Joshua: into the promised land

Joshua tells how Israel, led by Moses' successor, crossed the Jordan, took the land God had promised, shared it among the tribes and renewed the covenant. Not one of God's good promises failed.

Benjamin West, Joshua Passing the River Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant, 1800 · Source

About the book

The book is named for its leader, Moses' servant and successor. His name, , means ‘the LORD saves’; Moses gave it to him in place of Hoshea (Numbers 13:16).

Jewish and Christian tradition has held that Joshua wrote the book, which says that "Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God" (Joshua 24:26). Its last verses, on his death and burial (24:29-33), were added after him: the Talmud says Eleazar and then Phinehas finished it Talmud, Bava Batra. Some lines sound close to the events, as when Rahab "has lived among the Israelites to this day" (Joshua 6:25).

Many scholars read Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings as one long work, which they call the Deuteronomistic History: a history gathered around the time of the exile by writers shaped by the teaching of Deuteronomy, that faithfulness to the covenant brings blessing and unfaithfulness the loss of the land. They hear that teaching in speeches such as Joshua's farewell (chapter 23). Many others hold that the book comes from Joshua's own time, with a few later notes, even if it was later set beside the books that follow it.

The map under the Jesus tab sets the conquest in the era of the conquest and the judges (about 1400 or 1200 to 1050 BC): its start follows the date of the exodus. At Jericho and Ai the digs have been read in more than one way. Many archaeologists find little or no walled city at either site in the age of the conquest; others question the dating of the finds, or which mound was Ai. No dig settles the matter either way.

How it unfolds

Behind a procession carrying the ark and blowing trumpets, the walls of Jericho lie fallen, with torches and spears massed like a forest. — Jean Fouquet, The Taking of Jericho, from Josephus's Jewish Antiquities, c. 1470–1475 (Bibliothèque nationale de France) · Source

Chapters	What happens
1–12	Crossing and conquest: Rahab and the spies, the Jordan, Jericho, Ai, the campaigns
13–21	The land shared among the tribes; the cities of refuge and of the Levites
22–24	The covenant renewed: Joshua's farewell and the gathering at Shechem

Key passages

After Moses' death the LORD commissions Joshua:

This Book of the Law must not depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night … Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.
Joshua 1:8-9

The LORD goes first. The priests carrying the ark stand in the river while "all Israel crossed over the dry ground" (Joshua 3:17), and the walls of Jericho fall at his word, not by Israel's strength.

For many readers the conquest is the hardest part of the book, and it should be read honestly. Scripture does not say that Israel deserved the land. It was "because of their wickedness that the LORD your God is driving out these nations" (Deuteronomy 9:5), not for Israel's righteousness. God had waited four hundred years, for "the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete" (Genesis 15:16), and he warned Israel that the land would vomit them out too if they did the same (Leviticus 18:28).

And the first Canaanite we meet is saved. Rahab of Jericho hid the spies and confessed, "the LORD your God is God in the heavens above and on the earth below" (Joshua 2:11); she and her household were spared (6:25). Matthew Henry writes that her scarlet cord, "like the blood upon the doorpost at the passover, recalls to remembrance the sinner's security under the atoning blood of Christ" Matthew Henry.

Christians read the war in more than one way: as God's judgement through Israel in that time and place; as the heightened language of ancient war reports, since the book that says Joshua "took the entire land" (Joshua 11:23) also says that "very much of the land remains to be possessed" (Joshua 13:1); or, with Origen and many other teachers of the early church, also as a picture of the fight against sin. None of these readings makes these commands a ground for violence by anyone today. Is the God of the Old Testament different from the God of the New? takes the question further.

The sharing of the land ends on God's faithfulness:

Not one of all the LORD's good promises to the house of Israel had failed; everything was fulfilled.
Joshua 21:45

Then Joshua sets a choice before the people: "As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!" (Joshua 24:15).

The book and Christ

Rahab stands in a field holding a long cord in both hands, while behind her two spies climb down the city wall on a cord let down from a window. — Pieter Jalhea Furnius, Rahab and the Spies, from a series on Hebrews 11, 1550–1625 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) · Source

The risen Jesus explained what was written about himself "in all the Scriptures" (Luke 24:27). Joshua's name in Greek is Iēsous, the name the angel told Joseph to give Mary's son, "because He will save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). Joshua led Israel into the land, but Hebrews says that this was not yet God's full rest:

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
Hebrews 4:8-9

In the Greek, ‘Joshua’ there is the same name as ‘Jesus’. Where the first Joshua brought Israel into Canaan, Jesus brings his people into God's rest.

Rahab, the Canaanite saved by faith, stands among Jesus' forebears: "Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab" (Matthew 1:5). Hebrews counts her among the faithful, who "did not perish with those who were disobedient" (Hebrews 11:31). Even the book of the conquest shows that God's people are made by faith, not by birth.

Reading it

Twenty-four chapters at two a day take twelve days; begin with Joshua 1. The lists of borders and towns (13–21) may be read quickly, noticing that every tribe receives its share. Read chapters 1–6 and 23–24 slowly. Then go on to Judges.

Practice

Practice 1 of 6
What does Joshua's name mean?
Practice 2 of 6
How is the book of Joshua built?
Practice 3 of 6
Why does Deuteronomy 9:5 say the LORD drove out the nations of Canaan?
Practice 4 of 6
Which woman does Hebrews 11:31 say did not perish, because of her faith?
Practice 5 of 6
What does Hebrews 4:8-9 say about the rest Joshua gave?
Practice 6 of 6
What do many scholars mean by the Deuteronomistic History?

Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.

Source

The Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 14b–15a — Completed c. 6th century. The Jewish tradition of who wrote (or compiled) each book of the Hebrew Bible: Moses his own book, the portion of Balaam and Job; Joshua his and the Torah's last eight verses (his death recorded by Eleazar and Phinehas); Samuel his, Judges and Ruth (finished by Gad and Nathan); David the Psalms with the elders; Jeremiah his, Kings and Lamentations; Hezekiah and his company Isaiah, Proverbs, the Song and Ecclesiastes; the Men of the Great Assembly Ezekiel, the Twelve, Daniel and Esther; Ezra his and the genealogies of Chronicles.

Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds and classic commentary. Each book's author and date are given as the church has received them, and scholars who see them otherwise are presented fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.