Joshua 22:2

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

and said to them, You have kept all that Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded you, and have listened to my voice in all that I commanded you:

World English Bible · Public Domain

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שְׁמַרְתֶּ֔ם

shâmar

H8104

“to keep”

Verb, Qal, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural

Appears 469× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 2:15

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 2414

to keep, guard, observe, give heed - (Qal) - to keep, have charge of - to keep, guard, keep watch and ward, protect, save life - watch, watchman (participle) - to watch for, wait for - to watch, observe - to keep, retain, treasure up (in memory) - to keep (within bounds), restrain - to observe, celebrate, keep (sabbath or covenant or commands), perform (vow) - to keep, preserve, protect - to keep, reserve - (Niphal) - to be on one's guard, take heed, take care, beware - to keep oneself, refrain, abstain - to be kept, be guarded - (Piel) to keep, pay heed - (Hithpael) to keep oneself from

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

18: words
13: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Grammatical profile

5 verbs
6 nouns
1 pronoun
1 preposition
5 particles

Verb forms

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר Qal · Sequential Imperfect
שְׁמַרְתֶּ֔ם Qal · Perfect
צִוָּ֣ה Piel · Perfect
וַתִּשְׁמְע֣וּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
צִוִּ֖יתִי Piel · Perfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

כָּל all H3605 ×2
צִוָּ֣ה to command H6680 ×2
אֲשֶׁ֣ר which H834 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 28 words from the Hebrew and 30 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 18 Hebrew tokens and 23 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Joshua 22:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Joshua 1:12–18 To the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, spoke Joshua, saying,
Numbers 32:20–29 Moses said to them, If you will do this thing, if you will arm yourselves to go before Yahweh to the war,
Deuteronomy 3:16–20 To the Reubenites and to the Gadites I gave from Gilead even to the valley of the Arnon, the middle of the valley, and the border [of it], even to the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon;

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Joshua 22:2 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֲלֵיהֶ֔ם אַתֶּ֣ם שְׁמַרְתֶּ֔ם אֵ֚ת כָּל אֲשֶׁ֣ר צִוָּ֣ה אֶתְכֶ֔ם מֹשֶׁ֖ה עֶ֣בֶד יְהוָ֑ה וַתִּשְׁמְע֣וּ בְקוֹלִ֔י לְכֹ֥ל אֲשֶׁר צִוִּ֖יתִי אֶתְכֶֽם

and said to them, You have kept all that Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded you, and have listened to my voice in all that I commanded you:

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Joshua 22:2 Septuagint · lemma form

καί εἶπον αὐτός σύ ἀκούω πᾶς ὅσος ἐντέλλομαι σύ μωυσῆς ὁ παῖς κύριος καί ἐπιἀκούω ὁ φωνή ἐγώ κατά πᾶς ὅσος ἐντέλλομαι σύ

and said to them, You⌃ have heard all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, and you⌃ have listened to my voice in all that he commanded you.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וַאֲמַר לְהוֹן אַתּוּן נְטַרְתּוּן יַת כָּל דְפַקֵד יַתְכוֹן מֹשֶׁה עַבְדָא דַייָ וְקַבֵּילְתּוּן לְמֵימְרִי לְכֹל דִי פַקְדֵית יַתְכוֹן:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Joshua 22:2 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Jos 22:2 And said unto them, Ye have kept all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you:

Ver. 2. Ye have kept all that Moses, &c.] Christ, the Captain of our salvation, shall in like sort set forth and celebrate the virtues and praise worthy practices of his servants and soldiers in that great Panegyris at the last day, saying, "Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations: and I appoint unto you a kingdom." {Luk 22:28-29}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Jos 22:2-3. Ye have kept all that Moses commanded, &c. — Thus he dismisses them with a very honourable character. When Moses was gone, they remembered and observed the charge he had given them; and all the orders which Joshua, as general of the forces, had issued out, they had carefully obeyed. Ye have not left your brethren these many days — He does not say how many, nor can it be collected with certainty from any other place; but it was as long as the war lasted, and therefore must have been the space of seven or eight years, Jos 11:18; Jos 14:10. So long they had been absent from home, excepting such individuals as might have occasionally visited their families, the distance not being great, or have been exchanged for others of their brethren.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

22:2-3 Joshua commended the eastern tribes for their faithful obedience and the fulfillment of their promise to help the rest of Israel inhabit Canaan (see 1:12-18; Num 32:1-32).

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Which was to go armed before their brethren, Num. 32:29.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

2. all that Moses] See (a) Num_32:20-22; (b) Deu_3:18-20; (c) Jos_1:12-17.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Ye have not left your brethren these many days unto this day,.... For the space of fourteen years, which is the commonly received notion of the Jews (f); 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.

(f) Seder Olam Rabba, c. 11. p. 32.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Joshua, in the Historical, opens this verse with 18 words (13 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is shâmar (“to keep”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “to keep” (shâmar) shape what this verse is saying?
Joshua 1:12–18 shares this passage’s theme. How do the two illuminate each other?
“all” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «וַיֹּ֣אמֶר» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 18 Hebrew ↔ 23 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 6 words in this verse.
“all” occurs 2× in this single verse.
13 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 18 words in this verse.