18:4a
Appoint three men from each tribe: The phrase each tribe probably refers to the seven clans that had not yet received their share of land.
Here are some other ways to translate this part of the verse:
Choose three men from each ⌊of the seven⌋ clans
-or-
Appoint three men per clan
18:4b
There is a Hebrew verb at the beginning of this clause that the Berean Standard Bible leaves untranslated. This verb means “and they will arise.” This is a Hebrew idiom which is used to indicate the beginning of an action. Translate this in a way that is natural in your language to indicate the beginning of an action.
to survey the land and map it out: The Hebrew verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as survey the land and map it out is more literally “they will walk back and forth in the land.”
Here are some other ways to translate this part of the verse:
they will walk all around the land
-or-
they will go through the land
18:4c
according to the inheritance of each: This indicates that the men wrote a description of the land that they wanted to receive for their own clan. The description may have been in the form of a map.
Here are some other ways to translate this part of the verse:
so that they can make a map of the area they want to receive as their inheritance
-or-
They will write a report. The report will show the boundaries of the land that their clan wishes to receive
18:4d
Then they will return to me: Here are some other ways to translate this part of the verse:
Then they must come back to me
-or-
Then they must return to me ⌊with the report⌋
© 2001, 2011, 2020, 2022, 2023 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.
