Is anyone here good at Hebrew?

[Tenorikuma]

Just trying to figure something out about Joshua 10:10.

[Chenault]

I hope so. I've dedicated much of the last 30 years to studying ancient Jewish religious texts, and if I'm not pretty good at Hebrew I'm in big trouble.

What's the question?

[Tenorikuma]

It seems to me that in this verse, it is Yahweh himself who defeats the armies attacking Gibeon and chases them all the way to Azekah and Makkedah. Most English translations seem to fudge this, since it clashes a bit with the lead-up in verse 9. I just wanted to confirm if I understand it correctly.

[semiopen]

From BibleWorks -

JPS 1917 gave -

And the LORD discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon; and they chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth-horon, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah. (Jos 10:10 JPS)

They "fixed" this in 1985 with -

The LORD threw them into a panic before Israel: Joshua inflicted a crushing defeat on them at Gibeon, pursued them in the direction of the Beth-horon ascent, and harried them all the way to Azekah and Makkedah.
(Jos 10:10 TNK)[*]

Joshua isn't actually mentioned in the Hebrew - BibleWorks/TNK has Joshua's name in italics

וַיְהֻמֵּ֤ם יְהוָה֙ לִפְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וַיַּכֵּ֥ם מַכָּֽה־גְדוֹלָ֖ה בְּגִבְע֑וֹן וַֽיִּרְדְּפֵ֗ם דֶּ֚רֶךְ מַעֲלֵ֣ה בֵית־חוֹרֹ֔ן וַיַּכֵּ֥ם עַד־עֲזֵקָ֖ה וְעַד־מַקֵּדָֽה׃
(Jos 10:10 WTT)

I don't think we can accuse the Jewish Bible of slighting YHVH

They probably give Joshua the credit from the previous verse -

וַיָּבֹ֧א אֲלֵיהֶ֛ם יְהוֹשֻׁ֖עַ פִּתְאֹ֑ם כָּל־הַלַּ֕יְלָה עָלָ֖ה מִן־הַגִּלְגָּֽל׃

(Jos 10:9 WTT)

Joshua took them by surprise, marching all night from Gilgal.
(Jos 10:9 TNK)

There are no punctuation marks in the Hebrew. It's hard to argue with the newer version.

[Ben C. Smith]

JPS 1917 gave -

And the LORD discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon; and they chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth-horon, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah. (Jos 10:10 JPS)

I notice that the singular Lord is replaced midway through with the plural they in this translation; and that is how the LXX does it:

Καὶ ἐξέστησεν αὐτοὺς κύριος ἀπὸ προσώπου τῶν υἱῶν Ισραηλ, καὶ συνέτριψεν αὐτοὺς κύριος σύντριψιν μεγάλην ἐν Γαβαων, καὶ κατεδίωξαν αὐτοὺς ὁδὸν ἀναβάσεως Ωρωνιν, καὶ κατέκοπτον αὐτοὺς ἕως Αζηκα καὶ ἕως Μακηδα.

And the Lord confounded them from before the face of the sons of Israel, and the Lord crushed them with a great crushing in Gibeon, and they pursued them on the road of ascent of Horon, and were cutting them down until Azekah and until Makkeda.

The NASB, which typically follows the Masoretic text for its Old Testament section, has the Lord doing it all from start to finish:

And the LORD confounded them before Israel, and He slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and pursued them by the way of the ascent of Beth-horon, and struck them as far as Azekah and Makkedah.

All four of the Hebrew verbs in this verse (confounded, smote, pursued, and smote again) appear to me to be singular verbs with plural pronominal suffixes, meaning that a singular subject (he, Yahweh) is doing them, but their direct objects (them) are plural:

‏וַיְהֻמֵּ֤ם יְהוָה֙ לִפְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וַיַּכֵּ֥ם מַכָּֽה־גְדוֹלָ֖ה בְּגִבְע֑וֹן וַֽיִּרְדְּפֵ֗ם דֶּ֚רֶךְ מַעֲלֵ֣ה בֵית־חוֹרֹ֔ן וַיַּכֵּ֥ם עַד־עֲזֵקָ֖ה וְעַד־מַקֵּדָֽה׃

And Yahweh confounded them before the face of Israel, and he smote them with a great blow at Gibeon, and he pursued them on the road of ascent of Beth Horon, and he smote them until Azekah and until Makkedah.

So it appears to me that the NASB gets the Hebrew right. But someone ought to check that statement (and translation) for me, since I am not fluent with Hebrew verbs and syntax.

Ben.

ETA: The Vulgate has singular verbs throughout, as well:

Et conturbavit eos Dominus a facie Israël, contrivitque plaga magna in Gabaon, ac persecutus est eos per viam ascensus Bethoron, et percussit usque Azeca et Maceda.

[Tenorikuma]

The Jerusalem Bible also translates it as follows:

Yahweh drove them headlong before Israel, defeating them completely at Gibeon; furthermore, he pursued them towards the descent of Beth-horon and harassed them as far as Azekah, and as far as Makkedah.

Clearly, the JB translators thought Yahweh was the agent throughout.

And of course, Yahweh continues by hurling boulders at them from the sky in v. 11, so having Yahweh the hero of the entire battle makes sense. But it renders Joshua's battle march and preparations in vv. 8-9 unnecessary, and the overall narrative somewhat incoherent. I had read an article showing the composite nature of this passage, and now I can't for the life of me locate it.

Edit: Found it. Margalit, "The Day the Sun Did Not Stand Still: A New Look at Joshua X 8-15", VT 42/4 (1992).

[semiopen]

I'm hardly an expert on Hebrew but the issue here seems clear... "he pursued them" refers to YHVH if we just look at this line.

10:9 however refers to Joshua

10:11 also goes

While they were fleeing before Israel down the descent from Beth-horon, the LORD hurled huge stones on them from the sky, all the way to Azekah, and they perished; more perished from the hailstones than were killed by the Israelite weapons.

This contradicts the interpretation of 10-10 -

"YHVH drove them headlong" vs "they were fleeing before Israel"

Also even 10-10 sounds weird if it refers to YHVH... "pursued and harrassed" isn't really the big guy's style. Sure, he's got to be in the conversation for MVP.

Thanks for the reference to Margalit.

[Thor]

The contradictions in stories about gods and miracles are somewhat obvious in themselves. What is most remarkable in my opinion are the striking similarities between this story and Josephus description of Jewish victory against Rome and Cestius Gallus army at Beth-Horon.

[Tenorikuma]

Also even 10-10 sounds weird if it refers to YHVH... "pursued and harrassed" isn't really the big guy's style.

If the verbs are singular, there isn't really any other way to read it.

Margalit (p. 475) notes that some of the same wording is used in the Exodus story, where Yahweh himself fights on Israel's behalf and defeats the Egyptians.