Joshua 22:3

_YE HAVE NOT LEFT YOUR BRETHREN THESE MANY DAYS UNTO THIS DAY, BUT HAVE KEPT THE CHARGE OF THE COMMANDMENT OF THE LORD YOUR GOD._ Ye have not left your brethren these many days - for the space of 7 years....

1-9 Joshua dismisses the tribes with good counsel. Those who have the commandment have it in vain, unless they do the commandment; and it will not be done aright unless we take diligent heed. In particular to love the Lord our God, as the best of beings, and the best of friends; and as far as that principle rules in the heart, there will be constant care and endeavour to walk in his ways, even those that are narrow and up-hill. In every instance to keep his commandments. At all times, and in all conditions, with purpose of heart to cleave unto the Lord, and to serve him and his kingdom among men, with all our heart, and with all our soul. This good counsel is given to all; may God give us grace to take it!...

EXPOSITION JOSHUA 22:1 THE REUBENITES AND THE GADITES. According to the Hebrew idiom, these are in the original in the singular, as in Genesis 12:6. Thus a tribe, as has been before remarked, or even a family (Joshua 6:25), is spoken of frequently as a single individual (cf. Joshua 17:14, Joshua 17:15, Joshua 17:17, Joshua 17:18). It seems prob

YE HAVE NOT LEFT YOUR BRETHREN THESE MANY DAYS UNTO THIS DAY,.... For the space of fourteen years, which is the commonly received notion of the Jews f; seven years according to them the land was subduing, and seven more spent in dividing it, and then these tribes were sent for and dismissed; all this time they stayed close by their brethren, and assisted them in their wars, and never offered to return to their wives and children, until they had an order from their general: BUT HAVE KEPT THE CHARGE OF THE COMMANDMENT OF THE LORD YOUR GOD; for what both Moses and Joshua commanded them was from the mouth of the Lord; so that, in obeying them, they obeyed him. f Seder Olam Rabba, c. 11. p. 32....

III. THE FINAL WORDS OF JOSHUA AND THE EPILOGUE 1. The Two and One-half Tribes and the Altar Ed CHAPTER 22 _ 1. Joshua's address (Joshua 22:1)_ 2. The tribes dismissed and their return (Joshua 22:7) 3. The great altar erected (Joshua 22:10) 4. War proposed (Joshua 22:11) 5. The mission of Phinehas and the explanation (Joshua 22:13) 6. The explanation accepted (Joshua 22:30) 7. The altar Ed ...

JOSHUA 21:43 TO JOSHUA 22:8. YAHWEH'S PROMISE OF CONQUEST COMPLETELY FULFILLED, SO THAT THE E. JORDAN TRIBES ARE SET FREE TO RETURN HOME. We have here the introduction to the last section of our book. The land has now, according to the Deuteronomist, been conquered and divided amongst the 9½ tribes; consequently the 2½ tribes, having fulfilled their duty, are dismissed with thanks to their own possessions on the other side of the Jordan....

GOD. Hebrew. _Elohim_. App-4....

_the charge of the commandment_ They had kept their obligations to Moses, to Joshua, and to Jehovah....

_VER._ 1-4. _THEN JOSHUA CALLED THE REUBENITES,_ &C.— The war against the Canaanites being happily concluded, the conquered country divided, and the priests and people settled in the peaceable possession of the cities which had been assigned them; Joshua thought it was just to dismiss the 40,000 men of the three tribes beyond the Jordan, who, for seven or eight years before, had generously quitted their families, and run all the hazards of war, to assist their brethren in their conquest, as Moses had enjoined them. Accordingly, he sent for their chiefs, bore public testimony to their courage and fidelity, and in a solemn manner permitted them to return to their _tents, i.e. to their dwellings_ or _houses;_ for, as the Israelites dwelt at first in tents, this word is in Scripture put indifferently for dwellings or habitations....

_The Dismissal of the Eastern Tribes Joshua 22:1-9_ Then Joshua called the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, 2 And said unto them, Ye have kept all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you: 3 Ye have not left your brethren these many days unto this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of the Lord your God. 4 And now the Lord your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as he promised them: therefore now return ye, and get you unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side Jordan. 5 But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to ser