¹ sn Verse 6 inserts into the narrative parenthetical information about Joab’s role in the conquest of the city. Verse 7 then picks up where v. 5 left off.

¹ tn Heb “and they gave by lot from the tribe of the sons of Judah, and from the tribe of the sons of Simeon, and from the tribe of the sons of Benjamin these cities, which they called them by names.”

¹ tn Heb “and from [it is probably preferable to read “to” here] the clans of the sons of Kohath and there were the cities of their territory from the tribe of Ephraim.”

¹ tn Heb “and to the sons of Merari by their clans from the tribe of Reuben, and from the tribe of Gad, and from the tribe of Zebulun by lot, twelve cities.”

¹ tn Heb “and to the sons of Gershom by their clans from the tribe of Issachar, and from the tribe of Asher, and from the tribe of Naphtali, and from the tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen cities.”

¹ tn Heb “to the sons of Kohath who were left from the clan of the tribe, from the half of the tribe of the half of Manasseh by lot ten cities.”

² tn Heb “they are plants in the field and green vegetation.” The metaphor emphasizes how short-lived these seemingly powerful cities really were. See Ps 90:5-6; Isa 40:6-8, 24.

² sn The chief adviser alludes to the horrible reality of siege warfare, when the starving people in the besieged city would resort to eating and drinking anything to stay alive.

¹ tn Heb “And now when this letter comes to you—with you are the sons of your master and with you are chariots and horses and a fortified city and weapons.”

³ tn Heb “so there might be a lamp for David my servant all the days before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for myself to put my name there.”

² tn Heb “Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, the adviser of David, from his city, from Giloh, while he was sacrificing.” It is not entirely clear who (Absalom or Ahithophel) was offering the sacrifices.

¹ tn Heb “the valiant men.” This refers in context to the strongest or most valiant defenders of the city Joab and the Israelite army were besieging, so the present translation uses “the best enemy soldiers” for clarity.

¹ sn Abimelech commanded Israel. Perhaps while ruling as king over the city-state of Shechem, Abimelech also became a leader of the Israelite tribal alliance (see R. G. Boling, Judges [AB], 175).

² tn Heb “Kattah, Nahalal, Shimron, Idalah, and Bethlehem, 12 cities and their towns.” The words “their territory included” and “in all they had” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

² tc The MT reads here “and the middle of the valley,” but the reading “the city in the middle of valley” can be reconstructed on the basis of Josh 13:9, 16.

¹ tn Heb “and these went out from the city to meet them and they were for Israel in the middle, some on this side, and others on the other side.”

¹ sn To make the city set apart for the Lord would involve annihilating all the people and animals and placing its riches in the Lord’s treasury (vv. 19, 21, 24).

⁵ sn Anakites were giant people (Num 13:33; Deut 2:10, 21; 9:2) descended from a certain Anak whose own forefather Arba founded the city of Kiriath Arba, i.e., Hebron (Josh 21:11).

² tn Heb “the house which [is] in the city which to it [is] a wall.” The Kethib has לֹא (loʾ, “no, not”) rather than לוֹ (lo, “to it”) which is the Qere.

² tc The MT reads “and the people he removed to the cities,” which does not make a lot of sense in this context. Smr and the LXX read “he enslaved them as slaves.”