Core Glossary
Core Glossary — Joshua (Hebrew → Arabic)
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md, spanning Joshua 1–24. Terms already fixed in the Romans baseline (translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json) are marked [BASELINE REUSE] and their Arabic rendering is reused exactly, with no deviation. New terms introduced by Joshua are marked [NEW] and given a proposed rendering, risk tier, and rationale consistent with the baseline’s Critical/High/Medium/Low framework.
| # | English Term | Hebrew (Translit.) | Arabic Rendering (Translit.) | Status | Risk | Doctrine(s) | Chapters | Notes / Alternatives Rejected |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LORD | יְהוָה (YHWH) | الرب (al-Rabb) | [BASELINE REUSE] | Critical | Lordship of Christ (typological continuity); God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise | 1-24 (throughout) | Reused exactly from baseline “lord.” Same Arabic word bridges OT YHWH and NT Christ’s lordship confession (Romans 10:9), reinforcing continuity rather than creating new risk. |
| 2 | God / gods (true) | אֱלֹהִים (‘elohim, referent = YHWH) | الله (Allāh) | [BASELINE REUSE] | Critical | God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise; Covenant Renewal | throughout | Reused exactly from baseline “god.” |
| 3 | gods (false/idols) | אֱלֹהִים (‘elohim, referent = idols) | آلهة (āliha) | [NEW] | Critical | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | 24:2,14-15,16,20,23 | Must never be rendered الله (reserved for the true God per baseline). Plural/indefinite آلهة preserves the same-word-different-referent tension the source text exploits. Alternatives rejected: الله (would erase the true-God/false-god distinction the whole passage depends on). |
| 4 | serve/worship | עָבַד (‘avad) | يعبد / اعبدوا (ya’bud / i’budū) | [NEW] | Critical | Covenant Renewal at Shechem; Obedience and the Conquest | 22 (spread across ch.22,24, esp. 24:14-15) | Unavoidable shared vocabulary with Islamic ‘ibadah; every occurrence must make explicit the exclusive object (YHWH alone) so it is not absorbed into a generic monotheistic-worship statement lacking covenant-historical specificity. |
| 5 | fear (the LORD) | יָרֵא (yare’) | يخاف / خافوا (yakhāf / khāfū) | [NEW] | Medium | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | 24:14; cf. 4:14,24 | Reverential covenant fear, not anxious uncertainty about Judgment-Day outcome; distinguish from baseline’s “assurance_of_salvation” framing. |
| 6 | sincerity/completeness | תָּמִים (tamim) | بكمال (bi-kamāl) | [NEW] | Medium | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | 24:14 | Undivided wholeness of devotion, not moral perfectionism (cf. baseline “righteousness” Critical note against works-merit collapse). |
| 7 | truth/faithfulness (conduct) | אֱמֶת (‘emet) | أمانة (amānah) | [NEW] | Low-Medium | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | 24:14 | Distinguish from الإيمان (baseline “faith,” High risk) — this is faithfulness/reliability of conduct, not the noun for saving trust. |
| 8 | put away/remove | הָסִיר (hasir) | يعزل / اعزلوا (ya’zil / i’zilū) | [NEW] | Low | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | 24:14,23 | Standard, low-collision vocabulary. |
| 9 | choose (human) | בָּחַר (bachar) | يختار / اختاروا (yakhtār / ikhtārū) | [NEW] | High | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | 24:15,22 | Same root as baseline “election” (اختيار الله, High). Directional distinction required: here it is human choice-to-serve in response to God’s prior unilateral acts (24:2-13), not the ground of a synergistic soteriology. Must be explicitly distinguished in teaching notes from divine election. |
| 10 | house/household | בַּיִת (bayit) | بيت (bayt) | [NEW] | Low | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | 24:15; cf. 2:12-13; 6:25 | Corporate, representative household faith-decisions (Joshua’s house, Rahab’s house). |
| 11 | Amorite | אֱמֹרִי (Emori) | الأموريين (al-Amūriyyīn) | [NEW] | Low | Covenant Renewal at Shechem; Holy War and Divine Judgment | 24:15; 10; 11 | Proper noun, ethnonym for a Canaanite people. |
| 12 | statute and ordinance | חֹק וּמִשְׁפָּט (choq umishpat) | فريضة وحكم/قضاء (farīḍah wa-ḥukm/qaḍā’) | [NEW] | Critical | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | 24:25 | Never render חֹק as سُنّة — سنة is the load-bearing Islamic term for the Prophet Muhammad’s normative precedent, a primary source of Islamic law; using it would suggest Joshua establishes a Muhammad-like precedent tradition. Alternatives rejected: سنة. |
| 13 | witness | עֵד (‘ed) | شاهد / شهود (shāhid / shuhūd) | [NEW] | Medium | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | 24:22,27 | Avoid شهيد (“martyr” in contemporary Arabic usage) despite the shared root; use the plain testifying-witness sense. Alternatives rejected: شهيد. |
| 14 | great stone | אֶבֶן גְּדוֹלָה (‘even gedolah) | حجر كبير (ḥajar kabīr) | [NEW] | Low | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | 24:26-27 | Physical covenant-memory marker, parallel to ch.4 stones. |
| 15 | be strong and courageous | חֲזַק וֶאֱמָץ (chazaq ve’ematz) | كن قويًا وتشدد (kun qawiyyan wa-tashaddad) | [NEW] | Low-Medium | Courage through God’s Presence | 1:6,7,9,18; 10:25; 23:6 | Must be tied explicitly to divine-presence promise (1:9), not generic martial valor, to avoid drift toward jihad-adjacent readings. |
| 16 | book of the Law (of Moses) | סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה (sefer ha-torah) | سفر الناموس (sifr al-nāmūs) | [BASELINE REUSE — extended] | Critical | Fulfillment/foundation of Obedience and the Conquest | 1:8; 8:31,34; 23:6; 24:26 | Deliberate extension of baseline “law” (الناموس, never الشريعة) into the OT Torah referent itself — the same shari’a-collision risk applies with even greater force since this is literally the Torah. |
| 17 | meditate | הָגָה (hagah) | يتأمل / يلهج (yata’ammal / yalhaj) | [NEW] | Low | Obedience and the Conquest | 1:8 | Devotional engagement with the written Word. |
| 18 | prosper/succeed | צָלַח (tsalach) | ينجح / يفلح (yanjaḥ / yafluḥ) | [NEW] | Low-Medium | Obedience and the Conquest | 1:7-8 | Keep tied to obedience-condition; avoid decontextualized prosperity-gospel readings. |
| 19 | I will be with you (presence) | אֶהְיֶה עִמָּךְ (‘ehyeh ‘immakh) | أنا معك (anā ma’ak) | [NEW] | Low | Courage through God’s Presence | 1:5,9; 3:7 | Positive bridge with Islamic “Allah ma’ana” phrase, but must retain OT-specific covenantal particularity. Avoid حضرة (Sufi/honorific “presence”) as a substitute rendering. |
| 20 | inherit/possess (verb) | יָרַשׁ (yarash) | يرث / يملك (yarith / yamlik) | [NEW] | Medium | God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise | 1:11,15; 13-19 passim | Same collision family as נַחֲלָה below (Islamic inheritance-law resonance); prefer يملك (“take possession”) where the legal-inheritance sense is not the intended emphasis. |
| 21 | kindness/covenant loyalty | חֶסֶד (chesed) | معروف / إحسان (ma’rūf / iḥsān) | [NEW] | Medium | Rahab and the Inclusion of the Nations by Faith | 2:12 | Deliberately not الرحمة (already a rejected alternative for baseline “grace”) to avoid blurring that line; not النعمة either, since chesed here is Rahab’s requested reciprocal kindness, not soteriological grace. |
| 22 | sign/token | אוֹת (‘ot) | علامة (preferred) / آية (context-dependent) | [NEW] | Medium | Rahab and the Inclusion of the Nations by Faith; general | 2:12; miracle contexts throughout | آية risks evoking “Qur’anic verse” for Arabic readers; علامة is the safer default outside settled Bible-translation idiom. |
| 23 | oath | שְׁבוּעָה (shevu’ah) | قسم / عهد (qasam / ‘ahd) | [NEW] | Low | Rahab and the Inclusion of the Nations by Faith; Covenant Renewal | 2:14,17,20; 9:15-20 | عهد form converges with baseline “covenant” (العهد); low risk. |
| 24 | ark of the covenant | אֲרוֹן הַבְּרִית (aron ha-brit) | تابوت العهد (tābūt al-‘ahd) | [NEW] | Low | God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise | 3-4; 6 | العهد reused from baseline “covenant.” |
| 25 | sanctify yourselves | הִתְקַדֵּשׁ (hitqaddesh) | تقدّسوا (taqaddasū) | [BASELINE REUSE] | High | Covenant Renewal (preparatory holiness) | 3:5; 7:13 | Root shared with baseline “holy”/“sanctification” (مقدس/التقديس). |
| 26 | memorial stone | אֶבֶן זִכָּרוֹן / מַצֵּבָה | حجر تذكار / نصب تذكاري | [NEW] | Low | God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise | 4:7,20 | Physical covenant-memory marker. |
| 27 | circumcision | מוּל / בְּרִית מִילָה | الختان (al-khitān) | [NEW] | Medium | Covenant Renewal (Abrahamic sign) | 5:2-9 | Shared vocabulary with Islamic khitan custom; teach as specific Abrahamic covenant-sign (Genesis 17), not general religious-hygienic rite. |
| 28 | Passover | פֶּסַח (pesach) | الفصح (al-Fiṣḥ) | [NEW] | Low-Medium | God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise | 5:10-11 | Already established in Arabic Christian usage. |
| 29 | commander of the LORD’s army | שַׂר־צְבָא־יְהוָה | رئيس جند الرب (ra’īs jund al-Rabb) | [NEW] | High | Courage through God’s Presence (Christological typology) | 5:14-15 | Candidate pre-incarnate Christophany; flag for theologian review — neither overclaim nor flatten to “merely an angel.” |
| 30 | holy ground | אַדְמַת־קֹדֶשׁ | أرض مقدسة (arḍ muqaddasah) | [BASELINE REUSE] | Medium | Courage through God’s Presence | 5:15 | مقدس root reused from baseline “holy.” |
| 31 | devoted/utterly destroyed (ban) | חֵרֶם (cherem) | الإبادة التامة المخصَّصة للرب / هلاك تام | [NEW] | CRITICAL | Holy War and Divine Judgment | 6; 7; 8:26; 10:1,28,35,37,39,40; 11:11-12,20-21 | HIGHEST-RISK NEW TERM IN THE BOOK. Never render with a ح-ر-م-root word (محرم / حرام / تحريم) — identical root to Islamic harām (forbidden) and iḥrām/al-Ḥaramayn (sanctuary-state/cities). Requires apologetic scaffolding bounding this to a specific, divinely commanded, historically limited conquest-era act — never an ongoing warrant for religiously sanctioned violence (contrast with jihad as an open-ended category). Alternatives rejected: محرّم, حرام, تحريم (all ح-ر-م root). |
| 32 | ram’s horn/trumpet | שׁוֹפָר (shofar) | بوق / شوفار | [NEW] | Low | Holy War and Divine Judgment | 6 | Ritual/military instrument. |
| 33 | shout | תְּרוּעָה (teru’ah) | هتاف / صيحة | [NEW] | Low | Holy War and Divine Judgment | 6:20 | Worship-form warfare marker. |
| 34 | trespass/treachery (covenant) | מַעַל (ma’al) | خيانة / تعدٍّ (khiyānah / ta’addī) | [NEW] | Medium | Holy War and Divine Judgment (violation); Covenant Renewal (unity, ch.22) | 7:1; 22 | Distinct from baseline “sin” (الخطية) — narrower, more severe category: betrayal of a sacred trust/devoted object. |
| 35 | glory | כָּבוֹד (kavod) | المجد (al-majd) | [BASELINE REUSE] | High | Holy War and Divine Judgment (Achan’s confession) | 7:19 | Reused exactly from baseline “glory.” |
| 36 | altar | מִזְבֵּחַ (mizbeach) | مذبح (madhbaḥ) | [NEW] | Low | Obedience and the Conquest; Covenant Renewal | 8:30-31; 22 | Standard cultic-construction vocabulary. |
| 37 | blessing and curse | בְּרָכָה וּקְלָלָה | بركة ولعنة (barakah wa-la’nah) | [NEW] | Medium | Obedience and the Conquest; Covenant Renewal at Shechem | 8:34-35 | بركة carries popular Arab-piety associations with baraka transmitted via relics/saints; teach as God’s own direct covenantal favor, not a mediated transferable substance. |
| 38 | covenant/treaty (political sense) | בְּרִית (brit) | العهد (al-‘ahd) | [BASELINE REUSE] | Medium | Rahab/nations theme (contrast case) | 9 | Same word as theological covenant; context must distinguish the Gibeonite political-treaty sense from ch.24’s theological covenant renewal. |
| 39 | deceive | נָכַל (nakal) | خدعوا / تصرفوا بخداع | [NEW] | Low | (Gibeonite narrative) | 9 | Descriptive narrative term. |
| 40 | the LORD fought for | נִלְחַם לְ… (nilcham le-) | حارب الرب من أجل… | [NEW] | Medium | Holy War and Divine Judgment | 10:14,42 | Bounded to this specific conquest; never generalize into divine sanction for any nation’s wars. |
| 41 | as the LORD commanded Moses (obedience formula) | כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה אֶת־מֹשֶׁה | كما أمر الرب موسى | [NEW] | Low-Medium | Obedience and the Conquest | 1:7,13; 4:10; 8:31,35; 10:40; 11:15,20,23; 21:2; 22:2 | Distinguish register from baseline طاعة (“obedience”/“obedience of faith,” Critical) — this is obedience to a specific prior revealed command via a mediator, not the Pauline fruit-of-faith category. |
| 42 | inheritance (land allotment) | נַחֲלָה (nachalah) | نصيب (preferred) / ميراث (theological summary contexts only) | [NEW] | High | God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise | 13-19 (throughout); 21 | ميراث is the exact technical term of Islamic inheritance law (mīrāth/farā’iḍ, fixed gendered shares); default to نصيب (“portion/lot”) for allotment narrative, reserve ميراث only for explicit promise-fulfillment theology, always glossed to avoid importing fiqh inheritance-law categories. |
| 43 | lot | גּוֹרָל (goral) | قرعة (qur’ah) | [NEW] | Low | God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise | 14:2; 18:6,8,10; 19:1,10,17,24,32,40 | Impartial, providentially-overseen allocation mechanism. |
| 44 | fully followed the LORD | מִלֵּא אַחֲרֵי יְהוָה | تبعه بكل قلبه / اتبع الرب تمامًا | [NEW] | Low | Obedience and the Conquest (Caleb exemplar) | 14:8-9,14 | Positive exemplar term echoing תָּמִים in the core passage. |
| 45 | border/territory | גְּבוּל (gevul) | حدود (ḥudūd) | [NEW] | Low-Medium | God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise | 15-19 (boundary lists) | حدود also denotes fixed Shari’a corporal punishments in Islamic legal usage; low confusion risk in this geographic context, brief note if heavily recurring. |
| 46 | cities of refuge | עָרֵי מִקְלָט (‘arei miklat) | مدن الملجأ (mudun al-malja’) | [NEW] | Medium | God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise; Holy War and Divine Judgment (contrast) | 20 | Avoid ح-ر-م root (would collide with al-Ḥaramayn, Mecca/Medina); ملجأ (refuge/shelter) is the safe rendering. |
| 47 | avenger of blood | גֹּאֵל הַדָּם (go’el ha-dam) | طالب الدم / الثائر بالدم | [NEW] | High | Holy War and Divine Judgment (contrast: ordered justice) | 20:3,5,9 | Avoid ولي الدم (walī al-dam) — the live, precise term in contemporary Islamic qiṣāṣ/diya law; also compounds baseline’s existing caution against ولي/أولياء vocabulary. Alternatives rejected: ولي الدم. |
| 48 | congregation | עֵדָה (‘edah) | الجماعة (al-jamā’ah) | [NEW] | Medium | Holy War and Divine Judgment (due process); Covenant Renewal (unity) | 20:6; 22 | Distinct from النT ἐκκλησία/الكنيسة (baseline “church”); brief disambiguation at first use recommended given resonance with ṣalāt al-jamā’ah. |
| 49 | cling/cleave | דָּבַק (davaq) | تمسّكوا / التصقوا | [NEW] | Low-Medium | Covenant Renewal at Shechem (preparatory, ch.23) | 23:8 | Preserve marital-union-level intensity of attachment; do not soften to generic “follow.” |
| 50 | snare/trap | מוֹקֵשׁ (moqesh) | شبكة / فخ | [NEW] | Low | Covenant Renewal at Shechem (preparatory, ch.23) | 23:13 | Active-danger metaphor for syncretism. |
| 51 | love the LORD | אָהַב אֶת־יְהוָה | أحبوا الرب (aḥibbū al-Rabb) | [NEW] | Medium | Covenant Renewal at Shechem (preparatory, ch.23) | 23:11 | Relational, volitional covenant-love expressed through obedience; distinguish from Sufi ‘ishq/mystical-absorption categories of divine love. |
| 52 | bury | קָבַר (qavar) | دُفن (dufina) | [NEW] | Low | God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise (closing fulfillment) | 24:29-33 | Cross-generational promise-fulfillment closing note (Joseph’s bones). |
| 53 | Egypt | מִצְרַיִם (Mitzrayim) | مصر (Miṣr) | [NEW] | Low | Covenant Renewal at Shechem (historical recitation) | 24:4-6,14,17 | Standard proper noun. |
| 54 | beyond the river | עֵבֶר הַנָּהָר | عبر النهر (‘abr al-nahr) | [NEW] | Low | Covenant Renewal at Shechem (historical recitation) | 24:2-3,14-15 | Geographic marker of Abraham’s Mesopotamian origin. |
Risk Summary
| Risk Tier | Count | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 6 | Human theologian (terms #3, #4, #12, #16, #31, plus #9 flagged High-adjacent for its direction-of-choice risk) |
| High | 5 | Human theologian (#9, #16 note, #29, #42, #47) |
| Medium | 20 | Native speaker review |
| Low / Low-Medium | 23 | Native speaker or automated review per baseline conventions |
Note on Critical count: term #16 (“book of the Law”) is marked [BASELINE REUSE — extended] rather than wholly new, since it applies the already-Critical baseline “law” decision (الناموس, never الشريعة) to Joshua’s Torah references; it is counted once in the Critical tier above to avoid double-counting against the baseline registry.
All renderings in this glossary that duplicate a baseline term (lord, god, covenant, holy/sanctification, glory, law, sin by contrast-reference) reuse the exact baseline Arabic rendering with no substitution, per the hard rule. This glossary should be merged into an updated translation_memory.json entry set before Phase 2 segment translation of Joshua begins, incrementing the translation memory version number as specified in the AI Translation Requirements document.
Critical Risk Terms
Lord
Approved rendering: الرب
Transliteration: al-Rabb
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ / God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
Rejected alternatives: السيد, المولى
Original: יְהוָה
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘lord’). Reused exactly for יְהוָה (YHWH) throughout Joshua. The same Arabic word bridges YHWH here and the NT’s exclusive Lordship confession of Christ (Romans 10:9), reinforcing Old-to-New Testament continuity of exclusive lordship rather than creating new risk.
God
Approved rendering: الله
Transliteration: Allāh
Doctrine: Deity of Christ / God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘god’). Used exclusively for the true God (referent YHWH) throughout Joshua. Must never be used for the false gods of the nations - see ‘false_gods’ entry in Section B, which uses آلهة instead.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: البر
Transliteration: al-birr
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: الصلاح, العدل
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘righteousness’). Relevant as a fence: Joshua 24:14’s תָּמִים (‘sincerity_completeness’, bi-kamāl) and אֱמֶת (‘truth_faithfulness_conduct’, amānah) must never be taught as collapsing into al-birr’s works-checklist sense; they describe undivided loyalty, not moral achievement.
Salvation
Approved rendering: الخلاص
Transliteration: al-khalāṣ
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: النجاة, الفوز بالجنة
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘salvation’). Relevant to ‘Rest in the Promised Land as a Type of Salvation Rest’: the land-rest (see ‘rest_in_the_land’) is taught as a real, historical, land-anchored anticipation of this fuller reality, never as a synonym for it.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: التجسد
Transliteration: al-tajassud
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: الحلول, الظهور
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘incarnation’). Directly relevant to Joshua 5:13-15: since الظهور is already forbidden here for echoing the Quran’s crucifixion-denial (‘shubbiha lahum’) language, the theophany verb describing the commander of the LORD’s army’s appearance to Joshua must use تجلى (‘was disclosed/manifested’), never ظهر. See ‘commander_of_lords_army’.
Law
Approved rendering: الناموس
Transliteration: al-nāmūs
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy / Obedience and the Conquest
Rejected alternatives: الشريعة, الشرع
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘law’). Extended in Joshua to the direct Torah referent itself via ‘book_of_the_law’ (see Section B) - the same shari’a-collision risk applies with even greater force here since this is literally the Mosaic Torah scroll Joshua reads publicly (8:34-35; 23:6; 24:26), not merely a Pauline argument about it. Never substitute الشريعة.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: طاعة الإيمان
Transliteration: ṭā’at al-īmān
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Rejected alternatives: الطاعة الشرعية
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘obedience_of_faith’). Must be kept in a wholly distinct register from Joshua’s recurring ‘obedience_formula’ (‘as the LORD commanded Moses’, Section B) - the latter is obedience to a specific, prior, mediated Mosaic command, not the NT’s fruit-of-gospel-belief category. Do not conflate the two into a single blanket obedience doctrine.
False Gods
Approved rendering: آلهة
Transliteration: āliha
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Rejected alternatives: الله
Original: אֱלֹהִים (referent: idols/false gods)
Category: God
New term. אֱלֹהִים used for the ancestral/Amorite gods (Joshua 24:2,14-15,16,20,23) - the identical lexical form used elsewhere for the true God, disambiguated only by referent. Must never render as الله (reserved exclusively for the true God per baseline). Every occurrence in ch.24 depends on readers tracking which referent is meant; this is the passage’s central rhetorical device and must not be flattened.
Serve Worship
Approved rendering: يعبد / اعبدوا
Transliteration: ya’bud / i’budū
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Original: עָבַד
Category: Covenant Renewal
New term. עָבַד, the central verb of Joshua 24:14-15’s choice. Shares root ع-ب-د with Islam’s central devotional vocabulary (‘ibadah, ‘abd - ‘slave/worshipper’). No viable substitute exists - unavoidable shared vocabulary - but every occurrence must make explicit the exclusive object of the verb (YHWH alone, to the exclusion of the gods of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Amorites), so the statement is never absorbed into a generic tawhid-compatible ‘worship God’ claim lacking Joshua 24:2-13’s covenant-historical exclusivity.
Statute And Ordinance
Approved rendering: فريضة وحكم / فريضة وقضاء
Transliteration: farīḍah wa-ḥukm / farīḍah wa-qaḍā’
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Rejected alternatives: سُنّة
Original: חֹק וּמִשְׁפָּט
Category: Covenant
New term. חֹק וּמִשְׁפָּט, Joshua 24:25. Never render חֹק as سُنّة - the load-bearing Islamic term for the Prophet Muhammad’s normative precedent, a primary source of Islamic law - since this would suggest Joshua is establishing a Muhammad-like normative-precedent tradition. فريضة preserves binding-decree sense without this collision. Retain the compound; do not compress to a single word.
Book Of The Law
Approved rendering: سفر الناموس
Transliteration: sifr al-nāmūs
Doctrine: Obedience and the Conquest
Rejected alternatives: سفر الشريعة
Original: סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה
Category: Obedience and the Conquest
New term (baseline-‘law’ extended). סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה, Joshua 1:8; 8:31,34; 23:6; 24:26. Deliberate extension of the already-Critical baseline decision for ‘law’ (الناموس, never الشريعة) to this direct Torah referent - the same shari’a-collision risk applies with even greater force here.
Cherem Devoted Destruction
Approved rendering: الإبادة التامة المخصَّصة للرب / هلاك تام
Transliteration: al-ibādah al-tāmmah al-mukhaṣṣaṣah lil-Rabb / halāk tāmm
Doctrine: Holy War and Divine Judgment
Rejected alternatives: محرّم, حرام, تحريم, إحرام
Original: חֵרֶם
Category: Holy War and Divine Judgment
New term - the single highest-risk term introduced by this book. חֵרֶם, Joshua 6; 7; 8:26; 10; 11. Never render with any ح-ر-م-root word (identical root to Islamic ḥarām/iḥrām/al-Ḥaramayn). Requires apologetic scaffolding at every occurrence: bounded to a specific, divinely commanded, historically closed conquest-generation act (cf. Genesis 15:16; Deuteronomy 9:4-5’s explicit denial that this is about Israel’s own righteousness), never a generalizable warrant analogous to jihad. Never coin a single-word substitute; retain the full compound phrase.
Holy War Doctrine Label
Approved rendering: الحرب التي أمر بها الرب (never: حرب مقدسة as a standalone label)
Transliteration: al-ḥarb allatī amara bihā al-Rabb
Doctrine: Holy War and Divine Judgment
Rejected alternatives: حرب مقدسة
Doctrine-label guidance, not a single Hebrew lexeme. A literal calque of ‘holy war’ (حرب مقدسة) draws an unwanted association with the root ج-ه-د (jahada, ‘to strive/struggle’) that generates جهاد, and with jihad’s status in much mainstream Islamic jurisprudence as a generalizable, repeatable legal-theological category - unlike cherem’s unrepeatable, historically closed character. Never title curriculum material ‘حرب مقدسة’; use descriptive, bounded phrasing instead, always paired with the apologetic scaffolding required for ‘cherem_devoted_destruction’.
High Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: النعمة
Transliteration: al-ni’mah
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: الفضل, الرحمة
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘grace’). Relevant in Joshua as a fence: Rahab’s requested חֶסֶד (‘kindness_covenant_loyalty’ in Section B) must never be rendered النعمة, to avoid blurring the baseline’s carefully drawn grace/mercy/kindness distinctions with a different Hebrew word in a different sense.
Faith
Approved rendering: الإيمان
Transliteration: al-īmān
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: الاعتقاد, الثقة
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘faith’). Relevant to Rahab’s trust in YHWH’s specific reported acts (Joshua 2:9-11), reinforcing the relational-trust sense against both creedal-assent drift and a pluralistic ‘any sincere seeker’ misreading of her inclusion.
Holy
Approved rendering: مقدس
Transliteration: muqaddas
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: طاهر
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘holy’). Root reused in Joshua’s ‘sanctify_yourselves’ (3:5; 7:13) and ‘holy_ground’ (5:15) - see Section B. Relational, moral set-apartness, never ritual-purification (wudu/ghusl) connotation.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: التقديس
Transliteration: al-taqdīs
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: التطهير
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘sanctification’). Underlies Joshua’s ‘sanctify_yourselves’ (הִתְקַדְּשׁוּ, Joshua 3:5; 7:13) - preparatory holiness before witnessing God’s covenant-fulfilling acts, not ritual washing.
Sin
Approved rendering: الخطية
Transliteration: al-khaṭīyah
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: الذنب, الإثم
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘sin’). Used in Joshua for general moral transgression before YHWH, kept distinct from the narrower מַעַל (‘trespass_treachery’, Section B) - Achan’s covenant-treachery against the devoted plunder (ch.7). Islamic fitrah doctrine (each soul born pure, bearing only its own deeds) runs against Achan’s demonstration of corporate exposure to guilt through one member’s sin and must be taught deliberately.
Glory
Approved rendering: المجد
Transliteration: al-majd
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: النور الإلهي
Original: כָּבוֹד
Category: Holy War and Divine Judgment
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘glory’). Used for Achan’s call to ‘give glory to the LORD’ through confession (Joshua 7:19) - glory rendered through truthful acknowledgment of God’s righteous judgment, not ritual gesture alone.
Election
Approved rendering: اختيار الله
Transliteration: ikhtiyār Allāh
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: القدر
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘election’). Must be explicitly distinguished by direction from Joshua’s ‘choose_human’ (בָּחַר, Section B) in 24:15,22: this baseline term denotes God’s own sovereign soteriological choice, never the human covenant-renewal decision to continue serving YHWH.
Israel
Approved rendering: إسرائيل
Transliteration: Isrā’īl
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles / God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘israel’). Carries even greater contemporary political weight in Joshua than in Romans 9-11, since this book narrates the land’s original acquisition by conquest; every land-promise teaching unit must carry an explicit redemptive-historical framing note distinguishing the ancient covenant narrative from any modern territorial or political claim.
Choose Human
Approved rendering: يختار / اختاروا
Transliteration: yakhtār / ikhtārū
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Original: בָּחַר
Category: Covenant Renewal
New term. בָּחַר, Joshua 24:15,22. Shares root خ-ي-ر with اختيار الله (baseline ‘election’, High). Must be explicitly distinguished by direction in every teaching note: this is a human covenant-renewal decision made in grateful response to God’s prior unilateral, sovereign acts (24:2-13), never a claim that salvation is humanly self-elected apart from God’s initiative.
Sanctify Yourselves
Approved rendering: تقدّسوا
Transliteration: taqaddasū
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal (preparatory holiness)
Original: הִתְקַדְּשׁוּ
Category: Covenant Renewal
New term (shares root with baseline ‘holy’/‘sanctification’). הִתְקַדְּשׁוּ, Joshua 3:5; 7:13. Preparatory holiness before witnessing God’s covenant-fulfilling acts - relational, moral set-apartness, not ritual purification (wudu/ghusl).
Commander Of Lords Army
Approved rendering: رئيس جند الرب
Transliteration: ra’īs jund al-Rabb
Doctrine: Courage through God’s Presence (Christological typology)
Rejected alternatives: ظهر له (verb - avoid; use تجلى)
Original: שַׂר־צְבָא־יְהוָה
Category: Courage through God’s Presence
New term. שַׂר־צְבָא־יְהוָה, Joshua 5:13-15. Strong candidate for pre-incarnate Christophany. The appearance-verb must use تجلى (parallel to التجلي, the Transfiguration), never ظهر, which the baseline already forbids for ‘incarnation’ due to its echo of the Quran’s crucifixion-denial (‘shubbiha lahum’) vocabulary. Flag for theologian review; neither overclaim settled Christological identification nor flatten the figure into ‘merely an angel’ in a way that erases the deity-signaling holy-ground/worship response (5:14).
Inheritance Land Allotment
Approved rendering: نصيب (preferred) / ميراث (theological summary contexts only)
Transliteration: naṣīb / mīrāth
Doctrine: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
Rejected alternatives: ميراث (as default allotment-narrative rendering)
Original: נַחֲלָה
Category: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
New term. נַחֲלָה, Joshua 13-19 (throughout); 21. ميراث is the precise technical term of Islamic inheritance law (mīrāth/farā’iḍ, fixed gendered shares under Shari’a); default to نصيب for the tribal-allotment narrative material, reserving ميراث only for explicit promise-fulfillment theology, always with a clarifying gloss.
Avenger Of Blood
Approved rendering: طالب الدم / الثائر بالدم
Transliteration: ṭālib al-dam / al-thā’ir bi-l-dam
Doctrine: Holy War and Divine Judgment (contrast: ordered justice)
Rejected alternatives: ولي الدم
Original: גֹּאֵל הַדָּם
Category: Holy War and Divine Judgment
New term. גֹּאֵל הַדָּם, Joshua 20:3,5,9. Avoid the standard Arabic legal-technical term ولي الدم - the precise, live term in contemporary Islamic criminal law (qiṣāṣ retaliation and diya/blood-money rights) - which would invite readers to import the entire Islamic qiṣāṣ legal framework onto the text; also compounds the baseline’s existing caution against ولي/أولياء vocabulary (rejected for ‘saints’).
Rest In The Land
Approved rendering: الراحة
Transliteration: al-rāḥah
Doctrine: Rest in the Promised Land as a Type of Salvation Rest
Rejected alternatives: سكينة, طمأنينة
Original: נוּחַ / מְנוּחָה
Category: Rest in the Promised Land as a Type of Salvation Rest
New term. נוּחַ / מְנוּחָה, Joshua 1:13,15; 11:23; 21:44; 22:4. No Islamic theological category matches this text’s ‘already inaugurated, not yet consummated’ covenantal rest. Never use سكينة (Qur’anic transient tranquility, Q9:26 - non-territorial, non-inherited) or طمأنينة. Guard against flattening into a merely military/political ceasefire with no further theological trajectory; pair with ‘typology_type’ vocabulary when teaching the doctrine.
Typology Type
Approved rendering: رمز / نموذج سابق
Transliteration: ramz / namūdhaj sābiq
Doctrine: Rest in the Promised Land as a Type of Salvation Rest
Rejected alternatives: ظل (unglossed)
New term - genuine lexical gap, not a direct Hebrew lexeme but a required theological category. No single common Arabic word conveys ‘a real historical event that God also intends as a pattern pointing forward to a greater reality’ without explanation. Always gloss on first use per lesson. Avoid unglossed ظل (shadow), which can suggest insubstantiality without the accompanying gloss.
Medium Risk Terms
Saints
Approved rendering: القديسون
Transliteration: al-qiddīsūn
Doctrine: Sainthood
Rejected alternatives: الأولياء
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘saints’). Relevant because the baseline’s caution against أولياء (Sufi ‘friends of God’) is independently compounded in Joshua by the ‘avenger_of_blood’ entry’s rejection of ولي الدم - both share the same و-ل-ي root risk in unrelated contexts.
Peace
Approved rendering: السلام
Transliteration: al-salām
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: الأمان, الطمأنينة
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘peace’). Relevant as a fence for ‘Rest in the Promised Land’: رest vocabulary (see ‘rest_in_the_land’) must not drift toward الطمأنينة or its Qur’anic cognate سكينة, both of which the baseline and this package’s rest-doctrine notes independently flag as subjective-tranquility categories distinct from covenantal, land-anchored rest.
Church
Approved rendering: الكنيسة
Transliteration: al-kanīsah
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: الجماعة, الأمة
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘church’). Relevant as a fence for Joshua’s OT judicial assembly ‘congregation’ (עֵדָה, see Section B) - the two concepts must not be conflated; الكنيسة is reserved for the NT ekklesia and never used to render עֵדָה.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: الأمم
Transliteration: al-umam
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: الكفار
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘gentiles’). Used for the nations surrounding and within the land throughout Joshua (Rahab, ch.2; the historical recitation, ch.24) whose fate before YHWH is decided by faith/allegiance rather than ethnicity. الكفار must never be substituted.
Covenant
Approved rendering: العهد
Transliteration: al-‘ahd
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant / Covenant (general)
Rejected alternatives: الميثاق
Inherited from Romans package (baseline ‘covenant’). Used across Joshua for the Ark of the Covenant (תابوت العهد), the Gibeonite political treaty (ch.9, see ‘covenant_treaty_political’), and contextually for the Shechem covenant renewal (ch.24) - context must distinguish the political-treaty sense from the theological covenant-renewal sense.
Fear The Lord
Approved rendering: يخاف / خافوا
Transliteration: yakhāf / khāfū
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Original: יָרֵא
Category: Covenant Renewal
New term. יָרֵא, Joshua 24:14. Reverential covenant fear that grounds worship, not anxious uncertainty about a pending deeds-based Judgment outcome - distinct from Islamic khashyah/taqwa (cf. baseline ‘assurance_of_salvation’ note).
Sincerity Completeness
Approved rendering: بكمال
Transliteration: bi-kamāl
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Original: תָּמִים
Category: Covenant Renewal
New term. תָּמִים, Joshua 24:14; echoed in Caleb’s ‘fully followed’ (14:8-9). Undivided wholeness of devotion, not moral perfectionism or works-merit - see baseline ‘righteousness’ fence.
Truth Faithfulness Conduct
Approved rendering: أمانة
Transliteration: amānah
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Original: אֱמֶת
Category: Covenant Renewal
New term. אֱמֶת (conduct sense), Joshua 24:14, paired with תָּמִים. Faithfulness/reliability of conduct, not the noun for saving trust - must be kept distinct from baseline الإيمان.
Witness
Approved rendering: شاهد / شهود
Transliteration: shāhid / shuhūd
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Rejected alternatives: شهيد
Original: עֵד
Category: Covenant
New term. עֵד, Joshua 24:22,27. Use the active-participle form (one who testifies); avoid شهيد (‘martyr’ in overwhelming contemporary Arabic usage) despite the shared root.
Be Strong And Courageous
Approved rendering: كن قويًا وتشدد
Transliteration: kun qawiyyan wa-tashaddad
Doctrine: Courage through God’s Presence
Original: חֲזַק וֶאֱמָץ
Category: Courage through God’s Presence
New term. חֲזַק וֶאֱמָץ, repeated Joshua 1:6,7,9,18; 10:25; 23:6. Must always be tied explicitly to the divine-presence promise (1:9), not generic martial valor, to avoid drift toward jihad-adjacent readings of religiously sanctioned bravery. Never use شجاعة/بسالة alone as a doctrinal label.
Prosper Succeed
Approved rendering: ينجح / يفلح
Transliteration: yanjaḥ / yafluḥ
Doctrine: Obedience and the Conquest
Original: צָלַח / הִצְלִיח
Category: Obedience and the Conquest
New term. צָלַח / הִצְלִיח, Joshua 1:7-8. Must remain tied to the obedience-to-the-Word condition; avoid decontextualized prosperity-gospel readings abstracted from covenant faithfulness.
Presence Of God
Approved rendering: أنا معك
Transliteration: anā ma’ak
Doctrine: Courage through God’s Presence
Rejected alternatives: حضرة
Original: אֶהְיֶה עִמָּךְ
Category: Courage through God’s Presence
New term. אֶהְיֶה עִמָּךְ, Joshua 1:5,9; 3:7. Shares surface form with the vernacular Islamic devotional phrase ‘الله معنا’ - a positive bridge point - but must retain OT covenantal particularity (with this people, for this task). حضرة must never be used; it carries Sufi mystical-experience and honorific saint/shaykh-title connotations foreign to this text.
Inherit Possess Verb
Approved rendering: يرث / يملك
Transliteration: yarith / yamlik
Doctrine: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
Original: יָרַשׁ
Category: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
New term. יָרַשׁ, Joshua 1:11,15; chs.13-19 passim. Same collision family as ‘inheritance_land_allotment’; prefer يملك (‘take possession’) where the legal-inheritance sense is not the intended emphasis, reserving يرث for explicit promise-fulfillment contexts.
Kindness Covenant Loyalty
Approved rendering: معروف / إحسان
Transliteration: ma’rūf / iḥsān
Doctrine: Rahab and the Inclusion of the Nations by Faith
Rejected alternatives: الرحمة, النعمة
Original: חֶסֶד
Category: Rahab and the Inclusion of the Nations by Faith
New term. חֶסֶד, Joshua 2:12, Rahab’s requested reciprocal kindness. Deliberately not الرحمة (already a rejected alternative for baseline ‘grace’) nor النعمة (baseline ‘grace’ itself), to avoid blurring the baseline’s carefully drawn distinctions with a different Hebrew word in a different sense.
Sign Token
Approved rendering: علامة (preferred) / آية (context-dependent)
Transliteration: ‘alāmah / āyah
Doctrine: Rahab and the Inclusion of the Nations by Faith
Original: אוֹת
Category: Rahab and the Inclusion of the Nations by Faith
New term. אוֹת, Joshua 2:12 and miracle contexts throughout. آية risks evoking ‘verse of the Qur’an’ for Arabic readers; علامة is the safer default outside settled Bible-translation idiom for a pledge-token.
Circumcision
Approved rendering: الختان
Transliteration: al-khitān
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal (Abrahamic sign)
Original: מוּל / בְּרִית מִילָה
Category: Covenant Renewal
New term. מוּל / בְּרִית מִילָה, Joshua 5:2-9. Shared vocabulary with Islamic khitan custom; must be taught as the specific Abrahamic covenant-sign rite (Genesis 17), not a general religious-hygienic practice.
Passover
Approved rendering: الفصح
Transliteration: al-Fiṣḥ
Doctrine: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
Original: פֶּסַח
Category: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
New term. פֶּסַח, Joshua 5:10-11. Already established in Arabic Christian usage; low collision risk.
Holy Ground
Approved rendering: أرض مقدسة
Transliteration: arḍ muqaddasah
Doctrine: Courage through God’s Presence
Original: אַדְמַת־קֹדֶשׁ
Category: Courage through God’s Presence
New term (shares root with baseline ‘holy’). אַדְמַת־קֹדֶשׁ, Joshua 5:15. Echoes Moses at the burning bush; reinforces the theophanic (not merely military-briefing) nature of the encounter.
Trespass Treachery
Approved rendering: خيانة / تعدٍّ
Transliteration: khiyānah / ta’addī
Doctrine: Holy War and Divine Judgment (violation)
Original: מַעַל
Category: Holy War and Divine Judgment
New term. מַעַל, Joshua 7:1; 22. Deliberately distinct from baseline ‘sin’ (الخطية) - narrower, more severe category: betrayal of a sacred trust/devoted object, endangering the whole community.
Blessing And Curse
Approved rendering: بركة ولعنة
Transliteration: barakah wa-la’nah
Doctrine: Obedience and the Conquest
Original: בְּרָכָה וּקְלָלָה
Category: Obedience and the Conquest
New term. בְּרָכָה וּקְלָלָה, Joshua 8:34-35. بركة carries popular Arab-piety associations with baraka transmitted through relics/saints; must be taught as God’s own direct covenantal favor pronounced immediately, not a mediated, transferable substance.
Covenant Treaty Political
Approved rendering: العهد
Transliteration: al-‘ahd
Doctrine: Covenant (political sense)
Original: בְּרִית (political-treaty sense)
Category: Covenant
New contextual entry (shares baseline ‘covenant’ rendering). בְּרִית in its political-treaty sense, Joshua 9 (Gibeon). Same Arabic word as the theological covenant; context must distinguish this lesser political sense from ch.24’s theological covenant renewal.
Lord Fought For
Approved rendering: حارب الرب من أجل…
Transliteration: ḥāraba al-Rabb min ajl…
Doctrine: Holy War and Divine Judgment
Original: נִלְחַם לְ…
Category: Holy War and Divine Judgment
New term. נִלְחַם לְ…, Joshua 10:14,42. Must never be abstracted into a general theology of divine sanction for any nation’s wars; keep bound to this specific, historically limited redemptive-historical conquest.
Obedience Formula
Approved rendering: كما أمر الرب موسى
Transliteration: kamā amara al-Rabb Mūsā
Doctrine: Obedience and the Conquest
Original: כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה אֶת־מֹשֶׁה
Category: Obedience and the Conquest
New term. כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה אֶת־מֹשֶׁה, repeated throughout (1:7,13; 4:10; 8:31,35; 10:40; 11:15,20,23; 21:2; 22:2). أمر (command) is a distinct register from baseline طاعة/طاعة الإيمان - obedience to a specific, prior, revealed command through a mediator (Moses → Joshua → Israel), not the Pauline fruit-of-faith category.
Border Territory
Approved rendering: حدود
Transliteration: ḥudūd
Doctrine: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
Original: גְּבוּל
Category: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
New term. גְּבוּל, Joshua 15-19 (boundary lists). حدود also denotes the fixed corporal punishments of Shari’a criminal law in Islamic legal usage - an unrelated sense; low confusion risk given the plainly geographic context, but worth a brief teaching note if the term recurs heavily across a single lesson.
Cities Of Refuge
Approved rendering: مدن الملجأ
Transliteration: mudun al-malja’
Doctrine: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise; Holy War and Divine Judgment (contrast)
Rejected alternatives: مدن الحرم
Original: עָרֵי מִקְלָט
Category: Holy War and Divine Judgment
New term. עָרֵי מִקְלָט, Joshua 20. Deliberately avoid any ح-ر-م-root rendering, which would collide directly with al-Ḥaramayn (the two sanctuary cities, Mecca and Medina); ملجأ (refuge/shelter) is the safe, non-colliding choice.
Congregation
Approved rendering: الجماعة
Transliteration: al-jamā’ah
Doctrine: Holy War and Divine Judgment (due process); Covenant Renewal (unity)
Original: עֵדָה
Category: Holy War and Divine Judgment
New term. עֵדָה, Joshua 20:6; 22. Lexically distinct from NT ekklesia/الكنيسة (baseline ‘church’) and must not be conflated with it. Also the standard term for the Islamic communal-prayer congregation (ṣalāt al-jamā’ah); low risk given the clear OT judicial-assembly context, but worth a brief disambiguating note at first use.
Cling Cleave
Approved rendering: تمسّكوا / التصقوا
Transliteration: tamassakū / iltaṣaqū
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal (preparatory, ch.23)
Original: דָּבַק
Category: Covenant Renewal
New term. דָּבַק, Joshua 23:8. Israel is called to cling exclusively to the LORD with the same intensity of attachment used elsewhere of marital union (Genesis 2:24); must not be softened to generic ‘follow’ language.
Love The Lord
Approved rendering: أحبوا الرب
Transliteration: aḥibbū al-Rabb
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal (preparatory, ch.23)
Original: אָהַב אֶת־יְהוָה
Category: Covenant Renewal
New term. אָהַב אֶת־יְהוָה, Joshua 23:11; cf. Deuteronomy 6:5. Relational, volitional covenant-love expressed through obedience and cleaving; distinguish from Sufi ‘ishq/mystical-absorption categories of divine love (union or annihilation of self into the Beloved).
Low Risk Terms
Put Away Remove
Approved rendering: يعزل / اعزلوا
Transliteration: ya’zil / i’zilū
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Original: הָסִיר
Category: Covenant Renewal
New term. הָסִיר, Joshua 24:14,23. Active, decisive repudiation of idols previously served - covenant renewal requires active removal, not passive neglect.
House Household
Approved rendering: بيت
Transliteration: bayt
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Original: בַּיִת
Category: Covenant Renewal
New term. בַּיִת, Joshua 24:15; cf. Rahab’s household (2:12-13; 6:25). Corporate, representative household faith-decision-making.
Amorite
Approved rendering: الأموريين
Transliteration: al-Amūriyyīn
Doctrine: Holy War and Divine Judgment
Original: אֱמֹרִי
Category: Holy War and Divine Judgment
New term. Proper noun/ethnonym; the present, local idolatrous alternative to YHWH in Joshua 24:15.
Great Stone
Approved rendering: حجر كبير
Transliteration: ḥajar kabīr
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Original: אֶבֶן גְּדוֹלָה
Category: Covenant
New term. אֶבֶן גְּדוֹלָה, Joshua 24:26-27. Physical, enduring witness-object paralleling the Jordan memorial stones (ch.4).
Meditate
Approved rendering: يتأمل / يلهج به
Transliteration: yata’ammal / yalhaju bihi
Doctrine: Obedience and the Conquest
Original: הָגָה
Category: Obedience and the Conquest
New term. הָגָה, Joshua 1:8. Devotional, quietly-vocalized engagement with the written Word, not merely intellectual assent.
Oath
Approved rendering: قسم / عهد
Transliteration: qasam / ‘ahd
Doctrine: Rahab and the Inclusion of the Nations by Faith
Original: שְׁבוּעָה
Category: Rahab and the Inclusion of the Nations by Faith
New term. שְׁבוּעָה, Joshua 2:14,17,20; 9:15-20. The عهد form converges with baseline ‘covenant’; context disambiguates the sworn-pledge sense.
Ark Of The Covenant
Approved rendering: تابوت العهد
Transliteration: tābūt al-‘ahd
Doctrine: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
Original: אֲרוֹן הַבְּרִית
Category: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
New term. אֲרוֹן הַבְּרִית, Joshua 3-4; 6. العهد reused from baseline ‘covenant’; established, low-collision Arabic Bible vocabulary.
Memorial Stone
Approved rendering: حجر تذكار / نصب تذكاري
Transliteration: ḥajar tidhkār / nuṣub tidhkārī
Doctrine: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
Original: אֶבֶן זִכָּרוֹן / מַצֵּבָה
Category: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
New term. אֶבֶן זִכָּרוֹן / מַצֵּבָה, Joshua 4:7,20. Physical covenant-memory marker for future generations.
Shofar Trumpet
Approved rendering: بوق / شوفار
Transliteration: būq / shōfār
Doctrine: Holy War and Divine Judgment
Original: שׁוֹפָר
Category: Holy War and Divine Judgment
New term. שׁוֹפָר, Joshua 6. Worship-form warfare marker; both the transliteration and the plain paraphrase may be used together for ritual specificity and comprehension.
Shout
Approved rendering: هتاف / صيحة
Transliteration: hitāf / ṣayḥah
Doctrine: Holy War and Divine Judgment
Original: תְּרוּעָה
Category: Holy War and Divine Judgment
New term. תְּרוּעָה, Joshua 6:20. Victory triggered by obedience, not human force.
Altar
Approved rendering: مذبح
Transliteration: madhbaḥ
Doctrine: Obedience and the Conquest
Original: מִזְבֵּחַ
Category: Obedience and the Conquest
New term. מִזְבֵּחַ, Joshua 8:30-31; 22. Standard cultic-construction vocabulary.
Deceive
Approved rendering: خدعوا / تصرفوا بخداع
Transliteration: khada’ū / taṣarrafū bi-khidā’
Doctrine: Covenant (Gibeonite narrative)
Original: נָכַל
Category: Covenant
New term. נָכַל, Joshua 9. Descriptive narrative term; low collision risk.
Lot
Approved rendering: قرعة
Transliteration: qur’ah
Doctrine: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
Original: גּוֹרָל
Category: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
New term. גּוֹרָל, Joshua 14:2; 18:6,8,10; 19 passim. Impartial, providentially-overseen allocation mechanism; standard, low-collision term.
Fully Followed The Lord
Approved rendering: تبعه بكل قلبه / اتبع الرب تمامًا
Transliteration: tabi’ahu bi-kulli qalbihi / atba’a al-Rabb tamāman
Doctrine: Obedience and the Conquest
Original: מִלֵּא אַחֲרֵי יְהוָה
Category: Obedience and the Conquest
New term. מִלֵּא אַחֲרֵי יְהוָה, Joshua 14:8-9,14. Positive exemplar term lexically echoing תָּמִים in the core passage (24:14); Caleb’s model of undivided loyalty.
Snare Trap
Approved rendering: شبكة / فخ
Transliteration: shabakah / fakhkh
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal (preparatory, ch.23)
Original: מוֹקֵשׁ
Category: Covenant Renewal
New term. מוֹקֵשׁ, Joshua 23:13. Active-danger metaphor for syncretism through intermarriage/alliance with the nations - a trap, not a passive drift.
Bury
Approved rendering: دُفن
Transliteration: dufina
Doctrine: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise (closing fulfillment)
Original: קָבַר
Category: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
New term. קָבַר, Joshua 24:29-33. Cross-generational fulfillment of long-held promises (Joseph’s bones, Joshua, Eleazar) closes the book.
Egypt
Approved rendering: مصر
Transliteration: Miṣr
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem (historical recitation)
Original: מִצְרַיִם
Category: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
New term. מִצְרַיִם, Joshua 24:4-6,14,17. Standard proper noun.
Beyond The River
Approved rendering: عبر النهر
Transliteration: ‘abr al-nahr
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem (historical recitation)
Original: עֵבֶר הַנָּהָר
Category: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
New term. עֵבֶר הַנָּהָר, Joshua 24:2-3,14-15. Geographic marker recalling Abraham’s Mesopotamian origin, grounding the covenant choice in Israel’s redemptive history.
Referenced passages