24 `And if not, from fear of [this] thing we have done it, saying, Hereafter your sons do speak to ours sons, saying, What to you and to Jehovah God of Israel?
25 for a border hath Jehovah put between us and you, O sons of Reuben, and sons of Gad--Jordan; ye have no portion in Jehovah--and your sons have caused our sons to cease, not to fear Jehovah.
26 `And we say, Pray let us prepare for ourselves to build the altar--not for burntoffering nor for sacrifice--
27 but a witness it [is] between us and you, and between our generations after us, to do the service of Jehovah before Him with our burnt-offerings, and with our sacrifices, and with our peace-offerings, and your sons do not say hereafter to our sons, Ye have no portion in Jehovah.
28 `And we say, And it hath been, when they say [so] unto us, and unto our generations hereafter, that we have said, See the pattern of the altar of Jehovah, which our fathers made--not for burnt-offering nor for sacrifice--but a witness it [is] between us and you.
29 `Far be it from us to rebel against Jehovah, and to turn back to-day from after Jehovah, to build an altar for burnt-offering, for present, and for sacrifice, apart from the altar of Jehovah our God, which [is] before His tabernacle.'
30 And Phinehas the priest, and the princes of the company, and the heads of the thousands of Israel, who [are] with him, hear the words which the sons of Reuben, and the sons of Gad, and the sons of Manasseh have spoken, and it is good in their eyes.