I was forty years old when may be translated as a complete statement: “At that time I was forty years old.” If this is done, then the remainder of the verse may be rendered as one sentence: “The Lord’s servant…, and I brought an honest report back to him.” Or, if a restructuring similar to Good News Translation is maintained, the last sentence of this verse may be connected with the first sentence of verse 8 in order to underscore the contrast: “I brought an honest report back to him, 8 but the men….”

To spy out translates a different verb from that used at 2.2, 3, but the meaning is essentially the same, and the translation problems are identical.

An honest report translates the Hebrew “word according to my heart” (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “according to my conscience”; New American Bible “a conscientious report”). But it may be necessary to translate this noun structure as a verb phrase: “And I told the truth (about what we had seen)” or “And I told the people what we really had seen.” The account emphasizes Caleb’s faithfulness in obeying the Lord (verses 8, 14).

Verses 7, 10 give the most precise statement in the record of the time that elapsed between the events as Kadesh Barnea and the completion of the invasion of Canaan: a total of forty-five years, which would, presumably, mean forty years’ wandering in the wilderness (verse 10) plus five years for the conquest.

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 .