Yehoshua 22:3

3 Ye have not deserted your achim these yamim rabbim to yom hazeh, but have been shomer over the mishmeret mitzvat Hashem Eloheichem (charge, duty of the commandment of Hashem your G-d.)

Yehoshua 22:3 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 22:3

Ye have not left your brethren these many days unto this day,
&c.] For the space of fourteen years, which is the commonly received notion of the Jews ^F6; 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

F6 Seder Olam Rabba, c. 11. p. 32.

Yehoshua 22:3 In-Context

1 2 Then Yehoshua summoned the Reuveni, and the Gadi, and the half-tribe of Menasheh,

2 And said unto them, Ye have been shomer over all that Moshe Eved Hashem commanded you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you;

3 Ye have not deserted your achim these yamim rabbim to yom hazeh, but have been shomer over the mishmeret mitzvat Hashem Eloheichem (charge, duty of the commandment of Hashem your G-d.)

4 And now Hashem Eloheichem hath given manoach unto your achim, just as He promised them; therefore now return ye, and get you unto your ohalim, and unto the Eretz Achuzzatechem, which Moshe eved Hashem gave you on the other side of the Yarden.

5 But be shomer to do the mitzvah and the torah, which Moshe Eved Hashem charged you, to love Hashem Eloheichem, and to walk in all the darkhei Hashem (see Ac 21:21 OJBC), and to be shomer mitzot regarding His commandments, and to have deveykus (attachment, cleavimg to G-d) to Him, and to serve Him in avodas [kodesh] with kol levavchem uvkhol nafshechem (all your heart , with all your nefesh).