So they answered Joshua, “Everything you have commanded us we will do, and everywhere you send us we will go.
16. And they answered, etc They not only acquiesce, but freely admit and explicitly detail the obedience which they owe. Our obligations are duly discharged only when we perform them cheerfully, and not in sadness, as Paul expresses it. (2 Corinthians 9:7.) If it is objected that there is little modesty in their boast of having been obedient to Moses whom they had often contradicted...
This answer was given not by the two tribes and a half only (though they are spoken of immediately before), but by the officers of all the people (Jos 1:10), as their representatives, concurring with the divine appointment, by which Joshua was set over them, and they did it heartily, and with a great deal of cheerfulness and resolution. I. They promise him obedience (v.
Commenting on Joshua 1:16-18
And they answered Joshua,.... The two tribes of Gad and Reuben, and the half tribe of Manasseh, the heads of them, such as were deputed for that purpose, and were their mouths to him: saying, all that thou commandest we will do; with respect to this affair of going over Jordan with their brethren, to assist them in the conquest of the land of Canaan...