Kalev Creative

 In December 2019, we started writing notes on Genesis 1 and posting them to Twitter in the hope of engaging with others and learning from the many biblical scholars who use that platform. As we progressed, we determined Twitter/X was no longer a place well suited to this work, so we made the move to Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/kalevcreative.bsky.social) and Substack (@kalevcreativewrites). We have continued, slowly, to work our way through the narrative portions of the books of the Bible that lead up to Caleb’s story. Here in Joshua, we learned about God and the Israelites’ interactions as he brought them into the land he had promised Abraham nearly 500 years earlier. After this book, we have just one chapter left until the end of his narrative in Judges 1.

Social media’s limitations force changes, so there are differences between these, which we took as we read and studied, and what we posted online. Because they were written for social media, they contain artifacts that make less sense in a webpage format. We hope you will bear with some of the awkwardness to see the process we’re using to understand and re-tell a richly informed version of Caleb’s story.

To find a thread as we posted it, you can go to Bluesky and search for ‘@kalevcreative’ plus a hashtag in the title or keywords from the body of the section you’re interested in.

Please read, share, and comment or engage with us on Bluesky or via email. We will do our best to respond. In the end, we hope to understand where Caleb’s story fits in the larger narrative, what role he plays in God’s plan for Israel and the nations, and what we can learn from him.

#Bible #Joshua Intro

Several commentators, including @mattlynchot.bsky.social and L. Daniel Hawk, note that Joshua itself does not contain a moral justification for the Israelites’ displacement/destruction of the Canaanites. It makes clear that God is commanding, even going before the Israelites to accomplish the goal, but there is apparently little about the “why” within the book. For that reason, as we enter Joshua, it’s worth revisiting passages from the Torah that do provide a rationale.

God first promises Abram the land of Canaan as an inheritance in Genesis 15:

“the Lord said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign country...In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.’

…the Lord made a covenant with Abram: ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River— the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.’”

God’s initial statement of intent is preceded by a reference to the “sins of the Amorites,” the time for the Israelites’ inheritance apparently contingent on the Amorites’ sin being “shalem,” which could mean complete, whole, full, finished.

Leviticus 18, after prohibiting a series of sexual sins, warns Israel,

“‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things, for the nations that I am about to drive out before you have been defiled with all these things. Therefore the land has become unclean, and I have brought the punishment for its iniquity upon it, so that the land has vomited out its inhabitants. You yourselves must obey my statutes and my regulations and must not do any of these abominations, both the native citizen and the resident foreigner in your midst, for the people who were in the land before you have done all these abominations, and the land has become unclean. So do not make the land vomit you out because you defile it just as it has vomited out the nations that were before you.”

Numbers 21 describes a battle in which a Canaanite king apparently attacked the Israelites, prompting them to destroy his cities.

In the introduction to Berit Olam: Joshua, Hawk assesses:

“Although Deuteronomy’s rhetoric presents Israel as a nation on the offensive, its preoccupation with the temptations of Canaan intimate a community under siege…The peoples of the land represent the greatest threat…and…extreme measures are directed against them. Deuteronomy emphatically calls for the annihilation of the land’s indigenous populations and repeatedly warns that they will lead the nation to destruction if allowed to survive (6:14-15; 7:1-5, 25-26; 12:1-3; 20:16-18; 29:17-21 [MT 16-20]; 31:16-21). The power of the peoples points to the fragility of Israel’s internal boundaries. The inhabitants of the land must be wiped out without a trace, for if any vestige remains the nation will remain in jeopardy.”

When the Lord your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you—Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you— and he delivers them over to you and you attack them, you must utterly annihilate them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy! You must not intermarry with them. . . Instead, this is what you must do to them: You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, cut down their sacred Asherah poles, and burn up their idols.

Deuteronomy 7:1-5

He, the God who leads you, will expel the nations little by little. You will not be allowed to destroy them all at once lest the wild animals overrun you. The Lord your God will give them over to you; he will throw them into a great panic until they are destroyed. He will hand over their kings to you, and you will erase their very names from memory. Nobody will be able to resist you until you destroy them. You must burn the images of their gods, but do not covet the silver and gold that covers them so much that you take it for yourself and thus become ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent to the Lord your God. You must not bring any abhorrent thing into your house and thereby become an object of divine wrath along with it. You must absolutely detest and abhor it, for it is an object of divine wrath.

Deuteronomy 7:22-26

You must by all means destroy all the places where the nations you are about to dispossess worship their gods—on the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree. You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, burn up their sacred Asherah poles, and cut down the images of their gods; you must eliminate their very memory from that place. You must not worship the Lord your God the way they worship. But you must seek only the place he chooses from all your tribes to establish his name as his place of residence, and you must go there.

Deuteronomy 12:2-5

As for the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is going to give you as an inheritance, you must not allow a single living thing to survive. Instead you must utterly annihilate them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—just as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship their gods, causing you to sin against the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 20:16-18

Though modern commentators have differing opinions about interpreting events within Joshua, the biblical authors/editors consistently present sin and the potential to tempt the Israelites to sin as the reason God tells the Israelites to drive the Canaanites out as Israel settles the land.

#Bible #Joshua 1

God tells Joshua, now that Moses is dead, it is time to cross the Jordan and lead the people into the land. In Numbers, we learned the Israelites reached a plain on the east side of the Jordan River, so here in Joshua, they will cross from east to west into the land of Canaan.

God defines Canaan in geographical terms reminiscent of earlier promises. Here, the dimensions are roughly north-south and northeast-southwest. This territory, assuming we understand it well, is significantly larger than land united Israel ever occupied in Joshua – Kings.

Joshua 1 includes a speech from God to Joshua, a speech from Joshua to the people, and a response from the people to Joshua.

God priorities for Joshua are:

Crossing into and taking the land

Be strong and brave

Obey all the Torah of Moses

Joshua’s priorities for the people are:

Get your equipment ready to begin the conquest of the land

To the tribes settling east of the Jordan, remember that you must go before the other tribes to fight

The people respond that they will obey Joshua, that they will kill Israelites who don’t,  and to admonish Joshua to be strong and brave.

#Bible #Joshua 2

This chapter encompasses a discrete story.

In Numbers 13-14, twelve tribal leaders went into the land to find information Moses specified. In my estimation, that episode resembles a military leaders’ reconnaissance more than espionage.

Joshua 2, however, contains many elements of a modern spy story – a foreign city as the setting, an alluring woman who helps the protagonists through subterfuge, a chase scene, tricky technology, a political alliance with a double agent, a secret code, and a return to deliver key intelligence to leadership. It’s a Bond film in a chapter.

In some superficial ways, it recalls Numbers 13-14, Joseph (involuntarily) going to Egypt before his family, even the raven and dove Noah sends to discover information and ensure the land is amenable to occupation.

Like many of the conquest narratives, it is ambiguous. The men have no names or tribal associations, which were key elements of Numbers 13-14. They stay with a prostitute – is this because they’re using her services, it’s a good cover story, foreigners would commonly stay in such a house? The cultural details are lost to us. In prior narrative occurrences, Dinah’s brothers rhetorically asked if Shechem should treat her like one, Judah assumed Tamar was one, Israel similarly used the daughters of Moab, and, in law, God condemns Israel for acting like one with other gods. The connotation in law and narrative to this point is always bad.

Yet, she recognizes, fears, and honors God. She hopes to save her family by acknowledging God and assisting his purpose in the land. She appears insightful, visionary, in command, and clever in her actions. After they meet her, the spies follow her lead. She instructs and ultimately saves them. Like Tamar, she uses deceit to achieve a righteous purpose, to preserve life and further God’s plan for his people.

Possibly recalling the final Exodus plague, where God commanded his people paint blood on their doorposts so the angel of death would spare them, the spies tell her to keep her family inside and designate her house with a scarlet rope on the window.

Unlike in Numbers 14, where the majority give a bad report, these two men return to Joshua with a clear evaluation that “The Lord has indeed handed over to us all the land…”

In his commentary, Lawson Younger notes that Numbers 25’s account of the Israelites’ rebellion with Moabite women also contains the location Shittim and the root word for prostitute used here.

In her commentary, Hellene Dallaire compares this account with Genesis 19 in which two angels rescue Lot from the coming destruction of Sodom.

The spies’ agreement with Rahab appears to violate Deuteronomy 7’s injunction, “When the Lord your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you—Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you— and he delivers them over to you and you attack them, you must utterly annihilate them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy! You must not intermarry with them,” though one could argue this isn’t a treaty, just a recognition of the faithfulness of an individual, just as a mixed multitude of believers(?) left Egypt with the Israelites.

Despite the possible violation, her actions are clearly positive for biblical authors. She is an ancestor of Jesus, her partnership (contra Deuteronomy 7) to a Judahite apparent in Matthew 1’s genealogy and is lauded in Hebrews 11.

 The spies’ report to Joshua is in some ways an inversion of the Numbers 13-14 report – they report the Lord has handed over the land as though it is already complete, and it is the Canaanites who are demoralized rather than the Israelites as in Numbers.

#Bible #Joshua 3-4

The people prepare to cross over the Jordan River into the land of Canaan. The priests carrying the ark go ahead of the people. As they step into the water, the river stops flowing, allowing the people to cross over on dry ground as they had through the Reed Sea in their exodus from Egypt. Joshua calls for a representative from each tribe to take a stone from the middle of the Jordan, where the priests stood as the people crossed, and carry it to the Israelites’ new camp west of the Jordan, Gilgal, where they assembled an altar from them to commemorate that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord.  Gilgal may be the name or descriptor of Israelite camps at several locations. We will see it again.

Joshua 4 tells us about 40,000 fighting men (or 40 units of fighting men) cross over into the land to fight. Modern archaeologists estimate ancient Jericho to have housed 2000-3000 people. As in the wilderness accounts, it’s difficult to know how to interpret this large number. 40 is certainly a frequently used number in judgment narratives, so it could be representative rather than literal.

There is a clear connection to the Exodus Reed Sea crossing. It’s safe also to recall the Flood, and, because the two are parallel stories, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The separated waters of Genesis 1 and the rivers of Genesis 2 are in view. John Sailhamer, in his book Genesis Unbound, suggests via deduction that the Jordan may be one of Genesis 2’s four rivers, which would make that connection even more clear.

This passage emphasizes the fighting men of the tribes who will settle east of the Jordan. We don’t get numbers for the rest of the tribes.

Joshua builds a twelve stone memorial in the middle of the Jordan. The waters return as the priests with ark leave the riverbed. God recognizes Joshua before the people as he had done Moses, and Joshua tells the people to remember what God has done as Moses did after God’s deliverance from Egypt through the sea.

#Bible #Joshua 5

The Amorites and Canaanites recognize God’s power as he dries up the Jordan. There are many differing lists of peoples in the land in Genesis – Deuteronomy, so there may not be significance to the peoples mentioned here. God’s initial promise of the land to Abram in Genesis 15 emphasizes the sin of the Amorites and mentions ten people groups including these two.

To celebrate the Passover, God’s Exodus 12 instructions are that males must be circumcised, so Joshua orders the circumcision of the men of new generation who, in the wilderness, had not been. There is a kind of symmetry in the preparation and celebration of the Passover as bookends of the wilderness experience – prior to the miraculous crossing of the Reed Sea and following the miraculous crossing of the Jordan.
There is also a (perhaps inverted) parallelism with the story of Jacob’s family crossing the Jordan, then soon after conquering Shechem by crippling the men of the city with circumcision. Here, the Israelites temporarily cripple themselves apparently within sight of their military objective.

Jacob’s sons acted vengefully against Shechem, killing or enslaving everyone and stealing their livestock, acting in their own strength as oppressors after their sister was kidnapped.

Here, we will learn God will miraculously act against the city of Jericho and demand that everything in it be destroyed.

In a continuation of the symmetrical bookend form, Joshua encounters a “man” who is revealed to be the captain of the armies of the Lord and uses language similar to that Moses heard from God at the burning bush on Sinai.

Here, there is also parallelism. In his book Genesis Unbound, John Sailhamer identifies Canaan with Eden in part by emphasizing Genesis 3’s account of cherubim guarding the way to the Tree of Life after the man and woman are expelled and connecting it to Jacob’s Genesis 32 encounter with a spiritual being prior to entering the land and Joshua’s encounter here with another one prior to conquering the first city in the land. Re-entry into the fruitful land includes confrontation by a spiritual being.

The spiritual being Joshua meets does not commit to be on Israel’s side, rather he emphasizes his identity as commander and that he is present, identifying the ground Joshua is standing on as holy.

#Bible #Joshua 6 #Jericho

Jericho’s destruction may be a part of a pattern we’ve previously observed with God’s application of the death penalty at apparent inaugural moments – newly in the wilderness (Exodus 16-17), new covenant (Exodus 32), inauguration of the Tabernacle (Leviticus 10), first city conquered in the Promised land (Joshua 6-7), recovery of the Ark of the Covenant (2 Samuel 6), early days of the church (Acts 5).

The Lord told Joshua, “See, I am about to defeat Jericho for you, along with its king and its warriors. Have all the warriors march around the city one time; do this for six days. Have seven priests carry seven rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day march around the city seven times, while the priests blow the horns. When you hear the signal from the rams’ horns, have the whole army give a loud battle cry. Then the city wall will collapse, and the warriors should charge straight ahead.” (NET)

As with the pharaoh and other enemies of God, the king of Jericho is not named, consistent with denying the Genesis 4-11 trait of corrupt leaders to make names for themselves.

The seven days of marching may connect it with the Genesis 1 creation; here, as in previous iterations, judgment as de-creation.

God tells the Israelites both that he will defeat their enemies and Israelites will participate in the battle. He prescribes both his own miraculous destruction of the walls and that “the warriors should charge straight ahead.”

There are commentators who take God’s commands to the Israelites and parse them, attempting to deny God actually tells the Israelites to kill. Some might consider this passage ripe for such an interpretation because the command is not explicit, yet what is it God is suggesting charging armed men should do?

It’s important to let the text speak for itself rather than bringing our own ideas to it and attempting to make them fit.

#Bible #Joshua 6 #Jericho cont

“when the army heard the signal, they gave a loud battle cry. The wall collapsed, and the warriors charged straight ahead into the city and captured it. They annihilated with the sword everything that breathed in the city, including men and women, young and old, as well as cattle, sheep, and donkeys.” (NET)

It is reasonable to argue based on this passage alone that the warriors may have overreached God’s command, and in fact, 7:1 tells us they did, “But the Israelites disobeyed the command about the city’s riches. Achan…stole some of the riches. The Lord was furious with the Israelites.” God was furious because the people did not dedicate all the riches to him as Joshua had commanded them to. We learn of God’s fury because they took objects, but there is no mention of his anger over killing. So in the end, the argument the killing was not God’s intent appears difficult to sustain at best.

Is killing really something God would desire or require? Beginning in Genesis 1, he blesses people including, “fill the land and subdue it,” while in Gen 2, the man is to tend and keep / cultivate and protect / garden and guard (in Rabbi David Fohrman’s formulation) the garden. In Genesis 14, Abraham chases and defeats Lot’s captors then receives God’s apparent blessing just prior to God making a covenant to give him the land he defended. In numerous prior judgment passages, God is himself present in judgment (see link).

As they prepare to occupy the land, God uses the Israelites as instruments of judgment, possibly in fulfillment of his original assignment to subdue the land and keep/protect/guard the garden. In Deuteronomy 28, God warned the Israelites that when they rebel, he will send other nations against them with appalling consequences.

God appears consistent in his willingness to preserve the fruitfulness of the land (which we learn in Genesis 6 is compromised by sin) and opportunity for relationship and rest there by bringing judgment.

The proliferation of sevens, emphasis on the word “walk” (which God desires to do with the couple in Genesis 3), God’s presence at the ark as his people seek to subdue the land with his help, and the appearance of the armed spiritual being in the previous chapter all contribute to the perception of the taking of Canaan as a return to Eden.

#Bible #Joshua 7 #Achan

God is angry because one of the Israelites took items devoted to destruction from Jericho to keep for himself.

God’s anger manifests in a lost battle. Judgement for one Israelite’s actions includes the deaths of 36 Israelite soldiers at the city of Ai.

As many commentators have noted, this story and Rahab’s together address a key theme of Joshua – identifying who is an Israelite.

We previously learned that Rahab, a Canaanite, apparent prostitute, and inhabitant of a city set apart for God’s judgment escaped the judgment and was included in Israel because she recognized and honored God. Her belief made her part of Israel, recalling Abram who “believed the Lord, and the Lord credited it as righteousness to him.” (Genesis 15:6, NET)

Here, Achan of the tribe of Judah (we’re given four generations of his genealogy, emphasizing his Israelite identity) appears as a kind of inverted Rahab. He disobeys God at Jericho, so God treats him, his family, and possessions as though they were under Jericho’s judgment. “The one caught with the riches must be burned up along with all who belong to him because he violated the Lord’s covenant and did such a disgraceful thing in Israel.” (Joshua 7:15, NET) just as the Israelites had burned Jericho (Joshua 6:24).

If we accept Achan is included in Jericho’s judgment, this is further evidence that God’s purpose for the population of Jericho was in fact death, not exile, as discussed in the previous chapter.

As with the account of the destruction of Jericho, the story of Achan’s sin and punishment may be part of a pattern we’ve observed with God’s application of the death penalty at apparent inaugural moments – newly in the wilderness (Exodus 16-17), new covenant (Exodus 32), inauguration of the Tabernacle (Leviticus 10), first city conquered in the Promised land (Joshua 6-7), recovery of the Ark of the Covenant (2 Samuel 6), and early days of the church (Acts 5).

The severity of the punishment may be explained at least in part by God’s assessment (7:11-15) and the biblical authors’ apparent position that the sin would bring ongoing death, so a death sentence to expunge the sin was just. That his family and animals were included despite a lack of evidence of their direct culpability is not explained and remains disturbing to a reasonable reader, though it does fit within the larger narrative of driving out and killing some of the Canaanites.

“Joshua said, ‘Why have you brought disaster on us? The Lord will bring disaster on you today!’ All Israel stoned him to death. (They also stoned and burned the others.) Then they erected over him a large pile of stones (it remains to this very day), and the Lord’s anger subsided. So that place is called the Valley of Disaster to this very day.” (NET)

It's also worth noting that Achan's temptation scene reenacts the original Genesis 3 temptation, using some identical vocabulary in Hebrew:

“When the woman *saw* that the tree produced fruit that was *good (tov)* for food, was attractive to the eye, and was desirable for making one wise, she *took* some of its fruit and ate it.” (Genesis 3:6, NET)

“when I *saw* among the spoil a *beautiful (tov)* cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and *took* them” (Joshua 7:21, ESV)

#Bible #Joshua 8 #Ai #war

Achan used deceit and concealment to steal and possess items from Jericho. Here, we have an extensive account of Israel’s use of deceit and concealment to lure the army of Ai away from the city and to enable Israel to destroy it. At Ai, plunder, Achan’s sin, is authorized.

When combined with the previous chapter’s reenactment of the Eden temptation, it seems this story may be an extended commentary on what makes actions right and wrong. The action itself appears immaterial – in one city plunder, deception, and concealment are deserving of death. In the next city, deceit and concealment are God-approved tactics, and God explicitly authorizes plunder.

In Joshua 7-8, as in Genesis 3, an action is sin because God prohibits it. His people are to trust his evaluation of an action in a given place and time. Rahab believed and saved herself and her loved ones. Achan did not and brought death to himself and his family. At Ai, Joshua trusts and obeys God, possibly an example of passing the Eden test in contrast to Achan, although Joshua’s actions are now-authorized similar ones to Achan’s. L. Daniel Hawk, in his Berit Olam commentary, points out that Rahab too used deceit and concealment in service of God’s agenda, though like Zipporah and Tamar before her, she somehow knew how to navigate a morally ambiguous circumstance without instruction  – the seed of the woman at work in the world.

The battle account at Ai is one of the longest in the Bible so far. It emphasizes both the Israelite army’s actions and God’s involvement, and it explicitly describes the Israelite army killing the inhabitants of Ai after God instructs them to “do…what you did to Jericho…[and] Set an ambush behind the city.” The text of this chapter leaves little if any room to argue God is not commanding the killing of the inhabitants of Ai.

The chapter ends with a ceremony in another location, near the city of Shechem (though Shechem isn’t named) at Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, which God commended the Israelites to hold in Deuteronomy 11. It is a memorialization of the law by inscribing it on the land itself and apparently by loudly proclaiming it back and forth from mountain to mountain, reverberating through the land “before the whole assembly of Israel, including the women, children, and resident foreigners who lived among them.”

#Bible #Joshua 9 #Gibeonites

Six people groups in the land form a military alliance in opposition to Israel, but the seventh pursues another plan.

Commentators provide various interpretations of this passage ranging from condemnation of overeager Israelites to *maybe this is what God really wanted for the peoples of the land after all.*

Deceit is a key feature in the progression of the story and its interpretation. The Gibeonites deliberately misrepresent themselves as living far away, traveling a long time to arrive at the Israelites’ camp. They apparently are aware of Deuteronomy’s guidance that Israel must not make agreements with peoples in the land (Deu 20:16-18) and act to trick the Israelites into treating them as outsiders who can legally be Israel’s allies. In reality, Gibeon is only a few days’ travel away, so when the Israelites make an agreement, the Gibeonites have willfully induced the Israelites to violate the law. The Israelites fail to consult God before committing.

Deceit is central to many of the stories of Joshua so far – spies, a prostitute who protects them with lies, Achan’s theft and concealment. In each case, the motive for the deceit matters and is apparently key to perceiving the actor’s culpability. Because of these earlier deceits, assessing this one is not as straightforward as we might like. Rahab’s deceit appears laudatory in the eyes of the biblical authors, while Achan’s is clearly not. The two spies act in a manner that could be interpreted as obedience or taking advantage of an opportunity to sin (@wilgafney.bsky.social perceptively points out they went straight to a prostitute to “lie down.”) The Gibeonites’ deceit resembles Rahab’s – they are inhabitants of the land who fear what God and the Israelites will do and wish to be allies rather than fight, yet unlike Rahab, they lie to Israel to escape God’s direction in a manner that compromises the Israelites.

This scenario may resemble the Eden garden temptation in which the serpent, an apparent resident of the land, suggests Eve do the opposite of what God has told her, and, without consulting God, she does what she sees as good. We do not see a corresponding expulsion from the land when the Israelites listen to the Gibeonites. Everyone stays as the Gibeonites had hoped, but they are relegated to servitude, something apparently short of Rahab’s inclusion into Israel, yet like Deu 20:10-15’s instructions for cities outside Israel’s inheritance. Unlike with Achan, God does not condemn anyone for the apparent compromised outcome.

God is silent about the episode, leaving us to wonder about his thoughts. Presumably, he gave Joshua the responsibility to make decisions and has determined it is not necessary to intervene further.

The Gibeonites work as “woodcutters and water carriers for the whole community and for the altar of the LORD…” This compelled servitude keeps them, from the time of the narrative’s events to the time of the author, permanently separate from Israel, though they live among them. Unlike Rahab, they remain distinct, not recognized as part of Israel.

#Bible #Joshua 10 #war

Five Amorite kings – of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon – coordinate to attack Gibeon for its alliance with Israel and in response to Israel’s destruction of Ai and Jericho. Although scholars sometimes present this attack as absolving Israel of culpability, i.e. they were merely defending themselves and their ally, it functions as the defense of Canaan from an invading army. God’s guidance does not appear to allow Israel to coexist with the peoples in the land as they were tricked into doing with Gibeon – the Amorites in particular appear repeatedly as a people God marked for expulsion/destruction – so a reasonable leader would gather the strongest alliance he could to resist the Israelite invader.

Joshua responds to the Gibeonite call for rapid response with “valiant warriors,”  or more literally “strong mighty men,” and they march all night from Gilgal to Gibeon, likely a ~25 mile foot movement to contact, which would be a significant tactical disadvantage for the Israelites, possibly linking this to other Israelite battle narratives emphasizing God's sovereignty by handicapping the human army (i.e. God’s repeated winnowing of Gideon’s force in Judges 7).

God assures Joshua of victory. Joshua achieves surprise via the night march, possibly linking the story to the surprise attack of Ai’s forces and the deceptions we noted in the previous chapters. The joint nature of the fight is apparent in two neighboring sentences:

-The Lord routed them before Israel.

-Israel thoroughly defeated them… 

"The Lord hurled large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died..."

In this and similar passages, the biblical authors repeatedly state that God and the Israelites participate together in war, at times using lethal force in pursuit of God's objectives.

#Bible #Joshua 10 cont. #war #miracle

After describing the destruction of the allied Amorites, the narrator adds that not only was there a miraculous weather event (hail that killed more Amorites than the Israelites did), there was a heavenly one too. Genesis 1 describes a sun and moon with authority and responsibilities. Here, Joshua (or possibly God) tells the sun to stand still over Gibeon and the moon motionless over the Valley of Aijalon, God’s power evident in his servant’s ability to command this unique, awe-inspiring demonstration enabling the defeat of Israel’s enemies.

As with other miraculous stories like the Flood and plagues on Egypt, it is difficult to reconcile the mechanics of the event with a modern understanding of, in this case, the solar system. Similar to the parting of the Reed Sea, there is both a poetic and narrative telling – the commands to the sun and moon are formatted as poetic lines, then narrative describes the event, opposite the order of the sea crossing.

Keeping the sun apparently still would require the Earth to stop rotating and revolving, while making the moon motionless, stopping the moon’s revolution and rotation. Alternatively, one could postulate illusions but no apparent explanation for generating them or an opposite but possible interpretation such as the obscuring of the sun and moon over those locations i.e. by an eclipse or the storm clouds. The more reasonable explanations would undermine the uniqueness of the event, though when the passage communicates uniqueness, it emphasizes not the heavenly events, but God’s relationship with Joshua, “There was no day like that before it or after it, when the Lord listened to the voice of a man.”

In The Story of God Bible Commentary, Lissa Wray Beal identifies “Mesopotamian omen texts…[that] describe the sun and moon “standing” and “stopping” in the sky, using the same words as in the biblical account. In these texts, the appearance of the sun and moon together on particular days serves as an omen…This suggests the text is working polemically with known ideas, revealing what would be a bad omen for the Amorites and showing that it is God who controls such phenomena.” Yet, she acknowledges none of them refer to extended length days, so the passage remains unique.

#Bible #Joshua 10 cont. #war #kings

The five Amorite kings flee the battle and hide in a cave in Makkedah. Joshua tells his army to trap them inside the cave, post guards, and keep pursuing the enemy to deny them access to their walled cities.

After the battle, the Israelite army returns to Makkedah. Joshua publicly displays the kings, calls Israelite leaders to act out a display of dominance over them, then executes them by striking them and hangs them on trees until sunset, when he orders them roughly buried in the cave they had hid in. The entire episode is performative, communicating Israel’s ability to dominate and kill the former powers in the region.

Joshua tells the people, “Do not fear or be dismayed! Be strong and courageous, for the Lord will do this to all your enemies with whom you fight.” In this statement, he echoes God’s repeated “strong and courageous” command from Joshua 1. We do not get a clear indication of the biblical author’s or God’s views on the executions, but it appears difficult to support the idea they are portrayed negatively. He follows this statement of victorious potential with actual (at least rhetorically) overwhelming victories over seven more cities – Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Gezer, Eglon, Hebron, and Debir.

In this account, Joshua’s army marches from city to city, defeating each, with the exception of Gezer, who he defeats when its king helps Lachish.

“Joshua defeated the whole land, including the hill country, the Negev, the foothills, the slopes, and all their kings. He left no survivors. He annihilated everything that breathed, just as the Lord God of Israel had commanded. Joshua conquered the area between Kadesh Barnea and Gaza and the whole region of Goshen, all the way to Gibeon. Joshua captured in one campaign all these kings and their lands, for the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel. Then Joshua and all Israel returned to the camp at Gilgal.” (NET)

More on this later, there are accounts of these cities conquered again later by Judah, a seeming contradiction with some reasonable resolutions.

Chapter 10 contains among the most God-man linked and apparently eliminationist rhetoric in the Hebrew Bible so far.

Hyperbole common to warfare accounts, focus on walled cities likely to be military posts, and enemy foreknowledge of Israelite movement may color our interpretation of these events.

#Bible #Joshua 11 #war

Kings in the north under the influence of the major city in the region, Hazor, gather at the Waters of Merom to fight Israel. “[T]hey were as numerous as the sand on the seashore and had a large number of horses and chariots.” The narrator again portrays the Israelites as underdog, here both in numbers and technology.

As in earlier battle accounts, both Israel and the Lord are actively engaged, “Joshua and his whole army caught them by surprise at the Waters of Merom and attacked them. The Lord handed them over to Israel, and they struck them down and chased them all the way to Greater Sidon.”

The modern American infantry soldier’s mission is “to close with and destroy the enemy” using “speed, surprise, and violence of action.” The Israelites consistently use the same approach. Surprise and/or deception appear in nearly every story so far in Joshua, here as a key component of the Israelite victory.

God tells the Israelites to burn the chariots and hamstring the horses, recalling Deuteronomy 17’s instructions to Israelite kings and 20’s promise that God will be with them so they should not be intimidated by large numbers, horses, or chariots.

As with the cities in the south, the narrator declares the Israelites struck everyone who fought and everyone in Hazor, destroying/dedicating/devoting/placing them under the ban. The vocabulary used is herem, further clarified by statements they were struck with the sword, which makes it difficult to argue it’s talking about anything other than lethal force.

That said, totalizing language like, “they totally destroyed all the people and allowed no one who breathed to live” may not be the best way to translate and understand. Experienced readers may recognize that the populations cited here as destroyed appear again *in the same book* and often also in Judges, Samuel, etc. ANE scholars recognize hyperbolic language as typical of war reporting in every culture in the region. Cultural practices in ancient war reporting are not accessible to most modern readers, so it’s difficult to make an argument to the devout that we should not believe what’s *clearly* written.

One possibility that tends to resolve the apparent conflicting language is a scenario in which the Israelites kill or chase off the combatants while city dwelling non-combatants escape to the hills prior to Israelite attacks. Following the battles, Israel does not permanently occupy the cities immediately. Non-combatants, escapees, and others not in the area at the time return and continue to live in the city. When Israel moves to permanently occupy the land incrementally, they must again fight city by city to drive out the remaining, though militarily degraded inhabitants.

#Bible #Joshua 11 cont #war

“Joshua conquered the whole land, including the hill country, all the Negev, all the land of Goshen, the foothills, the rift valley, the hill country of Israel and its foothills...He captured all their kings and executed them.  Joshua campaigned against these kings for quite some time.” (NET)

“the Lord determined to make them obstinate so they would attack Israel. He wanted Israel to annihilate[/ban/devote/dedicate/consecrate] them without mercy[/favor/supplication], as he had instructed Moses.” (NET)

Similar to the exodus pharaoh (eg Ex 7:3) where God hardened/made harsh (קָשָׁה) the leader’s heart “so that I may multiply my signs and wonders,” here God makes kings of Canaan obstinate/strengthened/hardened (חָזַק) their hearts, so they would attack Israel and Israel would herem (חָרַם) them.

The summary presents the land as conquered, but as previously discussed, this may indicate the Israelite army defeated each of these cities’ armies at some point without permanently displacing the inhabitants.

In On the Reliability of the Old Testament, K. A. Kitchen says of Joshua 10-11, “the basic formulaic layout and its variations…reflect commonplace ancient Near Eastern usage as found in original and unitary works. This was how such military reports were customarily written, and these structures…are the common coin of the second millennium [encompassing the purported time of the conquest of Canaan]…[‘the sweeping, total conquest and occupation’] rhetoric…was a regular feature of military reports in the second…milleni[um]…It is in this frame of reference that Joshua must be understood.”

#Bible #Joshua 11 cont #war #Anakim

To end the summary, the author emphasizes victory over the Anakim, who we first met in Numbers 13-14 as figures of horror to the Israelites, part of their reason for refusing to go up into the land.

Later in Joshua, their defeat, at least at select cities, is assigned to Caleb, but here in summary, Joshua receives credit as the commander of the whole Israelite army.

The Numbers 14 rebellious Israelites (or possibly a narrator) identify Anakim as descended from the pre-Flood Nephilim. It’s unclear whether the biblical author intends the reader to accept this characterization.

Deuteronomy 2 identifies the Anakim as part of a larger group called Rephaim and lists similar peoples eradicated from their respective territories by Canaan’s neighbors, suggesting the Israelite war on Rephaim is the culmination of a multi-generational, territorial, and tribal conflict against this enigmatic group. Og of Bashan, apparently a giant, is cited as among the last of them in Deuteronomy 3, yet this group of Rephaim known as the Anakim still dwells in Canaan in Joshua. Israel collectively drives them out to cities later recognized as Philistine including Gath, where the giant Goliath will emerge to taunt Israel centuries later.

#Bible #Joshua 12-13 #land

12 lists defeated kings and lands. Sihon and Og merit special attention, defeated by Moses on the east side of the Jordan.

In The Message of Joshua, David Firth writes, “We might wonder about the value of a text like this – but it is a roll call of God’s faithfulness. The land had rest because Yahweh won the battle, and he won the battle because of the obedience of the people”

In 13, God speaks to Joshua as he approaches death to tell him of the lands remaining and that he must divide the land for Israel’s tribal allotments. Sihon and Og make additional appearances, as does Balaam, as the narrator recalls the allotments Moses made on the east side of the Jordan.  

Genesis 1-2 contain two versions of the movement from wilderness to garden. Exodus contains a repetitive two-part section first delineating instructions for building the Eden-like Tabernacle, then describing the faithful implementation of its construction. Similarly, Joshua contains two versions of fighting for the Eden-like promised land of Canaan. Joshua 12-13 present Israel’s initial battles for the land as something like comprehensively successful, while coming accounts show the more permanent occupation as incomplete even at the end of the book. Unlike Exodus' instructions for the Tabernacle and paired narrative of its construction, here, the second account is of an incomplete project, in part because the Israelites failed to honor and obey God’s guidance.

Genesis 2 begins “The heavens and the earth were completed with everything that was in them. By the seventh day God finished the work that he had been doing, and he ceased on the seventh day all the work that he had been doing. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he ceased all the work that he had been doing in creation.” (NET)

In my study of and meditation on the stories of the early books of the Bible, I have repeatedly initially missed and had to return to the concept of rest as a significant part of the Genesis 1-2 paradigm for life, fruitfulness, relationship, and rest in the fruitful land. Joshua 11 concludes, “So Joshua took the whole land, in accordance with everything that the Lord had spoken to Moses; and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. So the land was at rest from war.” (NASB)

The significance of the focus on rest is evident in part because of a paradox. Joshua 13:1-7 implies there is a lot of fighting left to do and peoples remaining for God to drive out. Why say the land had rest if there is fighting to come? It’s possible the warfare accounts in Joshua conceptually parallel the creation accounts in Genesis 1-2. At the end of Genesis 1, God rests, having created by moving from dark, formless, and empty ocean to people in a fruitful land. Genesis 2 moves from a desert/wilderness to a fruitful land. In apparent conflict with Genesis 1’s account, God forms the man first followed by plants and animals vs. Genesis 1’s plants, animals, people order. Genesis 1 focuses on God’s work, though he gives people responsibility. Genesis 2 speaks of God’s work but adds an account of the man’s decisions.

Similarly, Joshua 11’s statement of complete conquest, apportionment, and rest contrasts with Joshua 13’s focus on the work people had left to do in a land requiring subdivision and yet to be taken for residence.

#Bible #Joshua 14 #land #Caleb

Eleazar the priest and Joshua assign the tribal allotments on the west side of the Jordan by lot, presumably emphasizing both fairness and God’s sovereignty over the process. The author emphasizes Joshua’s obedience to Moses’ guidance.

The men of Judah go to Joshua to request their inheritance. Caleb gives his longest speech, including his version of the events of Numbers 13-14, to request he be given the opportunity to fight for the land promised to him decades earlier. Caleb claims a superpower – at 85, he is as strong as he was 45 years earlier, still able to do what he did then.

Joshua prays for Caleb and gives him the territory he asked for, the city of Hebron. Once again, the chapter tells us, “…the land was free from war.” (NET)

Because Caleb was faithful, he receives an inheritance in the land. He confronts what are apparently the most fearsome enemies in the region, inherits a fruitful territory, and the land is at rest, the apparent fulfillment of the Genesis 1-2 ideal of cultivating and protecting the garden and participating in God’s rest.

#Bible #Joshua 15 #land #Caleb

The chapter begins with an extensive delineation of the borders of Judah, encompassing the southern portion of Israel south of what will become Jerusalem to the Negev desert and from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea/Sea of the Philistines. 

In the middle, we find Caleb’s story continues, introducing his daughter and his [brother, nephew, or undetermined other relative] Othniel. Caleb drives the sons of Anak from Hebron, but, unlike other ancient battle accounts, we get no detailed warfare account or focus on individual heroism. The biblical authors dispense with the story of 85 year old Caleb driving out three enemies – so imposing the previous generation chose to mutiny in attempt to return to Egypt – in a single line. Instead, the focus quickly turns to his daughter and her land inheritance, which Daniel Hawk in his Berit Olam commentary links to the stories of Rahab and the daughters of Zelophehad, all women (some foreigners) who inherit in Israel, undermining any inclination to view Israelite men as the only legitimate heirs. 

Caleb offers Achsah in marriage to one who conquers Debir/Kiriath-Sepher. Numerous commentators note that this kind of marriage, tied to the possession of land, military conquest, and power dynamics, was common in surrounding nations of the time, but a reasonable modern reader will be disturbed by the arrangement. Wilda Gafney, in Womanist Midrash, Vol. 2 writes, “Kalev (Caleb) offers his daughter Achsah as a prize. . . In so doing, he treats her like property. This is markedly different from [Rebekah’s] family asking her if she chooses to go with [Isaac] in Genesis 24:58.”

A generous (to Caleb) interpretation assumes a limited set of potential and acceptable (to Achsah) candidates and the task of conquering as intended to establish which would be the most capable of fulfilling the Genesis 2 keep/protect/guard responsibility in the fruitful land.

Because, as elsewhere in Caleb’s story, the narrative is sparse, we do not have adequate information to precisely interpret. 

Achsah’s bold request for springs in addition to the land she inherits may recall Genesis 2’s movement from wilderness to well-watered, fruitful land and fulfills God’s Numbers 14 promise that Caleb’s descendants would inherit the land. That a daughter inherits abundantly further emphasizes the fulness of God’s provision for this faithful family. 

Achsah’s arrival on a donkey recalls Jacob’s blessing of Judah (Genesis 49), Moses’ wife’s return to Egypt (Exodus 4), Balaam’s uniquely talkative mode of travel (Numbers 22), and anticipate the sons of some judges. It may be evidence of elevated status. 

Joanna Klein, In “Intimations of Jacob, Judah, and Joseph in the Stories of King David,” identifies numerous parallels between Jacob/Judah and David and his sons. Among them is the story of a daughter raped, a father silent, and the daughter left permanently desolate. Caleb is a Judahite leader whose story also shares many parallels with David’s. Caleb, who, in God’s words, “followed me fully,” ensures his daughter marries a righteous protector and abundantly inherits fruitful land, recalling Genesis 2's "tend and keep"/cultivate and protect guidance, acting as foil to the more famous Judahite leaders – one can be faithful and fruitful. 

The third section of the chapter contains an extensive list of cities in Canaan. David Firth identifies ones which reappear in later stories, sometimes in their rightful place as part of Judah, sometimes in conflict indicating the promise in peril, and sometimes outside Israel’s territory, revealing the inheritance compromised in that generation. 

Daniel Hawk notes that the cities segment on Ekron, Ashdod, and Gaza deviates from the pattern of the other cities, possibly conceding that they were not controlled by Israel, and preparing the way for the detail that Judah did not take Jebus, part of Benjamin’s territory and instead lived alongside the Jebusites. 

The tension unconquered Jebus builds then lingers until David resolves it in 2 Samuel 5. 

In his Joshua Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary, David Firth identifies Judah as the only tribe described with all three elements present in the tribal allocations: border, city list, and statement on the disposition of the peoples in the land. Judah’s most complete account of its land allocation likely reflects Caleb’s faithfulness and therefore reward of land, rest, and relationship with God.

#Bible #Joshua 16-17 #land

After Judah, we get the allotment for Joseph (Joshua’s relatives). The writer describes Ephraim’s borders and the Manasseh’s. Unlike with Judah, there is no city list. There are a couple of short narratives. Ephraim does not expel the Canaanites living in Gezer, rather puts them to hard labor.

Manasseh’s daughters of Zelophehad, in a parallel to Caleb’s story, approach Eliezar and Joshua to claim the land they’d previously been promised in Numbers 27, so Joshua gives them allotments among their uncles. Manasseh had land east of the Jordan in Gilead and Bashan but here inherits west of the Jordan also.

Like Ephraim, Manasseh fails to fully conquer the Canaanites but puts them to forced labor.

Joseph’s descendants find their allotments confining, so they approach Joshua. He tells them they may inherit the whole hill country, but they must drive out the Perizzites and Rephaites/Rephaim and clear the forests in order to live there.

We don’t learn any further details about these Rephaim here. Presumably there is some connection between them and those of Hebron and the other tribes listed in Deuteronomy 2. Joshua appears confident that faithful and committed descendants of Joseph can handle them and the Canaanites with iron chariots the people express their concern about.

#Bible #Joshua 18-19 #land

“Then the whole congregation of the sons of Israel assembled at Shiloh, and set up the tent of meeting there; and the land was subdued before them.”

The use of “subdued” here appears a reference to Genesis 1’s command to “fill the land and subdue it.” The Israelites have apparently fought enough to be able to discuss division of the land, and now must discuss what is necessary to “fill” it by tribal allotment.

The people of Israel meet at Shiloh to address the final divisions of the land. Joshua briefly chastises some of them for failing to follow through on their inheritance, then, in a passage recalling the Numbers 13 leaders’ reconnaissance, appoints three from each tribe to survey the land. Rather than a military action, this appears to be a civil project. The surveyors will designate seven portions without knowing which tribe would inherit which, so their motive will tend toward equity rather than attempt to gain advantage for their own tribe.

After writing descriptions of seven divisions of the land, they are to return to Joshua, who will cast lots to determine which tribe inherits which portion. There are seven because Ephraim and Judah already have allotments in the north and south respectively (12-1.5), the Levites do not inherit territory (-1), and Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh have land east of the Jordan (-2.5).

Joshua assigns an allotment to each tribe, and, though there is no narrative for each as with Judah, we do find either a described border, a list of cities, or both. The e final lot goes to Dan, for whom we do get, along with a city list, a short narrative stating that they conquered Leshem and named it Dan.

Once all the tribes have allotments, Joshua requests and receives one for himself, the city Timnath Serah in Ephraim’s allotment with his own tribe.

“So they finished dividing the land.”

These lists don’t make for easy reading, but we might receive them as an atlas or reference work we can use later to determine whether a story is taking place in an expected/appropriate location or whether circumstances are bad because Israel has lost territory. An understanding of geography provides useful context for interpreting following stories.

 #Bible #Joshua 20-21 #land

In his Berit Olam commentary, Daniel Hawk writes, “The establishment of cities of refuge and Levitical cities signals the completion of the program which defines Israel’s inheritance but further complicates the organization signified by it. Both apply Mosaic commandments which are to take effect once Israel enters the land (Num 35:1-15; Deut 19:1) and begin by invoking Moses (Josh 20:1-2; 21:2).”

Cities of refuge

When considered alongside earlier references to the land as subdued and subdivided among the tribes to be “filled” as in Genesis1, this passage’s provision for an Israelite who kills another may add a layer worth comparing to Genesis 4 in which brother kills brother. Here, the city of refuge provides an opportunity to stop the bloodshed from escalating.

Levitical cities

In a similar way, the Levitical cities provide space for the Levites, who serve God in his Tabernacle and apparently in other roles we don’t learn a lot about, and may relate to our Genesis 1 identity as the image of God representing him to his creation and interceding for it to him. Levites fulfilling their duties would perform idealized Adam-like functions – as mediators between God, the land, and the Israelites. They tend the Tabernacle at Shiloh and manage God’s relationship with his people in their respective places within the land.

Here, as in the few previous chapters, we might use this list of cities as a reference work, an atlas, as we read future stories for comparison and contrast with what is in the story and should be as noted here.

“So the Lord gave Israel all the land he had solemnly promised to their ancestors, and they conquered it and lived in it. The Lord made them secure, in fulfillment of all he had solemnly promised their ancestors. None of their enemies could resist them. The Lord handed all their enemies over to them. Not one of the Lord’s faithful promises to the family of Israel was left unfulfilled; every one was realized.”

#Bible #Joshua 22 #land

Joshua calls together the tribes who chose to live on the east side of the Jordan to release them from their continued obligation to fight, “You have carried out all the instructions of Moses the Lord’s servant, and you have obeyed all I have told you. . . Now the Lord your God has made your fellow Israelites secure, just as he promised them. So now you may turn around and go to your homes in your own land that Moses the Lord’s servant assigned to you east of the Jordan. But carefully obey the commands and instructions Moses the Lord’s servant gave you. Love the Lord your God, follow all his instructions, obey his commands, be loyal to him, and serve him with all your heart and being!” (NET)

“Take home great wealth, a lot of cattle, silver, gold, bronze, iron, and a lot of clothing. Divide up the goods captured from your enemies with your brothers.”

The Transjordanian tribes were faithful. Joshua encourages them to remain so. At the beginning of Joshua, Achan illegitimately saw and took precious metals and clothing. Here, the faithful tribes receive those things in abundance, along with cattle, the fruitfulness of their ancestors dating back to Abraham.

As those tribes return to their territory, they build an altar, sparking concern among the other tribes who assume they intend it to be an alternate worship site and therefore rejection of God leading to judgment for all Israel.

The builders deny rebellious intent, instead claiming they wanted a place to teach their children about their relationship with God.

This explanation placates the other tribal and religious leaders, and the chapter ends with the name of the altar, “Surely it is a Reminder to us that the Lord is God.”

We’ve previously considered several possible connections between these closing chapters of Joshua and elements of the opening chapters of Genesis – subduing and filling the land, rest, representing God to his creation, and brother vs. brother violence. This passage may recall Genesis 4’s acceptable and unacceptable sacrifices.

In this episode, it appears the Israelite leadership is devout, investing significant effort in ensuring the tribes are aligned with God’s purpose.

#Bible #Joshua 23 #obedience

As Joshua nears death, he admonishes Israel in similar language to Moses’, telling them to stay faithful to God, so they can remain in good relationship with him and continue to occupy the land.

Joshua credits God with faithfully delivering them the land and encourages them to faithfully uphold their end of the agreement by continuing to conquer the territory they’ve been assigned. He warns them of making alliances with those who would turn them away from God, saying God will not go before them if they do and ultimately they will disappear from the land.

#Bible #Joshua 24 #renewal

Joshua gathers all the tribes at Shechem. It’s unclear whether the location is significant here beyond being centrally located, but Shechem does have resonance in Israel’s family history as the first named stop in Abraham’s journey into Canaan, the location of Jacob’s purchase of land as he re-entered after his self-imposed exile, the city of the prince who abused and kidnapped Dinah whose people Jacob’s sons then massacred and enslaved, and part of the inheritance of Ephraim, Joshua’s tribe.

David Firth, in his Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary, assesses that Joshua is speaking as a prophet here. Joshua states these are the words of YHWH, “the God of Israel.” Similarly, the Israelites “present themselves before the Lord,” both leader and people consciously engaged in honoring God for the moment.

God recounts the history of his relationship with Israel beginning with Abraham and continuing through the current generation, spending the most time on their conflicts as they approached and entered the land to receive it as an inheritance. God confirms he was with them and sent the hornet as he first promised in Exodus 23. We don’t get any additional hints about what the hornet was, just confirmation it did its intended work. God confirms he has fulfilled the promise he previously made in Deuteronomy 6:10-11, “I gave you a land in which you had not worked hard; you took up residence in cities you did not build, and you are eating the produce of vineyards and olive groves you did not plant.”

Joshua exhorts the Israelites, “Now obey the Lord and worship him with integrity and loyalty. Put aside the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt, and worship the Lord. If you have no desire to worship the Lord, then choose today whom you will worship, whether it be the gods whom your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But I and my family will worship the Lord.”

The people acknowledge the things God has done for them and pledge loyalty to him, but Joshua knows better than to believe they will remain faithful, “You will not keep worshiping the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God who will not forgive your rebellion or your sins. If you abandon the Lord and worship foreign gods, he will turn against you; he will bring disaster on you and destroy you, though he once treated you well.”

Joshua admonishes the people to set aside foreign gods and remain faithful to the Lord God of Israel.

“That day Joshua drew up an agreement for the people, and he established rules and regulations for them in Shechem. Joshua wrote these words in the Law Scroll of God. He then took a large stone and set it up there under the oak tree near the Lord’s sanctuary. Joshua said to all the people, “Look, this stone will be a witness against us, for it has heard everything the Lord said to us. It will be a witness against you if you deny your God.” When Joshua dismissed the people, they went to their allotted portions of land.”

Joshua dies and is buried in his allotted land.

Joseph’s bones are interred in the land his father bought at Shechem.

Eleazar the priest, son of Aaron, dies and is buried on his son Phineas’ allotted land.

Israel worshiped the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime and as long as the elderly men who outlived him remained alive.

#Bible #Joshua #form

The form of Joshua appears to recall that of Exodus – there is a narrative section (in Exodus the story of the Israelites in Egypt and their exit, in Joshua the story of the entry of the Israelites into Canaan and the beginning of their life there) followed by repetitive sections of detailed descriptions (in Exodus the instructions for and construction of the Tabernacle, in Joshua delineation of borders and lists of cities). Joshua ends with a coda of three speeches that recall Moses in Deuteronomy, admonishing the Israelites to obey God so that they with have enduring rest and relationship in the fruitful land.

This completes our notes on the book of Joshua. This project began in 2019 in Genesis 1. Its goal from its inception is now one chapter away – Judges 1, the end of Caleb’s narrative.