SIL Translator’s Notes on Joshua 2:24

2:24a

The Hebrew conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible leaves untranslated but many English versions translate as “and” indicates the next event in the story.

In this part of the verse the two Israelite men use similar words to those that Rahab did in verse 2:9.

The LORD has surely delivered: The Hebrew verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as has…delivered is in the perfect aspect. The perfect aspect expresses a completed action. They said that the land already belongs to the Israelites because Yahweh will give it to them. It is as if the action has already been done. The Berean Standard Bible translates the Hebrew perfect aspect with an English present perfect tense. If this is not natural in your language, you can translate the verb as a future tense. For example:

Yahweh will certainly hand over all this land to us

surely: The Hebrew conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as surely indicates an emphatic assertion.

the entire land: The phrase the entire land refers to the entire land of Canaan.

into our hands: The phrase into our hands is a figure of speech. The words our hands indicates that the land will be under the control of the Israelites.

Here are some other ways to translate this part of the verse:

Yahweh has indeed given us power over all this land
-or-
Yahweh will certainly give us this land

2:24b

they said to Joshua: Here are some other ways to translate this part of the verse:

Then they said to him
-or-
They told Joshua

2:24c

Indeed: The Hebrew adverb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Indeed is used for emphasis.

Here are some other ways to translate this Hebrew adverb:

and also (English Standard Version)
-or-
for (New Living Translation (2004))

Some English versions leave this adverb untranslated. For example:

all the people are melting in fear because of us (New International Version)

all who dwell in the land: The phrase all who dwell in the land refers to the people who live in the land of Canaan.

are melting in fear: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as are melting in fear is the same Hebrew verb used in 2:9d. If possible, you should use the same expression here as you did there.

of us: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as of us is more literally “from before us.” It indicates that the people of Canaan were afraid of the Israelites.

Here are some other ways to translate this part of the verse:

Indeed, everyone who lives in this country is terrified of us.
-or-
All the people of this land even shake with fear because of us.

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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.

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