17:14 The descendants of Joseph said to Joshua, “Why have you assigned us only one tribal allotment? After all, we have many people, for until now the Lord has enabled us to increase in number.” 5 17:15 Joshua replied to them, “Since you have so many people, 6 go up into the forest and clear out a place to live in the land of the Perizzites and Rephaites, for the hill country of Ephraim is too small for you.” 17:16 The descendants of Joseph said, “The whole hill country 7 is inadequate for us, and the Canaanites living down in the valley in Beth Shean and its surrounding towns and in the Valley of Jezreel have chariots with iron-rimmed wheels.” 8 17:17 Joshua said to the family 9 of Joseph – to both Ephraim and Manasseh: “You have many people and great military strength. You will not have just one tribal allotment. 17:18 The whole hill country 10 will be yours; though it is a forest, you can clear it and it will be entirely yours. 11 You can conquer the Canaanites, though they have chariots with iron-rimmed wheels and are strong.”
2:9 For Israel’s sake I destroyed the Amorites. 17
They were as tall as cedars 18
and as strong as oaks,
but I destroyed the fruit on their branches 19
and their roots in the ground. 20
1 sn The term generation is being used here in its widest sense to refer to a full life span. When the chronological factors are considered and the genealogies tabulated, there are four hundred years of bondage. This suggests that in this context a generation is equivalent to one hundred years.
2 tn Heb “they”; the referent (“your descendants”) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Heb “is not yet complete.”
4 tn Heb “and what was in the city and what was in the field they took.”
5 tn Heb “Why have you given me as an inheritance one lot and one portion, though I am a great people until [the time] which, until now the
6 tn Heb “If you are a great people.”
7 tn The Hebrew text has simply “the hill country,” which must here include the hill country of Ephraim and the forest regions mentioned in v. 15.
8 tn Heb “and there are iron chariots among all the Canaanites who live in the land of the valley, to those who are in Beth Shean and its daughters and to those who are in the Valley of Jezreel.” Regarding the translation “chariots with iron-rimmed wheels” see Y. Yadin, The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands, 255 and R. Drews, “The ‘Chariots of Iron’ of Joshua and Judges,” JSOT 45 (1989): 15-23.
9 tn Heb “house.”
10 tn The Hebrew text has simply “the hill country,” which must here include the hill country of Ephraim and the forest regions mentioned in v. 15.
11 tn Heb “and its limits will be yours.”
12 tn Grk “and save.”
13 tn Grk “and have mercy.”
14 tn Grk “with fear.” But as this contrasts with ἀφόβως (afobw") in v. 12 (without reverence), the posture of the false teachers, it most likely refers to reverence for God.
15 sn The imagery here suggests that the things close to the sinners are contaminated by them, presumably during the process of sinning.
16 tn Grk “hating even the tunic spotted by the flesh.” The “flesh” in this instance could refer to the body or to the sin nature. It makes little difference in one sense: Jude is thinking primarily of sexual sins, which are borne of the sin nature and manifest themselves in inappropriate deeds done with the body. At the same time, he is not saying that the body is intrinsically bad, a view held by the opponents of Christianity. Hence, it is best to see “flesh” as referring to the sin nature here and the language as metaphorical.
17 tn Heb “I destroyed the Amorites from before them.” The translation takes מִפְּנֵי (mippÿney) in the sense of “for the sake of.” See BDB 818 s.v. פָּנֻה II.6.a and H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos (Hermeneia), 134. Another option is to take the phrase in a spatial sense, “I destroyed the Amorites, [clearing them out] from before them [i.e., Israel]” (cf. NIV, NRSV).
18 tn Heb “whose height was like the height of cedars.”
19 tn Heb “his fruit from above.”
20 tn Heb “and his roots from below.”