1:10 Joshua instructed 15 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.’” 16
1:12 Joshua told the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh: 1:13 “Remember what Moses the Lord’s servant commanded you. 17 The Lord your God is giving you a place to settle and is handing this land over to you. 18 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. 19 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.” 20
1:16 They told Joshua, “We will do everything you say. We will go wherever you send us. 1:17 Just as we obeyed 21 Moses, so we will obey you. But 22 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. 23 But 24 be strong and brave!”
1 tn Heb “For you will cause these people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give to them.” The pronoun “them” at the end of the verse refers to either the people or to the fathers.
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 “mouth.”
8 tn Heb “read it in undertones,” or “recite it quietly” (see HALOT 1:237).
9 tn Heb “be careful to do.”
10 tn Heb “you will make your way prosperous.”
11 tn Heb “and be wise,” but the word can mean “be successful” by metonymy.
12 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.
13 tn Or perhaps, “don’t get discouraged!”
14 tn Heb “in all which you go.”
15 tn Or “commanded.”
16 tn Heb “to enter to possess the land which the
17 tn Heb “remember the word which Moses, the
18 tn Heb “is providing rest for you and is giving to you this land.”
19 tn Heb “But you must cross over armed for battle before your brothers, all [you] mighty men of strength.”
20 tn Heb “Then you may return to the land of your possession and possess it, that which Moses, the
21 tn Heb “listened to.”
22 tn Or “Only.” Here and in v. 18 this word qualifies what precedes (see also v. 7).
23 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.”
24 tn Or “Only.” Here and in v. 17 this word qualifies what precedes (see also v. 7).