See in Reader
[All these are suggestions only. Question marks indicate greater tentativeness. Comments phrased as a questions are legitimate questions, not statements.]
Chapter 1
1:1 –– perhaps "servant of Moses" or "minister of Moses" (and save "assistant" for the UST?); the English rendering should reflect the meaning of the verb here, especially since this is a participle and not a straight-up noun, is "assist" a legitimate sense for שׁרת? 1:2 –– "And now" or "So now"? does the context justify a reason-result relationship here? 1:2 –– "that I am about to give" instead of "that I am giving"? the participle certainly functions as a finite verb here, but isn't it expressing imminent action instead of either continuous or iterative action? 1:3 –– perhaps "in which" instead of "on which"? 1:3 –– what is the temporal/aspectual sense of the yiqtol verb in the relative clause? 1:3 –– is the qatal verb "I have given" actually in past time here? perhaps performative or predictive perfect? just asking the question here... 1:4 –– "great river" instead of "Great River" and "great sea" instead of "Great Sea" (the Hebrew nouns are common there) 1:4 –– "going of the sun" instead of "entering of the sun" to retain the ambiguity of the verb בוא 1:4 –– perhaps "is your territory" instead of "will be your territory"? (depending on temporal sense of verbs in the speech) 1:4 –– "territory" or "boundary"? 1:5 –– check alignment of "be" verb (should be אהיה) 1:5 –– perhaps "leave" instead of "abandon" and "forsake" instead of "leave" 1:6 –– "brave" or "courageous"? which term is genuinely best here? 1:6 –– what is the sense of the Hiphil verb, translated "cause to inherit"? is this a genuine causative? 1:7 –– same as v.6 above for "brave" or "courageous" 1:7 –– what is the sense of the verb שׁמר here? does the pairing with עשׂה impact the meaning selection? (the rendering "be careful" seems to introduce an English idiom, would prefer "watch" or "keep" or "observe" or something that expresses a more cognitively primitive action) 1:7 –– what is the relationship between the two finitives? apposition? verbal adjunct? etc. (the current rendering indicates the 2nd infinitive as a verbal adjunct of the 1st infinitive) 1:7 –– "which" or "that"? 1:7 –– which verbs does the phrase "so that" modify? (the current rendering indicates only the last verb in the first strophe) 1:7 –– what is the actual sense of the Hiphil שׂכל here? "wise", "insight", "understand", "prosper", "success"? does the locative prepositional/relative phrase make a difference for selecting the specific sense in view? (compare/contrast to v.8) 1:8 –– "meditate on it" or "meditate in it"? 1:8 –– same as v.7 above for "so that" 1:8 –– same as v.7 above for שׁמר 1:8 –– perhaps "ways" instead of "paths"? (that is, what is actually "being made prosperous" here?) 1:8 –– same as v.7 above for שׂכל 1:9 –– same as v.6 above for "brave" 1:9 –– does the חתת verb actually indicate a physical state ("shattered") or non-physical state ("dismayed")? and is the verb actually stative? 1:9 –– "because" or "for"? 1:10 –– what is the specific concept being accessed by "officers" here? this term will tag a tW, need to make sure to the correct term for the concept according to the tW article/headwords, etc. 1:10 –– verse needs a comma after "saying" 1:11 –– "Pass through" or "Pass over"? (does this verb in this specific context really communicate a full sense of "crossing out the other side" or a sense of simply "going from one place to another"?) 1:11 –– would like to see a different rendering of בקרב than בתוך (usually rendered "in the midst of") if possible, also retain the preposition if at all possible 1:11 –– "you will be crossing over" or "you are about to cross over" or "you will be about to cross over"??? 1:11 –– "is giving" or "is about to give"? 1:12 –– perhaps "to half of the tribe of Manasseh"? 1:13 –– "is giving rest to you" or "is about to give rest to you" or "is about to cause you to rest?" (also check the weqatal that follows the participle there) 1:14 –– does the term טף include elderly or not? if so, then perhaps "little ones" instead of "children"? 1:14 –– "will dwell" or "will remain"? 1:14 –– why the unusual fronted pronoun for the yiqtol in the second strophe? perhaps "But you, you shall cross over" instead of "And you will cross over"? 1:14 –– "mighty ones of the army" or "mighty men of the army"? 1:14 –– perhaps "arrayed for battle" instead of "armed for battle"? (compare/contrast meanings in BDB and HALOT, seems like this term if related to the number 5 somehow) 1:14 –– "And you will help" or "And you shall help"? 1:15 –– what is the temporal/aspectual sense of the yiqtol + weqatal, etc. verbal chain? does the secodn strophe continue the verbal chain, or does it introduce a new verbal chain? or does the second strophe pick up the verbal chain from the previous verse? how might the sense of the verbal chain(s) be affected? 1:15 –– what is the particle גַם actually doing here? 1:15 –– what is the function of the reduplicated 3mp pronminal subject following the wewatal verb? 1:15 –– "is giving to them" or "is about to give to them"? 1:15 –– can the rendering "and you will possess that" in any way retain the independent pronoun "it" (as object) instead of substituting the relative pronoun "that"? 1:15 –– compare/contrast the phrases "the other side of the Jordan" in v.14 and v.15, they can't both be the "other" side; one of them must mean "this side" 1:16 –– "commanded us" or "have commanded us"? 1:17 –– is רַק truly a restrictive here? or is it functioning in some other way? (perhaps asseverative???) 1:17 –– does the yiqtol יהיה have any kind of modal sense here, or is it either straight-up simple present or straight-up future? 1:18 –– "in all that you command" or "for all that you command"? 1:18 –– same as v.6 above for "brave"
Chapter 2
2:1 –– "the Shittim" instead of "Shittim"? 2:1 –– perhaps "And Joshua the son of Nun secretly sent from Shittim two men, spies, saying…" 2:3 –– perhaps "the ones coming to you, who came to your house" (participle sure looks adjectival here, not verbal) 2:3 –– "for" instead of "because"? 2:3 –– perhaps "they have come to search all the land"? 2:4 –– perhaps "Indeed," or "True," instead of "Yes," (the particle carries more meaning than a simple affirmative) 2:4 –– perhaps "from where they were" or "from where they came"? 2:5 –– let's discuss this verse 2:6 –– let's discuss this verse too 2:7 –– "to" instead of "as far as" (would expect עד for "as far as") 2:7 –– "had shut" instead of "shut"? (the narrative regresses in time here) 2:7 –– check the temporal sense of כאשׁר here 2:7 –– "had gone out" instead of "went out"? (again, temporal regression) 2:8 –– let's discuss this verse 2:9 –– perhaps "dread" instead of "the dread"? 2:9 –– perhaps "have melted" instead of "melt"? (the other qatal verbs are past time) 2:9 –– perhaps "who dwell in" instead of "those who dwell in"? 2:9 –– "from your face" instead of "because of your face" (more likely locative instead of causative) 2:10 –– perhaps "in your going out of Egypt"??? 2:11 –– perhaps "have melted" to agree with "have heard" (past time) 2:11 –– perhaps "no longer stands"? (is qatal stative here?) 2:11 –– "from your face" instead of "because of your face" (most likely locative instead of causative) 2:11 –– "for" instead of "because"? 2:11 –– perhaps "in the heavens, from above, and on the earth, from below." or "in the heavens above and on the earth below."? 2:12 –– "And now" or "So now"? (Rahab is just made an amazing confession here of apparent belief in Yahweh, is this motivating her request?) 2:12 –– "for" instead of "because"? 2:12 –– perhaps "I am doing kindness" instead of "I have done kindness"? 2:12 –– "that you also will do kindness" 2:12 –– perhaps "and will give"? (to match temporal sense of earlier verb – how should the weqatal be understood here?) 2:13 –– check alignment of direct object marker + conjunction = aligns to "and" only 2:14 –– perhaps "faithfulness" instead of "truth"? 2:15 –– perhaps "lowered down" instead of "let down" to express the causative better? 2:16 –– perhaps "meet you" instead of "will meet with you" (does this verb often/always take the בְ preposition? if so, it could be that this preposition has lost its semantic value. we would still want to render it if possible, but it may not be appropriate here if the verb needs this preposition in order to make sense. let me know if you have questions here) 2:16 –– perhaps "the ones pursuing" or "the ones who are pursuing" instead of "your pursuers" and "the pursuers"? 2:16 –– 2mp jussive should not be "you will go" which is future tense, should be a weak volitional, "you can go" 2:17 –– "caused us to swear" instead of "made us swear" 2:18 –– perhaps "you shall tie" instead of "you will tie" (seems volitional instead of strict future) 2:18 –– "by which" instead of "through which" (to differentiate from בעד preposition earlier) 2:18 –– perhaps "lowered down" instead of "let down"? 2:18 –– perhaps "you shall gather" instead of "you will gather" (again, seems volitional not future) 2:19 –– is the היה the main verb here rather than introducing nominal clauses??? (seems not, but check if it makes sense) 2:19 –– check alignment of "is" (x2) 2:19 –– perhaps "hand should be on him" instead of "hand is on him" because of conditional particle? 2:20 –– is "But" really fitting for this verse? 2:20 –– "report" is same verb as "tell" earlier (v.14), should be consistent if possible 2:20 –– "caused us to swear" instead of "made us swear" 2:21 –– "sent away" instead of "sent" because of Piel stem (resultative) 2:21 –– can you break the sentence at the 'atnah? 2:22 –– perhaps "the ones pursuing" or "the ones who were pursuing" instead of "the pursuers"? 2:23 –– OK to say "the two men" (the numeral can be construct as an attributive modifier) 2:23 –– "all the things that were finding them" or "all that was finding them" 2:24 –– perhaps "Truly Yahweh has given all the land into our hand", but perhaps should not break word order (judgment call here)
Chapter 3
3:1 –– "as far as" instead of "up to" 3:3 –– "as soon as you see" instead of "when you see" 3:3 –– "lifting" instead of "carrying" 3:4 –– "shall be" instead of "will be" (seems volitional instead of future) 3:4 –– "Do not come near" instead of "You shall not come near" 3:4 –– perhaps "in which you should go" instead of "by which you will go" (future or volitional?) 3:4 –– "you have not passed over" instead of "you did not pass over" (seems to be English perfect tense instead of simple past) 3:5 –– "for" instead of "because" (result instead of cause or reason) 3:5 –– "in your midst" is probably prefereable to distinguish from construct chain, although "in the midst of you" is acceptable 3:7 –– check alignment of "of" 3:8 –– conjunction + pronoun at beginning of verse probably indicates contrasting shift of topic, "And as for you, you shall command" or "But as for you, you shall command" 3:8 –– "you shall command" instead of "you will command"? (seems volitional instead of future) 3:8 –– "As soon as you come" instead of "When you come" 3:8 –– "as far as the edge" instead of "to the edge" 3:10 –– perhaps "in your midst" instead of "in the midst of you"? 3:13 –– "as soon as the soles of the feet" instead of "when the soles of the feet" 3:13 –– perhaps "who lift" or "who are lifting" instead of "who carry"? 3:13 –– "the waters going down from above" restates "the water of the Jordan" (right dislocation) 3:13 –– can you break the sentence at the 'atnah?
3:14-17 –– let's talk about these verses, the clausal structure is very difficult. check the function of all the conjunctions in vv.14-15. what verb does the wayyiqtol in v.16 link back to? what verb does the wayyiqtol in v.17 link back to?
Chapter 4
4:3 –– "and you shall rest them" instead of "and rest them" 4:4 –– "called to" or "called out to"? 4:4 –– "he appointed" or "he had appointed"? 4:7 –– is the speech a direct quote or indirect quote? and is the relative particle introducing indirect speech, or is it the first word of the direct speech (functioning temporally, "When…")? (compare to v.21) 4:7 –– "until eternity" instead of "to eternity" ("to" is locative, "until" is temporal) 4:8 –– "did thus" is probably better than "did so" 4:8 –– "and they rested them" is probably better than "and rested them" 4:9 –– "until" instead of "to" 4:10 –– "were standing" or "stood"? 4:11 –– "with the priests" is probably better than "and the priests" because of the singular verb 4:13 –– "40,000 men" 4:14 –– check alignment of "of"(1) 4:15 –– is "Then" really warranted here? 4:18 –– "on all its bank" or "over all its banks"? 4:19 –– perhaps "Now the people came up" because of the sentence-focus fronting comminicating background information? 4:22 –– "then you shall" instead of "Then you shall", right? (completing the conditional sentence from the previous verse) 4:22 –– "let know" or "cause to know"?
Chapter 5
5:1 –– "kings of the Amorites" (this can be plural because the plural "kings" seems to demand a collective sense of the singular noun) 5:1 –– "kings of the Canaanites" 5:1 –– "from the face of the sons of Israel" (this is the detachment sense rather the causative sense, see article on מפני in Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar) 5:2 –– why not "return" instead of "again"? (again is not a verb, and we really should have an imperative verb there) 5:3 –– ", and he circumised" or ". And he circumcised" instead of "and circumcised" 5:3 –– "hill of the foreskins" instead of "Hill of the Foreskins" (nouns are common, the UST can render as proper name but not the ULT) 5:4 –– "when they had gone out of Egypt" instead of "after they had gone out of Egypt" (the translation "after" requires אחרי) 5:5 –– "had" is a helping verb, should be aligned to the main verb 5:6 –– אשׁר could be rendered as a relative pronoun instead of "because" (see LXX), but almost all modern translations translate this relative particle as causative (although I don't why); I have no objection, just noting this 5:7 –– perhaps "instead of them" rather than "in their place" (keeps the pronoun object, also less idiomatic English) 5:9 –– "And" instead of "So"? (borderline, also check alignment of the conjunction) 5:10 –– perhaps "performed the Passover" instead of "did the Passover" 5:12 –– perhaps switch "produce" and "yield"? 5:13 –– perhaps "with his drawn sword in his hand" instead of "and his drawn sword was in his hand" (passive participle functions as an adjective here, or perhaps predicate adjective, "was drawn") 5:14 –– suggest "No, but I, the leader of the army of Yahweh, now I have come." 5:14 –– check align to "to" (3 and 4) 5:14 –– perhaps "lord" instead of "master" (I would expect בּעל for "master") 5:15 –– perhaps "on which you are standing" instead of "that you are standing on"?
Chapter 6
6:1 –– are the participles functioning here as verbs or predicate adjectives? (I think probably predicate adjectives.) perhaps "And Jericho was shut and shut up" with "was" aligned with "Jericho" because of the compound predicate? 6:1 –– "from the face of the sons of Israel" instead of "because of the face of the sons of Israel" 6:2 –– perhaps "I am giving" instead of "I have given" (performative sense of qatal) 6:3 –– perhaps "Thus you shall do six days" instead of "You shall do so six days"? (the particle כה does not function as a direct object here but rather as a sentential adverb) 6:4 –– perhaps "lift" instead of "carry"??? (this is borderline, since there is no good Hebrew verb for "carry" that I can think of; one could argue that "carry" is a legitimate Hebrew sense disambiguation of נשׂא in this context) 6:6 –– consider carefully the use of "lift" and "carry" for the instances of נשׂא, should these be the same or different from v.4? 6:7 –– perhaps "pass over" or "cross over" or "cross to" instead of "pass by"? 6:8 –– perhaps "And it happened that, as soon as Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests…" 6:8 –– same as v.7 concerning "pass by" 6:8 –– "was going after them" instead of "went after them" (participle indicates ongoing action) 6:9 –– "were going" or "were walking" instead of "walked" (2x, same as above) 6:9 –– make consistent "behind" and "after" in vv.8-9 6:13 –– "walking and blowing" instead of "continually and blowing" (to make consistent with others) 6:13 –– same as v.9 concerning "behind" 6:14 –– same as v.3 above concening "so" 6:15 –– spelling of "happened" 6:15 –– check alignment of "that" in the phrase "And it happened that" (should be with the conjunction following ויהי, in this case that conjunction is part of a wayyiqtol verb) 6:15 –– "as soon as the dawn had risen" instead of "according to the rising of the dawn" 6:15 –– suggest "…times. Only on that day they went around the city seven times." or "…times. On that day only they went around the city seven times." 6:16 –– perhaps "is giving" instead of "has given"? (performative qatal instead of perfective qatal? could be either one) 6:18 –– both the conjunction (וְ) and the particle (רַק) should be rendered somehow, if at all possible 6:18 –– "keep yourselves" sounds too reflexive for the Qal שׁמר, is there a way to render this as a simple active verb? 6:19 –– perhaps "It shall enter" instead of "They shall enter"? (because of the singular verb and earlier pronoun) 6:20 –– perhaps "as soon as the people heard" instead of "when the people heard"? 6:21 –– "and as far as" instead of "and up to" (3x –– movement in horizontal space not vertical space) 6:23 –– perhaps "the young men, the ones who had spied" or "the young men, the ones who were spying" (to render the definite article, the participle seems to be a noun in apposition rather than an attributive adjective, "the spying men" just doesn't feel right) 6:24 –– "But" doesn't feel right for the restrictive particle רַק here, perhaps "Only" or "However," instead? 6:24 –– "the storehouse of the house of Yahweh" is the indirect object and needs a supplied preposition "to" (could be aligned with the verb or with the noun "storehouse", verb is probably better) 6:25 –– perhaps "has dwelt" instead of "dwells"? (to keep the sense of past time of the wayyiqtol) 6:25 –– perhaps "had sent" instead of "sent" (to keep past perfect sense of qatal verb) 6:26 –– "doors" instead of "gates" (gates = שׁער)
Chapter 7
7:1 –– "Achan, the son of Karmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, took from the banned thing" (OK to keep singular in this case, I think) 7:3 –– perhaps "cause to be weary" instead of "make weary"? (the use of "make" as a helping verb might be confusing for non-native English speakers, the sense of the helping is causing something not making something) 7:4 –– "some from the people" instead of "some of the people" 7:5 –– perhaps "the Shebarim" instead of "Shebarim"? 7:5 –– perhaps "…slope. And the heart of the people melted and became water." 7:6 –– "the evening" instead of "evening" 7:6 –– perhaps "caused dust to go up on their heads" instead of "lifted up dust on their heads"? (to retain causative and distinguish from the verb נשׂא) 7:7 –– perhaps "to cause us to perish" instead of "to make us perish"?
Chapter 12
12:2 –– "as far as" instead of "up to" 12:3 –– "as far as" instead of "to" 12:3 –– align "to" with "the road" in the phrase "the road to Beth Jeshimoth" (because of the construct form) 12:4 –– "border" instead of "territory"? 12:4 –– "the ones who dwelled" instead of "who dwelled" (to render the definite article) 12:5 –– "the mountain of Hermon" instead of "Mount Hermon" (that is for the UST) 12:7 –– "and as far as the mountain, the Halak, the one that ascends toward Seir." 12:8 –– suggest removing the dash and separating everything with commas (it's awkward, I know)
Chapter 15
15:1ff –– is נֶגֶב a common noun or proper noun in Hebrew here? (we should chat about this if necessary) 15:8 –– "Jebusite" 15:10 –– "the shoulder of the mountain of Jearim"
Chapter 22
22:2 –– perhaps break sentence at 'atnah? 22:2 –– "I have commanded you" instead of "I commanded you" 22:3 –– perhaps "forsaken" instead of "left"? 22:3 –– perhaps "this many days" instead of "these many days"? 22:3 –– "until" instead of "up to" [preposition is temporal not locative here] 22:4 –– alignment of "of" (1) 22:5 –– does רַק really function as a contrastive ("But") here? this is usually a restrictive ("only") or asseverative ("however") or sometimes even affirmative (surely) but rarely contrastive 22:5 –– I don't think נפשׁ means "life" in this context, I think it's more like "self" or "soul" here. In other words, I think the term is referencing the concept of person rather than the life of the person. 22:6 –– pernaps break sentence at 'atnah? 22:7 –– consider either moving the right parenthesis or removing the parentheses altogether (see v.8) 22:7 –– "to the sea" or "toward the sea" instead of "to the west" 22:7 –– the particle "also" could be moved to follow the verb, "And when Joshua had sent them away also,…" 22:7 –– "sent them away" or "had sent them away" instead of "sent them" (Piel stem is resultative) 22:8 –– Who is Joshua speaking to here? the half-tribe of Manasseh on the west side of the Jordan, referenced in v.7b? or Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh on the east side of the Jordan, referenced in v.6? [If you keep parentheses in v.7, this will impact where you end it, either in the middle of the verse or the end of the verse. But I would seriously consider removing the parentheses altogether, because the discourse is not very clear here.] 22:12 –– perhaps "for war" instead of "for the war"? (but this is difficult, consider what the definite article is doing in Hebrew here. Is the English definite article doing the same thing? If not, then there is justification to leave it out.) 22:13 –– recommend "…sent Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, to the sons of Reuben…" 22:13 –– recommend ending the sentence at the end of the verse 22:14 –– recommend "And ten leaders were with him,…" (item does not have direct object marker to continue to sentence from v.13) 22:14 –– recommend "And they were each a man of the head of the house of their fathers of the thousands of Israel." ("they were" is aligned together, and "each a man" is aligned together) 22:15 –– make consistent with v.13, "to the land of the Gilead" vs "into the land of the Gilead" 22:15 –– perhaps break sentence at 'atnah? 22:16 –– perhaps "to turn" instead of "by turning" 22:17 –– "trifle" is a noun, but מְעַט is an adjective; should read "small" or "little" or perhaps "few" but preferably an English adjective here 22:17 –– "until" instead of "up to" [preposition is temporal not locative here] 22:18 –– recommend "But as for you, you are turning…" 22:18 –– recommend "And it will happen that you yourselves will rebel against Yahweh today, and tomorrow he will be furious toward all the congregation of Israel" 22:19 –– how is the particle אךְ functioning here? it it really functioning as an affirmative here? [perhaps it is] This particle is prototypically an asseverative. Just make sure of the function of the particle. If affirmative, the "surely" is OK. But if not, then the English rendering needs to reflect the proper Hebrew function of the particle in this instance. 22:20 –– break sentence at 'atnah (the question properly ends there) 22:22 –– try to make sense of this verse as its own sentence 22:23 –– try to make sense of this verse as its own sentence 22:25 –– "between us and between you" 22:26 –– "for ourselves" 22:26 –– break sentence at end of verse 22:27 –– "between us and between you and between our generations" 22:27 –– break sentence at 'atnah 22:28 –– recommend "And we said, 'And it will happen, if they speak to us or to our generations of tomorrow, that we will say…'" (align accordingly, "that" with the Hebrew conjunction) 22:28 –– "between us and between you" 22:31 –– perhaps "that" instead of "because" (seems like a substantive relative as opposed to a causative) 22:31 –– perhaps "Therefore" instead of "Then" (seems like a conjunction instead of a temporal adverb) 22:32 –– align of "of" (4) 22:33 –– perhaps "for war" instead of "for the war"? [see v.12]
Chapter 23
23:3 –– perhaps "But as for you," instead of "yourselves"??? 23:3 –– "from your face" instead of "because of your face" (I think min is probably never causative when paired with face) 23:4 –– perhaps "caused to fall for you" instead of "dropped to you"? 23:4 –– suggest colon after "tribes", but this is tricky 23:4 –– perhaps "…and the great sea, from the going of the sun." 23:7 –– perhaps "by the name of their gods"? 23:9 –– perhaps "And as for you,…" (is there a contrast here to justify a "But"? if so, it seems very weak. it seems like the statements complement one another rather than contrasting) 23:10 –– perhaps "chases" instead of "will chase" (is the yiqtol really future here, or simple present?) 23:10 –– "he spoke" or "he has spoken"??? 23:11 –– perhaps "keep yourselves" or "guard yourselves" instead of "watch yourselves" (the verb seems to convey a sense of "doing" rather than simply "seeing") 23:12 –– "For if" instead of "But if" (the kiy is causative here, as per LXX; look for adversative kiy following a negative clause, or if nothing else makes sense of the context) 23:13 –– perhaps "shall know" instead of "will know"? (this feels like a directive than a future, probably the yiqtol form is used because of the infinitive absolute; infinitive absolutes are not usually paired with imperatives) 23:13 –– suggest "…as a trap, and as a snare, and as a whip on your sides, and as thorns in your eyes…" 23:14 –– perhaps "spirit" or "self" instead of "soul"??? (this is really tricky. I don't object to "soul" here, I'm only asking for the sake of making sure that you are confident in the sense of the word as it is used in this specific context. if there's ever a place where nephesh should be rendered "soul" in the ULT, this is probably it. it's like the author is saying "with all your heart and with all your being", but "being" seems wrong for the ULT here. But "being" is the word I would use to express this in colloquial English) 23:13 –– GOOD JOB! That's tricky syntax