Joshua 4:5

4:5 Joshua told them, “Go in front of the ark of the Lord your God to the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to put a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the Israelite tribes.

Joshua 5:13

Israel Conquers Jericho

5:13 When Joshua was near ¹  Jericho, ²  he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him holding a drawn sword. ³  Joshua approached him and asked him, “Are you on our side or allied with our enemies?” ⁴ 

Joshua 6:5

6:5 When you hear the signal from the ram’s horn, ⁵  have the whole army give a loud battle cry. ⁶  Then the city wall will collapse ⁷  and the warriors should charge straight ahead.” ⁸ 

Joshua 6:20

6:20 The rams’ horns sounded ⁹  and when the army ¹⁰  heard the signal, ¹¹  they gave a loud battle cry. ¹²  The wall collapsed ¹³  and the warriors charged straight ahead into the city and captured it. ¹⁴ 

Joshua 7:5

7:5 The men of Ai killed about thirty-six of them and chased them from in front of the city gate all the way to the fissures ¹⁵  and defeated them on the steep slope. ¹⁶  The people’s ¹⁷  courage melted away like water. ¹⁸ 

Joshua 14:6

14:6 The men of Judah approached Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the Lord said about you and me to Moses, the man of God, at Kadesh Barnea. ¹⁹ 

Joshua 17:1

17:1 The tribe of Manasseh, Joseph’s firstborn son, was also allotted land. ²⁰  The descendants of Makir, Manasseh’s firstborn and the father of Gilead, received land, for they were warriors. ²¹  They were assigned Gilead and Bashan. ²² 

Joshua 21:44

21:44 The Lord made them secure, ²³  in fulfillment of all he had solemnly promised their ancestors. ²⁴  None of their enemies could resist them. ²⁵ 

Joshua 22:20

22:20 When Achan son of Zerah disobeyed the command about the city’s riches, the entire Israelite community was judged, ²⁶  though only one man had sinned. He most certainly died for his sin!’” ²⁷ 

[5:13]  ¹ tn Heb “in.”

[5:13]  ² map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[5:13]  ³ tn Heb “he lifted up his eyes and looked. And look, a man was standing in front of him, and his sword was drawn in his hand.” The verb הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) invites the reader to view the scene through Joshua’s eyes. By calling the stranger “a man,” the author reflects Joshua’s perspective. The text shortly reveals his true identity (vv. 14-15).

[5:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

[6:5]  ¹ tn Heb “and it will be at the sounding of the horn, the ram’s horn, when you hear the sound of the ram’s horn.” The text of Josh 6:5 seems to be unduly repetitive, so for the sake of English style and readability, it is best to streamline the text here. The reading in the Hebrew looks like a conflation of variant readings, with the second (“when you hear the sound of the ram’s horn”) being an interpolation that assimilates the text to verse 20 (“when the army heard the sound of the horn”). Note that the words “when you hear the sound of the ram's horn” do not appear in the LXX of verse 5.

[6:5]  ² tn Heb “all the people will shout with a loud shout.”

[6:5]  ³ tn Heb “fall in its place.”

[6:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the people will go up, each man straight ahead.”

[6:20]  ¹ tc Heb “and the people shouted and they blew the rams’ horns.” The initial statement (“and the people shouted”) seems premature, since the verse goes on to explain that the battle cry followed the blowing of the horns. The statement has probably been accidentally duplicated from what follows. It is omitted in the LXX.

[6:20]  ² tn Heb “the people.”

[6:20]  ³ tn Heb “the sound of the horn.”

[6:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “they shouted with a loud shout.”

[6:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “fell in its place.”

[6:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the people went up into the city, each one straight ahead, and they captured the city.”

[7:5]  ¹ tn The meaning and correct translation of the Hebrew word שְׁבָרִים (shÿvarim) is uncertain. The translation “fissures” is based on usage of the plural form of the noun in Ps 60:4 HT (60:2 ET), where it appears to refer to cracks in the earth caused by an earthquake. Perhaps deep ravines or gorges are in view, or the word is a proper noun (“all the way to Shebarim”).

[7:5]  ² sn The precise geographical location of the Israelite defeat at this “steep slope” is uncertain.

[7:5]  ³ tn Or “army’s.”

[7:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the heart of the people melted and became water.”

[14:6]  ¹ tn Heb “You know the word which the Lord spoke to Moses, the man of God, because of me and because of you in Kadesh Barnea.”

[17:1]  ¹ tn Heb “and the lot belonged to the tribe of Manasseh, for he was the firstborn of Joseph.”

[17:1]  ² tn Heb “to Makir, the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, for he was a man of war.”

[17:1]  ³ tn Heb “Gilead and Bashan belonged to him.”

[21:44]  ¹ tn Heb “gave them rest all around.”

[21:44]  ² tn Heb “according to all he swore to their fathers.”

[21:44]  ³ tn Heb “not a man stood from before them from all their enemies.”

[22:20]  ¹ tn Heb “Is it not [true that] Achan son of Zerah was unfaithful with unfaithfulness concerning what was set apart [to the Lord] and against all the assembly of Israel there was anger?”

[22:20]  ² tn The second half of the verse reads literally, “and he [was] one man, he did not die for his sin.” There are at least two possible ways to explain this statement: (1) One might interpret the statement to mean that Achan was not the only person who died for his sin. In this case it could be translated, “and he was not the only one to die because of his sin.” (2) Another option, the one reflected in the translation, is to take the words וְהוּא אִישׁ אֶחָד (vÿhu’ ’ish ’ekhad, “and he [was] one man”) as a concessive clause and join it with what precedes. The remaining words (לֹא גָוַע בַּעֲוֹנוֹ, lo’ gava’ ba’avono) must then be taken as a rhetorical question (“Did he not die for his sin?”). Taking the last sentence as interrogative is consistent with the first part of the verse, a rhetorical question introduced with the interrogative particle. The present translation has converted these rhetorical questions into affirmative statements to bring out more clearly the points they are emphasizing. For further discussion, see T. C. Butler, Joshua (WBC), 240.