The Former Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings

By Bob MacDonald

How will we begin the unfolding history of Israel after the giving of Torah?

We have heard the phrase, the Law and the Prophets. The Prophets are the second major division of the Hebrew Scriptures. The prophets recount the history of Israel after the giving of the Law. The first section of the prophets is the subject of four books: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. Each of Samuel and Kings is traditionally divided into two parts.

Here we read of the occupation of the Promised Land, the early period of the Judges, the call of Samuel, prophet during the lives of Saul and David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, and we read of the progression of the kings of Israel from Solomon to the exile. What a saga! And all of it set to music in the very text itself.

The center between first and second Samuel contains the elegy of David over Saul and over Jonathan, his son. Its full sadness is to be known by hearing it recited with its music. To read with the music is an unforgettable reading of the Hebrew Bible.

The Former Prophets is volume 2 of the series, The Hebrew Bible and Its Music.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Energion Publications
• Release date: Mar 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781631996320

Bob MacDonald

Bob MacDonald is a retired West Australian Police officer of thirty years experience. Bob's last day at school was his 14th birthday - commencing work, the very next day, in a timber mill in his home town of Pemberton, West Australia.He later self-educated and enlisted in the West Australian police force, retiring as a superintendent in the Internal Investigations Branch of the Professional Standards portfolio.Since retirement Bob has been working at remote aboriginal communities in Central Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. He also did a tour of duty on the island nation of Cyprus with the United Nations Blue Beret Peacekeepers.Bob, a keen sportsman continues with various sporting activities; which also includes fishing and camping trips. Writing articles for various magazines and now venturing into anecdotal short story compilations and fictional manuscripts ensures Bob leads a busy life.

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Preface

In the Hebrew canon, these four books, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, are called the former or the earlier prophets, and are part of the second major section of the Bible. The Christian sequence of the Hebrew Bible includes three additional books, Ruth, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles and does not name any of these books as prophetic. The Hebrew canonical order includes Ruth, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles in the third major section of the Scripture, the Writings. The Writings include the three poetry books, Psalms, Proverbs and the Book of Job, the five scrolls, of which Ruth is one, and Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles.

This close translation was initially developed to show in English the intricate patterns of repeated words in Hebrew poetry. Having discovered the inferences concerning the music at a conference on the Psalms in 2010, the author decided that the whole corpus of the Hebrew canonical text should be approached to allow English speaking readers some understanding of the music. The translation retains the order of Hebrew words wherever reasonable, so that changes in reciting note and ornaments can be in English on the same syllable that corresponds to the Hebrew.

The line breaks have been chosen to correspond with the major rest points as indicated in the Hebrew manuscripts by the accents. These are the cadences in the music. The music has been derived through automation based on the deciphering key developed by Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura in the latter half of the twentieth century. All the music is available as noted below, though only a small portion of it has been performed.

In the English text of this volume next to the verse number, you may see a letter. This letter is the first note of the verse if the first note is not the default (e). Such a first note indicates that the verse is somehow related to what has come before it. The nature of the relationship is not specific. You the reader / singer must decide how the opening relates to what has been already. When you see a ~, it indicates an ornament on the first note.

The notes of the scale in the default mode for the text of the prose books are c, d, e, f, g#, A, B, C. Absolute pitch is not important. Sing the music wherever it is comfortable for your voice. For instruction on the music, see The Song in the Night.

The music for all 929 chapters of the Hebrew Bible is all available online through the pages at https://meafar.blogspot.com.

This edition includes minor changes to the translation from 2019-2021.

Table of Contents

Preface

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Bible and its Music

Joshua

Judges

1 Samuel

2 Samuel

1 Kings

2 Kings

Acknowledgments

List of Musical Examples

Score 1 The instruction to Sampson's mother (Judges 13:7)

Score 2 2 Samuel 6:5, a singular reading ובמנענעים

Score 3 Confortare

Score 4 All the nation of Israel passed through

Score 5 Placing the twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan

Score 6 Gilgal

Score 7 And the walls came tumbling down

Score 8 Diplomatic deception

Score 9 Caleb requires his inheritance

Score 10 The death of Joshua

Score 11 The song of Deborah and Barak

Score 12 Jephthah's daughter emerges

Score 13 Why is it that you ask my name?

Score 14 There was no king is Israel

Score 15 Repopulating Benjamin

Score 16 Hannah's song

Score 17 The calling of Samuel

Score 18 Saul is made king at Gilgal

Score 19 Samuel's righteous behaviour

Score 20 The short reign of a very young Saul

Score 21 David's weapon of choice

Score 22 David's respect for the anointed of Yahweh

Score 23 David's elegy

Score 24 The turn of the year

Score 25 Consequence

Score 26 David's lament over the death of Absalom

Score 27 Purchasing the threshing floor

Score 28 Building the house for Yahweh

Score 29 The house My Name Is There

Score 30 Yahweh's answer to Solomon

Score 31 The drought

Score 32 The prophets of Baal

Score 33 The voice

Score 34 Have you found me, my enemy?

Score 35 A wind of falsehood

Score 36 The entombing of Jehoshaphat

Score 37 Elijah's ascent

Score 38 Instruction

Score 39 Response

Score 40 Instruction to Jehu concerning Ahab and Jezebel

Score 41 Peace in my days?

Score 42 Josiah

Score 43 The exaltation of Johoiakin

Introduction to the Bible and its Music

This reading of the Bible is in seven sections according to the divisions of traditional Judaism. First the three major divisions: Torah, Prophets, and Writings. Torah is not further subdivided. The prophets are subdivided into three: the former prophets, and the latter prophets, which in turn are in 2 sections: the three major prophets, and the twelve. The Writings are similarly divided into three: The books of truth, Psalms, Proverbs, and Job, the five scrolls, The Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Qohelet, and Esther, and the remaining writings, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles.

What is unique in this reading?

Music

This English reading of the Hebrew Bible is intended to be the ground for an underlay to the musical score. The deciphering key of Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura is a full musical clarification of the text, not just verse by verse but as a whole. The shape of each part of the text becomes transparent. To learn Hebrew, it is good to begin with hearing the music.

JUDGES_013_007-1

Score 1 The instruction to Sampson's mother (Judges 13:7)

And he said to me, Behold, you are pregnant, and will give birth to a son.

So now do not imbibe wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean, for a Nazirite of God the lad will be from the belly, until the day of his death.

For every book, some examples of the music are included. The music is best sung in Hebrew, but the translation is close enough to allow a non-Hebrew reader to know what the words signify. The accents are always aptly placed. The scores show by the presence of a bar line a change in reciting note and by implication, the accentuation of the word, and the rest point(s) for the recitation. The reciting note is an indication of tone of voice. The ornaments (accents over the text as over ve-a-tah so now) may indicate significant similarities in the surrounding text or show an emphasis on the syllable itself. The opening note of a verse, if not the default tonic, indicates a connection with prior verses or even a prior book or set of books.

Concordance

The algorithms that were used to support this work strive for a one-to-one mapping of Hebrew stems to English lemmas.

Take nation as an example of an English lemma form. In English we recognize nation in a word form like nationalize or international. This word has the same lemma at its base. Similarly, Hebrew words in their many word forms have a stem. For example, the Hebrew stem גוי, goi, occurs in the Hebrew text 561 times in 23 distinct word forms. In this reading it is always rendered as nation, a word derived from the idea of native, i.e. where you were born. With 49 occurrences (0. 07% of the words in this division of the text), nation is less prominent in the former prophets (just under one fifth of the Bible) than in the later ones (just over one fifth of the Bible), which have 319 occurrences (0.55% of the words).

In contrast to a consistent simple rendering, when the King James translators of the Bible translated גוי they used a variety of glosses in English, nation, heathen, Gentiles, people. Some variety may be necessary with some stems. Sometimes there are different nuances to the use of a word, even different senses for the same stem. In this case, however, the nuance of heathen has a negative and prejudicial intent to an English reader. There did not seem to be an adequate reason to suppose that such negative intent was intended by the Hebrew, so this reading does not use heathen as a gloss. Gentile also escaped usage. And people, for this reading, is the gloss for עם, a different stem.

As in English, there are Hebrew stems that indicate two or more differing senses, i.e. homonyms in Hebrew. The stem has more than one sense. For example, the English word slip might have to do with slipping on ice, or it might have to do with a tender plant or an undergarment. Similarly in Hebrew, the same stem may have more than one sense. For example, the very rich and frequently used stem פנה (the sixth word לפני in score 2 below) has several uses, for the bodypart, face, or even surface, the presence of another, particularly of God, the verb to face (often rendered as turn in other translations, but avoided here to prevent confusion with the equally rich and common stem שׁוב), or the preposition, before. Another example in the book of Joshua is the use of the stem לקד, which may be rendered as conquer, or catch. This stem is frequent in Joshua and for reasons of nearby sound in the story, the translation does not use the secondary sense in this book.

In contrast to the one-to-one simplicity of nation, and the several more complex one-to-many mappings, there are several stems in Hebrew describing common human actions, like walk, come, go, bring. In both languages these glosses are multi-faceted and were allowed to have a many-to-many mapping between the two languages. There are relatively few of these stems, about 1%, perhaps 2 dozen in all, but they are common and pervasive in our speech and our writing. They account for about 4% of the words in the Hebrew canon.

One consequence of this process is that if a stem is used only once in the Hebrew text, then there is an obligation to find a unique English gloss for it. There are over 200 such single-usage stems (hapax legomena) in the concordance for this reading.

2_SAMUEL_006_005-1

Score 2 2 Samuel 6:5, a singular reading ובמנענעים

And David and all the house of Israel gamboled before Yahweh with all the wood of the fir trees,

and with harps and with lutes and with timbrels and with sistrums and with cymbals.

There are also some compromises in the algorithms. This reading allows exceptions to the rules for figures of speech and word games, especially when imitating an alphabetic acrostic. It also allows some helping verbs and prepositions to distinguish some stems from others. E.g. hold back, hold fast, lay hold of, hold innocent, are all separate stems. In these cases the English is a multi-word gloss for a more complex sense in each Hebrew stem for which there may be no convenient single word English gloss.

Grammatical connectors like prepositions are notorious for not mapping consistently to single values. There are various reasons for this difference in languages. Sometimes, a preposition is implied by the usage of a verb. One language may require it and the other assume it. Each preposition has a dominant sense, but will not always take its dominant sense. Identifying the exceptions is subjective. For example, the prefix ל l, (as above in לפני) in Hebrew may be rendered in any one of a number of ways. In this reading (for this volume) it is rendered as follows: about(2), against(16), as(38), at(7), by(9), for(565), from(12), her(10), him(59), his(31), in(30), into(5), its(1), mine(6), my(14), of(189), on(6), our(3), ours(1), their(11), to(1118), when(4), with(5), your(24), yours(6). Note that the dominant glosses show clearly as to, of, or for.

This brings up a significant difference between Hebrew and English ‘words’. A Hebrew word is more like an English phrase than an English word. In this particular phrase, the plural פנים drops its mem and the rendering for the construct adds an English possessive of. So the rendering could be in the presence of or as given above, the preposition, before.

We have seen that English has the prefixed preposition, inter, above. Hebrew has several frequently used prefixed prepositions. In general, Hebrew has far more prefixes and suffixes than English.

So for example, again from the score above: ובמנענעים is comprised of ו, a vertical stroke, vav, followed by ב, bet,  a preposition, then נענע, the stem which in this case occurs only once in the Bible, followed by a plural form ים, mem, (in this case a form of mem that signals the end of a word). In English it could be rendered as and with sistrums. The vav is simply a hook that connects Hebrew phrases. It may be rendered as and, or, but, as well as a number of other particles in English. The bet may be the first letter of a stem or be, as in this case, a preposition, indicating with rather than its dominant sense, in.

Pronouns may be separate words as in English but are more frequent as suffixes. In addition to these prefixes and suffixes, verb forms are many, and their affixes indicate their form including person, gender, number, mode, voice, and aspect. Both English and Modern Hebrew think in person, gender, number, mood, voice, and tense: past, present, or future. While there is both history and story time in Biblical Hebrew, the selection of past, present, or future is by no means cut and dried. Tense may be indeterminate, and there may be more emphasis in the verb form on the aspect of continuing or completed action. In English we would chose continuing present, imperfect and so on.

Translation of Names

Thirteen percent of the words in the Bible are classified as names. Some names are opaque to us, and some may be made easier to hear if we translate rather than transcribe them. With 1,690 distinct personal names used 16,279 times, a translation of every name would be as tedious to the reader as a consistent transcription. These former prophets refer to 492 distinct names in 5,398 places (out of 69,651 words).

The somewhat capricious variations in this reading may keep us on our toes and allow us to read the lists of names to search for the prizes. Some names, readers of other translations will recognize. Some they will not. Some will be surprising.

Joshua

Chapter 1

¹ And it was after the death of Moses, the servant of Yahweh,

and Yahweh said to Joshua, child of Nun, minister of Moses, saying,

² Moses, my servant, has died.

So now, arise, cross over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land that I am giving to them, to the children of Israel.

³ Every place on which the sole of your foot will tread, to you I have given it,

as I spoke to Moses.

⁴ From the wilderness to this Lebanon and until the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea, from the going down of the sun,

will be your border.

⁵ No person will be stationed before you all the days of your life.

As I was with Moses, I will be with you. I will not slacken with you, and I will not forsake you.

⁶ Be encouraged and be assured,

because you will make this people inherit the land that I swore to their ancestors to give to them.

⁷ Certainly you be encouraged and be very assured, to keep and to do according to all the instruction that Moses, my servant, is commanding you. Do not turn aside from it on the right hand or on the left,

so that you may have insight everywhere that you walk.

⁸ The record of this instruction will not deviate from your mouth, but you will mutter on it day and night so that you keep and do according to all the writing in it,

for then you will thrive in your way, and then you will have insight.

⁹ Have not I commanded you? Be encouraged and be assured. Do not panic, and do not be in disarray,

for Yahweh is with you, your God, everywhere that you walk.

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Score 3 Confortare

¹⁰ Then Joshua commanded the overseers of the people, saying,

¹¹ Pass through within the camp and command the people, saying, Prepare for yourselves provender,

because before three days has past you will cross over this Jordan to enter, to possess the land that Yahweh your God is giving for you to possess it.

¹² And to the Reubenites and to the Gadites and to the half band of Manasseh,

said Joshua, saying,

¹³ Remember the word that Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded you, saying,

Yahweh your God has given rest for you and gave to you this land.

¹⁴ Your wives, your little ones, your livestock, will settle in the land that Moses gave to you across the Jordan,

but you, you will cross over in fifties before your kin, all the valiant of force, and you will help them.

¹⁵~ Until Yahweh has given rest to your kin as you, and they will possess also themselves the land that Yahweh your God is giving to them.

Then you will return to the land of your possession and you will possess it that Moses, the servant of Yahweh, gave to you across the Jordan toward the rising of the sun.

¹⁶ And they answered Joshua, saying,

All that you have commanded us, we will do, and to wherever you send us, we will walk.

¹⁷ As in everything we have paid heed to Moses, so we will pay heed to you,

but let Yahweh your God be with you, as he was with Moses.

¹⁸ Everyone who is provocative of your mandate and will not heed your words in all that you command, will die.

But you be encouraged and be assured.

Chapter 2

¹ And Joshua child of Nun sent from Shittim two persons to survey silently, saying, Go, see the land and Jericho.

And they went and they entered the house of a woman of harlotry, and her name was Raxab, and they lay down there.

² And it was mentioned to the king of Jericho, saying,

Behold, men came here by night from the children of Israel to probe the land.

³ And the king of Jericho sent to Raxab, saying,

Have the persons brought out that came to you, that came to your house, for they came to probe all the land.

⁴ And the woman took both the persons and secluded him,

and she said, So persons came to me, but, I do not know where they are.

⁵ And it was at the latching of the gate in the darkness, and the persons went forth. I do not know where the persons went.

Pursue swiftly after them, for you may overtake them.

⁶ But she had brought them up to the roof,

and buried them in the flax wood as arranged by her on the housetop.

⁷ And the men pursued after them the way of the Jordan to the fords,

and they latched the gate after the pursuers went out after them.

⁸ And they, before they were lying down,

she came up to them on the roof.

⁹ And she said to the persons, I know that Yahweh has given to you the land,

and that your horror has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land soften before you.

¹⁰B For we have heard that Yahweh had dried up the waters of the sea of reeds before you, when you came out from Egypt,

and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were across the Jordan, to Sihon and to Og, whom you utterly destroyed.

¹¹ And we heard and our hearts melted, and spirit was not upheld any more in anyone before you,

for Yahweh your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.

¹² So now, swear please to me in Yahweh, for I have dealt with you kindly,

that you yourselves will deal also with the house of my father kindly, and you give me a sign of truth.

¹³ And that you will keep alive my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters and all that is theirs,

and deliver our group from death.

¹⁴ And the persons said to her, Our group instead of yours, from death, if you do not tell this our matter,

and it will be that when Yahweh gives us the land, we will deal with your people with kindness and truth.

¹⁵ And she let them down by a rope through the window,

for her house was in the sidewall of the wall, and in the wall, she inhabited.

¹⁶ And she said to them, Towards the hill, go, lest the pursuers come across you.

And shroud yourselves there three days till the pursuers have returned, and afterwards you will go your way.

¹⁷ And the persons said to her,

Innocent we will be of this your oath that you have made us swear.

¹⁸ Behold we are coming into the land.

In expectation, you will fasten this thread of scarlet in the window through which you have brought us down, and your father and your mother and your brothers and all the house of your father, you will gather to you towards the house.

¹⁹ And it will be that anyone who emerges from the portals of your house outside, his blood will be on his head, and we will be innocent,

and anyone who is with you in the house, his blood will be on our head, if a hand is on him.

²⁰ And if you tell this our matter,

then we will be innocent from your oath that you have made us swear.

²¹ And she said, According to your words so it is, and she sent them away and they went.

And she fastened in expectation, the scarlet in the window.

²² And they went and they came towards the hill, and they sat there three days till the pursuers had returned,

and the pursuers sought throughout all the way and did not find.

²³ And both the persons returned and came down from the hill and passed through and they came to Joshua child of Nun.

And they recounted to him all that had been found by them.

²⁴ And they said to Joshua, For Yahweh has given into our hands all the land,

and moreover all the inhabitants of the land soften before us.

Chapter 3

¹ And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and they pulled out from Shittim, and they came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel,

and they lodged there before they passed through.

² And it happened at the culmination of three days,

that the overseers passed through within the camp.

³ And they commanded the people, saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of Yahweh your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it,

then you, you pull out from your place, and you go after it.

⁴B But distance let there be between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure.

You do not approach to it, in order that you will know concerning the way that you should walk, for you have not passed through in the way previously.

⁵ And Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves,

for tomorrow Yahweh will do among you, wonders.

⁶ And Joshua said to the priests, saying, Bear the ark of the covenant, and pass through before the people.

And they lifted up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.

⁷ And Yahweh said to Joshua, This day I will start to magnify you in the eyes of all Israel,

that they may know that as I was with Moses, I will be with you.

⁸ And you, you will command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying,

As you come to the extremity of the waters of the Jordan, in the Jordan you will stand.

⁹ And Joshua said to the children of Israel,

Come close. Behold, and you will hear the words of Yahweh your God.

¹⁰ And Joshua said, In this you will know that the living One is among you,

and he will dispossess from your presence the Canaanite and the Hittite, and the Hivite, and the Perizzite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Jebusite.

¹¹ Behold, the ark of the covenant, the Lord of all the earth,

passes through before you in the Jordan.

¹² And now take for yourselves twelve persons from the bands of Israel,

one person, one person per band.

¹³ And it will happen that as the soles of the feet of the priests who were bearing the ark of Yahweh the Lord of all the earth rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off from the waters that come down from the ascent,

and they will stand in one heap.

¹⁴ And it happened when the people pulled out from their tents to pass through the Jordan,

and the priests, who were bearing the ark of the covenant before the people,

¹⁵ And as those bearing the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bear the ark dipped into the outskirts of the waters,

(and the Jordan fills over all its levees all the days of harvest),

¹⁶ That the waters that come down from the ascent stood, arising into one heap very far from Adam, the city that is at the side of Tsartan, and those coming down over the sea toward the steppe, the salt sea, were completely cut off,

and the people passed through in front of Jericho.

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Score 4 All the nation of Israel passed through

¹⁷ And the priests stood, who bear the ark the covenant of Yahweh, in the desert in the midst of the Jordan, established.

And all Israel passed through, in the desert, until they completed, all the nation, to pass through the Jordan.

Chapter 4

¹ And it happened that as all the nation completed crossing over the Jordan,

that Yahweh said to Joshua, saying,

² Take for yourselves from the people twelve men,

one man from each band.

³ And command them, saying, Bear for yourselves from here, from the midst of the Jordan, where the feet of the priests stand firmly established, twelve stones.

And have them transferred with you. And you will leave them at the stop over, where we will stop over tonight.

⁴ And Joshua called to the twelve men whom he had prepared among the children of Israel,

one man from each band.

⁵ And Joshua said to them, Cross over before the ark of Yahweh your God, into the midst of the Jordan,

and lift high for yourselves, each, one stone on his backside, for the count of the bands of the children of Israel.

⁶ So that this will be a sign among you,

when your children ask afterwards, saying, What are these stones to you?

⁷ And you say to them, That the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, when it crossed over the Jordan. The waters of the Jordan were cut off,

and these stones are for a memorial for the children of Israel for evermore.

⁸ And the children of Israel did so, as Joshua commanded, and they lifted up the twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan, as Yahweh spoke to Joshua, for the count of the bands of the children of Israel,

and transferred them with them to the stop over, and they left them there.

⁹ And twelve stones Joshua placed in the midst of the Jordan, under where the feet of the priests stood firmly who were bearing the ark of the covenant.

And they are there until this day.

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Score 5 Placing the twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan

¹⁰ And the priests, who were bearing the ark, were standing in the midst of the Jordan, until everything was completed which Yahweh commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua,

And the people moved swiftly and they crossed over.

¹¹ And it happened that as all the people completed crossing over,

that the ark of Yahweh crossed over, and the priests in the presence of the people.

¹²~ And the children of Reuben crossed over, and the children of Gad, and the half band of Manasseh, in fifties, in the presence of the children of Israel,

as Moses spoke to them.

¹³ About forty thousand, the ready-armed host,

crossed over before Yahweh to war, to the steppes of Jericho.

¹⁴ In that day Yahweh magnified Joshua in the eyes of all Israel,

and they feared him as they feared Moses all the days of his life.

¹⁵ And Yahweh said to Joshua, saying,

¹⁶ Command the priests who bear the ark of the testimony,

that they ascend from the Jordan.

¹⁷ And Joshua commanded the priests, saying,

Ascend from the Jordan.

¹⁸~ And it happened as the priests ascended, who were bearing the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, from the midst of the Jordan, the soles of the feet of the priests snapped onto the desert,

and the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and went as in days gone by over all its levees.

¹⁹ And the people ascended from the Jordan on the tenth of the month, the first,

and they encamped in Gilgal on the outskirts, toward the sunrise, of Jericho.

²⁰ And those twelve stones that they took from the Jordan,

Joshua placed in Gilgal.

²¹ And he said to the children of Israel, saying,

When your children ask afterwards, their parents, saying, What are these stones?

²² Then you will let your children know, saying,

On dry land, Israel crossed over this Jordan,

²³ That Yahweh your God had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before you until you had crossed over,

as Yahweh your God has done for the sea of reeds, which he dried up from before us until we crossed over.

²⁴~ So that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of Yahweh, for it is resolute,

so that you might fear Yahweh your God every day.

Chapter 5

¹ And it happened as all kings of the Amorites that were across the Jordan seaward heard, and all the kings of the Canaanite by the sea, that Yahweh had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the children of Israel until they crossed over,

their heart melted and spirit was not among them any more in the presence of the children of Israel.

² At that time Yahweh said to Joshua, Make for yourself rock daggers,

and turn, circumcise the children of Israel a second time.

³ And Joshua made for himself rock daggers,

and he circumcised the children of Israel at the hillock of foreskins.

⁴ And this is the thing that made Joshua circumcise.

All the people who came forth from Egypt, the males, all the warriors, died in the wilderness, in the way, in their going out from Egypt.

⁵ For circumcised were all the people who came forth,

And all the people, those born in the wilderness, in the way, at their coming forth from Egypt they had not circumcised.

⁶B For a forty year span the children of Israel meandered in the wilderness, until all the nation was completed, the warriors who came forth from Egypt, who did not hear with the voice of Yahweh,

to whom Yahweh had sworn that he would not show them the land which Yahweh swore to their ancestors to give to us, a land gushing with milk and honey.

⁷ And their children, he placed instead of them. Them Joshua circumcised,

for fore-skinned they were, for they did not circumcise them in the way.

⁸ And it happened that as they completed the circumcision for all the nation,

that they settled their nether parts in the camp, until they became alive.

⁹ And Yahweh said to Joshua, Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you.

And he called the name of that place, Gilgal, to this day.

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Score 6 Gilgal

¹⁰ And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal,

and they undertook the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, in the steppes of Jericho.

¹¹ And they ate the mature corn of the land after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain,

in this selfsame day.

¹² And the manna ceased afterwards, when they had eaten from the mature corn of the land, and there was no longer manna for the children of Israel,

and they ate from the income of the land of Canaan in that year.

¹³ And it happened when Joshua was in Jericho, and he lifted up his eyes, and he stared, and behold, a man standing before him, and his sword drawn in his hand.

And Joshua went to him and he said to him, Are you for us and not for our adversaries?

¹⁴ And he said, No. For I am the chief of the host of Yahweh. Now I have come.

And Joshua fell to his face earthward and prostrated himself, and said to him, What does my Lord speak to his servant?

¹⁵ And the chief of the host of Yahweh said to Joshua, Take off your sandal from your foot, for the place that you are standing on, holy it is.

And Joshua did so.

Chapter 6

¹ Jericho was quarantined and latched in the presence of the children of Israel.

There was no one coming out, and there was no one going in.

² And Yahweh said to Joshua, See. I have given into your hand Jericho and its king,

the valiant of force.

³ And you will circle around the city, all the warriors, to encompass the city one time.

Thus you will do six days.

⁴ And seven priests will lift up seven shophars, ram's horns, before the ark, and on the seventh day, you will circle around the city seven times,

and the priests will sound on the shophars.

⁵ And it will be that when the ram's horn is drawn out in intense brightness, when you hear the voice of the shophar, all the people will raise a shout of great jubilation,

and the wall of the city will fall flat and the people will go up, each in front of him.

⁶ And Joshua, child of Nun, called to the priests and he said to them, Bear the ark of the covenant.

And seven priests will lift up seven shophars, ram's horns, before the ark of Yahweh.

⁷ And he said to the people, Pass through and circle around the city. 

And let the ready-armed pass through before the ark of Yahweh.

⁸ And it was when Joshua had talked to the people, that the seven priests bearing seven shophars, the ram's horns, before Yahweh passed through, and sounded on the shophars.

And the ark of the covenant of Yahweh went following them.

⁹ And the ready-armed went before the priests, sounding the shophars,

and the additional walked after the ark, walking and sounding on the shophars.

¹⁰ And Joshua commanded the people, saying, You will not raise a shout, nor let your voice be heard, nor let a word emerge from your mouth,

until the day I say to you, Raise a shout. Then you will raise a shout.

¹¹ And the ark of Yahweh circled around the city encompassing one time.

And they entered the camp and lodged in the camp.

¹² And Joshua rose up early in the morning,

and the priests lifted up the ark of Yahweh.

¹³ And the seven priests bearing seven shophars, the ram's horns, before the ark of Yahweh, went on walking and sounded on the shophars,

and the ready-armed walked before them, and the additional walked after the ark of Yahweh, walking and sounding on the shophars.

¹⁴ And they circled around the city on the second day, one time, and returned to the camp.

Thus they did six days.

¹⁵ And it was on the seventh day. And they rose up early as the dawn ascended, and they circled around the city according to this framework seven times.

Solely on that day they circled around the city seven times.

¹⁶ And it was on the seventh time, the priests sounded on the shophars.

And Joshua said to the people, Raise a shout, for Yahweh has given to you the city.

¹⁷ And the city will be devoted, it and all that is in it, for Yahweh.

Solely Raxab the harlot will live, she and all that are with her in the house, for she camouflaged the messengers that we sent.

¹⁸ And certainly you keep yourself from the devoted, lest you be devoted if you take from the devoted,

and set the army of Israel to the devotion and agitate it.

¹⁹ And all silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, holy they are to Yahweh.

Into the treasury of Yahweh, let it come.

JOSHUA_006_020-1

Score 7 And the walls came tumbling down

²⁰ And the people raised a shout, and they sounded on the shophars.

And it happened when the people heard the voice of the shophar and the people shouted in triumph, a great jubilation, that the wall fell flat, and the people went up to the city, each in front of him, and they conquered the city.

²¹ And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, of men and women, from youngster and to the elderly,

and to bull or lamb or ass, with the edge of the sword.

²² And to the two persons who had surveyed the land, Joshua said, Go to the house of the woman of harlotry,

and bring forth from there the woman and all that is hers, as you swore to her.

²³ And the lads who had surveyed entered and brought out Raxab, and her father, and her mother, and her siblings, and all that was hers. And all her family they brought out,

and left them outside the camp of Israel.

²⁴ And the city they incinerated in the fire, and all that was in it.

Solely the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass, and the iron, they gave to the treasury of the house of Yahweh.

²⁵ And Raxab the harlot, and the house of her father, and all that was hers, Joshua kept alive, and she has settled within Israel to this day,

for she camouflaged the messengers that Joshua sent to survey Jericho.

²⁶ And Joshua swore at that time, saying,

Cursed is the person in the presence of Yahweh, who arises and builds this city, Jericho. On his firstborn, he will lay the foundation and on his smallest, he will lay out its gateways.

²⁷ And Yahweh was with Joshua,

and his fame was in all the land.

Chapter 7

¹ And the children of Israel trespassed a trespass in the ban,

and Akan child of Carmi child of Zavdi child of Zerach of the branch of Judah took from the ban, and the anger of Yahweh burned among the children of Israel.

² And Joshua sent men from Jericho to the Shambles, that is beside Bethaven from the east of Bethel, and he said to them, saying, Go up and survey the land.

And the men went up and they surveyed the Shambles.

³ And they returned to Joshua and they said to him, Let not all the people go up. Let about two thousand men or three thousand men go up and strike the Shambles.

Do not labour there with all the people, because they are few.

⁴ So they went up there from the people about three thousand men,

and they withdrew before the soldiers of the Shambles.

⁵ And the soldiers of the Shambles struck them, about thirty six men, and pursued them before the gate to the Shattering, and they struck them as they went down.

And the heart of the people melted and it became as water.

⁶ And Joshua ripped his habit, and he fell onto his face earthward before the ark of Yahweh till evening, he and the elders of Israel,

and brought up dust on their heads.

⁷ And Joshua said, Aye yai yai, my Lord Yahweh, why have you had this people cross over the Jordan to give us into the hand of the Amorites to have us perish?

And should we not have attempted and have settled across the Jordan?

⁸g O my Lord,

What will I say after Israel turned tail before its enemies.

⁹ And the Canaanite will hear and all the inhabitants of the land, and they will surround us and cut off our name from the land,

and what will you do for