book of joshua Summary and Overview

contains a history of the Israelites from the death of Moses to that of Joshua. It consists of three parts: (1.) The history of the conquest of the land (1-12). (2.) The allotment of the land to the different tribes, with the appointment of cities of refuge, the provision for the Levites (13-22), and the dismissal of the eastern tribes to their homes. This section has been compared to the Domesday Book of the Norman conquest. (3.) The farewell addresses of Joshua, with an account of his death (23, 24). This book stands first in the second of the three sections, (1) the Law, (2) the Prophets, (3) the "other writings" = Hagiographa, into which the Jewish Church divided the Old Testament. There is every reason for concluding that the uniform tradition of the Jews is correct when they assign the authorship of the book to Joshua, all except the concluding section; the last verses (24:29-33) were added by some other hand. There are two difficulties connected with this book which have given rise to much discussion, (1.) The miracle of the standing still of the sun and moon on Gibeon. The record of it occurs in Joshua's impassioned prayer of faith, as quoted (Josh. 10:12-15) from the "Book of Jasher" (q.v.). There are many explanations given of these words. They need, however, present no difficulty if we believe in the possibility of God's miraculous interposition in behalf of his people. Whether it was caused by the refraction of the light, or how, we know not. (2.) Another difficulty arises out of the command given by God utterly to exterminate the Canaanites. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" It is enough that Joshua clearly knew that this was the will of God, who employs his terrible agencies, famine, pestilence, and war, in the righteous government of this world. The Canaanites had sunk into a state of immorality and corruption so foul and degrading that they had to be rooted out of the land with the edge of the sword. "The Israelites' sword, in its bloodiest executions, wrought a work of mercy for all the countries of the earth to the very end of the world." This book resembles the Acts of the Apostles in the number and variety of historical incidents it records, and in its many references to persons and places; and as in the latter case the epistles of Paul (see Paley's Horae Paul.) confirm its historical accuracy by their incidental allusions and "undesigned coincidences," so in the former modern discoveries confirm its historicity. The Amarna tablets (see ADONIZEDEC T0000099) are among the most remarkable discoveries of the age. Dating from about B.C. 1480 down to the time of Joshua, and consisting of official communications from Amorite, Phoenician, and Philistine chiefs to the king of Egypt, they afford a glimpse into the actual condition of Israel prior to the Hebrew invasion, and illustrate and confirm the history of the conquest. A letter, also still extant, from a military officer, "master of the captains of Egypt," dating from near the end of the reign of Rameses II., gives a curious account of a journey, probably official, which he undertook through Israel as far north as to Aleppo, and an insight into the social condition of the country at that time. Among the things brought to light by this letter and the Amarna tablets is the state of confusion and decay that had now fallen on Egypt. The Egyptian garrisons that had held possession of Israel from the time of Thothmes III., some two hundred years before, had now been withdrawn. The way was thus opened for the Hebrews. In the history of the conquest there is no mention of Joshua having encountered any Egyptian force. The tablets contain many appeals to the king of Egypt for help against the inroads of the Hebrews, but no help seems ever to have been sent. Is not this just such a state of things as might have been anticipated as the result of the disaster of the Exodus? In many points, as shown under various articles, the progress of the conquest is remarkably illustrated by the tablets. The value of modern discoveries in their relation to Old Testament history has been thus well described: "The difficulty of establishing the charge of lack of historical credibility, as against the testimony of the Old Testament, has of late years greatly increased. The outcome of recent excavations and explorations is altogether against it. As long as these books contained, in the main, the only known accounts of the events they mention, there was some plausibility in the theory that perhaps these accounts were written rather to teach moral lessons than to preserve an exact knowledge of events. It was easy to say in those times men had not the historic sense. But the recent discoveries touch the events recorded in the Bible at very many different points in many different generations, mentioning the same persons, countries, peoples, events that are mentioned in the Bible, and showing beyond question that these were strictly historic. The point is not that the discoveries confirm the correctness of the Biblical statements, though that is commonly the case, but that the discoveries show that the peoples of those ages had the historic sense, and, specifically, that the Biblical narratives they touch are narratives of actual occurrences."

Named from Joshua the son of Nun, who is the principal character in it. The book may be regarded as consisting of three parts: 1. The conquest of Canaan; chs. 1-12. 2. The partition of Canaan; chs. 13-22. 3. Joshua's farewell; chs. 23,24. Nothing is really known as to the authorship of the book. Joshua himself is generally named as the author by the Jewish writers and the Christian fathers; but no contemporary assertion or sufficient historical proof of the fact exists, and it cannot be maintained without qualification. The last verses, ch. #Jos 24:29-33| were obviously added at a later time. Some events, such as the capture of Hebron, of Debir, #Jos 15:13-19| and Judg 1:10-15 of Leshem, #Jos 19:47| and Judg 18:7 and the joint occupation of Jerusalem, #Jos 15:63| and Judg 1:21 probably did not occur till after Joshua's death. (It was written probably during Joshua's life, or soon after his death (B.C. 1420), and includes his own records, with revision by some other person not long afterward.)

THE BOOK OF JOSHUA Joshua, The Book of. It may be divided into three parts: I. The conquest of the land, chs. 1-12; II. The partition of the land, chs. 13-22; III. The final addresses of Joshua, his death and burial. Chs. 23, 24. It embraces a period variously estimated at from 17 to 30 years. As to the authorship of the book, the name "Joshua" in the title may imply no more than that he is the hero of it. Still, in connection with ch. 24:26, "And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God," the title may be allowed to weigh something more, and we may attribute the book, if not to Joshua, at least to one of his elders who was well acquainted with him. This theory is not inconsistent with a subsequent revision. The two difficulties in the book relate to the sun standing still, ch. Josh 10:13; and to the wholesale slaughter of the Canaanites by the command of God. In regard to the first, the difficulty is manufactured out of -- it does not exist in -- the text. The passage is a poetical quotation from the book of Jasher, which was probably a collection of sacred songs. This will be evident from a revision of the A.V. Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, And thou, moon, upon the valley of Ajalon ! And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed her course, Until the people were avenged of their enemies. And the sun tarried in the midst of the heavens. And hasted not to go down for a whole day. The day was probably one of extraordinary brightness, as well as of extraordinary anxiety, hence it would appear to be prolonged. The second difficulty is only one of the many chapters in the mysterious government of Providence, which permits the ravages of war, famine, and pestilence.

"The doomsday book of Israel," especially Joshua 13-23. Authenticated by Scripture references to the events recorded in it (Pa. 78:53-65; 28:21; Habakkuk 3:11-13; Acts 7:45; Hebrews 4:8; 11:30-32; James 2:25). Joshua after destroying the kings, so that Israel had rest from war in the open field, divided generally the land; but this is quite consistent with the after statements that years passed before the process of division was completed and the allotments finally settled. Joshua was directed to divide land not yet in Israel's actual possession (Joshua 13:1-14:5). God designed that Israel should occupy the land by degrees, lest the beasts should multiply and the land be desolate (Exodus 23:28-30); for instance, though the kings of Jerusalem and Gezer were slain, their people were not rooted out until long after. The slackness of Israel to extirpate the accursed Canaanites was also a cause of non-immediate possession (Joshua 11:16,23; 12:7,10-12; compare Joshua 15:63; 16:10; 17:1,16; 18:1,3; 19:51). Joshua is based on the Pentateuch (to which it is joined by the conjunction "now" or "and" at its beginning),"now" but distinct from it. Compare 13:7 with Numbers 34:13; 13:17 with Numbers 32:37; 13:21,22 with Numbers 31:8; 13:14,33; 14:4, with Deuteronomy 18:1,2; Numbers 18:20; Numbers 21 with Numbers 35. UNITY . The book evidently is that of an eye witness, so minute and vivid are the descriptions. The narrative moves on in one uninterrupted flow for the first 12 chapters of Joshua. Jehovah's faithfulness is exhibited in the historical fulfillment of His covenanted promises, with which the book opens (Joshua 1:2-9, the programme of the book). 1. The promise, Joshua 1:2-5, is fulfilled (Joshua 2-12), the conquest of the land by Jehovah's mighty help, "from the wilderness and this Lebanon unto ... Euphrates ... and the great sea (the Mediterranean) toward the going down of the sun." The limit, the Euphrates, was not 2. 1 Samuel 6:14-18. 3.the people expressing still their resolution to serve Jehovah, Joshua made a covenant between God and them; and wrote the covenant and the words spoken on both sides in the law book of God, adding it to that written by Moses, and set up a stone as a memorial on the spot, under a terebinth tree by the sanctuary (or place hallowed to Jehovah by Abraham), and as a visible silent witness of their engagement. His influence under God kept them faithful both in his own time and that of the elders who outlived him. A pious warrior, almost without blemish, one who learned to command in advanced age by obeying when a youth, ever looking up to Jehovah with childlike faith, worshipping with devout prostration the Captain of the Lord's host, dispensing kingdoms yet content at the last with a petty inheritance, as disinterested and unselfish as he was brave, generous, and patriotic. Joshua typifies Jesus whose name he bears (Acts 7:45; Hebrews 4:8). Moses representing the law could not bring Israel into Canaan; that was reserved for Joshua. So Jesus perfects what the law could not, and brings His people into the heavenly inheritance (Acts 13:39; Hebrews 4; 7:19-25). He leads His people through a Jordan-like flood of troubles and death itself without being overwhelmed (Isaiah 43:2). He bruises Satan under their feet (Joshua 10:24; Psalm 110:5; Malachi 4:3; Romans 16:20). Jesus is the minister of the true circumcision(Joshua 5:2-9; compare Romans 15:8; 2:29; Colossians 2:11,13). Joshua was buried in the border of his inheritance in see TIMNATH SERAH (which see: probably now Kefr Haris) in Mount Ephraim, on the northern side of the hill Gaash (Joshua 24:30). The Septuagint adds: "there they laid with him in the tomb the stone knives with which he circumcised the children of Israel in Gilgal ... and there they are unto this day." If this addition of the Septuagint be trustworthy, it will be a curious proof that flint knives lay in situ for 12 centuries, from the 16th to the third century B.C., the date of Septuagint. At all events it shows that flint knives are no proof of a barbarous race ages before the historic period; such knives were used by civilized races in the historic times. M. Guerin professes to have discovered at Tigne (Timnath Serah), Joshua's tomb. In the hill there one tomb has a vestibule, into which the light penetrates. There are 300 niches for lamps. The vestibule admits to two chambers, one with 15 receptacles for bodies, the other but one; many sharp flint knives were found on removing the dirt from the floor of the tomb, as also in the Canaanites was the drawback to the completeness of Joshua's work (Joshua 18:3); after their long nomadic life the people were slow in settling down in separate homes; fear of the foes' attack too made them shrink from the trouble of defending themselves severally: a root of bitterness left which bore deadly fruit under the judges. A long time after Jehovah had given rest unto Israel from all foes, Joshua, now old, convened all Israel (Joshua 23) represented by their heads, judges, and officers, to either Timhath Serah his home or Shiloh the sanctuary, and exhorted them to love and serve Jehovah ("be ye very courageous to do all that is written in the law, turn not aside to the right or to the left," Joshua 23:6; the same as God had enjoined Himself, Joshua 1:7), constrained by His past benefits, His promises of future help, and His threats of leaving the nations to be snares, scourges, and thorns to vex and destroy Israel in the event of apostasy. Again he gathered all the tribes with their heads and officers to Shechem, as being the place where Abram received God's first promise of the land after his migration into Canaan (Genesis 12:6,7); more especially because here Jacob on his return from Mesopotamia settled, and removed his household's strange gods (Genesis 33:19; 35:2-4), just as Joshua now wished Israel to renew the covenant binding them to renunciation of all idols. Here too Joseph's bones were buried (Joshua 24:32). Joshua was buried at 110 years of age in Timnath Serah. His piety comes brightly out in his dying exhortation: (1) God's call to Abraham was one of pure grace, not for his merit; Israel's fathers and Terah had "served other gods"(Joshua 24:2,14; Genesis 31:53; 19:34), but Jehovah has through miraculous interposition brought Israel to the promised land; put away therefore all the gods ye served in Egypt (Leviticus 17:7; Ezekiel 20:18; Joshua 24:14); but, if not, (2) choose you (if you are bent on self destruction) which idols you like, "but as for me and my house (Genesis 18:19) we will serve the Lord" (compare Ruth 1:15; 1 Kings 18:21; John 6:67; Luke 10:42). When the people, self confidently (like Peter, Luke 22:33), promised faithfulness, Joshua replied "ye cannot serve the Lord," i.e. without putting away heart idols (for they had no wooden, stone, or metal images to put away): Deuteronomy 6:5,6; Matthew 6:24. See Joshua 24:23, "put away the strange gods which are IN you," heart idols, inconsistent with the service of Jehovah who is "a jealous God" (Ezekiel 20:39). On actually reached until Solomon's reign (1 Kings 4:21), and the full realization awaits Christ's millennial reign (Genesis 15:18; Psalm 72:8); but the main step toward its fulfillment was taken. Joshua's conquests, though overwhelming at the time, could only be secured by Israel's faithfully following them up. II. The promise, Joshua 6-7, that Joshua should divide the land is recorded as fulfilled (Joshua 13-22). III. The means of realizing this two-fold promise, "only be very courageous to do ... all the law ... turn not to the right hand or to the left ... this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do all that is written therein ... for then thou shalt have good success .... Be strong and of a good courage for the Lord thy God is with thee wheresoever thou goest" (Joshua 1:7-9), are urged upon the people in detail by Joshua as his last testimony (Joshua 23:24). The connection and method traceable throughout prove the unity of the book. The variety in the style of the historical compared with the topographical parts is what we should expect. The "three days" (Joshua 1:11) are not the time within which the crossing actually took place, but the time allowed to the people to prepare for crossing: prepare victuals to be able to leave Shittim within three days, so as to be ready to cross Jordan. The spies sent from Shittim to Jericho (the key of Canaan) on the same day as Joshua gave this charge to Israel had to hide three days after leaving Jericho, so that they could not have returned until the evening of the fourth day after they were sent (Joshua 2:22). The morning after this Israel left Shittim for Jordan, where they halted again; three days afterward they crossed, i.e. eight days intervened between their being sent and Israel's crossing. The drying up of Jordan is the counterpart of the drying up of the Red Sea under Moses, Joshua's master and predecessor. Throughout the warlike and the peaceful events of this book, comprising a period of 25 years (compare <061407> Joshua 14:7-10) from 1451 to 1426 B. C., God's presence is everywhere felt. Joshua is His conscious and obedient agent. AUTHOR . That Joshua wrote the book is probable because (1) he certainly wrote one transaction in it (Joshua 24:26), and scarcely any but Joshua himself is likely to have written the parting addresses, his last legacy to Israel (Joshua 23-24). (2) None but Joshua could have supplied the accounts of his communion with God (Joshua 1:1 ff; 3:7; 4:2; 5:2,9,13; 6:2; 7:10; 8:1; 10:8; 11:6; 13:1,2; 20:1; 24:2). (3) Joshua was best qualified by his position to describe the events, and to collect the documents of this book; it was important that the statement of the allotments should rest on such a decisive authority as Joshua. (4) He would be following his master and predecessor Moses' pattern in recording God's dealings with Israel through him; 24:26 looks like his own subscription, as Moses in Deuteronomy 31, both being followed by an appendix as to the author's death. (5) In Joshua 5:1,6, he uses the first person, "we passed over"; and in Joshua 6:25, "Rahab dwelleth in Israel even unto this day"; both passages imply a contemporary writer. Keil gives a list of phrases and forms peculiar to this book and the Pentateuch, marking its composition in or near the same age. Judges 3:1-3; 1:27-29, repeat Joshua 13:2-6; 16:10; 17:11, because Joshua's description suited the times described by the inspired writer of Judges. The capture of Hebron and Debir by Judah and its hero Caleb is repeated in Judges 1:9-15 from Joshua 15:13-20. Possibly the account of the Danite occupation of Leshem or Laish is a later insertion in <061947> Joshua 19:47 from <071807> Judges 18:7. So also the account (Joshua 15:63; 18:28) of the joint occupation of Jerusalem by Israel and the Jebusites may be an insertion from Judges 1:8,21. In the case of an authoritative record of the allotment of lands, which the book of Joshua is, the immediate successors who appended the account of his death (probably one or more of the elders who took part in Joshua's victories and outlived him: "we," Joshua 5:1,6; 24:31; Judges 2:7) would naturally insert the exact state of things then, which in Joshua's time were in a transition state, his allotments not having been taken full possession of until after his death. The expulsion of the Jebusites from Jerusalem at the beginning of David's reign proves that Joshua and Judges were written before David. The Gibeonites were in Joshua's time (Joshua 9:27) "hewers of wood and drawers of water" for the sanctuary "even unto this day," but Saul set aside the covenant and tried to destroy them; so that the book of Joshua was before Saul. The only Phoenicians mentioned are the Sidonians, reckoned with the Canaanites as doomed to destruction; but in David's time Tyre takes the lead of Sidon, and is in treaty with David (Joshua 13:4-6; 2 Samuel 5:11).