Translation commentary on Joshua 9:3

It would appear that the explanation of the trick used by the Gibeonites to secure a treaty with the Israelites is to be found in the regulation recorded in Deuteronomy 20.10-18. This regulation allowed the Israelites to spare the lives of their enemies who lived a great distance away, but required that they put to death all enemies nearby, in order to eliminate any possibility of apostasy on the part of the Israelites. The trick makes sense only on the assumption that the Gibeonites knew this Israelite rule.

But the story also serves to explain the reason why these people, at the time the account was written, provided certain menial services in the Temple (verse 27).

Gibeon, some 11 kilometers southwest of Ai, was about 30 kilometers west of the Israelite camp Gilgal. Good News Translation inserts who were Hivites, which in Hebrew comes only at verse 7 (see Revised Standard Version). There is no certainty about the particular designation Hivites; commentaries and dictionaries offer a variety of definitions.The Septuagint “Horites” (ton Chorraion) may perhaps represent the Hebrew for “Hurrians,” an important non-Semitic people about whom quite a bit is known.

This verse may be made into a separate sentence: “But the people from the town of Gibeon, who belonged to the tribe of the Hivites, heard what Joshua had done to the cities of Jericho and Ai.” Verse 4 would then begin: “So they decided to deceive him.” Or one may render “So they decided to deceive Joshua and the people of Israel.”

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 .

Translation commentary on Joshua 10:20

Verse 20 is quite wordy (see Revised Standard Version), emphasizing the great victory won by the Israelites.

As a reading of Revised Standard Version will indicate, the structure of this verse is similar in some respects to that of verse 10, especially the Hebrew expression translated slaughtered. The reader may benefit if slaughtered them, although some is translated “slaughtered most of them, although some,” since only some of the enemy managed to reach their walled cities and escape the slaughter.

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 .

Translation commentary on Joshua 12:2 - 12:3

One was Sihon … at Heshbon may be somewhat clearer if translated, “One of the kings whom Moses defeated was King Sihon. He was an Amorite king who ruled at the city of Heshbon.”

The geographical data in verses 2-3 relating to the kingdom of Sihon are not very clear in Hebrew. For the defeat of Sihon, see Numbers 21.21-30; Deuteronomy 2.26-37.

Heshbon, the capital of Sihon, was about 25 kilometers northeast of the northern end of the Dead Sea. The southern limit of Sihon’s kingdom was Aroer (that is, the Arnon Valley); the northern limit was the Jabbok River, which flows into the Jordan. The river formed the boundary with Ammon, which lay to the east (a look at a map in k The New Oxford Annotated Bible,k* Revised Standard Version, will show how the river runs north and then turns west to the Jordan). Sihon’s kingdom occupied (the southern) half of Gilead.

Good News Translation and from the city in the middle of that valley attempts to make sense of the Hebrew, which has “from Aroer, on the edge of the Arnon Valley, and the middle of the valley and half of Gilead and to the Jabbok River, the border of the Ammonites.” Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, New American Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, in different ways, translate “and the valley (or, riverbed) itself”; Revised Standard Version “from the middle of the valley” involves a slight alteration of the Masoretic text. Good News Translation has taken its clue from 13.9, 16, “the city that is in the middle of the valley” (see also Deut 2.36), on the assumption that the city in has dropped out from the text here.

In verse 3, Revised Standard Version “the Arabah” and “the Sea of Chinneroth” are the Jordan Valley and Lake Galilee. Beth Jeshimoth lies slightly northeast of the Dead Sea, about 20 kilometers west of Heshbon, the capital of Sihon’s kingdom. Mount Pisgah is between Heshbon and Beth Jeshimoth. Revised Standard Version translates the Hebrew “the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea,” which is a way of speaking of the Dead Sea.The Hebrew miteman in verse 3 is translated by most “from the south” or “southward”; New English Bible, however, takes it to be a place name, “from Teman,” a city in Edom, about halfway between the Gulf of Aqaba and the Dead Sea.

A clear and simple presentation of the geographical data contained in this and the following verse will be extremely difficult. At the least it will require constant reference to a map and careful consideration of the most natural order in which to present the material in the receptor language. Following the interpretation of Good News Translation, one method of presentation would be:

• 2 King Sihon ruled the southern half of the land of Gilead, which was the territory between the Jabbok River valley in the north and the Arnon River valley in the south. His kingdom extended southeast as far as the city of Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Valley. In the southwest it extended as far as the town in the Arnon Valley halfway between Aroer and the Dead Sea. 3 The western boundary of his kingdom was the Jordan River valley from Lake Galilee in the north to the Dead Sea in the south. Included in his territory was the area east of the Dead Sea as far as the town of Beth Jeshimoth and Mount Pisgah.

Since Mount Pisgah is less well known than Mount Nebo, the neighboring mountain, it would also be proper to use the better known term for the geographical description.

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 .

Translation commentary on Joshua 14:8

Made our people afraid is literally “made the heart of the people melt” (Revised Standard Version). The idiom is the same as that used of the Israelites at 2.11.

Faithfully obeyed is translated “wholly followed” by Revised Standard Version; in such a context it seems that “completely relied on” or “trusted fully” is more satisfactory than either Good News Translation or Revised Standard Version.

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 .

Translation commentary on Joshua 15:63

This final verse explains why some Jebusites, descendants of the original inhabitants of Jerusalem, were still living in the city at the time of the writing of the account. This verse makes it appear that Jerusalem was to have been assigned to Judah, whereas it was assigned to Benjamin (see 18.28; Judges 1.21).

Who lived in Jerusalem may be misunderstood by the reader, for whom it could imply that the people of Judah were able to drive out other Jebusites, who did not live in Jerusalem. One may translate “But the people of Judah were not able to drive the Jebusites out of Jerusalem. Therefore they still live there with them in the city today.”

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 .

Translation commentary on Joshua 18:20

The description of the limits of the territory ends with the eastern border, the Jordan River. In place of the families of the tribe of Benjamin, one may translate “the tribe of Benjamin.”

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 .

Translation commentary on Joshua 21:44

Gave them peace translates a Hebrew verb which in 1.13 Good News Translation has translated as your home and in 1.15 given safety. The word emphasizes the peace and security Israel enjoyed in the land as a result of the Lord’s promise and action. The statement about the total defeat of all their enemies is somewhat exaggerated, since in many places the Israelites were not able to drive out the Canaanites completely from their cities, as the text itself has made clear.

The contents of this verse may be arranged into what is almost a chronological order:

• The LORD caused the people of Israel to defeat all their enemies. Not one of their enemies could stand up against them. The LORD had promised the ancestors of the people of Israel that he would let them live in peace throughout the land. So the LORD kept this promise.

Or, making explicit the other aspect of the Lord’s promise:

• The LORD had promised the ancestors of the people of Israel, “You will defeat all your enemies and live in peace throughout the land.” So the LORD kept his promise. He caused the people of Israel to defeat all their enemies. Not one of their enemies could stand against them, and they lived in peace throughout the land.

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 .

Translation commentary on Joshua 23:5

Joshua refers in particular to the nations still to be defeated. The Lord will defeat them, as he has promised.

The referent of the pronoun them is not altogether clear in the phrase will make them retreat from you. Attention also needs to be given to at least two other matters: (1) A chronological arrangement of the verse can be achieved by placing as the LORD your God has promised you first, and (2) it may be necessary to substitute direct discourse for as the LORD … promised. In addition, there remains the problem of the LORD your God which appears twice in Good News Translation. Here again the meaning should be expressed as “The LORD our God.” For a model of what may be done:

• The LORD our God promised us, ‘I will cause your enemies to retreat from you. I will drive them away as you advance, and you shall take their land.’ The LORD our God will keep this promise. He will drive away those nations that are still in the land.

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 .