Joshua

Joshua serves Moses before succeeding him as the leader of Israel. He is the son of Nun from the tribe of Ephraim and appears while Israel is in the wilderness after leaving Egypt. When Amalek attacks at Rephidim, Moses tells him to choose men and lead them into battle.

While Joshua fights Amalek, Moses climbs a hill with Aaron and Hur. Israel prevails while Moses holds up his hands, but Amalek gains ground when he lowers them. As his hands grow heavy, Aaron and Hur seat him on a stone and support his hands on either side. They keep his hands steady until sunset, and Joshua defeats Amalek.

When Moses sets out for the mountain of God, Joshua rises with him. Joshua also serves at the tent of meeting that Moses pitches outside the camp, where people go to seek God. After God speaks with Moses and Moses returns to the camp, Joshua remains at the tent.

In the wilderness, two men named Eldad and Medad prophesy inside the camp. Joshua asks Moses to stop them. Moses asks whether Joshua is jealous for his sake and says that he wishes God would give his Spirit to all the people so that they could all be prophets.

Moses sends one man from each tribe to explore Canaan. Ephraim is represented by Hoshea son of Nun; Numbers records that Moses calls him Joshua. The twelve scouts explore the land for forty days and return with grapes, pomegranates, and figs to report what they have seen.

The scouts say that the land is rich, but its inhabitants are strong and its cities large and fortified. Caleb urges the people to go and take possession, while the other scouts say they cannot win. When the people propose choosing a leader to take them back to Egypt, Joshua and Caleb tear their clothes. They say that God will give them the land if he delights in them, and urge them not to rebel against him or fear its people. The assembly threatens to stone them.

God announces that those who were counted from the age of twenty upward and complained against him will die in the wilderness rather than enter the land. Joshua and Caleb are exceptions. The children whom the people feared would be captured or killed will enter it. God also declares forty years of wandering, one year for each day the scouts explored. The scouts who brought an evil report die by a plague, while Joshua and Caleb survive.

As his death approaches, Moses asks God to appoint someone to lead the community. God tells him to bring Joshua, a man in whom is the Spirit, lay hands on him, and commission him before Eleazar the priest and the whole assembly. Eleazar is to seek God’s judgment through the Urim on Joshua’s behalf, and the community is to move according to that judgment. Moses brings Joshua forward and lays hands on him as instructed.

Before the people of Israel, Moses tells Joshua to be strong and courageous. He assures him that God will go before him, stay with him, and never forsake him. The closing chapter of Deuteronomy describes Joshua as full of the spirit of wisdom because Moses has laid hands on him, and says that Israel listens to him.

After Moses dies, God commands Joshua to lead the people across the Jordan. He is to observe the law given through Moses, turn neither to the right nor to the left, and meditate on the book of the law day and night so that he can act on what it says. Joshua sends officers through the camp to tell the people to prepare food for a crossing within three days.

Joshua also speaks to Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh, whose land lies east of the Jordan. Their wives, children, and livestock may remain there, but the armed fighting men must cross and help the other tribes. They may return home once their fellow Israelites have also received land and rest.

Joshua secretly sends two scouts to Jericho, where they enter Rahab’s house. She hides them beneath flax stalks on her roof and tells the king’s messengers that they have already left. She tells the scouts that people fear Israel after hearing what Israel’s God has done. In return for her help, she asks them to spare her family.

The scouts promise to honor their agreement if Rahab keeps their mission secret. She must tie a scarlet cord in the window and gather her family inside the house; they will not be responsible for anyone who goes outside. Rahab lowers them through the window. They hide in the hills for three days before returning to Joshua with their report.

The people camp beside the Jordan. When the priests carrying the ark step into the water, its flow from upstream stops. The priests stand on dry ground in the middle of the river while all Israel crosses. When they come up from the river, the water returns and overflows its banks.

Joshua calls twelve men, one from each tribe, to take a stone apiece from the place where the priests have stood. He sets up the twelve stones taken from the river at Gilgal. When children later ask what they mean, their parents are to tell them how God dried up the Jordan so that Israel could cross.

At Gilgal, the males born in the wilderness who have not been circumcised undergo circumcision and stay in camp until they heal. The people celebrate Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month. The next day they eat unleavened cakes and roasted grain from the land. The manna stops on the day after they eat this produce, and that year they live on the harvest of Canaan.

Near Jericho, Joshua meets a man standing with a drawn sword. Joshua asks whether he is on Israel’s side or its enemies’ side. The man answers that he has come as the commander of God’s army. Joshua bows and asks for instructions, then removes his sandals as commanded because the ground is holy.

God gives Joshua instructions for marching around Jericho. The armed men are to circle the city once a day for six days, with seven priests blowing trumpets before the ark. On the seventh day they are to circle it seven times. Joshua tells the people to remain silent until he orders them to shout.

After the seventh circuit on the seventh day, the people shout as the trumpets sound, and the wall falls. The army enters the city, kills its men and women, young and old, and its livestock, and burns the city. Silver, gold, and vessels of bronze and iron go into God’s treasury. The two scouts bring Rahab and her family out and place them outside the camp. Joshua 6 records that she comes to live among Israel.

Scouts sent to the next city, Ai, report that a small force will be enough. About three thousand men attack but flee, and about thirty-six are killed. Joshua and the elders tear their clothes, put dust on their heads, and fall before the ark. God tells Joshua that Israel has stolen devoted things and broken the covenant, and cannot stand against its enemies until those things are removed.

The next morning, the people come forward by tribe, family, and household until Achan is selected. When Joshua asks him to tell the truth, Achan confesses that he coveted a robe, silver, and gold, took them, and buried them inside his tent. Joshua’s messengers find the objects, bring them out, and lay them before God.

Achan is taken to the Valley of Achor with his sons, daughters, livestock, tent, and all his possessions. Israel stones him. The account goes on to describe stoning and burning, followed by the raising of a large heap of stones. Afterward, God turns from his anger.

God tells Joshua to take the whole army and return to Ai. Some soldiers lie in ambush behind the city, while Joshua’s force pretends to flee and draws its defenders away. When Joshua points his javelin toward the city, the hidden soldiers rush in, capture it, and set it on fire. Israel kills the people of Ai and executes its king, but this time takes the livestock and goods as God has permitted.

Joshua builds an altar of uncut stones on Mount Ebal, where burnt offerings and peace offerings are made. He writes a copy of Moses’ law on stones and reads its blessings and curses before the people. Women, children, and foreigners living among Israel also hear the reading.

The Gibeonites bring worn sacks, wineskins, and sandals, along with dry, moldy bread, to pretend that they have traveled from a distant country. Without asking God, Joshua and the leaders make a covenant and swear to let them live. Three days later, Israel learns that they live nearby. The leaders say they cannot kill them because they have already sworn an oath by God.

When Joshua asks why they deceived him, the Gibeonites say that they feared for their lives. He prevents Israel from killing them and assigns them to cut wood and draw water for the community and for God’s altar.

The king of Jerusalem hears that Gibeon has made peace with Israel and calls on four other kings to join an attack. When the five kings’ armies surround Gibeon, its people ask Joshua for help. He brings his army from Gilgal, marches through the night, and takes the enemy by surprise.

Large hailstones strike the fleeing enemy, killing more people than Israel’s swords do. Joshua speaks to God and, before the people, calls for the sun to stand over Gibeon and the moon over the Valley of Aijalon. Joshua 10 records that the sun and moon stop until the nation has avenged itself on its enemies, and that the sun does not hurry to set for about a whole day.

The five kings are found hiding in a cave, captured, and executed. Joshua and the army attack southern cities and later fight the northern kings gathered at the waters of Merom. Kings are killed and cities taken; some accounts describe no inhabitants being left alive. Joshua 11 says that these wars continue for a long time.

When Joshua is old, God tells him that much land remains to be possessed and commands him to allocate it to the tribes. Caleb says that forty-five years have passed since he explored Canaan and that he is now eighty-five. He says he still has strength to fight and asks for the hill country. Joshua blesses him and gives him Hebron.

Eleazar the priest, Joshua, and the tribal heads divide the land by lot at the entrance to the tent of meeting in Shiloh. After Israel finishes distributing the tribal inheritances, Joshua receives the town he has requested. He rebuilds Timnathserah in the hill country of Ephraim and lives there.

The people designate cities of refuge where someone who kills unintentionally can flee and receive protection until appearing before the community for judgment. The Levites receive towns among the tribal lands, with pastureland for their livestock. Joshua 21 records forty-eight towns assigned to them.

Joshua blesses the people of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh who have fought alongside the other tribes and sends them home east of the Jordan. On their return journey, they build a large altar beside the river. The other tribes regard it as rebellion against God and prepare for war. Phinehas the priest and ten tribal leaders go to question them.

The eastern tribes say they do not intend to offer separate sacrifices. They have built the altar as a witness that both sides serve the same God, so that future generations west of the river cannot tell their eastern relatives that they have no share in him. Phinehas and the leaders accept the explanation and report it to Israel, which stops discussing war.

In his old age, Joshua calls together the elders and leaders. He urges them to keep Moses’ law, love God, and avoid serving the gods of the remaining nations. If they break the covenant and bow to other gods, he warns, they will perish from the land they have received.

Joshua gathers all the tribes at Shechem and recounts their history as he delivers God’s words. He speaks of Abraham’s ancestors serving other gods, God bringing Abraham to Canaan, the deliverance from Egypt, and the journey through the wilderness and across the Jordan into the land. Joshua tells the people to put away other gods and choose whom they will serve. He declares that he and his household will serve God.

When the people promise to serve God, Joshua warns that God is holy and that abandoning him for other gods will bring disaster even after he has blessed them. They repeat their promise. Joshua tells them that they are witnesses against themselves and calls on them to put away other gods and turn their hearts to Israel’s God. That day he makes a covenant with them at Shechem and establishes statutes and ordinances.

Joshua records these words in the book of God’s law and sets a large stone under the oak beside the sanctuary. He says that the stone has heard all the words God has spoken to the people and will serve as a witness against them lest they deny their God. Then he sends them home to their inheritances.

Joshua dies at the age of one hundred ten and is buried at Timnathserah in the hill country of Ephraim. Israel serves God during Joshua’s lifetime and during the lives of the elders who outlive him and know what God has done for Israel. The book closes with records of Joseph’s bones being buried at Shechem and the death of Eleazar the priest.