Joshua does as the Lord commands: he chooses twelve men and gives them their instructions. They are to enter the Jordan ahead of the priests carrying the Covenant Box. The difficulty here is that in the final text of the book the crossing has already taken place (3.17; 4.1). Accordingly, Soggin takes these instructions to mean that the twelve men were to carry twelve stones from the east bank of the Jordan into the river and place them there for the priests to stand on; but certainly the Hebrew text as it now stands does not say this. Some scholars have suggested that the confusion arises because the writer joined two separate traditions about two different sets of twelve stones. The translator, however, can only translate the text as we have it.

Frequently the translator is torn between the desire to maintain the integrity of the text as it stands and the desire to “make sense” of the text (either logically, chronologically, or historically). Upon close reading, one discovers a “gap” between the end of verse 3 and the beginning of verse 4. In verses 1-3 the Lord commands Joshua to choose twelve men, but there is no statement in the text indicating that Joshua did choose these men. Then verse 4 begins “Then Joshua called the twelve men he had chosen….” The sequence of events which is suggested is that somewhere between verses 3 and 4 Joshua did choose the twelve men, but as of verse 4 he still had not called them together to give them their orders. For some readers this lack of connection between verses 3 and 4 can be quite confusing.

The translator may solve this problem by simply stating at the end of verse 3 “Joshua did as the LORD had commanded him,” since it is stated explicitly in verse 4 that Joshua did choose twelve men according to the Lord’s command. The dilemma may otherwise be resolved by placing together verses 4-5 and beginning the paragraph, “Joshua chose twelve men, one from each tribe of Israel…” An alternative solution, and one which may be less problematic, is to retain the text as it is, except for inverting the order of the verbs in verse 4. This verse may then be translated, “Then Joshua chose the twelve men and called them together.”

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 .