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.
26. So we thought, ‘Let us act for ourselves by building this altar of our own’—not for burnt offerings or sacrifice,