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LXX Joshua

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 6

1 Now Jericho was closely shut up and fortified, and none went out of it, and none came in. 2 And the Lord said to Joshua, Look, I deliver Jericho into your power, and its king in it, and its mighty men. 3 And you shall set the men of war around it. 4  5 And it shall be that when you shall sound with the trumpet, all the people shall shout together. And when they have shouted, the walls of the city shall fall of themselves; and all the people shall enter, each one rushing direct into the city. 6 And Joshua the son of Nun went in to the priests,⁠ 7 and spoke to them, saying, Charge the people to go round, and encompass the city; and let the men of war pass on armed before the Lord. 8 And let seven priests having seven sacred trumpets proceed thus before the Lord, and let them sound loudly; and let the ark of the covenant of the Lord follow. 9 And let the men of war proceed before, and the priests bringing up the rear behind the ark of the covenant of the Lord proceed sounding the trumpets. 10 And Joshua commanded the people, saying, Do not cry out, nor let any one hear your voice, until he himself declare to you the day to cry out, and then you shall cry out. 11 And the ark of the covenant of God having gone round the city immediately returned into the camp, and lodged there. 12 And on the second day Joshua rose up in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the covenant of the Lord. 13 And the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets went on before the Lord; and afterwards the men of war went on, and the remainder of the multitude went after the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and the priests sounded with the trumpets; and all the rest of the multitude went around the city close by. 14 And they went back again into the camp; this they did for six days. 15 And on the seventh day they rose up early, and went around the city six times. 16 And it happened at the seventh circuit the priests blew the trumpets; and Joshua said to the children of Israel, Shout, for the Lord has given you the city. 17 And the city shall be devoted, it and all things that are in it, to the Lord of Hosts: only save Rahab the harlot, and all things in her house. 18 But keep yourselves strictly from the accursed thing, for fear that you might set your mind upon and take of the accursed thing, and you make the camp of the children of Israel an accursed thing, and destroy us. 19 And all the silver, or gold, or brass, or iron, shall be holy to the Lord; it shall be carried into the treasury of the Lord. 20 And the priests sounded with the trumpets: and when the people heard the trumpets, all the people shouted at once with a loud and strong shout; and all the wall fell all around, and all the people went up into the city: 21 and Joshua devoted it to destruction, and all things that were in the city, man and woman, young man and old, and calf and donkey, with the edge of the sword. 22 And Joshua said to the two young men who had acted as spies, Go into the house of the woman, and bring her out from there, and all that she has. 23 And the two young men who had spied out the city entered into the house of the woman, and brought out Rahab the harlot, and her father, and her mother, and her brothers, and all that she had, and all her kindred; and they set her outside the camp of Israel. 24 And the city was burnt with fire with all things that were in it; only of the silver, and gold, and brass, and iron, they gave to be brought into the treasury of the Lord. 25 And Joshua saved alive Rahab the harlot, and all the house of her father, and caused her to dwell in Israel until this day, because she hid the spies which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. 26 And Joshua adjured them on that day before the Lord, saying, Cursed be the man who shall build that city: he shall lay the foundation of it in his firstborn, and he shall set up the gates of it in his youngest son.⁠ And so did Hozan of Bethel; he laid the foundation in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates of it in his youngest surviving son. 27 And the Lord was with Joshua, and his name was in all the land.

Texts in conversation

Compare Joshua 6:26 and LXX Joshua 6:26

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Joshua 6 warns that anyone who rebuilds Jericho will lose his firstborn and youngest sons. The Greek Septuagint adds a phrase connected to a story in Chronicles, suggesting it preserves an older tradition about the curse’s fulfillment.

Passages

Joshua 6:26

Hebrew Bible
24 But they burned the city and all that was in it, except for the silver, gold, and bronze and iron items they put in the treasury of the Lord’s house. 25 Yet Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, her father’s family, and all who belonged to her. She lives in Israel to this very day because she hid the messengers Joshua sent to spy on Jericho. 26 At that time Joshua made this solemn declaration: “The man who attempts to rebuild this city of Jericho will stand condemned before the Lord. He will lose his firstborn son when he lays its foundations and his youngest son when he erects its gates!” 27 The Lord was with Joshua, and he became famous throughout the land.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Joshua

LXX Joshua 6:26

Septuagint
24 And the city was burnt with fire with all things that were in it; only of the silver, and gold, and brass, and iron, they gave to be brought into the treasury of the Lord. 25 And Joshua saved alive Rahab the harlot, and all the house of her father, and caused her to dwell in Israel until this day, because she hid the spies which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. 26 And Joshua adjured them on that day before the Lord, saying, Cursed be the man who shall build that city: he shall lay the foundation of it in his firstborn, and he shall set up the gates of it in his youngest son. And so did Hozan of Bethel; he laid the foundation in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates of it in his youngest surviving son. 27 And the Lord was with Joshua, and his name was in all the land.
200–101 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Joshua

References

"... Further contributions to the issue of the redaction-critical and historiographical value of the Old Greek Joshua were made by Mazor in her unpublished dissertation (‘Septuagint Translation’) and a number of articles. In her view, both the Masoretic and LXX of Joshua reflect editorial reworking of the Joshua narratives on the Hebrew level. Although the Greek translation can be qualified as relatively free, it is literal enough to ascribe all literary activity to the Hebrew stages preceding the translation. In Mazor’s view (‘Origin’), the plus in LXX Joshua 6:26a reflects an ancient historiographical parallel to the narrative of a city built by Ozan at the cost of two of his sons, as preserved in the original story of 1 Chronicles 7.21a-24a. With respect to the preceding narrative, Joshua 6.1-20, she argues for the originality of the Masoretic version, whereas the pluses in LXX Joshua 6:9, 13, 20, mentioning explicitly the priests, would reflect a nomistic reworking of the narrative. The motive behind the alterations would have been the wish to conform to the original story in which the shofar was blown by lay people to the priestly legislation found in Numbers 10:1-10, which reserves this right exclusively for the Aaronide priests (compare Targum Jonathan, Josephus, Antiquities 5.22-23, 27 and the War Scroll) ..."
Michaël N. van der Meer, “Joshua,” in The T&T Clark Companion to the Septuagint, ed. James K. Aitken, Bloomsbury Companions (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015), 86–101.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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