¹ tn Heb “by him” [i.e., Judah].

² tn Here and throughout the line is literally “[under] the standard of the camp of Reuben…according to their divisions.”

³ tn The Hebrew construction has “the leader of the leaders of” (וּנְשִׂיא נְשִׂיאֵי, unÿsi’ nÿsi’ey).

⁴ tn Heb “the keepers of the responsibility” (שֹׁמְרֵי מִשְׁמֶרֶת, shomÿrey mishmeret). The participle is a genitive specifying the duty to which he was appointed (thing possessed); its cognate genitive emphasizes that their responsibility was over the holy place.

⁵ tn Heb “hand.”

⁶ sn The “standard” (דֶּגֶל, degel) was apparently some kind of a symbol put up on a pole to signify the tribal hosts. R. de Vaux thought it simply referred to a pole or a mast, but that would not distinguish tribes (Ancient Israel, 226-27).

⁷ sn The difference in the names is slight, a change from “he saves” to “the Lord saves.” The Greek text of the OT used Iesoun for Hebrew Yeshua.

⁸ tn The word “priestly” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁹ tn Heb “will be gathered”; this is a truncated form of the usual expression “gathered to his ancestors,” found in v. 24. The phrase “to his ancestors” is supplied in the translation here.

¹⁰ tn The infinitive construct is the object of the preposition.

¹¹ tn Heb “and he took up his oracle and said.”

¹² tn The word נְאֻם (nÿ’um) is an “oracle.” It is usually followed by a subjective genitive, indicating the doer of the action. The word could be rendered “says,” but this translations is more specific.

¹³ tn The Greek version reads “the one who sees truly.” The word has been interpreted in both ways, “shut” or “open.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “and he took up his oracle and said.”

¹⁵ tn That is, the possession of land, or property, among the other families of their tribe.

¹⁶ tn The word is “brothers,” but this can be interpreted more loosely to relatives. So also in v. 7.

¹⁷ tn Heb “a man, if he dies.”

¹⁸ tn Or “said.”

¹⁹ sn The word “spirit” probably refers to the Holy Spirit, in which case it would be rendered “in whom is the Spirit.” This would likely be a permanent endowment for Joshua. But it is also possible to take it to refer to a proper spirit to do all the things required of such a leader (which ultimately is a gift from the Spirit of God). The Hebrew text simply says “in whom is a spirit.”

²⁰ sn This symbolic act would indicate the transfer of leadership to Joshua.

²¹ tn The verb can be translated simply as “divide,” but it has more the idea of allocate as an inheritance, the related noun being “inheritance.”