Joshua 24:17

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

for Yahweh our God, he it is who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way in which we went, and among all the peoples through the midst of whom we passed;

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

Septuagint runs shorter here — compare

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הָאֹת֤וֹת

ʼôwth

H226

“the · signs”

Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Both, Plural, Absolute

Appears 79× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 1:14

Full BDB Definition

Origin: probably from H225 (in the sense of appearing)

TWOT: 41a

sign, signal - a distinguishing mark - banner - remembrance - miraculous sign - omen - warning - token, ensign, standard, miracle, proof

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 →

30: words
24: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Grammatical profile

5 verbs
14 nouns
1 adjective
2 pronouns
1 preposition
1 conjunction
6 particles

Verb forms

הַמַּעֲלֶ֨ה Hiphil · Participle Active
עָשָׂ֣ה Qal · Perfect
וַֽיִּשְׁמְרֵ֗נוּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
הָלַ֣כְנוּ Qal · Perfect
עָבַ֖רְנוּ Qal · Perfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

בְּכָל all H3605 ×2
וַאֲשֶׁ֧ר which H834 ×3

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 57 words from the Hebrew and 35 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the Septuagint runs noticeably shorter 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.

In the original languages it is 30 Hebrew tokens and 36 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 24:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Exodus 19:4 'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to myself.
Isaiah 63:7–14 I will make mention of the loving kindnesses of Yahweh, [and] the praises of Yahweh, according to all that Yahweh has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
Deuteronomy 32:11–12 As an eagle that stirs up her nest, That flutters over her young, He spread abroad his wings, he took them, He bore them on his feathers.
Joshua 24:5–14 I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did in the midst of it: and afterward I brought you out.
Isaiah 46:4 and even to old age I am he, and even to gray hairs will I carry you. I have made, and I will bear; yes, I will carry, and will deliver.
Amos 2:9–10 Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, Whose height was like the height of the cedars, And he was strong as the oaks; Yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.

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 shorter than the Hebrew — LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) 35 words vs World English Bible 57. 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 24:17 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

כִּ֚י יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֵ֔ינוּ הוּא֩ הַמַּעֲלֶ֨ה אֹתָ֧נוּ וְאֶת אֲבוֹתֵ֛ינוּ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם מִבֵּ֣ית עֲבָדִ֑ים וַאֲשֶׁ֧ר עָשָׂ֣ה לְעֵינֵ֗ינוּ אֶת הָאֹת֤וֹת הַגְּדֹלוֹת֙ הָאֵ֔לֶּה וַֽיִּשְׁמְרֵ֗נוּ בְּכָל הַדֶּ֨רֶךְ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר הָלַ֣כְנוּ בָ֔הּ וּבְכֹל֙ הָֽעַמִּ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר עָבַ֖רְנוּ בְּקִרְבָּֽם

for Yahweh our God, he it is who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way in which we went, and among all the peoples through the midst of whom we passed;

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Joshua 24:17 Septuagint · lemma form

κύριος ὁ θεός ἐγώ αὐτός θεός εἰμί αὐτός ἀναἄγω ἐγώ καί ὁ πατήρ ἐγώ ἐκ αἴγυπτος καί διαφυλάσσω ἐγώ ἐν πᾶς ὁ ὁδός ὅς πορεύομαι ἐν αὐτός καί ἐν πᾶς ὁ ἔθνος ὅς παραἔρχομαι διά αὐτός

The Lord our God, he is God; he brought up us and our fathers from Egypt, and kept us in all the way wherein we walked, and among all the nations through whom we passed.

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)

אֲרֵי יְיָ אֱלָהָנָא הוּא דְאַסֵיק יָתָנָא וְיַת אַבְהָתָנָא מֵאַרְעָא דְמִצְרַיִם מִבֵּית עַבְדוּתָא וְדִי עֲבַד לְעֵינָנָא יַת אָתַיָא וְיַת רַבְרְבָתָא הָאִלֵין וּנְטָרָנָא בְּכָל אוֹרְחָא דִי הֲלִיכְנָא בָּהּ וּבְכָל עַמְמַיָא דִי עָבַרְנָא בֵּינֵיהוֹן:

(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 24:17 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 24:17 For the LORD our God, he [it is] that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed:

Ver. 17. He it is that brought us up.] Beneficium postulat officium; Mercy requireth duty: deliverance commandeth obedience. But many miscreants, as if God had hired them to be wicked, abuse all his benefits to his dishonour.

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.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

17. for the Lord our God, he it is] The people ground their promises of fidelity for the future on the dealings of God with them in the past, (i) their deliverance from Egypt; (ii) the great signs wrought in that land; (iii) their preservation in the wilderness; (iv) the expulsion of the Amorites.

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

For the Lord our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers, out of the land of Egypt,.... When Pharaoh, the king of it, refused to let them go, yet he wrought such wonders in it and inflicted such plagues on it, as obliged Pharaoh and his people to dismiss them:

from the house of bondage: where they were held in the greatest thraldom and slavery, and their lives made bitter and miserable:

and which did those great signs in our sight; meaning the wonders and marvellous things wrought before Pharaoh and his people, and in the sight of Israel, Psa 78:11; though Abarbinel is of opinion it refers to what had been done in their sight of late in the land of Canaan, as the dividing of the waters of Jordan, the fall of the walls of Jericho, the standing still of the sun in Gibeon; but this seems not so well to agree with what follows:

and preserved us in all the way wherein we went: in the wilderness from serpents and scorpions, and beasts of prey, and from all dangers from every quarter:

and among all the people through whom we passed; through whose borders they passed, as the Edomites, Moabites, and Amorites; though the above writer seems to understand it of preservation from the dangers of their enemies in the land of Canaan.

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

For the Lord our God. Rather, for Jehovah our God (see note on ver. 2). The Israelites, we may observe, were no sceptics, nor ever became such. Their sin was not open rebellion, but the attempt to engraft upon God"s service conduct incompatible with it, which led in practice to the same result a final antagonism to God. But they believed in Jehovah; they had no doubt of the miracles He had worked, nor of the fact that His protecting hand had delivered them from all their perils, and had achieved for them all their victories. Nor do we find, amid all their sins, that they ever committed themselves to a formal denial of His existence and authority. To this, in the worst times, the prophets appeal, and though Israelitish obstinacy contested their conclusions, it never disputed their premises. Did those great signs. Here the people, in their answer, imply the circumstances which Joshua had omitted. This remark presupposes the miraculous passage of the Red Sea and the Jordan, and the other great miracles recorded in the books of Moses and Joshua. And among all the people through whom we passed. The Hebrew is stronger, "through the midst of whom." As the destruction of the Amorites is mentioned afterwards, this must refer to the safe passage of the Israelites, not only among the wandering bands of Ishmaelites in the wilderness, but along the borders of king Arad the Canaanite, of Edom, and of Moab. (Num_20:25) This close, yet incidental, agreement on the part of the writers of two separate books serves to establish the trustworthiness of the writers.

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 30 words (24 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʼôwth (“sign”). The Greek Septuagint runs shorter here. A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “sign” (ʼôwth) contribute to the verse as a whole?
Exodus 19:4 shares this passage’s theme. How do the two illuminate each other?
“all” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
Compared with the Hebrew, the Septuagint runs shorter here. What questions does that raise?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «הַמַּעֲלֶ֨ה» is Hiphil Participle Active. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 30 Hebrew ↔ 36 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 20 words in this verse.
“all” occurs 2× in this single verse.
24 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 30 words in this verse.