23 that we have built us an altar to turn from following the Lord or if to offer thereon burnt offering or present or if to offer peace offerings thereon, let the Lord himself require it;
24 likewise, if we have not rather done it for fear of this thing, saying, Peradventure tomorrow your children shall speak unto our children, saying, What have ye to do with the Lord God of Israel?
25 The Lord has put the Jordan for a border between us and you, O sons of Reuben and sons of Gad; ye have no part in the Lord, so shall your sons make our sons cease from fearing the Lord.
26 Therefore we said, Let us now work to build us an altar, not for burnt offering nor for sacrifice,
27 but that it may be a witness between us and you and our generations after us, to do the service of the Lord before him with our burnt offerings and with our sacrifices and with our peace offerings that your children may not say to our children in time to come, Ye have no part in the Lord.
28 Therefore we said, that it shall be, if they should so say to us or to our generations in time to come, that we may reply, Behold the pattern of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings nor for sacrifices, but it is a witness between us and you.
29 Let it never happen that we should rebel against the Lord or that we should turn today from following the Lord, to build an altar for burnt offerings, for presents, or for sacrifices, in addition to the altar of the Lord our God that is before his tabernacle.