Yosua 1:7

1:7 Make sure you are ¹  very strong and brave! Carefully obey ²  all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep! ³  Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful ⁴  in all you do. ⁵ 

Yosua 2:19

2:19 Anyone who leaves your house will be responsible for his own death – we are innocent in that case! ⁶  But if anyone with you in the house is harmed, we will be responsible. ⁷ 

Yosua 4:10

4:10 Now the priests carrying the ark of the covenant were standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the Lord had commanded Joshua to tell the people was accomplished, in accordance with all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people went across quickly,

Yosua 6:20

6:20 The rams’ horns sounded ⁸  and when the army ⁹  heard the signal, ¹⁰  they gave a loud battle cry. ¹¹  The wall collapsed ¹²  and the warriors charged straight ahead into the city and captured it. ¹³ 

Yosua 7:5

7:5 The men of Ai killed about thirty-six of them and chased them from in front of the city gate all the way to the fissures ¹⁴  and defeated them on the steep slope. ¹⁵  The people’s ¹⁶  courage melted away like water. ¹⁷ 

Yosua 7:21

7:21 I saw among the goods we seized a nice robe from Babylon, ¹⁸  two hundred silver pieces, ¹⁹  and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels. I wanted them, so I took them. They are hidden in the ground right in the middle of my tent with the silver underneath.”

Yosua 8:1

Israel Conquers Ai

8:1 The Lord told Joshua, “Don’t be afraid and don’t panic! ²⁰  Take the whole army with you and march against Ai! ²¹  See, I am handing over to you ²²  the king of Ai, along with his people, city, and land.

Yosua 8:14

8:14 When the king of Ai saw Israel, he and his whole army quickly got up the next day and went out to fight Israel at the meeting place near the Arabah. ²³  But he did not realize ²⁴  men were hiding behind the city. ²⁵ 

Yosua 8:20

8:20 When the men of Ai turned around, they saw ²⁶  the smoke from the city ascending into the sky and were so shocked they were unable to flee in any direction. ²⁷  In the meantime the men who were retreating to the desert turned against their pursuers.

Yosua 13:2

13:2 This is the land that remains: all the territory of the Philistines and all the Geshurites,

Yosua 15:18

15:18 One time Acsah ²⁸  came and charmed her father ²⁹  so that she could ask him for some land. When she got down from her donkey, Caleb said to her, “What would you like?”

Yosua 17:16

17:16 The descendants of Joseph said, “The whole hill country ³⁰  is inadequate for us, and the Canaanites living down in the valley in Beth Shean and its surrounding towns and in the Valley of Jezreel have chariots with iron-rimmed wheels.” ³¹ 

Yosua 21:44

21:44 The Lord made them secure, ³²  in fulfillment of all he had solemnly promised their ancestors. ³³  None of their enemies could resist them. ³⁴ 

Yosua 22:19

22:19 But if your own land ³⁵  is impure, ³⁶  cross over to the Lord’s own land, ³⁷  where the Lord himself lives, ³⁸  and settle down among us. ³⁹  But don’t rebel against the Lord or us ⁴⁰  by building for yourselves an altar aside from the altar of the Lord our God.

Yosua 22:22

22:22 “El, God, the Lord! ⁴¹  El, God, the Lord! He knows the truth! ⁴²  Israel must also know! If we have rebelled or disobeyed the Lord, ⁴³  don’t spare us ⁴⁴  today!

Yosua 23:4

23:4 See, I have parceled out to your tribes these remaining nations, ⁴⁵  from the Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea ⁴⁶  in the west, including all the nations I defeated. ⁴⁷ 

Yosua 23:15

23:15 But in the same way every faithful promise the Lord your God made to you has been realized, ⁴⁸  it is just as certain, if you disobey, that the Lord will bring on you every judgment ⁴⁹  until he destroys you from this good land which the Lord your God gave you.

Yosua 24:32

24:32 The bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the part of the field that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for one hundred pieces of money. ⁵⁰  So it became the inheritance of the tribe of Joseph. ⁵¹ 

[1:7]  ¹ tn Or “Only be.”

[1:7]  ² tn Heb “so you can be careful to do.” The use of the infinitive לִשְׁמֹר (lishmor, “to keep”) after the imperatives suggests that strength and bravery will be necessary for obedience. Another option is to take the form לִשְׁמֹר as a vocative lamed (ל) with imperative (see Isa 38:20 for an example of this construction), which could be translated, “Indeed, be careful!”

[1:7]  ³ tn Heb “commanded you.”

[1:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “be wise,” but the word can mean “be successful” by metonymy.

[1:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “in all which you go.”

[2:19]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “But anyone who is with you in the house, his blood is on our head if a hand should be on him.”

[6:20]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “the people.”

[6:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the sound of the horn.”

[6:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they shouted with a loud shout.”

[6:20]  ¹² tn Heb “fell in its place.”

[6:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the people went up into the city, each one straight ahead, and they captured the city.”

[7:5]  ¹⁴ tn The meaning and correct translation of the Hebrew word שְׁבָרִים (shÿvarim) is uncertain. The translation “fissures” is based on usage of the plural form of the noun in Ps 60:4 HT (60:2 ET), where it appears to refer to cracks in the earth caused by an earthquake. Perhaps deep ravines or gorges are in view, or the word is a proper noun (“all the way to Shebarim”).

[7:5]  ¹⁵ sn The precise geographical location of the Israelite defeat at this “steep slope” is uncertain.

[7:5]  ¹⁶ tn Or “army’s.”

[7:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and the heart of the people melted and became water.”

[7:21]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Shinar,” a reference to Babylon (cf. Gen 10:10; 11:2; 14:1). Many modern translations retain the Hebrew name “Shinar” (cf. NEB, NRSV) but some use the more familiar “Babylon” (cf. NIV, NLT).

[7:21]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “shekels.”

[8:1]  ²⁰ tn Or perhaps “and don’t get discouraged!”

[8:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “Take with you all the people of war and arise, go up against Ai!”

[8:1]  ²² tn Heb “I have given into our hand.” The verbal form, a perfect, is probably best understood as a perfect of certitude, indicating the certainty of the action.

[8:14]  ²³ tn Heb “When the king of Ai saw, the men of Ai hurried and rose early and went out to meet Israel for battle, he and all his people at the meeting place before the Arabah.”

[8:14]  ²⁴ tn Or “know.”

[8:14]  ²⁵ tn Heb “that (there was) an ambush for him behind the city.”

[8:20]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and they saw, and look.” The Hebrew term הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) draws attention to the scene and invites the audience to view the events from the perspective of the men of Ai.

[8:20]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and there was not in them hands to flee here or there.” The Hebrew term יָדַיִם (yadayim, “hands”) is idiomatic for “strength.”

[15:18]  ²⁸ tn Heb “she”; the referent (Acsah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:18]  ²⁹ tn Heb “him.” The referent of the pronoun could be Othniel, in which case the translation would be, “she incited him [Othniel] to ask her father for a field.” This is problematic, however, for Acsah, not Othniel, makes the request in v. 19. The LXX has “he [Othniel] urged her to ask her father for a field.” This appears to be an attempt to reconcile the apparent inconsistency and probably does not reflect the original text. If Caleb is understood as the referent of the pronoun, the problem disappears. For a fuller discussion of the issue, see P. G. Mosca, “Who Seduced Whom? A Note on Joshua 15:18//Judges 1:14,” CBQ 46 (1984): 18-22. This incident is also recorded in Judg 1:14.

[17:16]  ³⁰ tn The Hebrew text has simply “the hill country,” which must here include the hill country of Ephraim and the forest regions mentioned in v. 15.

[17:16]  ³¹ tn Heb “and there are iron chariots among all the Canaanites who live in the land of the valley, to those who are in Beth Shean and its daughters and to those who are in the Valley of Jezreel.” Regarding the translation “chariots with iron-rimmed wheels” see Y. Yadin, The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands, 255 and R. Drews, “The ‘Chariots of Iron’ of Joshua and Judges,” JSOT 45 (1989): 15-23.

[21:44]  ³² tn Heb “gave them rest all around.”

[21:44]  ³³ tn Heb “according to all he swore to their fathers.”

[21:44]  ³⁴ tn Heb “not a man stood from before them from all their enemies.”

[22:19]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the land of your possession.”

[22:19]  ³⁶ sn The western tribes here imagine a possible motive for the action of the eastern tribes. T. C. Butler explains the significance of the land’s “impurity”: “East Jordan is impure because it is not Yahweh’s possession. Rather it is simply ‘your possession.’ That means it is land where Yahweh does not live, land which his presence has not sanctified and purified” (Joshua [WBC], 247).

[22:19]  ³⁷ tn Heb “the land of the possession of the Lord.”

[22:19]  ³⁸ tn Heb “where the dwelling place of the Lord resides.”

[22:19]  sn The phrase where the Lord himself lives refers to the tabernacle.

[22:19]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and take for yourselves in our midst.”

[22:19]  ⁴⁰ tc Heb “and us to you rebel.” The reading of the MT, the accusative sign with suffix (וְאֹתָנוּ, vÿ’otanu), is problematic with the verb “rebel” (מָרַד, marad). Many Hebrew mss correctly read the negative particle אַל (’al) for the preposition אֶל (’el, “to”).

[22:22]  ⁴¹ sn Israel’s God is here identified with three names: (1) אֵל (’el), “El” (or “God”); (2) אֱלֹהִים (’elohim), “Elohim” (or “God”), and (3) יְהוָה (yÿhvah), “Yahweh” (or “the Lord”). The name אֵל (’el, “El”) is often compounded with titles, for example, El Elyon, “God Most High.”

[22:22]  ⁴² tn Heb “he knows.”

[22:22]  ⁴³ tn Heb “if in rebellion or if in unfaithfulness against the Lord.”

[22:22]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “do not save us.” The verb form is singular, being addressed to either collective Israel or the Lord himself. The LXX translates in the third person.

[23:4]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “I have assigned by lots to you these remaining nations as an inheritance for your tribes.”

[23:4]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “the Great Sea,” the typical designation for the Mediterranean Sea.

[23:4]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “from the Jordan and all the nations which I cut off and the Great Sea [at] the place where the sun sets.” The relationship of the second half of the verse, which mentions nations already conquered, to the first half, which speaks of “remaining nations,” is difficult to understand.

[23:15]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “and it will be as every good word which the Lord your God spoke to you has come to pass.”

[23:15]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “so the Lord will bring every injurious [or “evil”] word [or “thing”] upon you.”

[24:32]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “one hundred qesitahs.” The Hebrew word קְשִׂיטָה (qesitah) is generally understood to refer to a unit of money, but the value and/or weight is unknown. The word occurs only here and in Gen 33:19 and Job 42:11.

[24:32]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “and they became for the sons of Joseph an inheritance.” One might think “bones” is the subject of the verb “they became,” but the verb is masculine, while “bones” is feminine. The translation follows the emendation suggested in the BHS note, which appeals to the Syriac and Vulgate for support. The emended reading understands “the part (of the field)” as the subject of the verb “became.” The emended verb is feminine singular; this agrees with “the part” (of the field), which is feminine in Hebrew.