2 Samuel 2:21

2:21 Abner said to him, “Turn aside to your right or to your left. Capture one of the soldiers ¹  and take his equipment for yourself!” But Asahel was not willing to turn aside from following him.

Joshua 1:7

1:7 Make sure you are ²  very strong and brave! Carefully obey ³  all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep! ⁴  Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful ⁵  in all you do. ⁶ 

Joshua 23:6

23:6 Be very strong! Carefully obey ⁷  all that is written in the law scroll of Moses so you won’t swerve from it to the right or the left,

Joshua 23:2

23:2 So Joshua summoned all Israel, including the elders, rulers, judges, and leaders, and told them: “I am very old.

Joshua 22:2

22:2 and told them: “You have carried out all the instructions of Moses the Lord’s servant, and you have obeyed all I have told you. ⁸ 

Proverbs 4:27

4:27 Do not turn ⁹  to the right or to the left;

turn yourself ¹⁰  away from evil. ¹¹ 

¹ tn Heb “young men.” So also elsewhere.

² tn Or “Only be.”

³ 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!”

⁴ tn Heb “commanded you.”

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

⁶ tn Heb “in all which you go.”

⁷ tn Heb “Be strong so you can be careful to do.”

⁸ tn Heb “You have kept all which Moses, the Lord’s servant, commanded you, and you have listened to my voice, to all which I commanded you.”

⁹ sn The two verbs in this verse are from different roots, but nonetheless share the same semantic domain. The first verb is תֵּט (tet), a jussive from נָטָה (natah), which means “to turn aside” (Hiphil); the second verb is the Hiphil imperative of סוּר (sur), which means “to cause to turn to the side” (Hiphil). The disciple is not to leave the path of righteousness; but to stay on the path he must leave evil.

¹⁰ tn Heb “your foot” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV). The term רַגְלְךָ (raglÿkha, “your foot”) is a synecdoche of part (= foot) for the whole person (= “yourself”).

¹¹ tc The LXX adds, “For the way of the right hand God knows, but those of the left hand are distorted; and he himself will make straight your paths and guide your goings in peace.” The ideas presented here are not out of harmony with Proverbs, but the section clearly shows an expansion by the translator. For a brief discussion of whether this addition is Jewish or early Christian, see C. H. Toy, Proverbs (ICC), 99.