Joshua 22:10

"And when they came unto the region about the Jordan, that is in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, a great altar to look upon. And the children of Israel heard say, Behold the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar in the forefront of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that pertaineth to the children of Israel. And when the children of Israel heard of it, the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered themselves together at Shiloh, to go up against them to war."

Now, what was so wrong about those eastern tribes building an altar near the Jordan that it precipitated a reaction in the rest of Israel that brought the threat of a war of extermination against them? There can be but one answer to that question, namely, that from the very beginning of the Mosaic religion, the principle of "only one sanctuary" for the entire nation had been understood and enforced among the Israelites. That "one sanctuary," of course, had been moved no less than forty-two times during the wilderness wanderings, and the removal of it to Shiloh from Gilgal here in the Book of Joshua does not mean that it had not, at one time or another, been located elsewhere. The "one sanctuary," therefore, was not tied to any place; but it was moveable. God had made that plain enough in the words, "Unto the place (any place) that Jehovah shall choose to put his name there" (Deuteronomy 12:1). (See the discussion of this under that reference.) The ridiculous notion that this means Jerusalem is frustrated and denied by the fact that the word "Jerusalem" is not even found in Deuteronomy. It was God's presence that identified the sanctuary, not some physical landmark.

As for the motivation of those eastern tribes that led to this near-disaster, "There was a sense of separation on the East Bank, and fear that the westerners might reject and disown them; also there was awareness that holy religion was not a characteristic of that eastern land."[10] "They erected this altar to keep alive their claim of having the same interest as the other tribes in the sanctuary of God, located at that time, in Shiloh."[11]

Regardless of all their good intentions, however, "This was a needless and presumptuous deed."[12] It almost plunged Israel into war; and, under slightly different circumstances, that war might have been impossible to avoid.

We should be aware of the part that public gossip, or rumor, had in this episode. It would have been quite easy for the leaders to have declared war on the basis of the gossip, rather than launching an investigation.

That such an altar was actually built has been long ago verified by the discovery of the site.[13] And, couldn't you have guessed it? "Lieutenant Conder denied it!"[14]