Joshua
Possessing the inheritance: Israel enters, conquers, and divides the Promised Land.
Joshua completes the story begun in Genesis. God promised Abraham a land; Exodus redeemed the people; Leviticus taught them worship; Numbers recorded their unbelief; Deuteronomy restated the covenant; now Joshua leads the new generation across the Jordan to possess what God had given. The six books form one connected progression from bondage to inheritance.
The book falls into three parts. Israel enters the land by crossing the Jordan on dry ground (1–5), conquers it in central, southern, and northern campaigns (6–12), and divides it among the tribes (13–24). The victories are God’s victories—the walls of Jericho fall at a shout, the sun stands still at Gibeon—but the defeat at Ai shows that hidden sin in the camp can stop the whole army.
Joshua’s name is the Hebrew form of the name Jesus. He is the captain who brings God’s people into their rest, and his book closes with the ringing testimony that “there failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken” (21:45).
Writer: Joshua; another hand added the account of his death
Written: During the conquest generation, about 1451–1425 BC; the ending completes the record after Joshua’s last address.
Name: The Lord saves
Title and authorship
The book is named for its principal character. Yehoshua means “Jehovah is salvation.” Moses changed his name from Oshea (“salvation”) by adding the divine name (Numbers 13:16). In Greek the name is Iesous, which is why the King James Bible reads “Jesus” in Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8, where Joshua is meant.
Joshua wrote the book (24:26), and the account of his death and burial (24:29–33) was added by another hand, traditionally Eleazar or Phinehas. The phrase “unto this day” and the eyewitness “we” of 5:1 suggest a writer close to the events.
Historical background
Canaan from Gilgal and Jericho to Shechem, Gibeon, Hazor, and the tribal allotments, beginning about 1451 BC and covering roughly twenty-five years.
Israel in the land, reminded that the inheritance was God’s gift and that continued blessing depended on covenant faithfulness.
Crossing at flood stage
Israel crossed the Jordan in the first month, at harvest, when the river overflowed its banks (3:15). The waters stood up in a heap at the city Adam, some twenty miles upstream, and the people crossed on dry ground on the tenth day of the month—the day the Passover lamb was to be chosen.
Jericho
Jericho guarded the fords of the Jordan and the passes into the central hill country. It was one of the oldest cities in the world, and its capture split Canaan and opened the way for the southern and northern campaigns.
The long day
At Gibeon Joshua commanded the sun and moon to stand still, and the day was lengthened “about a whole day” (10:13). He spoke from the observer’s standpoint, as we still speak of sunrise. Several ancient peoples preserved traditions of an unusually long day or night, which fit a real event, though popular claims of a scientifically calculated “missing day” are fables.
Key passages
Joshua 1:8
Meditation in and obedience to “this book of the law” is the secret of prosperity and good success.
Joshua 11:23
Joshua took the whole land and gave it for an inheritance; “the land rested from war.”
Joshua 21:43–45
Not one good thing that the LORD had promised failed; all came to pass.
Joshua 21:44–45
God’s faithfulness is declared in the fulfillment of his good promises.
Outline
1–5 · Entering the land
Joshua receives his charge; Rahab shelters the spies; Israel crosses the Jordan and renews covenant signs.
6–12 · Conquering the land
Jericho, Ai, the central and southern campaigns, and the northern victories establish the conquest.
13–22 · Dividing the inheritance
Tribal boundaries, special allotments, cities of refuge, and Levitical cities order life in the land.
23–24 · Keeping the covenant
Joshua’s farewell messages call the nation to serve the Lord and reject other gods.
Original language
יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yehoshua, H3091) — “Joshua”
“Jehovah is salvation.” The same name, shortened to Yeshua, lies behind the Greek Iesous. When the angel said, “thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people” (Matthew 1:21), he was explaining this name.
נַחֲלָה (nachalah, H5159) — “inheritance”
A possession received by allotment or inheritance and kept in the family. The word is used about fifty times in Joshua; land in Israel was held from God, not owned outright.
חֵרֶם (cherem, H2764) — “accursed thing, devoted”
Something devoted to God, either for destruction or for His treasury. Jericho was cherem; Achan’s theft brought the curse into Israel’s own camp.
תִּקְוָה (tiqvah, H8615) — “line (cord)”
The scarlet “line” in Rahab’s window uses the word that elsewhere means “hope” (Jeremiah 29:11; Ruth 1:12). Her deliverance literally hung on a scarlet cord of hope.
Doctrinal study
Rest and the better rest
Joshua gave Israel a real but partial rest. Hebrews argues that “if Jesus [Joshua] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day” (4:8). The ultimate rest for Israel awaits the kingdom, and the believer enters God’s rest now by ceasing from his own works and trusting Christ.
Rahab: saved by grace through faith
Rahab was a Gentile, a harlot, and a citizen of a city under judgment. She heard the report, believed, confessed that “the LORD your God, he is God” (2:11), acted on her faith by hiding the spies, and was delivered under the scarlet line. She married into Judah and became an ancestress of Christ (Matthew 1:5). Hebrews commends her faith and James her works: each writer describes one side of the same faith.
Sin in the camp
Israel’s defeat at Ai came because one man, Achan, took of the accursed thing. God said, “Israel hath sinned” (7:11). Sin in one member affects the whole body, and victory returned only after the sin was confessed and judged.
Commentary notes
The captain of the LORD’s host
Before Jericho, Joshua met a Man with a drawn sword who accepted his worship and told him to loose his shoe, as Moses had been told at the burning bush (5:13–15). The Commander of the army was the LORD Himself, appearing before His incarnation.
Two memorials
Twelve stones were set up in the midst of Jordan, where the priests’ feet had stood, and twelve taken out of the river and set up at Gilgal (4:1–9, 20). The first pictures the believer’s identification with Christ in death; the second his being raised with Christ to walk in newness of life.
Joshua and Ephesians
Ephesians is the New Testament counterpart to Joshua. Both concern an inheritance already given that must be possessed, a wealth and a walk, and a warfare against enemies who occupy the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3; 6:12).
Christ in the book
- Joshua — the Captain of salvation leading many sons into rest (Hebrews 2:10)
- The captain of the LORD’s host — Christ appearing before His incarnation (5:14)
- The scarlet line — deliverance through the blood from coming judgment
- The ark in the midst of Jordan — Christ holding back the waters of death until all His people passed over
- The cities of refuge — safety from judgment for all who flee there (20)
Applications
Historical
- After the death of Moses, Joshua leads Israel into Canaan to possess its inheritance. The land is secured through a series of campaigns and then divided by lot among the tribes.
- The book distinguishes the decisive conquest from the continued responsibility of each tribe to occupy and obey within its allotted territory.
Doctrinal
- Joshua pictures the end of Israel’s wandering, when the Lord Jesus Christ Himself will lead the nation to conquer its enemies and dwell safely in the land of promise forever. The overthrow of the Canaanite kings anticipates the judgment of the nations at His coming.
- Joshua is a type of Christ leading his people into their inheritance. Moses’ leadership brings Israel to the land, and Joshua leads them into possession.
- The conquest and rest also support the prophetic expectation of Israel’s eventual secure possession under the Messiah’s rule.
Devotional
- Christ, the believer’s Joshua, leads him into the enjoyment of the spiritual inheritance. There are real battles in the Christian life, but no battles means no victories, and every victory comes by faith and obedience to the Book.
- Joshua’s charge to courage rests on God’s presence and requires meditation on and obedience to his word.
- Rahab responds to what she has heard of the Lord, acts on that conviction, and seeks deliverance for her household.
Answering the critics
Science-minded critics reject the long day of Joshua 10 as impossible and mock the Bible for saying the sun stood still rather than the earth.
God speaks in the language of human observation, as every age does. The Creator who holds the heavenly bodies in their courses can alter their relationships to the earth as easily as He made them. The account is presented as history, and the Bible treats it as such (Habakkuk 3:11).