Joshua10:16–28

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיֵּחָבְא֥וּ The verb is Niphal — way·yê·ḥā·ḇə·’ū, “they hid themselves.” English “hidden” reads passive, but the Hebrew reflexive puts the act on the kings: they buried themselves in the dark.
• בַמְּעָרָ֖ה The Hebrew article is present — “in the cave,” not “a cave.” Jamieson, Fausset & Brown and the Pulpit Commentary both flag this: “the cave” — a known, particular hollow.
• בְּמַקֵּדָֽה “At Makkedah” is literally “in Makkedah.” Benson and Poole note the force: not inside the city (still untaken) but within its territory.

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיֻּגַּ֖ד way·yug·gaḏ is Hophal — “it was caused to be told,” an impersonal passive. The BSB’s “Joshua was informed” is right in sense, but the Hebrew foregrounds the report itself.
• נִמְצְאוּ֙ Niphal perfect — “they have been found.” The kings who hid themselves (v. 16) are now found by another; their secrecy has failed.
• נֶחְבְּאִ֥ים A Niphal participle — “hiding-themselves,” ongoing. They are caught mid-act, still cowering in the dark when the word reaches Joshua.

Where the English smooths the original

• גֹּ֛לּוּ gôl·lū — imperative of gâlal, “roll.” The same verb names Gilgal (“rolling away,” Joshua 5:9). Here stones are rolled to trap, not away to liberate — and a like stone will be rolled from a tomb (Matthew 28:2).
• פִּ֣י Literally “the mouth of the cave” — pî, from peh, a mouth. The cave’s “mouth” is stopped with stone (v. 27), a figure the English keeps.
• וְהַפְקִ֧ידוּ Hiphil of pâqad — “appoint, set in charge.” Stronger than “post”: Joshua commissions a guard with authority, mid-pursuit, losing not a man from the chase.

Where the English smooths the original

• וְאַתֶּם֙ The pronoun wə·’at·tem, “and as-for-you,” is emphatic and grammatically unnecessary — Hebrew already carries “you” in the verb. The Pulpit Commentary: “The original is stronger, and as for you, stand not still.”
• וְזִנַּבְתֶּ֖ם A denominative verb from zānāḇ, “tail” — literally “tail them,” cut off their rear. The BSB’s “attack them from behind” smooths a rare word found in only one other verse, Deuteronomy 25:18.
• נְתָנָ֛ם nə·ṯā·nām is perfect — “has already given.” Poole and Benson catch it: “God hath already done the work to your hands.” The victory is announced as accomplished before it is finished.

Where the English smooths the original

• כְּכַלּ֨וֹת Infinitive of kâlâh, “to complete / finish.” The BSB’s “continued to inflict” reverses the aspect — the Hebrew marks the completion of the slaughter, not its continuation.
• תֻּמָּ֑ם From tâmam, “to be finished, consumed” — “until their being-finished.” A grim wordplay with kâlâh: the army is finished off to completion.
• וְהַשְּׂרִידִים֙ A cognate-accusative figure: “the survivors survived” (H8300 with H8277). The doubling stresses how few escaped — only those who survived survived, fleeing to walls.

Where the English smooths the original

• בְּשָׁל֑וֹם bə·šā·lôwm — “in shalom,” wholeness and safety. Gill: “sound and well, as not one killed or missing.” The BSB’s “safely” loses the covenant resonance.
• חָרַ֞ץ ḥā·raṣ means “to cut sharp, point,” not simply “utter.” The idiom is “no one sharpened his tongue,” i.e. dared a hostile word. The Pulpit Commentary: “He did not sharpen against the children of Israel.”
• לְשֹׁנֽוֹ “His tongue.” The unspoken subject behind the idiom is a dog — Keil supplies it from Exodus 11:7: “There pointed not (a dog) its tongue against the sons of Israel.”

Where the English smooths the original

• פִּתְח֖וּ piṯ·ḥū — “open,” imperative of pâthach. The same mouth Joshua ordered sealed (v. 18) he now orders opened; the BSB keeps the deliberate reversal.
• הָאֵ֖לֶּה “Those” — demonstrative with the article: literally “these five the-kings.” The pointed deixis singles out the named coalition (v. 3) for public reckoning.
• אֵלַ֗י ’ê·lay — “to me,” first-person. Joshua summons the kings to his own presence; the pronoun makes the coming judgment his official, witnessed act.

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיֹּצִ֣יאוּ Hiphil of yâtsâ’ — “they caused to go out.” The men obey precisely; the verb of bringing-out repeats the command of v. 22, sealing word to deed.
• אֵ֣ת Each king is introduced by the direct-object marker ’êṯ, repeated five times — a deliberate, drumbeat enumeration. Cambridge: “Observe the rhythmic roll of the enumeration.”
• יְרוּשָׁלִַ֗ם “Jerusalem” heads the list — the city of the great King (Matthew 5:35) here ruled by a doomed Amorite. The roll-call names exactly the five kings of v. 3.

Where the English smooths the original

• קְצִינֵ֞י qə·ṣî·nê, “commanders,” from a root “to cut off, decide.” Ellicott: the word here “seems to mean the actual leaders, not merely the official heads, of the people.” Joshua honors the line-officers, not himself.
• הֶהָלְכ֣וּא he·hā·lə·ḵū carries a rare Arabic-style ending and the article-for-relative — a famously odd form. The Pulpit Commentary and Keil debate it; Houbigant proposes an accidentally doubled aleph. The English “who had accompanied” hides the grammatical knot.
• צַוְּארֵ֖י ṣaw·wə·rê, “necks” — the back of the neck “as that on which burdens are bound.” The foot-on-neck is the ancient image of total subjugation; Joshua makes it a teaching sign for Israel, not a boast for himself.

Where the English smooths the original

• תִּֽירְא֖וּ “Be afraid” is from yârê’. Ellicott notes these are “the very words spoken to Joshua by Jehovah (Joshua 1:9) with the exception of the word for fear, which is stronger in Joshua 1:9.” The commission given the leader passes to the people.
• חִזְק֣וּ ḥiz·qū and wə·’im·ṣū — “be-strong and-be-bold” — are the exact pair God charged Joshua with in chapter 1. The Verifier confirms the shared rare verbs; this is deliberate verbal quotation.
• יַעֲשֶׂ֤ה ya·‘ă·śeh — “will do” (imperfect): the foot-on-neck is not a closed event but a pattern. “Thus shall the LORD do to all your enemies” turns one victory into a guarantee.

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיַּכֵּ֨ם Two distinct verbs the BSB merges: way·yak·kêm (Hiphil of nâkâh, “struck/smote”) then way·mî·ṯêm (Hiphil of mūwth, “put to death”). The killing precedes the hanging — dead first, then displayed.
• וַיִּתְלֵ֕ם From tâlâh, “to hang / gibbet.” Ellicott: “the hanging appears to have been a token of disgrace after death.” This is exposure of a corpse under Deuteronomy 21:22–23, not execution by hanging.
• עֵצִ֑ים “Five trees”; Cambridge: “Each body on its own tree.” The same word ‘êts (tree/wood) is the “tree” of the curse in Deuteronomy 21:23, which Paul applies to the cross (Galatians 3:13).

Where the English smooths the original

• בּ֣וֹא Literally “the coming-in of the sun.” The BSB’s “sunset” is right, but the Hebrew names the moment to flag obedience to Deuteronomy 21:23: bodies must not hang past nightfall.
• וַיַּ֨שְׁלִכֻ֔ם Hiphil of shâlak — “cast / flung them.” Not a burial but a disposal; the hiding-place becomes the grave. “That which they thought would have been their shelter was made their prison first, and then their grave” (Benson).
• עֶ֖צֶם ‘e·ṣem — literally “the bone / selfsame of this day.” Keil presses the phrase: it usually means “that very day,” not “to this day,” so he and the Pulpit Commentary read the stones as set “until that very day” the kings were fetched out — a genuine textual crux.

Where the English smooths the original

• לְפִי־ “With the edge of the sword” is literally “to the mouth of the sword.” The Pulpit Commentary: “from its devouring character.” The sword has a mouth that eats the city, an image lost in “edge.”
• הֶחֱרִ֣ם Hiphil of châram — “to devote to destruction / ban.” This is the ḥērem, the irrevocable consecration of a city to the LORD by its destruction, the same ban laid on Jericho (Joshua 6:21).
• שָׂרִ֑יד “Survivor” — the same noun as v. 20, now negated: “he left no survivor.” The remnant that fled to the walls (v. 20) finds the walls no refuge; the ban is total.