Joshua 24:17-19

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Joshua 24:17 tn Heb “of the house of slavery.”
2. Joshua 24:17 tn Heb “for the Lord our God, he is the one who brought up us and our fathers from the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves.”
3. Joshua 24:17 tn Or “great signs.”
4. Joshua 24:17 tn Heb “and he guarded us in all the way in which we walked and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed.”
5. Joshua 24:18 tn Or “will serve.”
6. Joshua 24:19 tn Heb “said to.”
7. Joshua 24:19 tn Heb “you are not able to serve.”
8. Joshua 24:19 sn For an excellent discussion of Joshua’s logical argument here, see T. C. Butler, Joshua (WBC), 274-75.
9. Joshua 24:19 tn In the Hebrew text both the divine name (אֱלֹהִים, ʾelohim) and the adjective (קְדֹשִׁים, q^edoshim, “holy”) are plural. Normally the divine name, when referring to the one true God, takes singular modifiers, but this is a rare exception where the adjective agrees grammatically with the honorific plural noun. See GKC §124.i and IBHS 122.
10. Joshua 24:19 tn Heb “lift up” or “take away.”sn This assertion obviously needs qualification, for the OT elsewhere affirms that God does forgive. Joshua is referring to the persistent national rebellion against the Mosaic covenant that eventually causes God to decree unconditionally the nation’s exile.