Joshua 1:7-8

1:7 Make sure you are ¹  very strong and brave! Carefully obey ²  all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep! ³  Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful ⁴  in all you do. ⁵  1:8 This law scroll must not leave your lips! ⁶  You must memorize it ⁷  day and night so you can carefully obey ⁸  all that is written in it. Then you will prosper ⁹  and be successful. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 111:10

111:10 To obey the Lord is the fundamental principle for wise living; ¹¹ 

all who carry out his precepts acquire good moral insight. ¹² 

He will receive praise forever. ¹³ 

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.”

⁶ tn Heb “mouth.”

⁷ tn Heb “read it in undertones,” or “recite it quietly” (see HALOT 1:237).

⁸ tn Heb “be careful to do.”

⁹ tn Heb “you will make your way prosperous.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and be wise,” but the word can mean “be successful” by metonymy.

¹¹ tn Heb “the beginning of wisdom [is] the fear of the Lord.”

¹² tn Heb “good sense [is] to all who do them.” The third masculine plural pronominal suffix must refer back to the “precepts” mentioned in v. 7. In the translation the referent has been specified for clarity. The phrase שֵׂכֶל טוֹב (shekhel tov) also occurs in Prov 3:4; 13:15 and 2 Chr 30:22.

¹³ tn Heb “his praise stands forever.”