Yosua 10:10

10:10 The Lord routed ¹  them before Israel. Israel ²  thoroughly defeated them ³  at Gibeon. They chased them up the road to the pass ⁴  of Beth Horon and struck them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah.

Yosua 10:1

Israel Defeats an Amorite Coalition

10:1 Adoni-Zedek, king of Jerusalem, ⁵  heard how Joshua captured Ai and annihilated it and its king as he did Jericho ⁶  and its king. ⁷  He also heard how ⁸  the people of Gibeon made peace with Israel and lived among them.

1 Samuel 17:1

David Kills Goliath

17:1 ⁹ The Philistines gathered their troops ¹⁰  for battle. They assembled at Socoh in Judah. They camped in Ephes Dammim, between Socoh and Azekah.

[10:10]  ¹ tn Or “caused to panic.”

[10:10]  ² tn Heb “he.” The referent is probably Israel (mentioned at the end of the previous sentence in the verse; cf. NIV, NRSV), but it is also possible that the Lord should be understood as the referent (cf. NASB “and He slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon”), or even Joshua (cf. NEB “and Joshua defeated them utterly in Gibeon”).

[10:10]  ³ tn Heb “struck them down with a great striking down.”

[10:10]  ⁴ tn Or “ascent.”

[10:1]  ⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[10:1]  ⁶ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[10:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “as he had done to Jericho and to its king, so he did to Ai and to its king.”

[10:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “and how.”

[17:1]  ⁹ tc The content of 1 Sam 17–18, which includes the David and Goliath story, differs considerably in the LXX as compared to the MT, suggesting that this story circulated in ancient times in more than one form. The LXX for chs. 17–18 is much shorter than the MT, lacking almost half of the material (39 of a total of 88 verses). Many scholars (e.g., McCarter, Klein) think that the shorter text of the LXX is preferable to the MT, which in their view has been expanded by incorporation of later material. Other scholars (e.g., Wellhausen, Driver) conclude that the shorter Greek text (or the Hebrew text that underlies it) reflects an attempt to harmonize certain alleged inconsistencies that appear in the longer version of the story. Given the translation characteristics of the LXX elsewhere in this section, it does not seem likely that these differences are due to deliberate omission of these verses on the part of the translator. It seems more likely that the Greek translator has faithfully rendered here a Hebrew text that itself was much shorter than the MT in these chapters. Whether or not the shorter text represented by the LXX is to be preferred over the MT in 1 Sam 17–18 is a matter over which textual scholars are divided. For a helpful discussion of the major textual issues in this unit see D. Barthélemy, D. W. Gooding, J. Lust, and E. Tov, The Story of David and Goliath (OBO). Overall it seems preferable to stay with the MT, at least for the most part. However, the major textual differences between the LXX and the MT will be mentioned in the notes that accompany the translation so that the reader may be alert to the major problem passages.

[17:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “camps.”