Verse 16 reports how the men of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh promptly agreed to Joshua’s demand. They may need to be identified as “The tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh,” since the last mention of them was in verse 12.

It may be helpful to change the order of the command and responses in the clauses We will do everything you have told us and will go everywhere you send us. For example, “You have given us commands, and we will obey them all, and when you command us to go somewhere, we will go there.” Or, since the initial response immediately follows Joshua’s speech, it may be necessary to reorder only the second in the series: “We will do all the things that you have told us to do, and when you send us somewhere, we will go there.” In these two proposed restructurings, it should be noted that the subject “we” is repeated before the second verb of which it is the subject; this is because in Good News Translation We will do is a closely bound unit, whereas We will do … and will go has the subject We at some distance from the second verb will go.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .