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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Joshua 22:4. Return ye to your tents — That is, to your settled habitations. Though their affections to their families could not but make them very desirous to return, yet, like good soldiers, they would not move till they had orders from their general. So, though we desire to be at home with Christ ever so much, yet we must stay here till our warfare is accomplished, wait for a due discharge, and not anticipate the time of our removal.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

22:1-9 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!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The events of this chap. are no doubt recorded in their proper historical order. The auxiliary forces of the trans-Jordanic tribes were not sent away immediately after the campaigns against the Canaanites were over. They set forth from Shiloh, Joshua 22:9, to which place the sanctuary had been removed Joshua 18:1 after the conquest and the settlement of the children of Judah and of Joseph in their possessions, and after the appointment of the Levitical cities.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4-7. get you unto your tents—that is, home; for their families had been left in fortified towns (Nu 32:17).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Unto your tents, i.e. to your settled habitations, as appears from Deu 22:8, which are oft called

tents, as Judges 19:9 2 Samuel 17:17 Hosea 9:6 Malachi 2:12.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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.

Geneva Study Bible

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.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. hath given rest] Comp. ch. Joshua 21:44, Joshua 23:1.

which Moses] See ch. Joshua 13:8.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - Given rest. LXX. κατέπαυσε, the word used in Hebrews 4:8. Joshua 22:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Joshua 22:4 points back to Joshua 1:15. "Unto your tents," for to your homes, - an antiquated form of expression, as in Deuteronomy 16:7; Judges 7:8, etc.