gone out, while about eighty thousand had stayed. Joshua followed the example and command of Moses, who at Numbers 31 ordered the spoils of the Midianites to be divided equally between the fighters and those who remained at the baggage. Whence David afterward followed the same practice and established it by perpetual law, decreeing: "For equal shall be the share of him who goes down to battle and of him who stays by the baggage, and they shall divide alike," 1 Samuel 30:24.
Verse 9: From Shiloh to Gilead
FROM SHILOH, WHICH IS IN CANAAN, TO ENTER GILEAD THE LAND OF THEIR POSSESSION, — Canaan here signifies the land situated beyond the Jordan up to the Mediterranean Sea, which nine tribes occupied: while Gilead signifies the land on this side of the Jordan, which three tribes possessed, namely Reuben, Gad and the half of Manasseh, who accordingly, now that the wars were finished, return from Shiloh and Canaan to their homes in Gilead. Elsewhere the entire land of the twelve tribes is often called Canaan.
Verse 10: The Altar at the Mounds of the Jordan
10. AND WHEN THEY HAD COME TO THE MOUNDS OF THE JORDAN IN THE LAND OF CANAAN, — that is, when they had come to the borders of Canaan, namely to the mounds of the Jordan, where the Jordan is held in by heaps and mounds of sand, lest it overflow its bed by flooding. Whence Josephus, book 5 of the Antiquities, translates, the bank of the Jordan; Symmachus, borders; Masius, the embankments of the Jordan. The Septuagint retained the Hebrew word Galiloth, as if it were a proper name of a place. Hence it is clear that the three tribes erected this altar not in Gilead, but in Canaan, that is, on the nearer bank of the Jordan, which belonged to Canaan, and not on the farther bank which faced toward Gilead. The reason was that by this altar they wished to attest their ancient right which they had in Canaan, especially the right to sacrifice on the altar of the temple shared with the other nine tribes.
AN ALTAR OF IMMENSE SIZE, — that is, very vast and enormous. It is a hyperbole.
OPPOSITE THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. — Not as if opposed to the nine tribes who had their altar in Shiloh, about to erect a new altar for themselves on the bank of the Jordan; for this was forbidden by law, and therefore the beginning of schism, as the nine tribes interpreted it: but contra, that is, across from, on the opposite side, namely so that this altar would be between the Gileadites and the Canaanites, or between the three tribes and the other nine, and would unite the former with the latter and connect them in religion and the right of sacrificing.
Verse 12: Zeal Against Apostasy and Schism
12. TO FIGHT AGAINST THEM, — as apostates and schismatics who were deserting the law and the tabernacle and the Mosaic altar and establishing a new law for themselves with a new altar. See here the zeal of Phinehas and the nine tribes in defending the ancestral law and faith, lest a different religion creep into their one Synagogue and Commonwealth, and thus the wrath of God rage against the whole people and all the tribes that permitted it. For all twelve tribes formed one Commonwealth and one Church: therefore the greater part, namely the nine tribes, were bound to take care that the remaining three persevered in the same faith and did not create a schism or found a new Church for themselves.
Verse 17: The Sin at Baal-peor
17. IS IT A SMALL THING FOR YOU THAT YOU SINNED AT BAAL-PEOR? By worshipping this idol and fornicating with the daughters of Moab, Numbers 25.
AND TO THIS PRESENT DAY THE STAIN OF THIS CRIME REMAINS UPON US, — a stain both of infamy and of guilt; for there were many who had not yet erased it by repentance; indeed they still desired that fornication: and also of punishment; for God was still exacting penalties from the Hebrews for so enormous an idolatry and fornication.
Verse 18: Tomorrow His Wrath Will Rage
18. AND TOMORROW HIS WRATH WILL RAGE AGAINST ALL ISRAEL, — "Tomorrow," that is, soon. For God, angered by so enormous and public a sacrilege, will immediately and most fiercely take vengeance, both on you as its authors and on us as those who permitted it.
Verse 19: True Charity — Dwell Among Us
19. BUT IF YOU THINK THE LAND IS UNCLEAN, — because of the idols and crimes of its former inhabitants, which you cannot expiate through sacrifices, as we can who have the altar of God in Shiloh. The Septuagint instead of unclean has mikra, that is, small; but one should read miara, that is, unclean. "Dwell among us," we will yield to you a part of our land, at our own expense we will give you a place in our land, and we will crowd ourselves together so as to call you away from crime and preserve you in the ancestral faith. See here true charity.
Verse 20: Achan and His Crime
20. AND WOULD THAT. — The translator reads lu, that is, would that: but others with a different vowel point read lo, that is, not, whence they translate, and he, one man, did not die alone in his crime (and so the Septuagint reads in the Complutensian, even though in the Roman edition "not" is missing), but together with the many others who were slain by the men of Ai on account of his crime, chapter 7.
Verse 22: The Three Names of God
22. THE MOST MIGHTY GOD, THE LORD, etc., HE KNOWS — They call God to witness that they erected the altar with an innocent and pious intention; whence they give Him three names fitting to this passage, and repeat them: the first is El, that is, the Mighty One; the second Elohim, that is, God the governor, judge and avenger of all; the third, Jehovah, that is, YHWH, that is, He who is, or Being itself.
But because the Hebrews out of reverence read Adonai in place of Jehovah, which is the proper name of God, our translator following them translated it as Lord. They therefore call to witness the three principal attributes of God, namely power, justice, and majesty, as if to say: We call to witness God, and the strength and omnipotence of the most mighty God, that He Himself may exercise it against us if we have devised any such thing. We call to witness thirdly the essence and immense majesty of God, upon which all our being depends as a ray depends on the sun, that He may take it from us and annihilate us if we have wished to separate ourselves from Him, without whom we cannot exist. From these words the ancient Hebrews supposed that Phinehas was Elijah; and Blessed Peter Damian follows them, Epistle 12, or as others divide it, 11, chapter 2, to Pope Nicholas II, whom hear: "Elijah means Lord God, which is believed to have been given to him on this occasion; because when he was sent as a delegate from the people to Reuben and Gad, who had built a new altar, he received from them this excusing response: The most mighty God, the Lord, He Himself knows whether we built this altar with a rebellious spirit. From this, therefore, Phinehas was called Elijah, so that their response appears to be his name."
Therefore he himself thinks that Phinehas, being Elijah, is still alive and will live until the end of the world, when preaching against the Antichrist he will be killed by him and fall as a martyr. But I refuted this opinion as paradoxical at Numbers chapter 25, verse 13.
Verse 23: Sacrifice of Grain vs. Flesh
23. AND SACRIFICE. — In Hebrew minchah, that is, a sacrifice of spelt and flour, concerning which see Leviticus 2, whence it is here distinguished from holocausts and peace offerings, which were of flesh, not of grain.
LET HIM HIMSELF INQUIRE AND JUDGE, — as if to say: Let Him Himself as judge investigate, and if He finds us guilty of sacrilege, let Him judge, that is, condemn, punish and avenge.
Verse 24: Concern for Future Generations
24. AND PURPOSE. — In Hebrew deagah, that is, care, concern, which compels the mind to turn over many things and to discuss and deliberate with oneself and with associates.
TOMORROW YOUR CHILDREN WILL SAY TO OUR CHILDREN, etc. YOU HAVE NO SHARE IN THE LORD, — that is, you are not the particular people of the Lord, so as to be participants in His special worship and heirs of the promises made to Abraham and Jacob our fathers concerning the Messiah and concerning God's care of the Israelite people, because you are divided from us by the Jordan: therefore our God does not pertain to you, nor is our God your God: go therefore to your gods of the nations. So at 2 Samuel 20:1, the ten tribes say to Rehoboam: "We have no share in Jesse," as if to say: We do not wish to associate with you, who are the son of Jesse, descended from him through David and Solomon; we do not want you, so cruel, to rule over us; we do not want to be subject to you. So also Christ says at John 13:8: "If I do not wash you, you will have no part with Me."
The meaning is, as if to say: We do not wish to depart from the Lord nor from you; and the altar we built we did not erect for the proper use of an altar, namely for sacrificing on it, which alone is forbidden in the law by the Lord, but only as an eternal monument of our ancestral religion and our profession, and so that it may remain attested to all that we belong to the worship, altar, and sacrifices which will be performed beyond the Jordan in Shiloh and Jerusalem among you, and that we have the right along with the other nine tribes beyond the Jordan to offer our victims to God in your temple. Therefore even if the Jordan divides us from you, nevertheless religion, the Church and the Commonwealth shall not divide us, but we shall be your partners and fellow tribesmen in all things, as we have been until now. So Abulensis, Masius and others.
Note here the modesty as well as the zeal of the three tribes, by which they completely calmed the spirits of the nine tribes that were inflamed with anger against them.
Zeal for religion therefore impelled them to build this altar rather than any other kind of monument, because by erecting this altar on the borders of Canaan they attested that they wished to worship the God whom the other tribes dwelling in Canaan worshipped, and thus that they united with them in one and the same religion; for religion chiefly consists in the sacrifice that is offered on the altar. Therefore the altar is a symbol of sacrifice, as well as of faith and religion. So Abulensis.
Verse 27: A Testimony, Not for Sacrifice
27. BUT AS A TESTIMONY BETWEEN US AND YOU, — namely that we have the right to sacrifice on your altar, and you do not have the right to prevent us.
Verse 31: Delivered from the Hand of the Lord
31. AND YOU HAVE DELIVERED THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL FROM THE HAND OF THE LORD — by abstaining from schism and a new religion, on account of which God would have severely punished all Israel.
Verse 32: From Gilead to Canaan
32. FROM THE LAND OF GILEAD, OF THE BORDERS OF CANAAN. — So the Roman edition reads, as if to say: From the land of Gilead, which is on the borders of Canaan, or which borders and terminates Canaan, say Hugh and Abulensis. But the Complutensian, Royal, and other Bibles read thus: From the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan. For so the Hebrew, Chaldean, and Septuagint read, which reading presents a plain and clear sense.
Verse 34: Our Testimony that the Lord Is God
34. AND THE CHILDREN OF REUBEN AND THE CHILDREN OF GAD CALLED THE ALTAR WHICH THEY HAD BUILT, OUR TESTIMONY THAT THE LORD HIMSELF IS GOD. — The Septuagint and Roman edition assert that Joshua himself gave this name to the altar. But the Latin, Hebrew, and Chaldean assert that the Reubenites and Gadites did so. Therefore it seems that an error crept into the Septuagint, unless you say that Joshua confirmed the name given by the Reubenites to the altar and added his own approval. The name of the altar was therefore this: "Our Testimony that He Himself is God," as if to say: We erected this altar to testify that the true God of Israel is as much our God as the God of the other nine tribes, and therefore that we in no way wish to depart from Him and invoke another god, but firmly cling to Him, worship Him alone, and hope for the good things promised by Him to Abraham and his descendants: we therefore testify by this altar that He is equally our God and yours, O nine tribes: for we are children of Abraham and Israel, that is Jacob, just as you are. Therefore their God is as much our God as yours, and His promises pertain as much to us as to you. Wherefore we call this altar by this name: "Our Testimony that He Himself is God." So when Joshua had defeated Amalek, "Moses built an altar and called its name, The Lord is my exaltation, saying: Because the hand of the throne of the Lord and the war of the Lord shall be against Amalek from generation to generation," Exodus 17:15.
In a similar way Jacob erected an altar to God as a memorial pillar, Genesis 28:18. Whence Bellarmine, treatise On Images; Vasquez, book On Adoration; and Serarius here correctly gather that images, memorials, and statues are rightly and holily made, which renew for us the memory of God, Christ, and the Saints, and recall their benefits, and thus stir up devotion and piety.