late as the career of Joshua stands in the strongest possible tension with the tradition that became normative in the Jerusalem monarchy. 15. bad thing. Hebrew raʿ, generally “evil.” This verse is rhetorical repetition of the preceding, with inverted order of elements. choose. The issue is not monotheism in the abstract but allegiance in concrete particularity. Compare Exod 20:3. from the region beyond. This sense is proved by variants in the initial preposition: b and m. A number of gods had moved
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