Joshua 22:29

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Far be it from us that we should rebel against Yahweh, and turn away this day from following Yahweh, to build an altar for burnt-offering, for meal-offering, or for sacrifice, besides the altar of Yahweh our God that is before his tent.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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חָלִילָה֩

châlîylâh

H2486

“God forbid · toward”

Particle, Interjection + Suffix, Demonstrative

Appears 21× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 18:25

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a directive from H2490

TWOT: 661c

far be it (from me), God forbid that, let it not be

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

21: words
17: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is חָלִילָה֩ God forbid H2486 — appearing just 21 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

חָלִילָה֩ God forbid H2486 occurs in 19 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
13 nouns
3 prepositions
2 particles

Verb forms

לִמְרֹ֣ד Qal · Infinitive Construct
וְלָשׁ֤וּב Qal · Infinitive Construct
לִבְנ֣וֹת Qal · Infinitive Construct

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

בַּֽיהוָ֗ה LORD H3068 ×3
מִזְבֵּ֔חַ altar H4196 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 42 words from the Hebrew and 48 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 21 Hebrew tokens and 39 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Joshua 22:29 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Deuteronomy 12:13–14 Take heed to yourself that you don't offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see;
Joshua 24:16 The people answered, Far be it from us that we should forsake Yahweh, to serve other gods;
Genesis 44:7 They said to him, "Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants that they should do such a thing!
Genesis 44:17 He said, "Far be it from me that I should do so. The man in whose hand the cup is found, he will be my bondservant; but as for you, go up in peace to your father."
Joshua 22:23 that we have built us an altar to turn away from following Yahweh; or if to offer thereon burnt offering or meal-offering, or if to offer sacrifices of peace-offerings thereon, let Yahweh himself require it;
Joshua 22:26 Therefore we said, Let us now prepare to build us an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice:
1 Samuel 12:23 Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against Yahweh in ceasing to pray for you: but I will instruct you in the good and the right way.
1 Kings 21:3 Naboth said to Ahab, Yahweh forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you.

2 Kings 18:22 But if you tell me, We trust in Yahweh our God; isn't that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?
2 Chronicles 32:12 Has not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, You shall worship before one altar, and on it shall you burn incense?
Romans 3:6 May it never be! For then how will God judge the world?
Romans 6:2 May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?
Romans 9:14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be!

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Joshua 22:29 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

חָלִילָה֩ לָּ֨נוּ מִמֶּ֜נּוּ לִמְרֹ֣ד בַּֽיהוָ֗ה וְלָשׁ֤וּב הַיּוֹם֙ מֵאַחֲרֵ֣י יְהוָ֔ה לִבְנ֣וֹת מִזְבֵּ֔חַ לְעֹלָ֖ה לְמִנְחָ֣ה וּלְזָ֑בַח מִלְּבַ֗ד מִזְבַּח֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֵ֔ינוּ אֲשֶׁ֖ר לִפְנֵ֥י מִשְׁכָּנֽוֹ

Far be it from us that we should rebel against Yahweh, and turn away this day from following Yahweh, to build an altar for burnt-offering, for meal-offering, or for sacrifice, besides the altar of Yahweh our God that is before his tent.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Joshua 22:29 Septuagint · lemma form

μή γίγνομαι οὖν ἐγώ ἀποστρέφω ἀπό κύριος ἐν ὁ σήμερον ἡμέρα ἀποἵστημι ἀπό κύριος ὥστε οἰκοδομέω ἐγώ θυσιαστήριον ὁ κάρπωμα καί ὁ θυσία σαλαμιν καί ὁ θυσία ὁ σωτήριον πλήν ὁ θυσιαστήριον κύριος ὅς εἰμί ἐναντίον ὁ σκηνή αὐτός

Far be it from us therefore that we should turn away from the Lord this day so as to apostatize from the Lord, so as that we should build an altar for burnt offerings, and for peace-offerings, besides the altar of the Lord which is before his tabernacle.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

חַס לָנָא מִנָנָא מִלְמֶחְטֵי קֳדָמוֹהִי מִלְמֵרַד בְּמֵימְרָא דַייָ וּלְמִיתַב יוֹמָא דֵין מִבָּתַר פּוּלְחָנָא דַייָ לְמִבְנֵי מַדְבְּחָא לַעֲלָתָא לְמִנְחָתָא וּלְנִכְסַת קוּדְשַׁיָא בַּר מִמַדְבְּחָא דַייָ אֱלָהָנָא דִי קֳדָם מַשְׁכְּנֵיהּ:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Joshua 22:29 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Jos 22:29 God forbid that we should rebel against the LORD, and turn this day from following the LORD, to build an altar for burnt offerings, for meat offerings, or for sacrifices, beside the altar of the LORD our God that [is] before his tabernacle.

Ver. 29. God forbid that we.] As it is a folly to be hot in a cold matter, so it is a great fault to be cold in a hot. See Act 17:16-17, &c., "his spirit was stirred," he was in a holy fit, and he bestirred him accordingly.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 29. God forbid that we should rebel] These words not only express their strong abhorrence of this crime, but also show that without God they could do no good thing, and that they depended upon him for that strength by which alone they could abstain from evil.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

29. God forbid] Literally, Far be it from us. LXX. μὴ γένοιτο. Wyclif translates it, “God shilde fro vs this hidous gilt.” The speakers express in the strongest manner their abhorrence of the idea of forsaking Jehovah.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And when Phinehas the priest,.... For he was, being the son of Eleazar the high priest, so the word "priest", Jos 22:13; is to be joined, not to Eleazar but to Phinehas:

and the princes of the congregation; the ten princes, who were sent by the congregation of Israel, one out of each tribe:

and heads out of the thousands of Israel; these are the same with the princes, and this belongs to their title, who were heads of the Chiliarchs, or those who were rulers of thousands in Israel:

which were with him; with Phinehas, who were joined with him in the embassy, and now present with him:

heard the words that the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad,

and the children of Manasseh; spake; in defence of themselves, explaining the meaning and design of the altar they had built:

it pleased them; they were not only satisfied with their answer, but highly delighted with what they had done, as tending to preserve the common faith and fellowship of Israel.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Pulpit Commentary

God forbid. Literally, profane or accursed to us be it from Him. So Keil, Gesenius, and Knobel. That we should rebel against the Lord. The embassy had the effect not only of eliciting an explanation, but of showing how earnest, at that time at least, the tribes of Israel were in the service of God. And we may learn here, as Robertson remarks of St. Paul"s frank and explicit vindications of himself, the value of explanations. Many a misunderstanding would be averted, many a feeling of rankling displeasure, culminating in an inexcusable explosion of anger, might be avoided, nay, many an unjust suspicion against a fellow Christian"s honesty and sincerity of purpose might be dispelled, if men would but follow the example of the ten tribes on this occasion, or lay to heart the words of our Lord in St. Mat_18:15, "If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone; if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Keil & Delitzsch

C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch

The speakers conclude with an expression of horror at the thought of rebelling against Jehovah. ממּנּוּ לנוּ חלילה, "far be it from us away from Him (ממּנּוּ = מיהוה, Sa1 24:7; Sa1 26:11; Kg1 21:3), to rebel against Jehovah," etc.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Joshua, in the Historical, opens this verse with 21 words (17 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is châlîylâh (“God forbid”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “God forbid” (châlîylâh) contribute to the verse as a whole?
How does Genesis 18:25, which shares the word «God forbid», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “LORD” (3× in this one verse) do in this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«לִמְרֹ֣ד» is a Qal Infinitive Construct verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Adam Clarke's Commentary read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 21 Hebrew ↔ 39 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 31 words in this verse.
“LORD” occurs 3× in this single verse.
17 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 21 words in this verse.