Chapter By Chapter: Joshua
God calls Joshua to lead Israel in Moses’s place, promising to be with him as He was with Moses. Joshua accepts and commands the leaders to prepare to cross the Jordan. The people promise to follow Joshua as they did Moses.
Joshua was Moses’s assistant as well as one of only two spies to recommend entering Canaan when all the rest were scared. He has shown that he has the courage to follow God’s command in the face of terror, and Moses has already begun preparing him.
5: “No man shall be able to stand before you [Joshua] all the days of your life. Just as I [God] was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.”
Joshua sends two spies to Jericho. A prostitute named Rahab hides them and helps them escape, and they promise to save her and her family when Israel sacks the city. The spies return and confirm that God has given Israel the land.
Joshua sending the spies cements his position as leader of Israel. Though Rahab is a Canaanite prostitute, she understands God’s power and plan better than most Israelites; as a result, she is named in the lineage of Jesus.
9: [Rahab] said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.”
Joshua prepares Israel to cross the Jordan River, which God will miraculously dry up as long as the priests carrying the ark of the covenant are standing in the river.
Just as Moses led Israel across the Red Sea, Joshua leads them across the Jordan River. God shows that He is with Joshua just as He was with Moses.
7: The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.”
Israel commemorates crossing the Jordan with twelve stones taken from the dry riverbed for the purpose of teaching their descendants of this miraculous initial entry into the Promised Land. They camp near Jericho.
Joshua sets up seven stone memorials to teach Israel’s descendants their history and the power of God; this is the first. Jericho is the first Canaanite city Israel conquers.
14: On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they stood in awe of him just as they had stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life.
The men of Israel circumcise themselves. Israel keeps the passover and begins to eat off the land; the manna stops on that day. Joshua encounters an angel, the commander of the army of the Lord.
Rather than immediately invading Canaan, Israel reaffirms its covenant with God through circumcision and celebrating Passover. All the men Moses had circumcised after fleeing Egypt were dead, so the new generation needed to be circumcised.
9: And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.
At God’s command, the army and the ark march around Jericho once a day for six days, then seven times on the seventh day. The wall falls flat, and the army conquers the city, killing all inhabitants except Rahab and her family.
The army does not enact a regular siege but a ritual intended to show the power of God. As God commanded, they destroy the city and kill its inhabitants as a sort of “firstfruits” offering of the land to God.
20: So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city.
Achan kept some of the spoil from Jericho that should have been destroyed, so Joshua’s next campaign, against Ai, fails. His sin is discovered, and the people stone him.
As a covenant community, Israel is responsible for maintaining purity; when one member of the community (Achan) disobeys God, the nation loses God’s favor, and they fall before an inferior foe.
12: “Therefore the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction. I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you.”
God commands Israel to conquer Ai. They devise an ambush strategy and destroy the city, killing all its inhabitants, burning the city, and hanging its king. Afterward, they renew the covenant as commanded by Moses on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal.
With God’s backing, Israel easily overthrows Ai, which had previously defeated them. Joshua holding the javelin up during the battle recalls Moses holding his staff up in the battle against the Amalekites in Exodus.
7: “Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will give it into your hand.”
The Gibeonites, scared of Israel after the defeat of Jericho and Ai, trick Joshua into thinking they are from far away, so he makes a covenant with them without consulting the Lord. When he finds out, he curses them and sentences them to menial labor.
God explicitly told Israel not to make covenants with the inhabitants of the Promised Land, but Joshua was fooled. However, like Rahab, the Gibeonites clearly understand God’s working, and their curse of menial labor is in fact for the tabernacle itself, a kind of blessing.
27: But Joshua made them that day cutters of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord, to this day, in the place that he should choose.
A coalition of five kings attacks Gibeon for making a treaty with Israel. Joshua marches all night and defeats the coalition and executes the five kings. Israel conquers at least six cities in the south of Canaan, some of which belonged to those kings.
Although the covenant with Gibeon was unwise, once made, Israel had to honor it. God blesses their campaign, including retributive attacks on the cities that attacked Gibeon.
40: So Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as the Lord God of Israel commanded.
The northern kingdoms ally against Israel, but God makes Israel victorious, and Israel’s counterattack results in the conquest of “the whole land” of Canaan.
God provokes the inhabitants of Canaan not to pursue peace with Israel (except Gibeon) so that Israel can defeat them and conquer their territory, giving God’s chosen people God’s chosen land. The campaign likely took years despite its short description.
20: For it was the Lord’s doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the Lord commanded Moses.
Details of the land, cities, and kings that Israel has conquered: thirty-one kings in all.
Before Joshua can apportion the land among the tribes, an accounting must be taken of the available land.
1: Now these are the kings of the land whom the people of Israel defeated and took possession of their land beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, from the Valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon, with all the Arabah eastward…
God reminds Joshua that while Israel has conquered the land, it has not yet possessed it, and Joshua is getting old. Joshua allocates the land east of the Jordan. The tribes east of the Jordan do not drive out their neighbors.
Israel conquers Bashan and Sihon east of the Jordan when they were attacked, but unlike the land east of the Jordan, the army doesn’t finish the job, leaving many peoples and religions around to corrupt Israel.
32: These are the inheritances that Moses distributed in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan east of Jericho.
Allocations of land west of the Jordan begin, by lot, but Caleb speaks up for the land promised him by Moses after his spy mission, and Joshua gives it to him. Caleb promises to eradicate the Anakim.
One of only two instances in Joshua of the phrase “the land had rest from war,” which is what Joshua is primarily known for in later times. Caleb’s faithfulness is exemplary.
9: And Moses swore on that day, saying, “Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.”
Inheritance allotted to the tribe of Judah among the land west of the Jordan. Judah is given Jerusalem, but fails to drive out the Jebusites who live there.
The failure to drive out the Jebusites persists until King David finally conquers the city, centuries later. Since God promised success to Joshua, this failure suggests Judah has already started falling away.
12: And the west boundary was the Great Sea with its coastline. This is the boundary around the people of Judah according to their clans.
Allotment of land to Ephraim. They fail to drive out the inhabitants of Gezer, but instead set them to forced labor like Gibeon.
Ephraim receives an inheritance alongside the other tribes according to Jacob’s adoption of Joseph’s sons. Again, the failure to drive out some residents indicates an early disobedience to God.
1: The allotment of the people of Joseph went from the Jordan by Jericho, east of the waters of Jericho, into the wilderness, going up from Jericho into the hill country to Bethel.
Allotment of land to the half-tribe of Manasseh that settled on the west of the Jordan. The daughters of Zelophehad, part of this tribe, receive their land as Moses promised. They failed to drive out all the Canaanites living in their land.
The Manassehites worried they could not drive out the Canaanites from their land due to superior military technology (iron chariots), but Joshua assures them they can. The fact that some remain indicates a falling away from God.
13: Now when the people of Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out.
At a convocation of all Israel, Joshua sends out three men from each tribe to survey the remaining land and divide it in seven portions. Joshua allocates the first portion to Benjamin.
The convocation is at Shiloh, the first permanent location for the tabernacle. Benjamin gets land between the large tribes to the north and the dominant tribe of Judah to the south.
11: The lot of the tribe of the people of Benjamin according to its clans came up, and the territory allotted to it fell between the people of Judah and the people of Joseph.
The allotment of land for Simeon, Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Dan. Joshua receives a specific inheritance among Ephraim.
Just as the allotment of land began with Caleb, it ends with Joshua, the two faithful spies.
51: These are the inheritances that Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the people of Israel distributed by lot at Shiloh before the Lord, at the entrance of the tent of meeting. So they finished dividing the land.
At God’s command, Joshua designates six cities of refuge: three on each side of the Jordan River.
In the midst of this administrative allocation of land, we are reminded that God is concerned not just for inheritance but for justice.
2: “Say to the people of Israel, ‘Appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses…’”
Joshua designates forty-eight cities for the Levites according to their descent from Levi’s three sons, Kohath, Gershon, and Merari.
The final division of the land fulfills God’s promise to give the Promised Land to the nation of Israel and for every tribe to have an inheritance in it.
43: Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there.
Joshua releases Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh back to the east side of the Jordan, since the conquest is complete. They set up an altar, which the western tribes see as idolatry. They explain the altar is a reminder that they are part of Israel, and war is averted.
The twelve tribes are a single nation, although they are now scattered across Canaan and on both sides of the River Jordan.
29: “Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord and turn away this day from following the Lord by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the Lord our God that stands before his tabernacle!”
Joshua recounts his leadership to the next generation of leaders in Israel. He charges them to follow the law and remain faithful, to finish driving out the Canaanites and follow the Lord.
Just as Moses passed the torch to Joshua at the end of Deuteronomy, so Joshua passes the torch to the next generation at the end of Joshua. As the tribes are distributed, so is leadership; there is no longer a single leader of Israel.
14: “And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed.”
Joshua reminds Israel of God’s past blessings and calls them to faithfully serve the Lord; the people renew their covenant. Joshua dies in his allocated portion of the Promised Land.
The covenant renewal follows an ancient pattern: a reminder of God’s past blessings and mercies, an expectation that Israel will follow the law and remain faithful, a written record, witnesses, and consequences.
22: Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.”