The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible

Judges2:6–9

Joshua’s Death and Burial

Generated by AI. It can be wrong, and it has no authority. Every note here is fallible commentary — never the Word itself. Public-domain sources are quoted and named; machine synthesis is marked and meant to be checked. Weigh all of it against Scripture. “They received the word with all readiness… and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” — Acts 17:11
Public-domain source — quoted & attributed AI synthesis — generated, verify

Judges 2:6–9 — Joshua’s Death and Burial. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

6“After Joshua had dismissed the people, the Israelites went out t…”+

6After Joshua had dismissed the people, the Israelites went out to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

yə·hō·wō·šu·a‘ ’eṯ- way·šal·laḥ hā·‘ām ḇə·nê- yiś·rā·’êl way·yê·lə·ḵū lā·re·šeṯ ’eṯ- hā·’ā·reṣ ’îš lə·na·ḥă·lā·ṯōw

Literal — word-for-word from the original

“And-let-go Joshua ·the-people·, and-went the-sons-of-Israel to-dispossess ·the-land·, a-man to-his-inheritance.”

Where the English smooths the original

  • וַיְשַׁלַּ֥ח וַיְשַׁלַּ֥ח (way·šal·laḥ, Piel consecutive imperfect of shâlach, H7971) — “and-he-sent-away / let go.” BSB's pluperfect “After Joshua had dismissed” is an interpretive tense: the Hebrew is a plain waw-consecutive. K&D: the vav “expresses the order of thought and not of time.” The English settles a chronology the Hebrew leaves open.
  • לָרֶ֥שֶׁת לָרֶ֥שֶׁת (lā·re·šeṯ, Qal infinitive construct of yârash, H3423) — Strong's: “to occupy by driving out previous tenants, and possessing in their place.” BSB's gentle “to take possession of” hides the dispossession built into the root — the very thing Judges 1 has just reported Israel failing to do.
  • אִ֥ישׁ אִ֥ישׁ (’îš, H376) — not an indefinite “each” but “a man,” used distributively. The Hebrew ends the sentence with a single Israelite standing on his own ground; the English abstraction loses the picture of the nation dissolving into individual plots.
  • לְנַחֲלָת֖וֹ לְנַחֲלָת֖וֹ (lə·na·ḥă·lā·ṯōw, nachălâh H5159 + 3ms suffix) — “to his inheritance.” BSB's “his own inheritance” adds an emphatic word the Hebrew carries only by the pronominal suffix; and nachălâh is properly “something inherited” — a gift received, not an estate earned.
Word by word12 · parsed+
יְהוֹשֻׁ֖עַyə·hō·wō·šu·a‘After JoshuaH3091
√ Yᵉhôwshûwaʻ — Jehoshua (iNounpropermasculine singular
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
וַיְשַׁלַּ֥חway·šal·laḥhad dismissedH7971
√ shâlach — to send away, for, or out (in a great variety of applications)Conjunctive wawVerbPielConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
shâlach — to send away, let go (Piel) The book of Judges opens its real narrative by sending the assembly home. Poole and Benson both read this as the dismissal after the allotment; K&D reads the vav as logical, not temporal. Either way the Piel is the verb of releasing a gathered people — and everything that follows in Judges happens to a people no longer gathered.
הָעָ֑םhā·‘āmthe peopleH5971
√ ʻam — a people (as a congregated unit)ArticleNounmasculine singular
בְנֵֽי־ḇə·nê-the IsraelitesH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine plural construct
יִשְׂרָאֵ֛לyiś·rā·’êl. . .H3478
√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular
וַיֵּלְכ֧וּway·yê·lə·ḵūwent outH1980
√ hâlak — to walk (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural
לָרֶ֥שֶׁתlā·re·šeṯto take possession ofH3423
√ yârash — to occupy (by driving out previous tenants, and possessing in their place)Preposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct
yârash — to occupy by driving out previous tenants The infinitive of purpose: they went in order to dispossess. Placed immediately after Judges 1's catalogue of tribes that did not drive out the inhabitants, the word is quietly indicting. The same root governs the whole covenant land-grant language of Deuteronomy.
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
הָאָֽרֶץ׃hā·’ā·reṣthe landH776
√ ʼerets — the earth (at large, or partitively a land)ArticleNounfeminine singular
ʼerets — the earth, a land Definite and object-marked: the land, the one promised and surveyed.
אִ֥ישׁ’îšeachH376
√ ʼîysh — a man as an individual or a male personNounmasculine singular
לְנַחֲלָת֖וֹlə·na·ḥă·lā·ṯōwto his own inheritanceH5159
√ nachălâh — properly, something inherited, iPreposition-lNounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular
nachălâh — something inherited, a heritage A high-frequency covenant word (191 verses) that names the land as legacy rather than conquest-spoil. It closes v. 6 and, in the same construct form with the same suffix, closes Joshua's own story in v. 9 — he too goes to his inheritance, which turns out to be a grave in it.
The Voices✦ public domain+
This passage strongly tends to support the view that the events of the previous chapter, and the message at Bochim, occurred before Joshua’s death.
The vav consec. attached to וישׁלּח expresses the order of thought and not of time.
Keil & Delitzsch's grammatical point is the hinge of the whole chronology question: if the vav is logical rather than temporal, the apparent conflict with Judges 1:1 dissolves without emending anything.
This was done before this time, whilst Joshua lived; but is now repeated in order to the discovery of the time, and cause, or occasion of the people’s defection from God, and of God’s desertion of them.
But the love of this world seduced them. They soon thought only of their private interest, how to extend and aggrandize themselves; and speedily losing sight of the public good, shamefully neglected the sacred duties of religion.
Benson is here quoting Dr. Dodd; the moralizing diagnosis is Dodd's inference, not a datum of the text.
7“And the people served the LORD throughout the days of Joshua and…”+

7And the people served the LORD throughout the days of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him, who had seen all the great works that the LORD had done for Israel.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

hā·‘ām ’eṯ- way·ya·‘aḇ·ḏū Yah·weh kōl yə·mê yə·hō·wō·šu·a‘ wə·ḵōl yə·mê haz·zə·qê·nîm ’ă·šer he·’ĕ·rî·ḵū yā·mîm ’a·ḥă·rê yə·hō·wō·šū·a‘ ’ă·šer rā·’ū ’êṯ kāl- hag·gā·ḏō·wl ma·‘ă·śêh ’ă·šer Yah·weh ‘ā·śāh lə·yiś·rā·’êl

Literal — word-for-word from the original

“And-served the-people ·YHWH· all days-of Joshua, and-all days-of the-elders who prolonged-days after Joshua, who had-seen ·all the-great work which YHWH did for-Israel.”

Where the English smooths the original

  • וַיַּעַבְד֤וּ וַיַּעַבְד֤וּ (way·ya·‘aḇ·ḏū, Qal of ʻâbad, H5647, “to work in any sense”) — “and-they-served.” This is the verb from which ʻebed (H5650, “servant”) in v. 8 is formed. English uses two unrelated words, “served” and “servant”; the Hebrew says the people did exactly what Joshua was. When the serving stops, the title has no heirs.
  • הֶאֱרִ֤יכוּ הֶאֱרִ֤יכוּ (he·’ĕ·rî·ḵū, Hiphil perfect of ʼârak, H748) with יָמִים֙ — literally “who prolonged days after Joshua.” BSB's “outlived him” is idiomatic and efficient, but it deletes the Deuteronomic blessing-formula. Cambridge: “lit. ‘that prolonged days after,’ a common expression in Deut.” The elders are described in the very words of the promise for obedience.
  • מַעֲשֵׂ֤ה מַעֲשֵׂ֤ה (ma·‘ă·śêh, H4639) is a masculine singular construct, and הַגָּד֔וֹל (gâdôwl, H1419) is a masculine singular adjective: “all the great work.” BSB pluralizes to “works.” The Hebrew treats Exodus, wilderness and conquest as one indivisible deed of God — which is precisely what the next generation will fail to inherit.
  • וְכֹ֣ל׀ וְכֹ֣ל׀ יְמֵ֣י (wə·ḵōl yə·mê) — the Hebrew repeats the whole phrase “and-all days-of.” BSB compresses to “throughout the days of Joshua and of the elders,” collapsing two measured spans into one. The doubling is the verse's rhythm: era, then extended era, then nothing.
Word by word25 · parsed+
הָעָם֙hā·‘āmAnd the peopleH5971
√ ʻam — a people (as a congregated unit)ArticleNounmasculine singular
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
וַיַּעַבְד֤וּway·ya·‘aḇ·ḏūservedH5647
√ ʻâbad — to work (in any sense)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural
ʻâbad — to work, serve (Qal) The controlling verb of the book: Israel will shortly “serve the Baals” (the same root), and God will make them “serve” foreign kings. Matthew Henry's reading of the larger passage turns on this symmetry — they served the gods of the nations, so God made them serve the princes of the nations.
יְהוָ֔הYah·wehthe LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular
כֹּ֖לkōlthroughoutH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholeNounmasculine singular construct
יְמֵ֣יyə·mêthe daysH3117
√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)Nounmasculine plural construct
יְהוֹשֻׁ֑עַyə·hō·wō·šu·a‘of JoshuaH3091
√ Yᵉhôwshûwaʻ — Jehoshua (iNounpropermasculine singular
וְכֹ֣ל׀wə·ḵōl[and]H3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholeConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct
יְמֵ֣יyə·mêH3117
√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)Nounmasculine plural construct
הַזְּקֵנִ֗יםhaz·zə·qê·nîmof the eldersH2205
√ zâqên — oldArticleAdjectivemasculine plural
zâqên — old, elder Cambridge glosses them as “sheikhs, who, as the head men of families and clans, would take a leading part in maintaining the customs and religion of the people.” Their authority is not office but memory: they are the last men who saw.
אֲשֶׁ֨ר’ă·šerwhoH834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
הֶאֱרִ֤יכוּhe·’ĕ·rî·ḵūoutlivedH748
√ ʼârak — to be (causative, make) long (literally or figuratively)VerbHifilPerfectthird person common plural
ʼârak — to make long, prolong (Hiphil) The causative stem of the Deuteronomic blessing “that thy days may be prolonged in the land.” Applied to the elders it is descriptive and honorific at once. A generation that obeyed had its days lengthened; the narrator is about to record what happened when those days ran out.
יָמִים֙yā·mîm. . .H3117
√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)Nounmasculine plural
אַחֲרֵ֣י’a·ḥă·rê. . .H310
√ ʼachar — properly, the hind partPreposition
יְהוֹשׁ֔וּעַyə·hō·wō·šū·a‘[him]H3091
√ Yᵉhôwshûwaʻ — Jehoshua (iNounpropermasculine singular
אֲשֶׁ֣ר’ă·šerwhoH834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
רָא֗וּrā·’ūhad seenH7200
√ râʼâh — to see, literally or figuratively (in numerous applications, direct and implied, transitive, intransitive and causative)VerbQalPerfectthird person common plural
râʼâh — to see Qal perfect, third common plural: seeing, not hearing, is what constituted this generation's faith. Cambridge notes that Joshua 24:31 has the broader word known instead; the Judges editor has sharpened it to eyewitness. That sharpening sets up v. 10's verdict on a generation that “knew not the LORD.”
אֵ֣ת’êṯH853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
כָּל־kāl-allH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholeNounmasculine singular construct
הַגָּד֔וֹלhag·gā·ḏō·wlthe greatH1419
√ gâdôwl — great (in any sense)ArticleAdjectivemasculine singular
מַעֲשֵׂ֤הma·‘ă·śêhworksH4639
√ maʻăseh — an action (good or bad)Nounmasculine singular construct
maʻăseh — an action, work, deed Singular. The Verifier confirms the same three lexemes (maʻăseh H4639, gâdôwl H1419, râʼâh H7200) standing together in Deuteronomy 11:7, exactly the passage Cambridge cites — “your eyes have seen all the great work of the LORD.” Judges is quoting the vocabulary of Moses' appeal to eyewitness memory at the moment that memory is about to fail.
אֲשֶׁ֥ר’ă·šerthatH834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
יְהוָה֙Yah·wehthe LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular
עָשָׂ֖ה‘ā·śāhhad doneH6213
√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
ʻâsâh — to do or make The plain verb of divine action, in the perfect: a completed deed with results the next generation will inhabit without remembering.
לְיִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃lə·yiś·rā·’êlfor IsraelH3478
√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobPreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
The Voices✦ public domain+
lit. ‘that prolonged days after,’ a common expression in Deut.
During the lifetime of the first occupiers, who retained a vivid recollection of all the miracles and judgments which they had witnessed in Egypt and the desert, the national character stood high for faith and piety.
Those who have found God true to his promises, may be sure that he will be as true to his threatenings.
Henry's note is written on the whole block 2:6-23, not on this verse alone; the sentence is his summary of the era this verse opens.
This verse is the epitome of the religious history of Israel from the time of the expostulation of the angel till the dying off of all those who had been elders in the time of Joshua.
8“And Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age …”+

8And Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

yə·hō·wō·šu·a‘ bin- nūn ‘e·ḇeḏ Yah·weh way·yā·māṯ ben- šā·nîm mê·’āh wā·‘e·śer

Literal — word-for-word from the original

“And-died Joshua son-of-Nun, servant-of-YHWH, son-of a-hundred and-ten years.”

Where the English smooths the original

  • בֶּן־ בֶּן־ (ben, H1121) occurs twice in this short verse — “son of Nun” and “son of a hundred and ten years.” BSB renders the first “son” and the second “at the age of,” which is correct idiom but silently breaks the repetition. Hebrew measures a man's descent and a man's lifespan with the same word; the verse frames him as son at both ends.
  • עֶ֣בֶד עֶ֣בֶד (‘e·ḇeḏ, H5650, from ʻâbad H5647) — “servant,” in construct with the divine name: ‘ebed YHWH, a title, not a description. Barnes: “It is applied to Joshua only here and in Joshua 24:29.” The English article “the servant of the LORD” reads as a role; the Hebrew construct reads as a name conferred.
  • וַיָּ֛מָת וַיָּ֛מָת (way·yā·māṯ, Qal consecutive imperfect of mûwth, H4191) — “and-he-died,” bare and unadorned. BSB's word order puts the title before the verb; the Hebrew clause sequence lands the death verb in the middle of the honours, between “servant of the LORD” and the count of his years.
  • מֵאָ֥ה מֵאָ֥ה וָעֶ֖שֶׂר שָׁנִֽים (mê·’āh wā·‘e·śer šā·nîm, H3967 + H6235 + H8141) — “a hundred and ten years,” written out. BSB's numeral “110” is accurate and flat. The spelled-out Hebrew count is the same formula used of Joseph, and the Verifier confirms the shared lexemes mêʼâh, ʻeser, shâneh and mûwth standing together in Genesis 50:26.
Word by word10 · parsed+
יְהוֹשֻׁ֥עַyə·hō·wō·šu·a‘And JoshuaH3091
√ Yᵉhôwshûwaʻ — Jehoshua (iNounpropermasculine singular
בִּן־bin-sonH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct
נ֖וּןnūnof NunH5126
√ Nûwn — Nun or Non, the father of JoshuaNounpropermasculine singular
Nûwn — Nun, the father of Joshua A rare name (30 verses), used almost always in this patronymic. It fixes Joshua in the Mosaic generation.
עֶ֣בֶד‘e·ḇeḏthe servantH5650
√ ʻebed — a servantNounmasculine singular construct
ʻebed — a servant The covenant title of Moses (Deuteronomy 34:5) and of Joshua at his death — and, Barnes notes, of David and generally of the prophets. Cambridge: the title “is now transferred, with the leadership, to Moses' successor.” It is the highest thing this book says about any man, and it is said in an obituary.
יְהוָ֑הYah·wehof the LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular
וַיָּ֛מָתway·yā·māṯdiedH4191
√ mûwth — to die (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
mûwth — to die The pivot of the unit. Judges does not editorialize; it simply puts the death verb between the title and the years, and the whole book proceeds from that gap.
בֶּן־ben-at the ageH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct
שָׁנִֽים׃šā·nîm. . .H8141
√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine plural
shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time) Plural, governed by the construct ben: he is “son of” his years.
מֵאָ֥הmê·’āhof 110H3967
√ mêʼâh — a hundredNumberfeminine singular
mêʼâh — a hundred With ʻeser, the exact age of Joseph at his death in Egypt (Genesis 50:26), as Cambridge cross-references. Ellicott names the same parallel, though his printed citation “Genesis 1:26” is a misprint for Genesis 50:26.
וָעֶ֖שֶׂרwā·‘e·śer. . .H6235
√ ʻeser — ten (as an accumulation to the extent of the digits)Conjunctive wawNumberfeminine singular construct
The Voices✦ public domain+
It is applied to Joshua only here and in Joshua 24:29 . It is spoken of David ( Psalm 18 , title), and generally of the prophets;
The same age as Joseph ( Genesis 1:26 ). Moses attained the age of 120
Ellicott's parenthetical reference reads “Genesis 1:26”; the age of Joseph is given at Genesis 50:26. Treat the citation as a misprint, not the claim.
Caleb was eighty-five years old, he tells us ( Joshua 14:10 ), when he went to take possession of Hebron, forty-five years after the spies had searched Canaan from Kadesh-Barnea, and consequently some time in the seventh year of the entrance into Canaan.
It is now transferred, with the leadership, to Moses’ successor.
9“They buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath-heres…”+

9They buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath-heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·yiq·bə·rū ’ō·w·ṯōw biḡ·ḇūl na·ḥă·lā·ṯōw bə·ṯim·naṯ- ḥe·res bə·har ’ep̄·rā·yim miṣ·ṣə·p̄ō·wn lə·har- gā·‘aš

Literal — word-for-word from the original

“And-they-buried him in-the-border-of his-inheritance, in-Timnath-heres, in-the-hill-country-of Ephraim, from-north to-the-hill-of Gaash.”

Where the English smooths the original

  • בִּגְב֣וּל בִּגְב֣וּל (biḡ·ḇūl, gᵉbûwl H1366) — Strong's: “properly, a cord (as twisted),” hence a boundary or border. BSB smooths to “in the land of his inheritance”; the Hebrew says in the border. Ellicott and Gill both keep “border.” The nuance matters: Joshua is buried not in the middle of his portion but at its surveyed edge, the surveyor's own line.
  • וַיִּקְבְּר֤וּ וַיִּקְבְּר֤וּ (way·yiq·bə·rū, Qal consecutive imperfect plural of qâbar, H6912, “to inter”) — “and-they-buried.” The subject is unnamed; Hebrew simply says “they.” BSB's “They buried him” preserves that, but English readers supply a subject the text withholds. Ellicott notes that burial is normally recorded for kings and heroes.
  • חֶ֖רֶס בְּתִמְנַת־חֶ֖רֶס (bə·ṯim·naṯ-ḥe·res, H8556) — the place is called Timnath-serah at Joshua 19:50 and 24:30; here the consonants of seraḥ stand reversed as ḥeres, “sun.” BSB transliterates “Timnath-heres” without comment. Geneva, Poole, Gill, Pulpit, Cambridge and Ellicott all flag the inversion; they do not agree which form is original.
  • מִצְּפ֖וֹן מִצְּפ֖וֹן (miṣ·ṣə·p̄ō·wn, tsâphôwn H6828) — “from-north.” Strong's gives the root sense as “properly, hidden” — the dark, unseen quarter, which is how Hebrew names the north. BSB's “north of Mount Gaash” is a bare compass bearing; the word itself carries the sense of the obscure side.
Word by word11 · parsed+
וַיִּקְבְּר֤וּway·yiq·bə·rūThey buriedH6912
√ qâbar — to interConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural
qâbar — to inter The last act performed for the servant of the LORD, and performed by an anonymous “they.” Ellicott observes that recorded burial is a mark of honour normally reserved for kings and heroes, and that “this care about burial seems to point to at least a dim hope of that immortality which had not as yet been fully ‘brought to light.’”
אוֹתוֹ֙’ō·w·ṯōwhimH853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object markerthird person masculine singular
בִּגְב֣וּלbiḡ·ḇūlin the landH1366
√ gᵉbûwl — properly, a cord (as twisted), iPreposition-bNounmasculine singular construct
gᵉbûwl — properly a cord (as twisted), a border The man who drew every tribal line by lot is laid in a line. Gᵉbûwl is the survey word of Joshua 13-19; its appearance over Joshua's own grave is the book's quietest irony.
נַחֲלָת֔וֹna·ḥă·lā·ṯōwof his inheritanceH5159
√ nachălâh — properly, something inherited, iNounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular
nachălâh — inheritance The identical construct-with-suffix (nachălāṯōw) that ended v. 6, and the only two places the form stands in this unit — the frame of the whole paragraph. Because nachălâh means what is inherited, the word cannot be earned by the conquest it names; Joshua, who assigned every other man's portion, is the last to enter his own, and he enters it dead. Ellicott notes from Joshua 19:49-50 that the nation gave him this ground only after all the tribes were settled.
בְּתִמְנַת־bə·ṯim·naṯ-vvvH8556
√ Timnath Chereç — Timnath-Cheres, a place in PalestinePreposition
חֶ֖רֶסḥe·resat Timnath-heresH8556
√ Timnath Chereç — Timnath-Cheres, a place in PalestinePrepositionNounproperfeminine singular
Timnath Chereç — a place in Palestine A rare name: the Verifier records it in only three verses of the canon (here, Joshua 19:50, Joshua 24:30). Cambridge reads it as “(sacred) territory of the Sun” and notes Syriac and Vulgate give the seraḥ form here, “perhaps to avoid idolatrous associations.” Ellicott, following Ewald, calls ḥeres a slip of the pen; Pulpit judges the opposite, that “Timnath-heres is probably the right form.” The Fallible Machine records the disagreement and does not settle it.
בְּהַ֣רbə·harin the hill countryH2022
√ har — a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figuratively)Preposition-bNounmasculine singular construct
אֶפְרָ֑יִם’ep̄·rā·yimof EphraimH669
√ ʼEphrayim — Ephrajim, a son of JosephNounpropermasculine singular
מִצְּפ֖וֹןmiṣ·ṣə·p̄ō·wnnorthH6828
√ tsâphôwn — properly, hidden, iPreposition-mNounfeminine singular construct
tsâphôwn — properly, hidden; the north The hidden quarter. A grave on the shaded northern flank of a hill named “quaking.”
לְהַר־lə·har-of MountH2022
√ har — a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figuratively)Preposition-lNounmasculine singular construct
גָּֽעַשׁ׃gā·‘ašGaashH1608
√ Gaʻash — Gaash, a hill in PalestineNounproperfeminine singular
Gaʻash — Gaash, a hill in Palestine Ellicott: “The name means ‘mount earthquake.’” A rare toponym (4 verses); its only other canonical appearances are the “brooks of Gaash” in David's roll of mighty men (2 Samuel 23:30; 1 Chronicles 11:32). The site has never been identified.
The Voices✦ public domain+
This seems to be a mere “slip of the pen” (Ewald)—an accidental transposition of letters for Timnath-serah (“the portion that remains”), which is the reading of Joshua 19:50 , and of the best versions, and of some MSS. here.
Ellicott is reporting Ewald's judgement. The Pulpit Commentary, on the same verse, concludes the opposite — that Timnath-heres is probably the original form.
but this is not very probable, since it might have had a tendency to idolatry, the sun being what was the first object of idolatrous worship among the Heathens
Gill is rejecting the rabbinic tradition that a figure of the sun was carved on Joshua's tomb; the tradition itself he reports faithfully, but his ground for rejecting it is theological probability, not evidence.
Heres, by turning the letters backward is Sereh, as in Jos 24:30.
Timnath-ḥeres, lit. ‘(sacred) territory of the Sun’ (cf. Mount Heres i. 35, Beth-shemesh), is written Timnath-seraḥ in Joshua 19:50 ; Joshua 24:30 , and by Syr.and Vulgate here, perhaps to avoid idolatrous associations

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

Grand Commentary — the unit, read wholesynthesis · verify+

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The seam — a book that begins by quoting the end of another — 2:6-7

⚙ These four verses are not new material. Cambridge states it flatly: “Jdg 2:6-9 = Joshua 24:28; Joshua 24:31; Joshua 24:29-30, with minor alterations to suit the opening of a new book.” JFB says the same in different words — “This passage is a repetition of Jos 24:29-31” — and adds why: “It was inserted here to give the reader the reasons which called forth so strong and severe a rebuke from the angel of the Lord.” Keil & Delitzsch make the sharpest structural claim: the repetition exists “to bring out sharply and clearly the contrast between the age that was past and the period of the Israelitish history that was just about to commence.”

The tension everyone in the brief notices is chronological. Judges 1:1 begins “after the death of Joshua,” yet here Joshua is alive and dismissing the assembly. Ellicott resolves it by moving the events forward — the passage “strongly tends to support the view that the events of the previous chapter, and the message at Bochim, occurred before Joshua's death.” K&D resolves it grammatically instead, at the level of one letter: the vav consecutive on וישׁלּח “expresses the order of thought and not of time.” Poole and Benson take the third road, that the paragraph is simply recapitulation, “repeated in order to the discovery of the time, and cause, or occasion of the people's defection from God.” Cambridge alone concedes an unresolved editorial join: “The words were allowed to stand here in spite of their inconsistency with Jdg 1:1.” ⚙ Four honest solutions, none of which the text itself states.

ii. Served, servant, service — one root holding the unit together — 2:7-8

⚙ The English hides what the Hebrew makes obvious. In v. 7 the people וַיַּעַבְדוּ (ʻâbad, H5647) the LORD; in v. 8 Joshua is עֶבֶד (ʻebed, H5650) of the LORD. One root, two grammatical shapes: what the nation did is what the man was. The unit's whole argument is compressed into that morphology, because in five verses' time the same verb will govern the Baals.

The title itself is weighed by three voices. Barnes: “It is applied to Joshua only here and in Joshua 24:29,” having been “especially given to Moses.” Cambridge draws the succession explicitly — “It is now transferred, with the leadership, to Moses' successor.” Ellicott widens the line forward to David and, via 2 Timothy 2:24, to “ministers in general.” ⚙ So the honorific arrives at Joshua only at his death, and arrives nowhere else in Judges. No judge in this book is ever called ʻebed YHWH.

The clause describing the elders is Deuteronomy's own idiom. Cambridge: “lit. ‘that prolonged days after,’ a common expression in Deut.” The Verifier confirms the vocabulary of “seen all the great work” (râʼâh H7200, gâdôwl H1419, maʻăseh H4639) standing together at Deuteronomy 11:7. ⚙ Judges is describing the last generation of eyewitnesses in the exact words Moses used to make eyewitness memory the ground of obedience — and then reports that the eyewitnesses died.

iii. The grave at the border of the inheritance — 2:8-9

⚙ The obituary is spare: he died, they buried him, here. But every noun in v. 9 is loaded. He is laid בִּגְבוּל — in the border (gᵉbûwl, H1366, “properly, a cord as twisted”) of his inheritance: the man who apportioned every tribal line by lot is finally located by one. Ellicott notes the ruggedness of the place, quoting Jerome's report of Paula's reaction: “She was much astonished that the distributor of possessions had chosen rough mountain districts for himself.”

The place-name is textually contested and the brief's voices split. Geneva: “Heres, by turning the letters backward is Sereh, as in Jos 24:30.” Ellicott, following Ewald, calls ḥeres “a mere ‘slip of the pen.’” Pulpit judges the reverse: “Timnath-heres is probably the right form.” Cambridge observes that the Syriac and Vulgate render the seraḥ form here “perhaps to avoid idolatrous associations,” comparing Isaiah 19:18. Gill relays the rabbinic legend that a figure of the sun stood on Joshua's monument with the inscription “this is he that caused the sun to stand still,” and rejects it as improbable “since it might have had a tendency to idolatry.” ⚙ The Fallible Machine records all five positions and settles none. What is certain from the lexicon is only this: Timnath Chereç (H8556) occurs in three verses of the whole canon, and this is one of them.

iv. What the paragraph is for — 2:6-9

⚙ Read as narrative, nothing happens here: a dismissal, an era, a death, a burial. Read as architecture, this is the load-bearing wall of the book. Pulpit calls v. 7 “the epitome of the religious history of Israel” for the whole span it covers. JFB gives the mechanism — “a new race arose who were strangers to all the hallowed and solemnizing experience of their fathers.” Henry gives the verdict on the era it opens: “Those who have found God true to his promises, may be sure that he will be as true to his threatenings.”

⚙ The unit's own grammar says it more economically than any of them. Verse 6 ends with every man going to his inheritance. Verse 9 ends with Joshua going to his inheritance — the same noun, the same construct, the same suffix — and the difference is that his is a grave. Between those two identical phrases the generation that had seen runs out.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the Fallible Machine's own reading, offered to be tested against Scripture and discarded if it fails. Judges does not blame the collapse on a bad leader. It blames it on a good one dying. The paragraph is scrupulous about Joshua: ʻebed YHWH, a title Judges never grants again; a hundred and ten years, Joseph's number; a recorded burial, which Ellicott notes is the honour of kings and heroes. Nothing failed in him. And yet the covenant nation's fidelity is measured in this text by two men's lifespans — “all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who prolonged days after Joshua.” That is a devastating thing to admit about a people who had been given a law, a land, an ark and a covenant. Their obedience had a mortality rate.

⚙ The unit therefore reads, to this machine, as a deliberately posed problem rather than a lament: what happens to a covenant when its witnesses die? The text's own vocabulary frames the answer as a failure of sight — the elders “had seen” (râʼâh, H7200) the one great work; Cambridge notes that Joshua 24:31 used the broader word known, and that the Judges editor narrowed it to eyewitness. What cannot be inherited by sight must be given another way. Judges will spend twenty-one chapters proving that raised-up deliverers cannot supply it either, since each one dies too, and the cycle restarts at every funeral. The book's implicit demand is for a servant of the LORD whose days do not run out — which is a demand this paragraph raises and cannot answer, since it ends at a grave on the north side of a hill called Quaking.

Their obedience had a mortality rate. (⚙ the machine's line, not Scripture)

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripturecross-refs · verify+

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The doubled ending — Joshua 24 reopened as Judges 2 verbal / quotation — confirmed

⚙ Judges 2:6-9 reproduces the closing verses of Joshua almost word for word, reordered. Cambridge states the equation outright: “Jdg 2:6-9 = Joshua 24:28; Joshua 24:31; Joshua 24:29-30, with minor alterations to suit the opening of a new book.” JFB and K&D concur that this is repetition, K&D adding that the purpose is contrast between the closed age and the one beginning. The Verifier scores Joshua 24:30 highest of all candidates and records the rare toponym among the shared lexemes.

Joshua 24:28 · Joshua 24:29 · Joshua 24:30 · Joshua 24:31

basis: Verifier, Judges 2:9 ↔ Joshua 24:30 (0.62): shared H8556 Timnath Chereç (in 3 vv — rare), H5159 nachălâh (in 191 vv), H669 ʼEphrayim (in 164 vv); Joshua 24:31 (0.06) shares H3091, H2205 zâqên, H4639 maʻăseh; Joshua 24:29 (0.05) shares H3091 and H5126 Nûwn (in 30 vv). Named attestation of verbal identity: Cambridge, JFB, K&D, Ellicott, Pulpit. Direction of dependence is disputed and not claimed here — Cambridge holds that Joshua 24:31 was adopted from Judges, while K&D treats Judges as repeating Joshua.

Timnath-serah given, Timnath-heres received structural / thematic — confirmed

⚙ Joshua 19:49-51 records the nation giving Joshua his portion last, after every tribe had been settled; Judges 2:9 records him buried in it. The same rare place-name binds the two scenes, spelled with its consonants reversed. Cambridge gives the ancient location tradition (Eusebius, Jerome, the tomb at Thamna, modern Tibneh); Ellicott reports Paula's astonishment “that the distributor of possessions had chosen rough mountain districts for himself.” ⚙ The link is a shared rare toponym inside a shared motif, not a quotation — the sentences are not the same sentence.

Joshua 19:49 · Joshua 19:50 · Joshua 19:51

basis: Verifier, Joshua 19:50 (0.34): shared H8556 Timnath Chereç (in 3 vv — rare) and H669 ʼEphrayim (in 164 vv); Joshua 19:49 and 19:51 (0.06) share H5159 nachălâh and H3091 Yᵉhôwshûwaʻ. Deliberately not tiered verbal: the rare lexeme is a proper noun and no clause is repeated.

The hill called Quaking — Gaash's only other canonical trace structural / thematic — confirmed

⚙ Gaash appears in four verses of the whole canon. Two of them are this burial notice; the other two are the roll of David's mighty men, where one warrior is identified by “the brooks of Gaash.” Ellicott: “The name means ‘mount earthquake.’” Cambridge and Pulpit both note that the site “has not been identified.” ⚙ The connection is nothing more than a shared rare place-name across two very different registers — an obituary and a muster roll — but it is the only geographical memory the canon preserves of the ground Joshua was buried under.

2 Samuel 23:30 · 1 Chronicles 11:32

basis: Verifier: 2 Samuel 23:30 (0.25) and 1 Chronicles 11:32 (0.25), each on shared H1608 Gaʻash (in 4 vv — rare). Not tiered verbal: the only shared lexeme is a toponym, and the two contexts make no common claim.

“All the great work of the LORD” — Deuteronomy's eyewitness formula structural / thematic — confirmed

⚙ Cambridge cross-references v. 7 to Deuteronomy 11:7 (“your eyes have seen all the great work of the LORD”) and notes that the whole clause “clearly comes from the hand of D.” This machine checked the pair with the Verifier rather than trusting the citation: the three content words do stand together in both verses. ⚙ The force of the link is that Judges applies Moses' appeal to living memory at the exact moment the last eyewitnesses are being buried — the formula survives its witnesses by one verse.

Deuteronomy 11:7

basis: Verifier pair check (Judges 2:7 ↔ Deuteronomy 11:7): shared H4639 maʻăseh (in 232 vv), H1419 gâdôwl (in 495 vv), H7200 râʼâh (in 1200 vv). None is rare, so no verbal/quotation claim is made; the link is the recurrence of a fixed Deuteronomic formula, named independently by Cambridge.

A hundred and ten years — Joseph's number structural / thematic — confirmed

⚙ Joseph and Joshua are both recorded as dying at a hundred and ten — a number this machine has not tried to prove unique in the canon, only shared. Both men are bound to Ephraim, both die with the promise still incomplete, and both burials are narrated with unusual care. Cambridge: “For Joshua's age at his death cf. Genesis 50:26.” Ellicott names the same parallel (his printed reference “Genesis 1:26” is a misprint) and sets it against Moses' 120, Jacob's 130, Isaac's 180. ⚙ This machine checked the pair with the Verifier rather than resting on the commentators.

Genesis 50:26

basis: Verifier pair check (Judges 2:8 ↔ Genesis 50:26): shared H3967 mêʼâh (in 510 vv), H6235 ʻeser (in 157 vv), H8141 shâneh (in 646 vv), H4191 mûwth (in 700 vv) — all common lexemes, so no verbal claim; the link is the identical numeral in an identical death-and-burial formula, plus Cambridge's independent cross-reference.

Joshua son of Nun before he was the servant of the LORD structural / thematic — confirmed

⚙ The patronymic “son of Nun” is itself a thread: a rare name (30 verses) that reaches back to Joshua's first appearance as Moses' attendant. Exodus 33:11 has him as the young man who would not leave the tent; Numbers 11:28 as the servant jealous for Moses' honour; Numbers 34:17 and Deuteronomy 1:38 as the appointed successor. ⚙ The title ʻebed YHWH that v. 8 confers is the end of that arc, and Cambridge marks the transfer: “It is now transferred, with the leadership, to Moses' successor.”

Exodus 33:11 · Numbers 11:28 · Numbers 34:17 · Deuteronomy 1:38

basis: Verifier (each 0.05): shared H3091 Yᵉhôwshûwaʻ (in 199 vv) and H5126 Nûwn (in 30 vv). The name-pair is the whole of the verbal overlap, so the link is tiered structural, not verbal.

The deterioration that follows a good leader's removal structural / thematic — confirmed

⚙ Ellicott, commenting on v. 7, reads the pattern forward into the New Testament: “The gradual tendency to deteriorate after the removal of a good ruler is but too common (Acts 20:29; Philippians 2:12).” Paul at Miletus warns that after his departure wolves will enter; to the Philippians he presses obedience “much more in my absence.” ⚙ No verbal link is possible or claimed here: these are Greek texts and Judges 2 is Hebrew, so no shared Strong's number can exist between them. The basis is a shared structure — leader removed, community left with only its memory — named by Ellicott, not computed.

Acts 20:29 · Philippians 2:12

basis: Cross-Testament (Hebrew ↔ Greek): shared Strong's numbers are impossible by definition, so no verbal tier is available. Recorded basis is the named cross-reference of Ellicott on Judges 2:7 plus the common structure of post-departure decline. Neither NT text quotes or alludes to Judges.

Christ in the Unittypology · verify+

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The name in the grave — Yehoshua who could not give rest ancient/widely-held

⚙ The lexicon supplies the datum without comment: H3091 יְהוֹשֻׁעַ Yᵉhôwshûwaʻ, “Jehoshua,” the name Greek renders Iēsous. The man buried at Timnath-heres bears the name Jesus bears. Hebrews 4:8 makes the argument this unit's silence invites: “if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later of another day.” ⚙ Judges 2:6-9 is the historical proof of that clause. Joshua completed the allotment, dismissed the people to their inheritance, and was buried inside the border of his own portion — and within a generation the nation he settled had forgotten the LORD. The land was given, and Joshua 21:44 says plainly that the LORD gave them rest from all their enemies; Hebrews 4:8 does not deny that rest but argues from the Psalm that it cannot have been the rest that remains, or no later day would have been spoken of. Judges 2:6-9 is the ground of that argument: a rest that ends at a funeral. Note honestly what the brief's voices do and do not say: none of Ellicott, Barnes, Gill, Cambridge, Pulpit or K&D draws this typology on these verses. The identification of Joshua as a figure of Christ is ancient and widely held in the church, but on this passage it is the Fallible Machine's inference from the name and from Hebrews' own reasoning.

Hebrews 4:8 · Joshua 21:44 · Hebrews 4:9

Servant of the LORD — the title that had to outlive its bearers ancient/widely-held

ʻebed YHWH (H5650 from H5647) is conferred here on Joshua and, as Barnes documents, “applied to Joshua only here and in Joshua 24:29”; it belongs chiefly to Moses (Deuteronomy 34:5), is spoken of David, and “generally of the prophets.” Cambridge marks its transfer with the leadership from Moses to his successor. Ellicott follows the same title forward to “ministers in general” by way of 2 Timothy 2:24. ⚙ What this unit records is that every bearer of the title dies, and the obedience of the people dies with the last of them. Isaiah's Servant Songs take up the same title and push it to the one place Judges 2 cannot go — a Servant who is cut off and buried and yet “shall prolong his days” (Isaiah 53:9-10), which is the same Hebrew idiom used of the elders in v. 7. This machine checked that claim rather than asserting it: the Verifier pair query (Judges 2:7 ↔ Isaiah 53:10) returns shared ʼârak H748 (in 34 vv), yôwm H3117 and râʼâh H7200 — the elders' prolonged days and the Servant's prolonged days are built from one verb. The reading of the Servant of the LORD as fulfilled in Christ is the ancient and apostolic one (Acts 8:32-35); the specific link this machine draws — the prolonged-days idiom running from the elders of Judges 2:7 to the Servant of Isaiah 53:10 — is offered as its own, to be tested.

Isaiah 53:9-10 · Deuteronomy 34:5 · Acts 8:32-35 · 2 Timothy 2:24

A tomb you can still visit novel

⚙ Cambridge reports that an early tradition recorded by Eusebius and Jerome pointed out Joshua's tomb at Thamna, and that “remarkable tombs are still to be seen” at the modern Tibneh; a later mediaeval tradition places it at Hâris. Whichever is right, the point stands: the grave of Israel's deliverer is a fixed geographical location, and the narrative treats it as permanent — north of Mount Gaash, in the border of his inheritance. ⚙ Peter argues in exactly this register about David: his tomb “is with us to this day,” and therefore the psalm about not seeing corruption must speak of another. Judges 2:9 supplies the same argument about Joshua a millennium earlier without knowing it. The deliverer who brought Israel into the land has an address; the deliverer who brings them into the rest does not. This machine has not found this specific argument made about Joshua's tomb in the voices before it — Peter makes it about David — so it is marked novel and offered for testing, not asserted.

Acts 2:29 · Acts 2:31 · Luke 24:6

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

Text. Hebrew, four verses, BSB with the Berean interlinear and Strong's. Two readings in the unit are unsettled and the machine does not settle them. (1) חֶרֶס ḥeres in v. 9: the same site is Timnath-seraḥ at Joshua 19:50 and 24:30, the consonants reversed. Ellicott, citing Ewald, calls the Judges form “a mere ‘slip of the pen’” and notes “some MSS. here” read seraḥ; Cambridge reports that Syriac and Vulgate give seraḥ here, “perhaps to avoid idolatrous associations”; Pulpit judges “Timnath-heres is probably the right form.” Geneva, Poole and Gill note the inversion without adjudicating. (2) The location of the site: Cambridge favours the ancient tradition placing it at Tibneh, about 10 miles NW of Bethel; Pulpit gives Tibneh six miles from Jifna; Cambridge also records a mediaeval rival at Hâris. Gaash, all agree, is unidentified.

Chronology. Verses 6-9 sit in tension with Judges 1:1 (“after the death of Joshua”). The brief's voices offer four incompatible resolutions — Ellicott redates the events of ch. 1; K&D reads the vav consecutive as logical rather than temporal; Poole, Benson, JFB and Gill read the whole paragraph as recapitulation; Cambridge concedes an unreconciled editorial seam. The machine reports all four and adopts none. The ages given by Ellicott, Barnes and Pulpit (Joshua about 80 at the conquest, roughly 30 years after it, elders dying some 20 years after Joshua) are the commentators' reconstructions from Caleb's age at Joshua 14:10, not statements of this text.

Sources and their limits. Matthew Henry's note is written on the whole block 2:6-23, not on any single verse here; his sentences quoted at v. 7 are his summary of the era, not exegesis of the clause. Benson's longest paragraph is a quotation of Dr. Dodd, and the moral diagnosis (“the love of this world seduced them”) is Dodd's inference. Ellicott's reference for Joseph's age prints “Genesis 1:26,” a misprint for Genesis 50:26; the parallel is sound, the citation is not. Gill's rejection of the rabbinic sun-monument legend rests on theological probability, not on evidence. Cambridge's source-critical assignments (“clearly comes from the hand of D,” “a later insertion into the narrative of E”) are documentary-hypothesis judgements of the 1880s, reported here as that scholar's position rather than as established fact.

Machine layer. Every ⚙ claim above is fallible. The thread bases are the Verifier's computed shared-lexeme output except for Deuteronomy 11:7, Genesis 50:26 and Isaiah 53:10, which this machine checked by explicit pair query and which each returned “structural / thematic — confirmed”; the Acts/Philippians thread is cross-Testament and therefore carries no lexeme basis at all, only Ellicott's named cross-reference. The christological readings at the name Yehoshua and at the Servant title are ancient and widely held, but no voice in this unit's brief advances them on these verses; the tomb argument is marked novel because Peter makes it of David, not of Joshua.

= human, public-domain source, quoted and named. = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)