Deuteronomy 3:20

3:20 You must fight ¹  until the Lord gives your countrymen victory ²  as he did you and they take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them on the other side of the Jordan River. Then each of you may return to his own territory that I have given you.”

Joshua 10:30

10:30 The Lord handed it and its king over to Israel, and Israel ³  put the sword to all who lived there; they ⁴  left no survivors. They ⁵  did to its king what they ⁶  had done to the king of Jericho. ⁷ 

Joshua 10:42

10:42 Joshua captured in one campaign ⁸  all these kings and their lands, for the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel.

Joshua 11:23

11:23 Joshua conquered ⁹  the whole land, just as the Lord had promised Moses, ¹⁰  and he assigned Israel their tribal portions. ¹¹  Then the land was free of war.

Joshua 18:1

The Tribes Meet at Shiloh

18:1 The entire Israelite community assembled at Shiloh and there they set up the tent of meeting. ¹²  Though they had subdued the land, ¹³ 

Psalms 44:1-4

Psalm 44 ¹⁴ 

For the music director; by the Korahites, a well-written song. ¹⁵ 

44:1 O God, we have clearly heard; ¹⁶ 

our ancestors ¹⁷  have told us

what you did ¹⁸  in their days,

in ancient times. ¹⁹ 

44:2 You, by your power, ²⁰  defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; ²¹ 

you crushed ²²  the people living there ²³  and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. ²⁴ 

44:3 For they did not conquer ²⁵  the land by their swords,

and they did not prevail by their strength, ²⁶ 

but rather by your power, ²⁷  strength ²⁸  and good favor, ²⁹ 

for you were partial to ³⁰  them.

44:4 You are my ³¹  king, O God!

Decree ³²  Jacob’s ³³  deliverance!

Psalms 78:55

78:55 He drove the nations out from before them;

he assigned them their tribal allotments ³⁴ 

and allowed the tribes of Israel to settle down. ³⁵ 

[3:20]  ¹ tn The words “you must fight” are not present in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[3:20]  ² tn Heb “gives your brothers rest.”

[10:30]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the implied subject may be Israel, or Joshua (as the commanding general of the army).

[10:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “he”; the implied subject may be Israel, or Joshua (as the commanding general of the army).

[10:30]  ⁵ tn Heb “He”; the implied subject may be Israel, or Joshua (as the commanding general of the army).

[10:30]  ⁶ tn Heb “he”; the implied subject may be Israel, or Joshua (as the commanding general of the army).

[10:30]  ⁷ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[10:42]  ⁸ tn Heb “at one time.”

[11:23]  ⁹ tn Heb “took.”

[11:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “according to all which the Lord said to Moses.” The translation assumes this refers to the promise of the land (see 1:3). Another possibility is that it refers to the Lord’s instructions, in which case the phrase could be translated, “just as the Lord had instructed Moses” (so NLT; cf. also NIV “had directed Moses”).

[11:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their allotted portions by their tribes.”

[18:1]  ¹² tn Heb “the tent of assembly.”

[18:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the land was subdued before them.”

[44:1]  ¹⁴ sn Psalm 44. The speakers in this psalm (the worshiping community within the nation Israel) were disappointed with God. The psalm begins on a positive note, praising God for leading Israel to past military victories. Verses 1-8 appear to be a song of confidence and petition which the people recited prior to battle. But suddenly the mood changes as the nation laments a recent defeat. The stark contrast between the present and the past only heightens the nation’s confusion. Israel trusted in God for victory, but the Lord rejected them and allowed them to be humiliated in battle. If Israel had been unfaithful to God, their defeat would make sense, but the nation was loyal to the Lord. Comparing the Lord to a careless shepherd, the nation urges God to wake up and to extend his compassion to his suffering people.

[44:1]  ¹⁵ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. See the note on the phrase “well-written song” in the superscription of Ps 42.

[44:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “with our ears we have heard.”

[44:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 2; the same Hebrew word may be translated either “fathers” or “ancestors” depending on the context.

[44:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the work you worked.”

[44:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “in the days of old.” This refers specifically to the days of Joshua, during Israel’s conquest of the land, as vv. 2-3 indicate.

[44:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “you, your hand.”

[44:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “dispossessed nations and planted them.” The third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1). See Ps 80:8, 15.

[44:2]  ²² tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Hiphil preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive) from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil; be bad”). If retained it apparently means, “you injured; harmed.” Some prefer to derive the verb from רָעַע (“break”; cf. NEB “breaking up the peoples”), in which case the form must be revocalized as Qal (since this verb is unattested in the Hiphil).

[44:2]  ²³ tn Or “peoples.”

[44:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and you sent them out.” The translation assumes that the third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1), as in the preceding parallel line. See Ps 80:11, where Israel, likened to a vine, “spreads out” its tendrils to the west and east. Another option is to take the “peoples” as the referent of the pronoun and translate, “and you sent them away,” though this does not provide as tight a parallel with the corresponding line.

[44:3]  ²⁵ tn Or “take possession of.”

[44:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and their arm did not save them.” The “arm” here symbolizes military strength.

[44:3]  ²⁷ tn Heb “your right hand.” The Lord’s “right hand” here symbolizes his power to protect and deliver (see Pss 17:7; 20:6; 21:8).

[44:3]  ²⁸ tn Heb “your arm.”

[44:3]  ²⁹ tn Heb “light of your face.” The idiom “light of your face” probably refers to a smile (see Eccl 8:1), which in turn suggests favor and blessing (see Num 6:25; Pss 4:6; 31:16; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19; 89:15; Dan 9:17).

[44:3]  ³⁰ tn Or “favorable toward.”

[44:4]  ³¹ sn The speaker changes here to an individual, perhaps the worship leader or the king. The oscillation between singular (vv. 4, 6) and plural (vv. 1-3, 5, 7-8) in vv. 1-8 may reflect an antiphonal ceremony.

[44:4]  ³² tc The LXX assumes a participle here (מְצַוֶּה [mÿtsavveh], “the one who commands/decrees”) which would stand in apposition to “my God.” It is possible that the MT, which has the imperative (צַוֵּה, tsavveh) form, has suffered haplography of the letter mem (ם). Note that the preceding word (אֱלֹהִים, ’elohim) ends in mem. Another option is that the MT is divided in the wrong place; perhaps one could move the final mem from אֱלֹהִים to the beginning of the next word and read מְצַוֶּה אֱלֹהָי (’elohay mÿtsavveh, “[You are my king,] my God, the one who decrees”).

[44:4]  ³³ tn That is, Israel. See Pss 14:7; 22:23.

[78:55]  ³⁴ tn Heb “he caused to fall [to] them with a measuring line an inheritance.”

[78:55]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and caused the tribes of Israel to settle down in their tents.”