Joshua
The promised land, finally, and the hard questions that come with it.
Who wrote it: Anonymous. Jewish tradition credits Joshua himself with most of it. Scholars generally see the book as part of a longer history running from Joshua through Kings, compiled and edited with Deuteronomy's outlook, probably reaching its final form during the exile in the 6th century BC, using older accounts.
What it is
Moses is dead. Joshua, his second-in-command for forty years, gets the job of taking a nation of former nomads across a river and into a land full of walled cities. The first chapter is God telling him, three times, to be strong and courageous, which tells you how Joshua was feeling.
The first half of the book is the campaign. Two spies are hidden by Rahab, a prostitute in Jericho who has heard what God did at the Red Sea and decides to bet everything on him. Israel crosses the Jordan on dry ground, marches round Jericho for seven days, and the walls fall. Then a defeat at Ai, caused by one man's theft, and a treaty with the Gibeonites, obtained by a trick. A coalition of southern kings attacks and loses, in a battle where the text says the sun stood still. Then the north. By chapter 12 the book lists thirty-one defeated kings.
The second half is maps. Chapters 13 to 21 divide the land tribe by tribe, town by town, and most readers skip it. Fair enough, but notice what it means: the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12 has become an address. Chapter 21 ends by saying not one word of what God promised had failed. Then Joshua, old now, gathers the nation and asks them to choose who they will serve. They say the LORD. He tells them they will not manage it. They insist. The book ends on that unresolved note, and Judges picks it up.
What to look for: the book is not as triumphant as its reputation. Israel fails at Ai, gets fooled at Gibeon, and chapter 13 admits large areas were never taken at all. The people who stand out are outsiders: Rahab the Canaanite who joins Israel, and Caleb, the old spy who is still asking for the hardest mountain at eighty-five. And the violence is real, and it needs a real answer, which is below.
Verses worth keeping
- Joshua 1:9WEB
Haven’t I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsHaven't I commanded you? Be strong and brave. Don't be afraid, don't be shaken, because the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.
A promise to one specific man facing one specific task. The 'wherever you go' still stands as the reason, not the feeling.
- Joshua 2:11WEB
As soon as we had heard it, our hearts melted, and there wasn’t any more spirit in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsAs soon as we heard it, our hearts melted and nobody had any courage left because of you. The LORD your God, he is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute, gets the clearest statement of faith in the book. She ends up in the family line of Jesus.
- Joshua 21:45WEB
Nothing failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsNot one of the good things the LORD had promised the house of Israel failed. All of it happened.
Written after a chapter of town names. The boring list is the receipt.
- Joshua 24:15WEB
If it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose today whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsIf serving the LORD seems like a bad idea to you, then choose today who you'll serve: the gods your ancestors served across the River, or the gods of the Amorites whose land you're living in. But me and my house, we're serving the LORD.
Joshua's last speech. He does not assume their faith; he asks for a decision, and warns them it will cost something.
Read Joshua
The full text, every chapter, from the World English Bible, a modern public-domain translation. Pick a chapter below. The highlighted verses are the place to start if you have never read it.
Joshua 2
1Joshua the son of Nun secretly sent two men out of Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, including Jericho.” They went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and slept there.
2The king of Jericho was told, “Behold, men of the children of Israel came in here tonight to spy out the land.”
3Jericho’s king sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered into your house; for they have come to spy out all the land.”
4The woman took the two men and hid them. Then she said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I didn’t know where they came from. 5About the time of the shutting of the gate, when it was dark, the men went out. Where the men went, I don’t know. Pursue them quickly. You may catch up with them.” 6But she had brought them up to the roof, and hidden them under the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof. 7The men pursued them along the way to the fords of the Jordan River. As soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate. 8Before they had lain down, she came up to them on the roof. 9She 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. 10For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you, when you came out of Egypt; and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and to Og, whom you utterly destroyed. 11As soon as we had heard it, our hearts melted, and there wasn’t any more spirit in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath. 12Now therefore, please swear to me by the LORD, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a true sign; 13and that you will save alive my father, my mother, my brothers, and my sisters, and all that they have, and will deliver our lives from death.”
14The men said to her, “Our life for yours, if you don’t talk about this business of ours; and it shall be, when the LORD gives us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with you.”
15Then she let them down by a cord through the window; for her house was on the side of the wall, and she lived on the wall. 16She said to them, “Go to the mountain, lest the pursuers find you. Hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers have returned. Afterward, you may go your way.”
17The men said to her, “We will be guiltless of this your oath which you’ve made us to swear. 18Behold, when we come into the land, tie this line of scarlet thread in the window which you used to let us down. Gather to yourself into the house your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household. 19It shall be that whoever goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood will be on his head, and we will be guiltless. Whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand is on him. 20But if you talk about this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless of your oath which you’ve made us to swear.”
21She said, “Let it be as you have said.” She sent them away, and they departed. Then she tied the scarlet line in the window.
22They went and came to the mountain, and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had returned. The pursuers sought them all along the way, but didn’t find them. 23Then the two men returned, descended from the mountain, crossed the river, and came to Joshua the son of Nun. They told him all that had happened to them. 24They said to Joshua, “Truly the LORD has delivered all the land into our hands. Moreover, all the inhabitants of the land melt away before us.”
Questions about Joshua
Why is there so much violence in Joshua? Isn't this genocide?
It is the hardest question in the book and it deserves better than a quick answer. What the text says: God commanded the conquest, the stated reason was the practices of the Canaanite nations, and Israel is warned it will be removed the same way if it copies them, which Kings later records happening. What the text also shows: the language of total destruction was normal ancient war rhetoric, and the same book says the Canaanites were still living in the land afterwards, in large numbers, so the words were not meant as literally as they sound to us. Rahab and the Gibeonites are spared when they turn to Israel's God. Some readers accept all this as God's judgment in a specific time and place, never repeatable. Some think the accounts were shaped later to explain how Israel got the land. Some cannot accept it at all and say so. The one option the Bible does not give is using Joshua as a template for anyone's war today; the prophets and Jesus close that door.
Did the walls of Jericho really fall? What does archaeology say?
Jericho has been dug extensively. There was a walled city that was destroyed, but most archaeologists date that destruction earlier than the usual dates for Joshua, and see little evidence of a city there in the period the conquest is normally placed. Some argue the dating is wrong and the fallen walls match; others think the story preserves a memory of ruins already there. Other sites, like Hazor, show destruction layers that fit better. The honest position is that the evidence is mixed and argued over, and you can find serious people on several sides.
Can I read Joshua as a story about claiming God's promises for my life?
Be careful. Joshua is about a specific land promised to a specific people, taken by force. Turning that into a metaphor for your career or your relationship is a stretch the text does not make, and it tends to leave people confused when the 'promised land' does not arrive. What the book does offer anyone: a picture of courage as trust rather than confidence, a God who keeps his word slowly and completely, and a repeated invitation to decide whom you serve. That is plenty without the metaphor.