Joshua 7:16-18

7:16 Bright and early the next morning Joshua made Israel approach in tribal order ¹  and the tribe of Judah was selected. 7:17 He then made the clans of Judah approach and the clan of the Zerahites was selected. He made the clan of the Zerahites approach and Zabdi ²  was selected. ³  7:18 He then made Zabdi’s ⁴  family approach man by man ⁵  and Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, was selected.

Joshua 7:1

Achan Sins and is Punished

7:1 But the Israelites disobeyed the command about the city’s riches. ⁶  Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, ⁷  son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, stole some of the riches. ⁸  The Lord was furious with the Israelites. ⁹ 

Joshua 14:1-2

Judah’s Tribal Lands

14:1 The following is a record of the territory assigned to the Israelites in the land of Canaan by Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the Israelite tribal leaders. ¹⁰  14:2 The land assignments to the nine-and-a-half tribes were made by drawing lots, as the Lord had instructed Moses. ¹¹ 

Joshua 8:2

8:2 Do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho ¹²  and its king, except you may plunder its goods and cattle. Set an ambush behind the city!”

Joel 3:3

3:3 and they cast lots for my people.

They traded ¹³  a boy for a prostitute;

they sold a little girl for wine so they could drink. ¹⁴ 

Obadiah 1:11

1:11 You stood aloof ¹⁵  while strangers took his army ¹⁶  captive,

and foreigners advanced to his gates. ¹⁷ 

When they cast lots ¹⁸  over Jerusalem, ¹⁹ 

you behaved as though you were in league ²⁰  with them.

Jonah 1:7

1:7 The sailors said to one another, ²¹  “Come on, let’s cast lots ²²  to find out ²³  whose fault it is that this disaster has overtaken us. ²⁴ ” So they cast lots, and Jonah was singled out. ²⁵ 

Nahum 3:10

3:10 Yet she went into captivity as an exile; ²⁶ 

even her infants were smashed to pieces ²⁷  at the head of every street.

They cast lots ²⁸  for her nobility; ²⁹ 

all her dignitaries were bound with chains.

[7:16]  ¹ tn Heb “by tribes.”

[7:17]  ² tn See the note on “Zabdi” in 1 Chr 7:1.

[7:17]  ³ tn Heb “and he selected Zabdi.” The Lord is the apparent subject. The LXX supports reading a passive (Niphal) form here, as does the immediate context.

[7:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Zabdi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “by men.”

[7:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “But the sons of Israel were unfaithful with unfaithfulness concerning what was set apart [to the Lord].”

[7:1]  ⁷ tn 1 Chr 2:6 lists a “Zimri” (but no Zabdi) as one of the five sons of Zerah (cf. also 1 Chr 7:17, 18).

[7:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “took from what was set apart [to the Lord].”

[7:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “the anger of the Lord burned against the sons of Israel.”

[14:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “These are [the lands] which the sons of Israel received as an inheritance in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes assigned as an inheritance to the sons of Israel.”

[14:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “By lot was their inheritance, as the Lord had commanded by Moses, to the nine tribes and the half-tribe.”

[8:2]  ¹² map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[3:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “gave.”

[3:3]  ¹⁴ sn Heb “and they drank.” Joel vividly refers to a situation where innocent human life has little value; its only worth is its use in somehow satisfying selfish appetites of wicked people who have control over others (cf. Amos 2:6 and 8:6).

[1:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in the day of your standing”; NAB “On the day when you stood by.”

[1:11]  ¹⁶ tn Or perhaps, “wealth” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). The Hebrew word is somewhat ambiguous here. This word also appears in v. 13, where it clearly refers to wealth.

[1:11]  ¹⁷ tc The present translation follows the Qere which reads the plural (“gates”) rather than the singular.

[1:11]  ¹⁸ sn Casting lots seems to be a way of deciding who would gain control over material possessions and enslaved peoples following a military victory.

[1:11]  ¹⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “like one from them”; NASB “You too were as one of them.”

[1:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “And they said, a man to his companion.” The plural verb is individualized by “a man.”

[1:7]  ²² sn The English word lots is a generic term. In some cultures the procedure for “casting lots” is to “draw straws” so that the person who receives the short straw is chosen. In other situations a colored stone or a designated playing card might be picked at random. In Jonah’s case, small stones were probably used.

[1:7]  ²³ sn In the ancient Near East, casting lots was a custom used to try to receive a revelation from the gods about a particular situation. The Phoenician sailors here cried out to their gods and cast lots in the hope that one of their gods might reveal the identity of the person with whom he was angry. CEV has well captured the sentiment of v.7b: “‘Let’s ask our gods to show us who caused all this trouble.’ It turned out to be Jonah.”

[1:7]  ²⁴ tn Heb “On whose account this calamity is upon us.”

[1:7]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the lot fell on Jonah.” From their questions posed to Jonah, it does not appear that the sailors immediately realize that Jonah was the one responsible for the storm. Instead, they seem to think that he is the one chosen by their gods to reveal to them the one responsible for their plight. It is only after he admits in vv. 9-10 that he was fleeing from the God whom he served that they realize that Jonah was in fact the cause of their trouble.

[3:10]  ²⁶ tc The MT reads לַגֹּלָה (laggolah, “as a captive”) with the preposition לְ (lamed) denoting essence/identity. On the other hand, 4QpNah reads בגולה (“as a captive”) with the preposition בְּ (bet) denoting essence/identity (“as a captive”). The LXX’s αἰξμάλωτος (aixmalwto", “as a prisoner”) does not reveal which preposition was the original.

[3:10]  ²⁷ tc The past-time reference of the context indicates that the Pual verb יְרֻטְּשׁוּ (yÿruttÿshu) is a preterite describing past action (“they were smashed to pieces”) rather than an imperfect describing future action (“they will be smashed to pieces”). The past-time sense is supported by the Syriac and Vulgate. The LXX, however, misunderstood the form as an imperfect. Not recognizing that the form is a preterite, the BHS editors suggest emending to Pual perfect רֻטְּשׁוּ (ruttÿshu, “they were smashed to pieces”). This emendation is unnecessary once the possibility of a preterite is recognized. The Masoretic reading is supported by the reading ירוטשו found in the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QpNah 3:10).

[3:10]  ²⁸ tc The MT reads יַדּוּ (yadu, “they cast [lots]”) from יָדַד (yadad, “to cast [lots]”). On the other hand, the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QpNah) read ירו (“they threw, cast [lots]”) from יָרָה (yarah, “to throw, cast [lots]”) (e.g., Josh 18:6). The textual variant arose due to orthographic confusion between ד (dalet) and ר (resh) – two Hebrew letters very similar in appearance. The root יָדַד is relatively rare – it occurs only two other times (Obad 11; Joel 4:3 [3:3 ET]) – therefore, it might have been confused with יָרָה which appears more frequently.

[3:10]  ²⁹ tc The MT and Dead Sea Scrolls (4QpNah) read ועל נכבדיה (“for her nobles”). The LXX reflects וְעַל כָּל נִכְבַּדֶּיהָ (vÿ’al kol nikhbaddeha, “for all her nobles”), adding כָּל (“all”). The LXX addition probably was caused by the influence of the repetition of כָּל in the preceding and following lines.