2 Chronicles 15:9

15:9 He assembled all Judah and Benjamin, as well as the settlers ¹  from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had come to live with them. Many people from Israel had come there to live ²  when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.

2 Chronicles 30:11

30:11 But some men from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 30:18-19

30:18 The majority of the many people from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun were ceremonially unclean, yet they ate the Passover in violation of what is prescribed in the law. ³  For Hezekiah prayed for them, saying: “May the Lord, who is good, forgive ⁴  30:19 everyone who has determined to follow God, ⁵  the Lord God of his ancestors, even if he is not ceremonially clean according to the standards of the temple.” ⁶ 

Joshua 22:19

22:19 But if your own land ⁷  is impure, ⁸  cross over to the Lord’s own land, ⁹  where the Lord himself lives, ¹⁰  and settle down among us. ¹¹  But don’t rebel against the Lord or us ¹²  by building for yourselves an altar aside from the altar of the Lord our God.

Psalms 84:5-7

84:5 How blessed are those who ¹³  find their strength in you,

and long to travel the roads that lead to your temple! ¹⁴ 

84:6 As they pass through the Baca Valley, ¹⁵ 

he provides a spring for them. ¹⁶ 

The rain ¹⁷  even covers it with pools of water. ¹⁸ 

84:7 They are sustained as they travel along; ¹⁹ 

each one appears ²⁰  before God in Zion.

[15:9]  ¹ tn Or “resident aliens.”

[15:9]  ² tn Heb “had fallen upon him.”

[30:18]  ³ tn Heb “without what is written.”

[30:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “make atonement for.”

[30:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “everyone [who] has prepared his heart to seek God.”

[30:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “and not according to the purification of the holy place.”

[22:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “the land of your possession.”

[22:19]  ⁸ sn The western tribes here imagine a possible motive for the action of the eastern tribes. T. C. Butler explains the significance of the land’s “impurity”: “East Jordan is impure because it is not Yahweh’s possession. Rather it is simply ‘your possession.’ That means it is land where Yahweh does not live, land which his presence has not sanctified and purified” (Joshua [WBC], 247).

[22:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “the land of the possession of the Lord.”

[22:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “where the dwelling place of the Lord resides.”

[22:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and take for yourselves in our midst.”

[22:19]  ¹² tc Heb “and us to you rebel.” The reading of the MT, the accusative sign with suffix (וְאֹתָנוּ, vÿ’otanu), is problematic with the verb “rebel” (מָרַד, marad). Many Hebrew mss correctly read the negative particle אַל (’al) for the preposition אֶל (’el, “to”).

[84:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle stated here was certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the plural “those.” The individual referred to in v. 5a is representative of followers of God, as the use of plural forms in vv. 5b-7 indicates.

[84:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “roads [are] in their heart[s].” The roads are here those that lead to Zion (see v. 7).

[84:6]  ¹⁵ tn The translation assumes that the Hebrew phrase עֵמֶק הַבָּכָא (’emeq habbakha’) is the name of an otherwise unknown arid valley through which pilgrims to Jerusalem passed. The term בָּכָא (bakha’) may be the name of a particular type of plant or shrub that grew in this valley. O. Borowski (Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 130) suggests it is the black mulberry. Some take the phrase as purely metaphorical and relate בָּכָא to the root בָּכָה (bakhah, “to weep”). In this case one might translate, “the valley of weeping” or “the valley of affliction.”

[84:6]  ¹⁶ tc The MT reads “a spring they make it,” but this makes little sense. Many medieval Hebrew mss, as well as the LXX, understand God to be the subject and the valley to be the object, “he [God] makes it [the valley] [into] a spring.”

[84:6]  ¹⁷ tn This rare word may refer to the early (or autumn) rains (see Joel 2:23).

[84:6]  ¹⁸ tc The MT reads בְּרָכוֹת (bÿrakhot, “blessings”) but the preceding reference to a “spring” favors an emendation to בְּרֵכוֹת (bÿrekhot, “pools”).

[84:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “they go from strength to strength.” The phrase “from strength to strength” occurs only here in the OT. With a verb of motion, the expression “from [common noun] to [same common noun]” normally suggests movement from one point to another or through successive points (see Num 36:7; 1 Chr 16:20; 17:5; Ps 105:13; Jer 25:32). Ps 84:7 may be emphasizing that the pilgrims move successively from one “place of strength” to another as they travel toward Jerusalem. All along the way they find adequate provisions and renewed energy for the trip.

[84:7]  ²⁰ tn The psalmist returns to the singular (see v. 5a), which he uses in either a representative or distributive (“each one” ) sense.