The division of the Promised Land being thus concluded, and his own inheritance having been assigned to him at Timnath-serah in Mount Ephraim, where he built a city and settled amongst the people he had led so prudently, Joshua summoned the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and having commended them for their bravery and fidelity, gave them his blessing, and bade them return to their own settlements beyond the Jordan (Josh. xxii. 1–6). Accordingly these tribes departed. But while yet on the western side of the river they set up a great Altar, not indeed for burnt-offering or for sacrifice, which could only be presented at the Brazen Altar of the Tabernacle at Shiloh (Lev. xvii. 8, 9; Deut. xii. 4–29), but as a standing witness to all generations, that though parted by that river, they were not sundered in religion or national interests from their western brethren. No sooner, however, was the erection of this altar announced to the other tribes, than they assembled at Shiloh, and made war upon their brethren, whom they deemed guilty of apostasy. But first, they prudently resolved to send an embassy, with Phinehas and ten princes at its head, to try the effect of a friendly expostulation. Phinehas accordingly set out and laid before them the complaint of their brethren. What trespass, he asked, was this of which they were guilty in building this altar? Had they forgotten the judgments the nation had incurred by their sin in the matter of Baal-Peor, or the trouble the nation suffered in consequence of the trespass of Achan? What, then, did they mean by this turning away from following the Lord, and exposing the whole people to His deserved wrath? Startled at this suspicion of faithlessness, the two tribes and a half reiterated the most solemn protestations of their innocence. The Altar they had erected was not intended for any sacrificial purposes whatsoever. It was simply an Altar of Memorial, a Testimony to future generations that they had the same part and lot in the interests of the nation as their brethren on the west of Jordan. Even the zealous Phinehas could not but be satisfied with this explanation. It was no apostasy or rebellion, but at the worst an error in judgment. And the embassy returned with the joyful intelligence that there were no grounds for a quarrel or an appeal to arms, while the two tribes and a half, having named the altar ED, or a Witness, continued their journey to their eastern homes, where they settled down in the territories assigned them by Moses.