Joshua 23:5

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Yahweh your God, he will thrust them out from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and you shall possess their land, as Yahweh your God spoke to you.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

Septuagint runs longer here — compare

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יֶהְדֳּפֵ֣ם

Hâdaph

H1920

“to drive out · them”

Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural

Appears 11× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Numbers 35:20

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 476

to thrust, push, drive, cast away, cast out, expel, thrust away - (Qal) - to thrust, push - to drive out, thrust out - to depose

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 →

16: words
10: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is יֶהְדֳּפֵ֣ם to drive out H1920 — appearing just 11 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

יֶהְדֳּפֵ֣ם to drive out H1920 occurs in 11 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

4 verbs
7 nouns
1 pronoun
1 preposition
3 particles

Verb forms

יֶהְדֳּפֵ֣ם Qal · Imperfect
וְהוֹרִ֥ישׁ Hiphil · Sequential Perfect
וִֽירִשְׁתֶּם֙ Qal · Sequential Perfect
דִּבֶּ֛ר Piel · Perfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

וַיהוָ֣ה LORD H3068 ×2
אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֗ם God H430 ×2
מִפְּנֵיכֶ֔ם face H6440 ×2
וְהוֹרִ֥ישׁ to inherit H3423 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 32 words from the Hebrew and 51 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the Septuagint runs noticeably longer here. See the side-by-side →

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.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Joshua 23:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Exodus 33:2 I will send an angel before you; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:
Exodus 34:11 Observe that which I command you this day. Behold, I drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
Deuteronomy 11:23 then will Yahweh drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.
Joshua 13:6 all the inhabitants of the hill-country from Lebanon to Misrephoth Maim, even all the Sidonians; them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only allot you it to Israel for an inheritance, as I have commanded you.
Exodus 23:30–31 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and inherit the land.
Numbers 33:52–53 then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured [stones], and destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places:
Joshua 23:12–13 Else if you do at all go back, and cleave to the remnant of these nations, even these who remain among you, and make marriages with them, and go in to them, and they to you;

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.

Here the Septuagint runs noticeably longer than the Hebrew — LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) 51 words vs World English Bible 32. A rough length comparison of the two English translations, not a word-level alignment — read both below.

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

Hebrew Joshua 23:5 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיהוָ֣ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֗ם ה֚וּא יֶהְדֳּפֵ֣ם מִפְּנֵיכֶ֔ם וְהוֹרִ֥ישׁ אֹתָ֖ם מִלִּפְנֵיכֶ֑ם וִֽירִשְׁתֶּם֙ אֶת אַרְצָ֔ם כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר דִּבֶּ֛ר יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֖ם לָכֶֽם

Yahweh your God, he will thrust them out from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and you shall possess their land, as Yahweh your God spoke to you.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Joshua 23:5 Septuagint · lemma form

κύριος δέ ὁ θεός σύ οὗτος ἐκὀλεθρεύω αὐτός ἀπό πρόσωπον σύ ἕως ἄν ἀποὀλλύω καί ἀποστέλλω αὐτός ὁ θηρίον ὁ ἄγριος ἕως ἄν ἐκὀλεθρεύω αὐτός καί ὁ βασιλεύς αὐτός ἀπό πρόσωπον σύ καί κατακληρονομέω ὁ γῆ αὐτός καθά λαλέω κύριος ὁ θεός σύ σύ

And the Lord our God, he shall destroy them before us, until they utterly perish; and he shall send against them the wild beasts, until he shall have utterly destroyed them and their kings from before you; and you⌃ shall inherit their land, as the Lord our God said to you.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

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)

וַיָי אֱלָהָכוֹן הוּא יִתְבְּרִינוּן מִן קֳדָמֵיכוֹן וִיתָרֵךְ יַתְהוֹן מִן קֳדָמֵיכוֹן וְתֵרְתוּן יַת אַרְעֲהוֹן כְּמָא דִי מַלֵיל יְיָ אֱלָהָכוֹן לְכוֹן:

(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 23:5 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 →

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

BY PROMISES. (Jos 23:5-11)

the Lord your God, he shall expel them from before you, as the Lord your God hath promised you, &c.--The actual possessions which God had given were a pledge of the complete fulfilment of His promise in giving them the parts of the country still unconquered. But the accomplishment of the divine promise depended on their inviolable fidelity to God's law--on their keeping resolutely aloof from all familiar intercourse and intimate connections with the Canaanites, or in any way partaking of their idolatrous sins. In the event of their continuing in steadfast adherence to the cause of God, as happily distinguished the nation at that time, His blessing would secure them a course of brilliant and easy victories (Lev 26:7; Deu 28:7; Deu 32:30).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Jos 23:5 And the LORD your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess their land, as the LORD your God hath promised unto you.

Ver. 5. And drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess.] The same Hebrew word Jarash here signifieth to possess and to dispossess. Canaanites shall be cast out of what they get or detain from God’s people.

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.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Which yet remain and are not overcome, as Josh. 13:2.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 5. And drive them - out - and ye shall possess] The same Hebrew word ירש yarash is used here to signify to expel from an inheritance, and to succeed those thus expelled. Ye shall disinherit them from your sight, and ye shall inherit their land.

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

John Gill's Exposition

And the Lord your God he shall expel them from before you,.... That is, such of them as yet remained among them:

and drive them from out of your sight; the same thing expressed by different words, for the confirmation of it:

and ye shall possess their land, as the Lord your God hath promised unto you; all which is to be understood on condition of their good behaviour towards the Lord, and obedience to his commands; by which tenure they held the possession of the land when put into it, and for their disobedience did not possess the whole.

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

And the Lord your God, he shall expel them. Or, Jehovah your God, He shall thrust them out. Joshua here uses the unusual word found in Deu_6:19 Deu_9:4, another instance of quotation from Deuteronomy. The word occurs in the sense of thrust in Num_35:20, Num_35:22. From out of your sight. Rather, from before you.

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

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 16 words (10 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Hâdaph (“to drive out”). The Greek Septuagint runs longer here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “to drive out” (Hâdaph) contribute to the verse as a whole?
Numbers 35:20 shares the word «to drive out» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“LORD” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
Compared with the Hebrew, the Septuagint runs longer here. What questions does that raise?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «יֶהְדֳּפֵ֣ם» is Qal Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Jamieson, Fausset & Brown and Trapp's Complete Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 18 words in this verse.
“LORD” occurs 2× in this single verse.
10 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 16 words in this verse.