6:8 When Joshua gave the army its orders, 6 the seven priests carrying the seven rams’ horns before the Lord moved ahead and blew the horns as the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed behind.
6:20 The rams’ horns sounded 7 and when the army 8 heard the signal, 9 they gave a loud battle cry. 10 The wall collapsed 11 and the warriors charged straight ahead into the city and captured it. 12
1 tn Heb “But you must cross over armed for battle before your brothers, all [you] mighty men of strength.”
2 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.
3 tn Heb “all the people will shout with a loud shout.”
4 tn Heb “fall in its place.”
5 tn Heb “and the people will go up, each man straight ahead.”
6 tn Heb “when Joshua spoke to the people.”
7 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.
8 tn Heb “the people.”
9 tn Heb “the sound of the horn.”
10 tn Heb “they shouted with a loud shout.”
11 tn Heb “fell in its place.”
12 tn Heb “and the people went up into the city, each one straight ahead, and they captured the city.”