SIL Translator’s Notes on Joshua 11:4

11:4a

So: The Hebrew connector that the Berean Standard Bible translates as So introduces the next event in the story. Here it also indicates result. The kings and their armies marched out in response to the message they had received from King Jabin of Hazor.

these kings: The pronoun these kings indicates the kings of the towns referred to in verse 3.

came out with all their armies: The verb came out indicates that the kings gathered their troops together and came out of their towns to fight against the Israelites.

Here is another way to translate this clause:

the kings of these towns⌋ came out with all their soldiers

a multitude: The phrase a multitude indicates that there were many soldiers.

11:4b

as numerous as the sand on the seashore: The phrase as numerous as the sand on the seashore indicates a comparison. The number of Canaanite soldiers gathered to fight against the Israelites is compared to the grains of sand on the beach by the sea. There were so many that it was impossible to count them. In some languages it may be helpful to make this comparison clearer. For example:

there were so many soldiers ⌊that they could not be counted⌋ . It was like counting the sand that is on the seashore

11:4c

along with a great number of horses and chariots: The horses were used to pull the chariots. At that time, the Israelite army did not have any horses or chariots. The Canaanite army had more soldiers and had better weapons than the Israelites. This made the Israelite victory even more remarkable and showed that it was only possible because God fought for them.

chariots: The chariots were light carts that were each pulled by one or two horses. There was room in the chariot for two soldiers. One drove the horses and the other was free to fight with a sword or with bow and arrows.

Here are some other ways to translate this term:

war cart
-or-
horse-drawn war cart

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
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