Text -- Joshua 1:7-18 (NET)

1:7 Make sure you are very strong and brave! Carefully obey all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep! Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful in all you do. 1:8 This law scroll must not leave your lips! You must memorize it day and night so you can carefully obey all that is written in it. Then you will prosper and be successful. 1:9 I repeat, be strong and brave! Don’t be afraid and don’t panic, for I, the Lord your God, am with you in all you do.”

Joshua Prepares for the Invasion

1:10 Joshua instructed the leaders of the people: 1:11 “Go through the camp and command the people, ‘Prepare your supplies, for within three days you will cross the Jordan River and begin the conquest of the land the Lord your God is ready to hand over to you.’” 1:12 Joshua told the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh: 1:13 “Remember what Moses the Lord’s servant commanded you. The Lord your God is giving you a place to settle and is handing this land over to you. 1:14 Your wives, children and cattle may stay in the land that Moses assigned to you east of the Jordan River. But all you warriors must cross over armed for battle ahead of your brothers. You must help them 1:15 until the Lord gives your brothers a place like yours to settle and they conquer the land the Lord your God is ready to hand over to them. Then you may go back to your allotted land and occupy the land Moses the Lord’s servant assigned you east of the Jordan.” 1:16 They told Joshua, “We will do everything you say. We will go wherever you send us. 1:17 Just as we obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. But may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses! 1:18 Any man who rebels against what you say and does not obey all your commands will be executed. But be strong and brave!”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jos 1:7

¹ tn Or “Only be.”

² tn Heb “so you can be careful to do.” The use of the infinitive לִשְׁמֹר (lishmor, “to keep”) after the imperatives suggests that strength and bravery will be necessary for obedience. Another option is to take the form לִשְׁמֹר as a vocative lamed (ל) with imperative (see Isa 38:20 for an example of this construction), which could be translated, “Indeed, be careful!”

³ tn Heb “commanded you.”

⁴ tn Heb “be wise,” but the word can mean “be successful” by metonymy.

⁵ tn Heb “in all which you go.”

NET Notes: Jos 1:8

¹ tn Heb “mouth.”

sn This law scroll must not leave your lips. The ancient practice of reading aloud to oneself as an aid to memorization is in view here.

² tn Heb “read it in undertones,” or “recite it quietly” (see HALOT 1:237).

³ tn Heb “be careful to do.”

⁴ tn Heb “you will make your way prosperous.”

⁵ tn Heb “and be wise,” but the word can mean “be successful” by metonymy.

NET Notes: Jos 1:9

¹ tn Heb “Have I not commanded you?” The rhetorical question emphasizes the importance of the following command by reminding the listener that it is being repeated.

² tn Or perhaps, “don’t get discouraged!”

³ tn Heb “in all which you go.”

NET Notes: Jos 1:10

¹ tn Or “commanded.”

NET Notes: Jos 1:11

¹ tn Heb “to enter to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving to you to possess it.”

NET Notes: Jos 1:13

¹ tn Heb “remember the word which Moses, the Lord’s servant, commanded you.”

sn This command can be found in Deut 3:18-20. In vv. 13-15 Joshua paraphrases the command, as the third person reference to Moses in v. 14 indicates.

² tn Heb “is providing rest for you and is giving to you this land.”

sn “This land” refers to the trans-Jordanian lands allotted to these tribes.

NET Notes: Jos 1:14

¹ tn Heb “But you must cross over armed for battle before your brothers, all [you] mighty men of strength.”

NET Notes: Jos 1:15

¹ tn Heb “Then you may return to the land of your possession and possess it, that which Moses, the Lord’s servant, gave to you beyond the Jordan toward the rising of the sun.”

NET Notes: Jos 1:17

¹ tn Heb “listened to.”

² tn Or “Only.” Here and in v. 18 this word qualifies what precedes (see also v. 7).

NET Notes: Jos 1:18

¹ tn Heb “any man who rebels against your mouth and does not listen to your words, to all which you command us, will be put to death.”

² tn Or “Only.” Here and in v. 17 this word qualifies what precedes (see also v. 7).