He has made me ¹  a byword ²  to people, I am the one in whose face they spit. ³ 

(Now it used to be in Israel that whenever someone went to inquire of God he would say, “Come on, let’s go to the seer.” For today’s prophet used to be called a seer.)

In earlier times you established the earth; the skies are your handiwork.

As in water the face is reflected as a face, ¹  so a person’s heart ²  reflects the person.

(The Emites ¹  used to live there, a people as powerful, numerous, and tall as the Anakites.

From there he attacked the people of Debir. ¹  (Debir used to be called Kiriath Sepher.)

From there they attacked the people of Debir. ¹  (Debir used to be called Kiriath Sepher.)

When the men of Joseph spied out Bethel (it used to be called Luz),

Phinehas son of Eleazar had been their leader in earlier times, and the Lord was with him.

(That also is considered to be a land of the Rephaites. ¹  The Rephaites lived there originally; the Ammonites call them Zamzummites. ² 

(Hebron used to be called Kiriath Arba. Arba was a famous Anakite. ¹ ) Then the land was free of war.

The men of Judah attacked the Canaanites living in Hebron. (Hebron used to be called Kiriath Arba.) They killed Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai.

He left those nations simply because he wanted to teach the subsequent generations of Israelites, who had not experienced the earlier battles, how to conduct holy war. ¹ 

(Now this used to be the customary way to finalize a transaction involving redemption in Israel: ¹  A man would remove his sandal and give it to the other party. ²  This was a legally binding act ³  in Israel.)

They found fertile and rich pasture; the land was very broad, undisturbed and peaceful. Indeed some Hamites had been living there prior to that.

But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me. They followed the stubborn inclinations of their own wicked hearts. They acted worse and worse instead of better. ¹ 

Previously the Horites ¹  lived in Seir but the descendants of Esau dispossessed and destroyed them and settled in their place, just as Israel did to the land it came to possess, the land the Lord gave them.) ² 

At that time Joshua turned, captured Hazor, ¹  and struck down its king with the sword, for Hazor was at that time ²  the leader of all these kingdoms.

With the timber the king made steps ¹  for the Lord’s temple and royal palace as well as stringed instruments ²  for the musicians. No one had seen anything like them in the land of Judah prior to that. ³ )

He made for himself a large storeroom where previously they had been keeping ¹  the grain offering, the incense, and the vessels, along with the tithes of the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil as commanded for the Levites, the singers, the gate keepers, and the offering for the priests.