The rest of the people of Israel were told may require either a shift to an active construction or else an explicit mention of the person or persons who told them. The entire verse may also be translated as indirect discourse: “The rest of the people of Israel heard that the people of the tribe of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh had built an altar at Geliloth, on their side of the Jordan.” Or, as an alternative solution to the question of who did the telling: “The rest of the people of Israel said to one another, ‘Have you heard that the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh have built…?’ ”
On our side of the Jordan translates the Hebrew “on the side towards (or, facing) the people of Israel.”Revised Standard Version “frontier” in verse 11 translates the Hebrew el-mul, which in itself does not say whether it means the west bank or the east bank; the Septuagint has “the regions (of the land of Canaan).” Good News Translation regards “the frontier of the land of Canaan” as redundant information which does not need to be represented in translation. It is not certain which side of the Jordan is meant. Bright says the altar was on the east side, but adds “but the sense of the verses is against this (see verses 10, 11 and 19).” The following take it to have been the west bank: Soggin, Smith, Gray; Good News Translation, An American Translation, Revised Standard Version, Bible de Jérusalem, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible; the east bank: New English Bible, New American Bible. Bible de Jérusalem translates verse 10 as west side, verse 11 as east side, and adds that verse 11 is a later addition to the text. Good News Translation supplies a footnote with the alternative: “or on the east side.” Certainly the whole incident makes better sense if the altar was on the west side, that is, in the land of Canaan, strictly speaking.
On our side of the Jordan may be more precisely indicated as “here on the western bank, on our side of the river.” Or, if the alternative interpretation of the text is followed, “there on the eastern bank, directly across from our territory.”
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .