23. If we disobeyed the Lord and built our own altar to burn sacrifices on or to use for grain offerings or fellowship offerings, let the Lord himself punish us.
24. No! We did it because we were afraid that in the future your descendants would say to ours, ‘What do you have to do with the Lord, the God of Israel?
25. He made the Jordan a boundary between us and you people of Reuben and Gad. You have nothing to do with the Lord.’ Then your descendants might make our descendants stop worshipping the Lord.
26. So we built an altar, not to burn sacrifices or make offerings,