It should be noted that here in verse 2 the Lord specifically refers to Moses as My servant Moses. The omission of the explicit identification of Moses as the LORD’s servant in verse 1 may therefore be justified, if that information is included in verse 2. In fact, the repetition the LORD’s servant (verse 1) … My servant (verse 2) may be stylistically unsatisfactory in some languages. If My servant is retained in verse 2, it may be helpful to translate “Moses served me while he lived, but he is dead now.”
Get ready translates a verb usually rendered “Arise” (Revised Standard Version [Revised Standard Version]); it occurs very often as a sort of auxiliary, expressing a sense of urgency or immediacy: “Go on and cross.” In such cases it does not imply that the subject has been sitting or lying down.
In Hebrew the two imperatives Get ready … and cross are directed first of all to Joshua, and the structure you and all the people of Israel represents a typical Hebrew structure in which the primary subject is mentioned first, then followed by the secondary subject or subjects who also participate in the same action. Since Joshua is the first subject addressed, it is possible to assume that he is to lead the others across the Jordan River. Indeed, the entire context presupposes that Joshua is now assuming the role of leadership that Moses once held, and that the manner in which he will prove his leadership is in the leading of the people of Israel across the Jordan. Therefore it is legitimate to translate “You (singular) must now enter the land that I will give you. Lead all the people of Israel across the Jordan!” This restructuring is also more natural in English, and it avoids a Hebraism such as one finds in Today’s English Version (Good News Translation).
The Jordan River translates “this Jordan” (Revised Standard Version), which does not mean that there is another Jordan somewhere else; it simply indicates the river, on whose east bank the people are camped.
That I am giving to them is literally “that I am giving to them, the sons of Israel.” The phrase “the sons of Israel” is redundant and is omitted by the Greek Old Testament. Moreover, the use of them may imply that Joshua is excluded from the promise. For languages which have a plural form of the pronoun “you,” the shift may be made from them to “you” (plural). This will leave no doubt that Joshua is included in the promise. One may also translate “you my people” or “you, the people of Israel.” The Hebrew of verse 3 is in fact “you” (plural), and the introduction of the second person pronoun in the present verse can give a consistency in the use of personal pronouns, which is an important feature of many languages. In many languages it is not natural to make changes in the persons of verbs that one frequently finds in the Hebrew Old Testament, and translators must be constantly alert to the distinctions between Hebrew and their own language.
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .