Released with Riches

Joshua grants the eastern tribes leave to return to their homes, but he does not dismiss them empty-handed. Rather, he instructs them to take their share of the plunder of Israel’s conquests in Canaan. In doing so, Joshua shows clearly that the eastern tribes are one with the western tribes and therefore equally entitled to all the blessings of God’s covenant with Israel. Though they live outside Canaan proper, they, too, are Israel. This emphasis on unity sets the stage for what occurs later in chapter 22.

The plunder from Israel’s God-given victories appears to be very great. “ ‘Return with much riches,’ ” Joshua tells the easterners, “ ‘with very much livestock, with silver, with gold, with bronze, with iron, and with very much clothing.’ ” God has given the land to His people, but He also has allowed them to keep much of the spoils of the cities He has delivered into their hands. This plunder appears to have been kept in some sort of common holding until now. By the grace of God, Egypt’s former slaves are enriched and furnished.

Joshua instructs the eastern tribes to split the plunder with their “brethren.” There is uncertainty as to what this means. The obvious interpretation is that Joshua is simply saying that the eastern tribes are to claim their share of the plunder along with the western tribes. But Matthew Henry speculates that soldiers from the eastern tribes may have returned home on a rotating basis during the conquest “to visit their families, and to look after their private affairs.” If this is so, Joshua may be telling them to divide the plunder with those currently at home and with those who were unable to fight due to youth, infirmity, or other reasons. There is precedent for this in Israel’s history (Num. 31:27). Also, the divided status of the tribe of Manasseh, mentioned in verse 7, may be in view here. Perhaps Joshua is encouraging the two half-tribes to divide their single share of the plunder evenly, not grasping for more than any other single tribe would get. There is, after all, much to be had, even if one twelfth of the spoils must be split.

Thus exhorted and blessed (in word and material goods), the eastern tribes depart from the western tribes at Shiloh and set out for their lands on the opposite bank of the Jordan, lands “they had obtained according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses.”