translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: JOS

label: NET study note

text: The western tribes here imagine a possible motive for the action of the eastern tribes. T. C. Butler explains the significance of the land’s “impurity”: “East Jordan is impure because it is not Yahweh’s possession. Rather it is simply ‘your possession.’ That means it is land where Yahweh does not live, land which his presence has not sanctified and purified” ( Joshua [WBC], 247).


text: Israel’s God is here identified with three names: (1) אֵל (’ el ), “El” (or “God”); (2) אֱלֹהִים (’ elohim ), “Elohim” (or “God”), and (3) יְהוָה ( yÿhvah ), “Yahweh” (or “the Lord ”). The name אֵל (’ el , “El”) is often compounded with titles, for example, El Elyon , “God Most High.”


text: The Lord’s dwelling place here refers to the tabernacle.