SIL Translator’s Notes on Joshua 24:17

24:17a

For: The Hebrew conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates For introduces a reason. Here the people explained the reason why they would be faithful to Yahweh.

the LORD our God brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt: The Hebrew construction puts emphasis on the words “Yahweh our God.” This emphasizes the role of Yahweh as the one who saved them.

brought us and our fathers out: The word fathers refers to the parents and grandparents of the people who were standing there with Joshua.

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

Because Yahweh our God is the one who brought us (incl.) and our fathers up from the land of Egypt.
-or-
This is because of Yahweh our God. He himself led us and our parents and grandparents out of the land of Egypt.

24:17b

out of the house of slavery: The term house of slavery is a Hebrew idiom. It refers to the time when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt.

Here are some other ways to translate this idiom:

from that land of slavery (New International Version)
-or-
from where we were slaves in Egypt

and performed these great signs before our eyes: This indicates that the people saw the miracles that Yahweh did for them. Most of the people standing there were not yet born when the Israelites left Egypt. But the whole group identified with what God had done by bringing them out of Egypt.

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

He took us from the place where we (incl.) were slaves and he did great miracles before our eyes.
-or-
We were slaves there, but he rescued us and did great things for us to see.

24:17c

He also protected us: The Hebrew verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as protected can also be translated “he protected us” or “he watched over us.”

throughout our journey: The phrase throughout our journey indicates that Yahweh took care of them all the time they were walking from Egypt to Canaan.

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

He watched over us wherever we went.
-or-
He protected us through our whole journey,

24:17d

and among all the nations through which we traveled: Yahweh protected them as they walked through the territory of other nations.

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

He guarded us⌋ while we traveled through the lands of other nations
-or-
through all the nations that we passed through

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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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