Joshua ends his exhortation with a final warning (verses 14-16). He prefaces it by saying that he hasn’t long to live (“I am about to go the way of all the earth,” Revised Standard Version; see similar language in 1 Kgs 2.2), which adds weight to his instruction. He reminds them that the Lord has kept all his promises (verse 14); in the same way, if they disobey him, he will carry out all his threats (verse 15).

Now my time has come to die may also be rendered, “I do not have much longer to live.” Many languages, such as the Hebrew, will have idiomatic expressions; however, as always, care must be taken to assure that the idioms are of the proper language level.

Every one of you is an attempt on the part of Good News Translation to represent the plural form of “you” in the Hebrew text.

In his heart and soul is literally “in all your hearts and in all your souls.” Revised Standard Version attempts both to retain the idiom and to indicate the plural form by rendering “in your hearts and souls, all of you.” For a Hebrew writer the expression “heart and soul” is no less and no more than a means of indicating the totality of a person’s being. The same effect may be achieved by dropping the idiom and shifting to an imperative: “Never forget that the LORD our God has given us all the good things that he promised.” A positive form may be preferable: “Always remember that….”

Every promise he made has been kept may be difficult to render in a number of languages, because promise refers to an event rather than an object. It is also conceivable that a reader may have difficulty with the passive has been kept. To resolve these two problems, one may shift to an active and translate “The LORD has done everything that he promised to do.”

The additional affirmation not one has failed may not have the effect of further stressing the Lord’s faithfulness, as it would have done for the Hebrew readers. Rather than speaking of the Lord’s faithfulness in both a positive and negative fashion, it may be more effective to choose one or the other.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .