Joshua 22:1-9--The Eastern Tribes Return Home

Joshua 22:1-9
English Standard Version

The Eastern Tribes Return Home
22 At that time Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, 2 and said to them, “You have kept all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you and have obeyed my voice in all that I have commanded you. 3 You have not forsaken your brothers these many days, down to this day, but have been careful to keep the charge of the LORD your God. 4 And now the LORD your God has given rest to your brothers, as he promised them. Therefore turn and go to your tents in the land where your possession lies, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the other side of the Jordan. 5 Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” 6 So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.

7 Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given a possession in Bashan, but to the other half Joshua had given a possession beside their brothers in the land west of the Jordan. And when Joshua sent them away to their homes and blessed them, 8 he said to them, “Go back to your tents with much wealth and with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and with much clothing. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.” 9 So the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned home, parting from the people of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, their own land of which they had possessed themselves by command of the LORD through Moses.

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The time has come for the Trans-Jordan tribes to be released to go back to the inheritance that they chose for themselves on the eastern side of the Jordan River.  They were only to be careful to obey the commandments of the LORD and to cling to Him and serve Him with all their heart and soul (Joshua's paraphrase of The Greatest Commandment).

First Joshua sent back the tribes of Reuben and Gad who had all chosen their inheritance before entering the Promised Land, and then Joshua turned to the half-tribe of Manasseh that also chose their inheritance in the Trans-Jordan, and he also told them to go back to their tents and their families with all the wealth they had accumulated.  The Reubenites, Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh left Shiloh in the land of Canaan and departed for the land of Gilead (the name they gave to the Trans-Jordan area they chose as their inheritance), and they possessed that land by the command of the LORD given through Moses.

I won't spoil it for you, but there is going to be immediate tension and conflict though part of the peaceful resolution offered is that the Trans-Jordan tribes could cross over the Jordan and the children of Israel would gladly give them their inheritance from the land of Canaan among their brothers.  We'll talk more about that tension that nearly led to open war next time.