Joshua

Joshua first appears after Israel has left Egypt and entered the wilderness. When Amalek attacked at Rephidim, Moses told Joshua to choose men and lead them into battle. Joshua fought below while Moses climbed a hill with Aaron and Hur. Israel prevailed while Moses held up his hands, but Amalek gained ground when his hands fell. Aaron and Hur supported them until sunset, and Joshua defeated the attackers. Scripture identifies Joshua as a son of Nun from the tribe of Ephraim, but it does not narrate his birth or childhood.

Joshua spent many years close to Moses. He accompanied Moses partway up the mountain of God and, after Moses visited the tent of meeting outside the camp, the young Joshua remained at the tent. When Eldad and Medad prophesied inside the camp, Joshua asked Moses to stop them. Moses instead said that he wished all the people could be prophets. Joshua wanted to protect Moses, but Moses’ judgment and responsibility did not always match his assistant’s first reaction.

When one leader from each tribe was chosen to scout Canaan, Joshua represented Ephraim. His name had been Hoshea, and Moses called him Joshua. The twelve men explored for forty days and returned with fruit. They agreed that the land was rich, but they also reported strong inhabitants and fortified cities. Most of the scouts discouraged the people from entering. When the community demanded a return to Egypt, Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes and said the land was very good and the people should not be afraid. The assembly threatened to stone them.

God announced that the generation brought out of Egypt would die in the wilderness and that their children would enter the land after forty years. Joshua and Caleb alone among the scouts were promised entry. Joshua did not become Israel’s leader immediately after one courageous report. He spent the long years of wandering beside Moses while the rest of their generation died one by one.

When Moses learned that he would not enter the promised land, he asked for someone to lead the community. God directed him to Joshua, a man who had the Spirit, and told him to lay a hand on Joshua before the priest Eleazar and the whole assembly. Moses gave him a share of his authority so the people would listen. East of the Jordan, Moses publicly told Joshua to be strong and courageous. After Moses died, Joshua was described as full of the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid hands on him. The former assistant now carried responsibility for leading Israel.

God commanded Joshua to cross the Jordan, repeatedly telling him to be strong, courageous, and faithful to the law. Joshua ordered the camp to prepare for a crossing in three days. He reminded the fighting men of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh that although their families could remain east of the river, they had promised to help the other tribes. He secretly sent two scouts to Jericho, where Rahab hid them in her house. She concealed their route from the king’s men and asked that her family be spared. The scouts told her to hang a scarlet cord in the window, then returned to Joshua reporting that fear had fallen on the land.

When the priests carrying the ark stepped into the Jordan, the water coming from upstream stopped and the people crossed on dry ground. Joshua chose one person from each tribe to take twelve stones from the riverbed. The stones would prompt future children to ask what had happened and preserve the account of the crossing. At Gilgal, the new generation was circumcised and celebrated Passover. When the people began eating produce from the land, the manna stopped. Near Jericho, Joshua met the commander of God’s army holding a sword. Joshua bowed and asked for his orders, and was told to remove his sandals because the place was holy.

Joshua had the people circle Jericho once a day for six days and seven times on the seventh. When the priests sounded their trumpets and the people shouted, the wall fell. Israel killed the men and women, young and old, and the animals inside the city, then burned it. Rahab and her household were spared as promised. Achan, however, had secretly taken objects that were forbidden. Israel then lost its first attack on Ai, and thirty-six Israelites were killed. After lots and questioning exposed Achan, the stolen cloak, silver, and gold were found. Achan, his children, his animals, and his possessions were taken to the Valley of Achor, where they were stoned and burned. The book of Joshua does not hide the deaths that accompanied Israel’s victories and failures in the land.

Joshua attacked Ai again and captured it, then built an altar on Mount Ebal and read the law before the people. The Gibeonites later used worn sacks, sandals, and dry bread to pretend that they came from a distant country. Israel’s leaders made a treaty without asking God. Although the deception became known three days later, they would not break their oath, and the Gibeonites became woodcutters and water carriers for the community. When five neighboring kings attacked Gibeon, Joshua marched through the night to defend the treaty partner. Hailstones killed more enemy fighters than the Israelite army killed with swords, and the fighting continued through the long day when Joshua spoke to the sun and moon.

Wars continued against cities in the south and north. Joshua and the army killed kings and took cities; some accounts say that no one alive was left. The whole land was not completely settled at once. When Joshua was old, much territory still remained to be possessed. He oversaw the division of the land among the tribes. Caleb, forty-five years after scouting Canaan, said he still had strength to fight and requested Hebron, which he received. Joshua himself was given Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim, where he built up the town and lived.

Cities of refuge were designated, and towns with pastureland were assigned to the Levites. When the eastern tribes returned home and built a large altar beside the Jordan, the western tribes assumed that they had rebelled and prepared for war. The eastern tribes explained that the altar was not for separate sacrifices. It was a witness that people on both sides of the Jordan served the same God. Phinehas the priest and the tribal leaders accepted the explanation, and war was avoided. Before Joshua’s final gatherings, the tribes resolved a misunderstanding that had nearly led to war through investigation and an answer.

In old age, Joshua gathered Israel’s elders and leaders and warned them not to serve the gods of the remaining nations. He later assembled all the tribes at Shechem and reviewed their history from the ancestors before Abraham through Egypt, the wilderness, and the crossing of the Jordan. He demanded that the people put away other gods and choose whom they would serve, declaring that he and his household would serve God. The people answered that they too would serve God. Joshua told them that they were witnesses against themselves and established statutes for them. He recorded the words in the book of the law and set up a large stone under an oak as a witness to what the people had said.

Joshua son of Nun died after these events at the age of one hundred ten. He was buried within his inheritance at Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim. Israel served God throughout Joshua’s lifetime and during the lives of elders who outlived him and had seen God’s work. The book then records the burial of Joseph’s bones at Shechem and the death of Eleazar the priest. The young man who once fought at Moses’ command had led the people across the Jordan and divided the land. His last public act was to confirm Israel’s choice at Shechem before he was buried in the land assigned to him.