SIL Translator’s Notes on Joshua 9:8

9:8a

We are your servants: The sentence We are your servants indicates that the Gibeonites wanted to accept Joshua as their leader and to become part of the Israelite nation.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

we are willing to be your subjects (NET Bible)
-or-
we acknowledge you as our masters

they said to Joshua: The word they refers to the Gibeonites. It may be helpful to make this explicit.

Here is another way to translate this phrase:

the Gibeonites said to Joshua

9:8b

Then: The word Then indicates the next event in the storyline. Indicate this in a natural way in your language.

Who are you and where have you come from?: The question Who are you…? indicates that Joshua wanted to know their nationality. The question where have you come from? indicates that Joshua wanted to know where the Gibeonites lived. These two questions together emphasize that Joshua wanted to be sure about who these men were. It may be more natural in some languages to combine these two questions in a way that shows this emphasis. For example:

Tell me from exactly from where you have come.
-or-
I must know for sure from what town and nation you have come.

© 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.

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