Joshua 1:7

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 

Joshua 5:14

5:14 He answered, ⁶  “Truly I am the commander of the Lord’s army. ⁷  Now I have arrived!” ⁸  Joshua bowed down with his face to the ground ⁹  and asked, “What does my master want to say to his servant?”

Joshua 7:11

7:11 Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenantal commandment! ¹⁰  They have taken some of the riches; ¹¹  they have stolen them and deceitfully put them among their own possessions. ¹² 

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 tc Heb “He said, “Neither.” An alternative reading is לוֹ (lo, “[He said] to him”; cf. NEB). This reading is supported by many Hebrew mss, as well as the LXX and Syriac versions. The traditional reading of the MT (לֹא, lo’, “no, neither”) is probably the product of aural confusion (the two variant readings sound the same in Hebrew). Although followed by a number of modern translations (cf. NIV, NRSV), this reading is problematic, for the commander of the Lord’s army would hardly have declared himself neutral.

⁷ sn The Lord’s heavenly army, like an earthly army, has a commander who leads the troops. For the phrase שַׂר־צְבָא (sar-tsÿva’, “army commander”) in the human sphere, see among many other references Gen 21:22, 32; 26:26; Judg 4:2, 7; 1 Sam 12:9.

⁸ sn The commander’s appearance seems to be for Joshua’s encouragement. Joshua could now lead Israel into battle knowing that the Lord’s invisible army would ensure victory.

⁹ tn Heb “Joshua fell on his face to the ground and bowed down.”

¹¹ tn Heb “They have violated my covenant which I commanded them.”

¹² tn Heb “what was set apart [to the Lord].”

¹³ tn Heb “and also they have stolen, and also they have lied, and also they have placed [them] among their items.”