SIL Translator’s Notes on Joshua 23:8

23:8

Instead: The Hebrew conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Instead indicates a strong contrast. They should not worship other gods, but they should be loyal to Yahweh.

you shall hold fast to the LORD your God: The verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as hold fast can also be translated as “cling to” or “hold tightly to.” This is a metaphor which indicates that the Israelites must remain completely loyal to Yahweh.

as you have done to this day: The clause as you have done to this day indicates that the Israelites had been loyal to Yahweh up to that time.

Here are some other ways to translate this verse:

But rather, you must be loyal to Yahweh your God, as you have done to the present day.
-or-
Instead, be faithful to Yahweh our God, as you have been doing up till now.

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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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