Dozeman - Joshua 1-12 : a new translation with introduction and commentary

Joshua 112

VOLUME 6B

THE ANCHOR YALE BIBLE is a project of international and interfaith scope in which Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish scholars from many countries contribute individual volumes. The project is not sponsored by any ecclesiastical organization and is not intended to reflect any particular theological doctrine.

THE ANCHOR YALE BIBLE is committed to producing commentaries in the tradition established half a century ago by the founders of the series, William Foxwell Albright and David Noel Freedman. It aims to present the best contemporary scholarship in a way that is accessible not only to scholars, but also to the educated nonspecialist. Its approach is grounded in exact translation of the ancient languages and an appreciation of the historical and cultural contexts in which the biblical books were written, supplemented by insights from modern methods, such as sociological and literary criticism.

John J. Collins

General Editor

THE ANCHOR YALE BIBLE

A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary

THOMAS B. DOZEMAN

Published with assistance from the Louis Stern Memorial Fund.

Anchor Yale Bible and the Anchor Yale logo are registered trademarks of Yale University.

Copyright 2015 by Thomas B. Dozeman.

All rights reserved.

This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers.

Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational, business, or promotional use. For information, please e-mail (U.K. office).

Set in Adobe Garamond type by Newgen North America.

Printed in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bible. Joshua, IXII. English. Dozeman. 2015.

Joshua 112 : a new translation with introduction and commentary / Thomas B. Dozeman.

pages cm (The Anchor Yale Bible ; 6B)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-300-14975-3 (alk. paper)

1. Bible. Joshua, IXIICommentaries. I. Dozeman, Thomas B. II. Title.

BS1293.D69 2015

222.2077dc23

2014031535

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.481992 (Permanence of Paper).

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To David J. Klooster
(June 28, 1953June 2, 2012)

The commentary follows the general structure of the Anchor Yale Bible series. The interpretation of each chapter or smaller division of literature in the book of Joshua is divided into five sections: (1) Central Themes and Literary Structure, (2) Translation, (3) Notes, (4) Composition, and (5) Comments. The Central Themes and Literary Structure provides an overview of each section of the commentary, highlighting the plot, main characters, and primary motifs. The Translation is of the Masoretic Text (MT). A comparison of the MT and Septuagint (LXX) translations is included in

Many colleagues have contributed to the research and writing of this commentary. The book of Joshua required a broadening of my prior research focus on the Pentateuch, and I thank my fellow researchers on the Pentateuch and the Former Prophets in the Society of Bible Literature (SBL) for assisting me in the transition. Joint research with the Pentateuch and the Deuteronomistic History sections of the SBL provided the setting for me to ask new questions about the literary function of the book of Joshua, and the Joshua-Judges section of the SBL provided a context for the exchange of new research. I also thank colleagues at the Catholic Biblical Association for inviting me to share ongoing research on Joshua. I owe a special gratitude to Ed Noort, whose willingness to share a lifetime of research on Joshua was invaluable. Ed also provided a rich setting for exchanging research on Joshua at the Leuven Biblical Colloquium in 2010.

I began this commentary in 2007 with David Noel Freedman as the general editor of the Anchor Yale Bible. This was to be our second project together, after finishing Exodus in the Eerdmans Critical Commentary series. Upon Noels death in 2008, I did not think it would be possible to replace an editor like him. But I am so pleased with the editorial guidance from John J. Collins, the new general editor of the Anchor Yale Bible. John strengthened my commentary in content, method, and style. He shared his expertise in Second Temple Judaism in sharpening my text-critical reading of Joshua, and he often provided focus to arguments, even when he disagreed with me.

I thank Vadim Staklo, Sarah Miller, Susan Laity, and Heather Gold, the editors of the Anchor Yale Bible at Yale University Press, for skillfully guiding the manuscript through the editorial process, Lucie Anselin and Bill Nelson for making the maps, and Chad Clark for preparing the indexes. I owe a special thanks to Jessie Dolch for her careful reading of the manuscript and superb copyediting.

I dedicate the commentary to my friend David Klooster. David taught nineteenth-century American literature and chaired the Department of English at Hope College until his death on June 2, 2012. David and I regularly shared our research, including my work on Joshua. As anyone who has written a commentary knows, the textual and literary problems in writing a technical commentary on an ancient text are so interesting and overwhelming that it is easy to lose the focus of the central themes that confront the general reader. David never let that happen. He always brought me back to the central problem of violence at the heart of the book: Divinely commanded genocide! Occupation, displacement, taking over what belonged to otherswhat an awful business this is. How are we to understand it from a contemporary perspective? I thank my friend for keeping the difficult question of religious violence at the forefront throughout my writing of this book.