17 Haue we too litle for the wickednesse of Peor, whereof we are not clensed vnto this day, though a plague came vpon the Congregation of the Lord?
18 Ye also are turned away this day from the Lord: and seeing ye rebell to day against ye Lord, euen to morowe he will be wroth with all the Congregation of Israel.
19 Notwithstanding if the land of your possession be vncleane, come ye ouer vnto the land of the possession of the Lord, wherein the Lordes Tabernacle dwelleth, and take possession among vs: but rebell not against the Lorde, nor rebell not against vs in building you an altar, beside the altar of the Lord our God.
20 Did not Achan ye sonne of Zerah trespasse grieuously in the execrable thing, and wrath fell on all the Congregation of Israel? And this man alone perished not in his wickednesse.
21 Then the children of Reuben and the children of Gad, and halfe the tribe of Manasseh answered, and saide vnto the heads ouer the thousands of Israel,
22 The Lorde God of gods, the Lorde God of gods, he knoweth, and Israel himselfe shal know: if by rebellion, or by transgression against ye Lord we haue done it, saue thou vs not this day.
23 If we haue built vs an altar to returne away from the Lord, either to offer thereon burnt offering, or meate offering, or to offer peace offerings thereon, let the Lord himselfe require it:
24 And if we haue not rather done it for feare of this thing, saying, In time to come your children might say vnto our children, What haue ye to doe with the Lord God of Israel?
25 For the Lorde hath made Iorden a border betweene vs and you, ye children of Reuben, and of Gad: therefore ye haue no part in the Lord: so shall your children make our children cease from fearing the Lord.
26 Therefore we said, We will nowe go about to make vs an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice,
27 But it shall be a witnesse betweene vs and you, and betweene our generations after vs, to execute the seruice of the Lorde before him in our burnt offerings, and in our sacrifices, and in our peace offerings, and that your children should not say to our children in time to come, Ye haue no part in the Lord.
28 Therefore said we, If so be that they should so say to vs or to our generations in time to come, then will we answere, Beholde the facion of the altar of the Lorde, which our fathers made, not for burnt offering nor for sacrifice, but it is a witnesse betweene vs and you.
29 God forbid, that we should rebell against the Lord, and turne this day away from the Lorde to builde an altar for burnt offering, or for meate offering, or for sacrifice, saue the altar of the Lord our God, that is before his Tabernacle.