The No! with which the people answer Joshua is a denial of the possibility that they will reject the Lord and serve foreign gods. For many readers the response No will indicate denial or rejection of Joshua’s advice. It may be better to translate No! as “What you have said is true” or “That is indeed true!”

The verb will is placed in italics by Good News Translation for the sake of emphasis. Such a device is of no advantage for the person who must depend upon hearing the Scripture read.

So Joshua puts them under solemn oath, You are your own witnesses, and they voluntarily affirm the fact. To the fact that makes a somewhat awkward structure in English. In the present context its function is to indicate that the speaker, Joshua, is quoting indirectly what the other speakers, the people, have said. Accordingly one may shift to direct discourse: “You are your own witnesses. You said, ‘We have chosen to serve the LORD!’ ”

Yes … we are witnesses may also be translated “That is true” or “What you have said is true.”

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 .