Discovery BoxJoshua 10:20-22 
Context10:20 Joshua and the Israelites almost totally wiped them out, but some survivors did escape to the fortified cities. 1 10:21 Then the whole army safely returned to Joshua at the camp in Makkedah. 2 No one 3 dared threaten the Israelites. 4 10:22 Joshua said, “Open the cave’s mouth and bring the five kings 5 out of the cave to me.”
1 tn Heb “When Joshua and the sons of Israel finished defeating them with a very great defeat until they were destroyed (now the survivors escaped to the fortified cities).” In the Hebrew text the initial temporal clause (“when Joshua…finished”) is subordinated to v. 21 (“the whole army returned”).
2 tn Heb “all the people returned to the camp, to Joshua [at] Makkedah [in] peace.”
3 tc Heb “No man.” The lamed (ל) prefixed to אִישׁ (’ish, “man”) is probably dittographic (note the immediately preceding יִשְׂרָאֵל [isra’el] which ends in lamed, ל); cf. the LXX.
4 tn Heb “no man sharpened [or perhaps, “pointed”] his tongue against the sons of Israel.” Cf. NEB “not a man of the Israelites suffered so much as a scratch on his tongue,” which understands “sharpened” as “scratched” (referring to a minor wound). Most modern translations understand the Hebrew expression “sharpened his tongue” figuratively for opposition or threats against the Israelites.
5 tn Heb “these five kings.”
