8:14 The people say, 8
“Why are we just sitting here?
Let us gather together inside the fortified cities. 9
Let us at least die there fighting, 10
since the Lord our God has condemned us to die.
He has condemned us to drink the poison waters of judgment 11
because we have sinned against him. 12
1 tn Heb “When Joshua and the sons of Israel finished defeating them with a very great defeat until they were destroyed (now the survivors escaped to the fortified cities).” In the Hebrew text the initial temporal clause (“when Joshua…finished”) is subordinated to v. 21 (“the whole army returned”).
2 tn This statement is subordinated to v. 1 in the Hebrew text, which reads literally, “When Adoni-Zedek…they feared greatly.” The subject of the plural verb at the beginning of v. 2 is probably the residents of Jerusalem.
3 sn On the Israelites’ failure to conquer the Canaanites completely, see Judg 1:27-28.
4 tn Or “live.”
5 tn Heb “until he stands before the assembly for judgment.”
6 tn Heb “until the death of the high priest who is in those days.”
7 tn Heb “may return and enter his city and his house, the city from which he escaped.”
8 tn The words “The people say” are not in the text but are implicit in the shift of speakers between vv. 4-13 and vv. 14-16. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
9 tn Heb “Gather together and let us enter into the fortified cities.”
10 tn Heb “Let us die there.” The words “at least” and “fighting” are intended to bring out the contrast of passive surrender to death in the open country and active resistance to the death implicit in the context.
11 tn The words “of judgment” are not in the text but are intended to show that “poison water” is not literal but figurative of judgment at the hands of God through the agency of the enemy mentioned in v. 16.
12 tn Heb “against the