6:20 The rams’ horns sounded 12 and when the army 13 heard the signal, 14 they gave a loud battle cry. 15 The wall collapsed 16 and the warriors charged straight ahead into the city and captured it. 17
6:1 Now Jericho 18 was shut tightly 19 because of the Israelites. No one was allowed to leave or enter. 20
17:1 The tribe of Manasseh, Joseph’s firstborn son, was also allotted land. 21 The descendants of Makir, Manasseh’s firstborn and the father of Gilead, received land, for they were warriors. 22 They were assigned Gilead and Bashan. 23
39:25 At the sound of the trumpet, it says, ‘Aha!’
And from a distance it catches the scent of battle,
the thunderous shouting of commanders,
and the battle cries.
51:14 The Lord who rules over all 24 has solemnly sworn, 25
‘I will fill your land with enemy soldiers.
They will swarm over it like locusts. 26
They will raise up shouts of victory over it.’
1 sn See F. C. Fensham, “New Light from Ugaritica V on Ex, 32:17 (br’h),” JNSL 2 (1972): 86-7.
2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Heb “the sound of the answering of might,” meaning it is not the sound of shouting in victory (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 418).
4 tn Heb “the sound of the answering of weakness,” meaning the cry of the defeated (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 415).
5 tn Heb “answering in song” (a play on the twofold meaning of the word).
6 sn See A. Newman, “Compositional Analysis and Functional Ambiguity Equivalence: Translating Exodus 32, 17-18,” Babel 21 (1975): 29-35.
7 tn Heb “the people.”
8 tn Or “the shout.”
9 tn Heb “do not let a word come out of your mouths.”
10 tn Or “the shout.”
11 tn Or “the shout.”
12 tc Heb “and the people shouted and they blew the rams’ horns.” The initial statement (“and the people shouted”) seems premature, since the verse goes on to explain that the battle cry followed the blowing of the horns. The statement has probably been accidentally duplicated from what follows. It is omitted in the LXX.
13 tn Heb “the people.”
14 tn Heb “the sound of the horn.”
15 tn Heb “they shouted with a loud shout.”
16 tn Heb “fell in its place.”
17 tn Heb “and the people went up into the city, each one straight ahead, and they captured the city.”
18 map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.
19 tn Heb “was shutting and shut up.” HALOT 2:743 paraphrases, “blocking [any way of access] and blocked [against any who would leave].”
20 tn Heb “there was no one going out and there was no one coming in.”
21 tn Heb “and the lot belonged to the tribe of Manasseh, for he was the firstborn of Joseph.”
22 tn Heb “to Makir, the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, for he was a man of war.”
23 tn Heb “Gilead and Bashan belonged to him.”
24 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.” For an explanation of this rendering see the study note on 2:19.
25 tn Heb “has sworn by himself.” See the study note on 22:5 for background.
26 tn Heb “I will fill you with men like locusts.” The “you” refers to Babylon (Babylon is both the city and the land it ruled, Babylonia) which has been alluded to in the preceding verses under descriptive titles. The words “your land” have been used because of the way the preceding verse has been rendered, alluding to people rather than to the land or city. The allusion of “men” is, of course, to enemy soldiers and they are here compared to locusts both for their quantity and their destructiveness (see Joel 1:4). For the use of the particles כִּי אִם (ki ’im) to introduce an oath see BDB 475 s.v. כִּי אִם 2.c and compare usage in 2 Kgs 5:20; one would normally expect אִם לֹא (cf. BDB 50 s.v. אִם 1.b[2]).