We perceive that the Lord is among us - Or, according to the Targum of Jonathan. "This day we know that the majesty of Jehovah dwelleth among us, because ye have not committed this prevarication against the Word of the Lord, and thus ye have delivered the children of Israel from the hand of the Word of the Lord." They rejoice to find them innocent, and that there is no ground of quarrel between the children of the same family. And from this they draw a very favorable conclusion, that as God was among them as the sole object of their religious worship, so he would abide with them as their protector and their portion; and as they were his friends, they take it for granted that he will deliver them from the hands of their enemies.

And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and the princes,.... Being fully satisfied with the relation of things that had been given them, and having taken their leave of the assembly:

returned from the children of Reuben, and from the children of Gad; the Greek version adds, "and from the half tribe of Manasseh"; which, though not in the Hebrew text, is undoubtedly meant:

out of the land of Gilead: which, though only a part of the country these tribes inhabited, is put for the whole, and it is not improbable that the assembly might be held in it:

unto the land of Canaan, to the children of Israel; the rest of the children of Israel who dwelt in the land of Canaan, properly so called:

and brought them word again; reported the whole affair, related all that had passed, and acquainted them with the intention and design of their brethren erecting the altar, and what had been the issue of their embassy to them.

Then the children of Reuben . . . answered--repudiating, in the strongest terms, the alleged crime, and deponing that so far from entertaining the intention imputed to them, their only object was to perpetuate the memory of their alliance with Israel [Jos 22:24-25], and their adherence to the worship of Israel's God [Jos 22:26-27].