Yosua 2:1-24
Konteks2:1 Joshua son of Nun sent two spies out from Shittim secretly and instructed them: 1 “Find out what you can about the land, especially Jericho.” 2 They stopped at the house of a prostitute named Rahab and spent the night there. 3 2:2 The king of Jericho received this report: “Note well! 4 Israelite men have come here tonight 5 to spy on the land.” 2:3 So the king of Jericho sent this order to Rahab: 6 “Turn over 7 the men who came to you 8 – the ones who came to your house 9 – for they have come to spy on the whole land!” 2:4 But the woman hid the two men 10 and replied, “Yes, these men were clients of mine, 11 but I didn’t know where they came from. 2:5 When it was time to shut the city gate for the night, the men left. 12 I don’t know where they were heading. Chase after them quickly, for you have time to catch them!” 2:6 (Now she had taken them up to the roof and had hidden them in the stalks of flax she had spread out 13 on the roof.) 2:7 Meanwhile 14 the king’s men tried to find them on the road to the Jordan River 15 near the fords. 16 The city gate was shut as soon as they set out in pursuit of them. 17
2:8 Now before the spies 18 went to sleep, Rahab 19 went up 20 to the roof. 2:9 She said to the men, “I know the Lord is handing this land over to you. 21 We are absolutely terrified of you, 22 and all who live in the land are cringing before 23 you. 24 2:10 For we heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you left Egypt and how you annihilated the two Amorite kings, Sihon and Og, on the other side of the Jordan. 25 2:11 When we heard the news we lost our courage and no one could even breathe for fear of you. 26 For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below! 2:12 So now, promise me this with an oath sworn in the Lord’s name. 27 Because I have shown allegiance to you, show allegiance to my family. 28 Give me a solemn pledge 29 2:13 that you will spare the lives of my father, mother, brothers, sisters, and all who belong to them, and rescue us 30 from death.” 2:14 The men said to her, “If you 31 die, may we die too! 32 If you do not report what we’ve been up to, 33 then, when the Lord hands the land over to us, we will show unswerving allegiance 34 to you.” 35
2:15 Then Rahab 36 let them down by a rope 37 through the window. (Her 38 house was built as part of the city wall; she lived in the wall.) 39 2:16 She told them, “Head 40 to the hill country, so the ones chasing you don’t find you. 41 Hide from them there for three days, long enough for those chasing you 42 to return. Then you can be on your way.” 2:17 The men said to her, “We are not bound by this oath you made us swear unless the following conditions are met: 43 2:18 When we invade the land 44 , tie this red rope 45 in the window through which you let us down, and gather together in your house your father, mother, brothers, and all who live in your father’s house. 46 2:19 Anyone who leaves your house will be responsible for his own death – we are innocent in that case! 47 But if anyone with you in the house is harmed, we will be responsible. 48 2:20 If you should report what we’ve been up to, 49 we are not bound by this oath you made us swear.” 2:21 She said, “I agree to these conditions.” 50 She sent them on their way 51 and then tied the red rope in the window. 2:22 They went 52 to the hill country and stayed there for three days, long enough for those chasing them 53 to return. Their pursuers 54 looked all along the way but did not find them. 55 2:23 Then the two men returned – they came down from the hills, crossed the river, 56 came to Joshua son of Nun, and reported to him all they had discovered. 2:24 They told Joshua, “Surely the Lord is handing over all the land to us! 57 All who live in the land are cringing before us!” 58
Yosua 6:1-27
Konteks6:1 Now Jericho 59 was shut tightly 60 because of the Israelites. No one was allowed to leave or enter. 61 6:2 The Lord told Joshua, “See, I am about to defeat Jericho for you, 62 along with its king and its warriors. 6:3 Have all the warriors march around the city one time; 63 do this for six days. 6:4 Have seven priests carry seven rams’ horns 64 in front of the ark. On the seventh day march around the city seven times, while the priests blow the horns. 6:5 When you hear the signal from the ram’s horn, 65 have the whole army give a loud battle cry. 66 Then the city wall will collapse 67 and the warriors should charge straight ahead.” 68
6:6 So Joshua son of Nun summoned the priests and instructed them, “Pick up the ark of the covenant, and seven priests must carry seven rams’ horns in front of the ark of the Lord.” 6:7 And he told 69 the army, 70 “Move ahead 71 and march around the city, with armed troops going ahead of the ark of the Lord.”
6:8 When Joshua gave the army its orders, 72 the seven priests carrying the seven rams’ horns before the Lord moved ahead and blew the horns as the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed behind. 6:9 Armed troops marched ahead of the priests blowing the horns, while the rear guard followed along behind the ark blowing rams’ horns. 6:10 Now Joshua had instructed the army, 73 “Do not give a battle cry 74 or raise your voices; say nothing 75 until the day I tell you, ‘Give the battle cry.’ 76 Then give the battle cry!” 77 6:11 So Joshua made sure they marched the ark of the Lord around the city one time. 78 Then they went back to the camp and spent the night there. 79
6:12 Bright and early the next morning Joshua had the priests pick up the ark of the Lord. 80 6:13 The seven priests carrying the seven rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord marched along blowing their horns. Armed troops marched ahead of them, while the rear guard followed along behind the ark of the Lord blowing rams’ horns. 6:14 They marched around the city one time on the second day, then returned to the camp. They did this six days in all.
6:15 On the seventh day they were up at the crack of dawn 81 and marched around the city as before – only this time they marched around it seven times. 82 6:16 The seventh time around, the priests blew the rams’ horns and Joshua told the army, 83 “Give the battle cry, 84 for the Lord is handing the city over to you! 85 6:17 The city and all that is in it must be set apart for the Lord, 86 except for Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house, because she hid the spies 87 we sent. 6:18 But be careful when you are setting apart the riches for the Lord. If you take any of it, you will make the Israelite camp subject to annihilation and cause a disaster. 88 6:19 All the silver and gold, as well as bronze and iron items, belong to the Lord. 89 They must go into the Lord’s treasury.”
6:20 The rams’ horns sounded 90 and when the army 91 heard the signal, 92 they gave a loud battle cry. 93 The wall collapsed 94 and the warriors charged straight ahead into the city and captured it. 95 6:21 They annihilated with the sword everything that breathed in the city, 96 including men and women, young and old, as well as cattle, sheep, and donkeys. 6:22 Joshua told the two men who had spied on the land, “Enter the prostitute’s house 97 and bring out the woman and all who belong to her as you promised her.” 98 6:23 So the young spies went and brought out Rahab, her father, mother, brothers, and all who belonged to her. They brought out her whole family and took them to a place outside 99 the Israelite camp. 6:24 But they burned 100 the city and all that was in it, except for the silver, gold, and bronze and iron items they put in the treasury of the Lord’s house. 101 6:25 Yet Joshua spared 102 Rahab the prostitute, her father’s family, 103 and all who belonged to her. She lives in Israel 104 to this very day because she hid the messengers Joshua sent to spy on Jericho. 105 6:26 At that time Joshua made this solemn declaration: 106 “The man who attempts to rebuild 107 this city of Jericho 108 will stand condemned before the Lord. 109 He will lose his firstborn son when he lays its foundations and his youngest son when he erects its gates!” 110 6:27 The Lord was with Joshua and he became famous throughout the land. 111
[2:1] 1 tn Heb “Joshua, son of Nun, sent from Shittim two men, spies, secretly, saying.”
[2:1] 2 tn Heb “go, see the land, and Jericho.”
[2:1] map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.
[2:1] 3 tn Heb “they went and entered the house of a woman, a prostitute, and her name was Rahab, and they slept there.”
[2:2] 5 tn Heb “men have come here tonight from the sons of Israel.”
[2:3] 6 tn Heb “and the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying.”
[2:3] 8 tn The idiom “come to” (בוֹא אֶל, bo’ ’el) probably has sexual connotations here, as it often does elsewhere when a man “comes to” a woman. If so, the phrase could be translated “your clients.” The instructions reflect Rahab’s perspective as to the identity of the men.
[2:3] 9 tn The words “the ones who came to your house” (Heb “who came to your house”) may be a euphemistic scribal addition designed to blur the sexual connotation of the preceding words.
[2:4] 10 tn Heb “The woman took the two men and hid him.” The third masculine singular pronominal suffix on “hid” has to be a scribal error (see GKC §135.p).
[2:4] 11 tn Heb “the men came to me.” See the note on this phrase in v. 3.
[2:5] 12 tn Heb “And the gate was to be shut in the darkness and the men went out.”
[2:6] 13 tn Heb “arranged in rows by her.”
[2:7] 14 tn Another way to translate vv. 6-7 would be, “While she took them up to the roof and hid them…, the king’s men tried to find them….” Both of the main clauses have the subject prior to the predicate, perhaps indicating simultaneous action. (On the grammatical point, see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 42, §235.) In this case Rahab moves the Israelite spies from the hiding place referred to in v. 4 to a safer and less accessible hiding place.
[2:7] 15 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for clarity.
[2:7] 16 tn Heb “And the men chased after them [on] the road [leading to] the Jordan to the fords.” The text is written from the perspective of the king’s men. As far as they were concerned, they were chasing the spies.
[2:7] 17 tn Heb “And they shut the gate after – as soon as the ones chasing after them went out.” The expressions “after” and “as soon as” may represent a conflation of alternate readings.
[2:8] 19 tn Heb “she”; the referent (Rahab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[2:8] 20 tn The Hebrew text adds, “to them.” This is somewhat redundant in English and has not been translated.
[2:9] 21 tn Heb “has given the land to you.” Rahab’s statement uses the Hebrew perfect, suggesting certitude.
[2:9] 22 tn Heb “terror of you has fallen upon us.”
[2:9] 23 tn Or “melting away because of.”
[2:9] 24 tn Both of these statements are actually subordinated to “I know” in the Hebrew text, which reads, “I know that the
[2:10] 25 tn Heb “and what you did to the two Amorite kings who were beyond the Jordan, Sihon and Og, how you annihilated them.”
[2:11] 26 tn Heb “And we heard and our heart[s] melted and there remained no longer breath in a man because of you.”
[2:12] 27 tn Heb “Now, swear to me by the
[2:12] sn To swear an oath in the
[2:12] 28 tn Heb “with the house of my father.”
[2:12] 29 tn Heb “true sign,” that is, “an inviolable token or pledge.”
[2:14] 31 tn The second person pronoun is masculine plural, indicating that Rahab’s entire family is in view.
[2:14] 32 tn Heb “Our lives in return for you to die.” If the lives of Rahab’s family are not spared, then the spies will pay for the broken vow with their own lives.
[2:14] 33 tn Heb “If you do not report this matter of ours.”
[2:14] 34 tn Heb “allegiance and faithfulness.” These virtual synonyms are joined in the translation as “unswerving allegiance” to emphasize the degree of promised loyalty.
[2:14] 35 tn The second person pronoun is feminine singular, referring specifically to Rahab.
[2:15] 36 tn Heb “she”; the referent (Rahab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[2:15] 37 tc The phrase “by a rope” is omitted in the LXX. It may be a later clarifying addition. If original, the omission in the LXX is likely due to an error of homoioarcton. A scribe’s or translator’s eye could have jumped from the initial ב (bet) in the phrase בַּחֶבֶל (bakhevel, “with a rope”) to the initial ב on the immediately following בְּעַד (bÿ’ad, “through”) and accidentally omitted the intervening letters.
[2:15] 38 tn Heb “For her house.”
[2:15] 39 tc These explanatory statements are omitted in the LXX and probably represent a later scribal addition.
[2:16] 41 tn Heb “so that the pursuers might not meet you.”
[2:16] 42 tn Heb “the pursuers.” The object (“you”) is not in the Hebrew text but is implied.
[2:17] 43 tn Heb “We are free from this oath of yours which you made us swear.” The words “unless the following conditions are met” are not in the Hebrew text, but are added for clarification.
[2:18] 44 tn Heb “Look! We are about to enter the land.”
[2:18] 45 tn Heb “the cord of this red thread.”
[2:18] 46 tn Heb “and your father and your mother and your brothers and all the house of your father gather to yourself to the house.”
[2:19] 47 tn Heb “Anyone who goes out from the doors of your house to the outside, his blood is on his head. We are innocent.”
[2:19] 48 tn Heb “But anyone who is with you in the house, his blood is on our head if a hand should be on him.”
[2:20] 49 tn Heb “and if you report this matter of ours.”
[2:21] 50 tn Heb “According to your words, so it [will be].”
[2:21] 51 tn Heb “she sent them away and they went.”
[2:22] 52 tn Heb “they went and came.”
[2:22] 53 tn Heb “the pursuers.” The object (“them”) is added for clarification.
[2:22] 54 tn Heb “the ones chasing them.” This has been rendered as “their pursuers” in the translation to avoid redundancy with the preceding clause.
[2:22] 55 tn Heb “The pursuers looked in all the way and did not find [them].”
[2:23] 56 tn The words “the river,” though not in the Hebrew text, are added for clarification.
[2:24] 57 tn Heb “Surely the
[2:24] 58 tn Heb “are melting away because of us.”
[6:1] 59 map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.
[6:1] 60 tn Heb “was shutting and shut up.” HALOT 2:743 paraphrases, “blocking [any way of access] and blocked [against any who would leave].”
[6:1] 61 tn Heb “there was no one going out and there was no one coming in.”
[6:2] 62 tn Heb “I have given into your hand Jericho.” The Hebrew verb נָתַתִּי (natatti, “I have given”) is probably best understood as a perfect of certitude, indicating the certainty of the action. The Hebrew pronominal suffix “your” is singular, being addressed to Joshua as the leader and representative of the nation. To convey to the modern reader what is about to happen and who is doing it, the translation “I am about to defeat Jericho for you” has been used.
[6:3] 63 tn Heb “and go around the city, all [you] men of war, encircling the city one time.” The Hebrew verb וְסַבֹּתֶם (vÿsabbotem, “and go around”) is plural, being addressed to the whole army.
[6:4] 64 tn Heb “rams’ horns, trumpets.”
[6:5] 65 tn Heb “and it will be at the sounding of the horn, the ram’s horn, when you hear the sound of the ram’s horn.” The text of Josh 6:5 seems to be unduly repetitive, so for the sake of English style and readability, it is best to streamline the text here. The reading in the Hebrew looks like a conflation of variant readings, with the second (“when you hear the sound of the ram’s horn”) being an interpolation that assimilates the text to verse 20 (“when the army heard the sound of the horn”). Note that the words “when you hear the sound of the ram's horn” do not appear in the LXX of verse 5.
[6:5] 66 tn Heb “all the people will shout with a loud shout.”
[6:5] 67 tn Heb “fall in its place.”
[6:5] 68 tn Heb “and the people will go up, each man straight ahead.”
[6:7] 69 tn An alternative reading is “and they said.” In this case the subject is indefinite and the verb should be translated as passive, “[the army] was told.”
[6:8] 72 tn Heb “when Joshua spoke to the people.”
[6:10] 73 tn Heb “the people.”
[6:10] 75 tn Heb “do not let a word come out of your mouths.”
[6:11] 78 tn Heb “and he made the ark of the
[6:11] 79 tn Heb “and they entered the camp and spent the night in the camp.”
[6:12] 80 tn Heb “Joshua rose early in the morning and the priests picked up the ark of the
[6:15] 81 tn Heb “On the seventh day they rose early, when the dawn ascended.”
[6:15] 82 tn Heb “and they went around the city according to this manner seven times, only on that day they went around the city seven times.”
[6:16] 83 tn Heb “the people.”
[6:16] 85 tn Heb “for the
[6:17] 86 tn Or “dedicated to the
[6:17] sn To make the city set apart for the
[6:17] 87 tn Heb “messengers.”
[6:18] 88 tn Heb “Only you keep [away] from what is set apart [to the
[6:19] 89 tn Heb “it is holy to the
[6:20] 90 tc Heb “and the people shouted and they blew the rams’ horns.” The initial statement (“and the people shouted”) seems premature, since the verse goes on to explain that the battle cry followed the blowing of the horns. The statement has probably been accidentally duplicated from what follows. It is omitted in the LXX.
[6:20] 91 tn Heb “the people.”
[6:20] 92 tn Heb “the sound of the horn.”
[6:20] 93 tn Heb “they shouted with a loud shout.”
[6:20] 94 tn Heb “fell in its place.”
[6:20] 95 tn Heb “and the people went up into the city, each one straight ahead, and they captured the city.”
[6:21] 96 tn Heb “all which was in the city.”
[6:22] 97 tn Heb “the house of the woman, the prostitute.”
[6:22] 98 tn Heb “and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her as you swore on oath to her.”
[6:23] 99 tn Or “placed them outside.”
[6:24] 100 tn The Hebrew text adds “with fire.”
[6:24] 101 tn Heb “the treasury of the house of the
[6:25] 102 tn Heb “kept alive.”
[6:25] 103 tn Heb the house of her father.”
[6:25] 104 tn Or “among the Israelites”; Heb “in the midst of Israel.”
[6:25] 105 map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.
[6:26] 106 tn Normally the Hiphil of שָׁבַע (shava’) has a causative sense (“make [someone] take an oath”; see Josh 2:17, 20), but here (see also Josh 23:7) no object is stated or implied. If Joshua is calling divine judgment down upon the one who attempts to rebuild Jericho, then “make a solemn appeal [to God as judge]” or “pronounce a curse” would be an appropriate translation. However, the tone seems stronger. Joshua appears to be announcing the certain punishment of the violator. 1 Kgs 16:34, which records the fulfillment of Joshua’s prediction, supports this. Casting Joshua in a prophetic role, it refers to Joshua’s statement as the “word of the
[6:26] 107 tn Heb “rises up and builds.”
[6:26] 108 tc The LXX omits “Jericho.” It is probably a scribal addition.
[6:26] 109 tn The Hebrew phrase אָרוּר לִפְנֵי יְהוָה (’arur lifney yÿhvah, “cursed [i.e., condemned] before the
[6:26] 110 tn Heb “With his firstborn he will lay its foundations and with his youngest he will erect its gates.” The Hebrew verb יַצִּיב (yatsiv, “he will erect”) is imperfect, not jussive, suggesting Joshua’s statement is a prediction, not an imprecation.
[6:27] 111 tn Heb “and the report about him was in all the land.” The Hebrew term אֶרֶץ (’erets, “land”) may also be translated “earth.”
