Joshua 22:4

_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._ Get you unto your tents - i:e., home; because their families had been left in fortified towns (Numbers 32:17)....

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

AND NOW THE LORD YOUR GOD HATH GIVEN REST UNTO YOUR BRETHREN, AS HE PROMISED THEM,.... As in Joshua 21:44; see Deuteronomy 12:9; THEREFORE NOW RETURN YE, AND GET YE UNTO YOUR TENTS; not their military tents in the army, from which they now came to Joshua, but their houses, as the Greek version, and their cities, as the Targum; they having been so long used to tents in the wilderness, and during the wars in Canaan, this was a familiar word for their dwellings: [AND] UNTO THE LAND OF YOUR POSSESSION, WHICH MOSES THE SERVANT OF THE LORD GAVE YOU, ON THE OTHER SIDE JORDAN; before his death, on condition of doing what they now had done; even the land of Gilead and Bashan, beyond Jordan....

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....

AS. according as. THEM. A special various reading called _Sevir_ (App-34), with many codices and two early printed editions, reads "to you...

_hath given rest_ Comp. ch. Joshua 21:44; Joshua 23:1. _which Moses_ See ch. Joshua 13:8....

DISCOURSE: 256 THE DISBANDING OF THE TROOPS OF ISRAEL Joshua 22:4._ 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. But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you, to lore the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul_. THE duties of soldiers and of their commanders are well illustrated in this passage. The soldier’s chief excellence is a prompt, steady, persevering, uniform obedience to the commands of his superiors, without regarding any difficulties, any dangers, any sacrifices: and amongst the chief excellencies of a commander is an attention to the spiritual and eternal interests of those who a

_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....