you, and a mind willingly disposed to make a requital of your
kindness to us, in what case soever you shall desire it, for you
have not omitted any thing which Moses beforehand required of
you, nor have you despised him because he was dead and gone from
you, so that there is nothing to diminish that gratitude which we
owe to you. We therefore dismiss you joyful to your own
inheritances; and we entreat you to suppose, that there is no
limit to be set to the intimate relation that is between us; and
that you will not imagine, because this river is interposed
between us, that you are of a different race from us, and not
Hebrews; for we are all the posterity of Abraham, both we that
inhabit here, and you that inhabit there; and it is the same God
that brought our forefathers and yours into the world, whose
worship and form of government we are to take care of, which he
has ordained, and are most carefully to observe; because while
you continue in those laws, God will also show himself merciful
and assisting to you; but if you imitate the other nations, and
forsake those laws, he will reject your nation." When Joshua had
spoken thus, and saluted them all, both those in authority one by
one, and the whole multitude in common, he himself staid where he
was; but the people conducted those tribes on their journey, and
that not without tears in their eyes; and indeed they hardly knew
how to part one from the other.

26. Now when the tribe of Reuben, and that of Gad, and as many of
the Manassites as followed them, were passed over the river, they
built an altar on the banks of Jordan, as a monument to
posterity, and a sign of their relation to those that should
inhabit on the other side. But when those on the other side heard
that those who had been dismissed had built an altar, but did not