The first book of the second section of the Tanakh, the Book of Prophets, Joshua has been annointed the leader of the Jews by Moses before he disappears up the mountain with God, never to be seen again. The book picks up as the Israelites enter Canaan, the Promised Land. Remembering back to the earliest parts of the Torah, Canaan is an inhabited land with its own population. But God has promised it to the Jews, and the first section of this book is basically the conquest of the indigenous people who live there (and before someone decides to make it about current politics, there is no lineage that connects modern day Palestinians with the Canaanites). The second section of the book occurs at the end of the conquest, as the new nation of Israel (chronologically, somewhere around the 1300 BCE mark) establishes itself as an entity and deals with surrounding foreign powers that don’t want it to exist. Okay, you can relate that to modern politics.
- God to Joshua, “Moses is dead. You’re my new fave. Stick with me and all will be glorious. Don’t and, well, Moses is dead. Just sayin’.” Joshua to tribal leaders, “You got three days to get ready. We’re marching on Canaan. God says it’s a go.”
- Joshua sends two spies to Jericho to scope things out. For some reason, wink wink, they choose to take rooms in a prostitute’s house, Rahab. Somehow, the king of Jericho learns they are there and sends soldiers to get them, ordering her to comply. Rahab hides the spies in her attic and tells the soldiers that they already left. The soldiers set out to search for them. She goes to the spies and tells them she’s heard about the Israelites coming and how powerful their god is. She asks for protection for her and her family in the coming invasion, in return for aiding them. They agree. She sends them to hide in the hills for three days until the soldiers give up searching. They tell her to hang a crimson ribbon in her window as a sign to the Israelite army to leave her home untouched. The spies hide in the hills for three days, then head back to Joshua to report on what they’ve learned.
- Three days on, Joshua orders the priests to set out on the march to cross the Jordan River. One man from each of the twelve tribes is selected to carry the Ark of the Covenant, and the priests lead the procession. The troops, and people are to follow. They are, however, advised to stay back 2000 cubits, or 3000 feet, from the Ark. The implication is that the Ark will destroy everything around it other than the priests who are leading and carrying it, and, I guess, the troops will be the mop-up crew. They arrive at the river, and as soon as the feet of the carriers enters the water, the river ceases to flow, creating a dry land path for the Israelites to cross into Canaan. Shades of Moses and the Red Sea.
- While the priests stayed on the river bed with the Ark, keeping the waters at bay, the people crossed over. Joshua, at God’s command, selects a leader from each tribe to pick up a riverbed stone, carry it onshore, and lay claim to the land. Now, what’s interesting to me is that in Judaism these stones are of little more than historical interest. They no longer exist, and were never intended to be more than a temporary foundation site, as stone monuments to God are not a part of our faith, in fact, they’re forbidden. On the flipside, they’re a big deal in a lot of evangelical Christian sects, with various piles, rows, and circles of stones uncovered in the land near to the river have been proclaimed the foundation point of Israel, and designated as holy sites.
- The kings of the Canaanites and Amorites hear about the whole stopping of the Jordan river thing and realized what they’re up against. So of course, at this point, Joshua suddenly recalls that during the forty years of the exodus, they’d stopped circumcising men. It’s not at all clear why that would be the case, since it’s a core element of the things God commanded way back at Mt. Sinai, but Joshua calls a two-week or so halt to the march on the Promised Land in order to circumcise all the men, let them rest, and have Passover seder. Suddenly a man holding a sword appears in front of Joshua. Joshua demands his identity. The man says, “dude, I’m the head of God’s army”. Joshua prostrates himself in front of the guy, who looks around the desert and says, “hey, your on my ground now, take off your shoes”.
- We’ve reached the (in)famous story of the fall of Jericho. The Israelites have the city under siege. Joshua, at God’s direction, tells the troops to march around the city, led by the Ark of the covenant and seven priests each carrying a ram’s horn. All of this is to be carried out in complete silence. Just quietly march around the city. That had to be creepy for the inhabitants, and build the psychological tension. For six days, the Israelite army does this. On the seventh day, Joshua calls them back together. Today, they are to complete the circuit of the city, and then the seven priests are to blow the ram’s horns and all the people are to shout. They do so, and the walls of the city collapse. The army rushes in and kills every living being in the city. Except… Joshua remembers the promise made to Rahab, the prostitute, and has the two spies who stayed with her go direct to her house and escort her, her family, and their possessions to safety outside the city, where they are left to their own devices.
- Part of sacking Jericho was that all the gold and silver valuables would be put into the community treasury. No one was to keep loot for themselves. Young Achan, member of the tribe of Judah, took some gold and silver for himself and buried it under his tent. Next day, when Joshua sends troops on to the next town, Ai, they are repelled, and 36 of them are killed. Joshua prostrates himself before God, asking why God has gone back on his promise to lead them to victory. God replies, “someone broke our deal, find them and fix it”. Joshua calls the tribes forward, one by one, and when the tribe of Judah is called, God says, “you’re getting warm”, and then when Achan’s clan is called, he says, “warmer…”. Finally zeroing in on Achan, Joshua demands he confess. He does so, begging for forgiveness. In the spirit of forgiveness and mercy… oh wait, we’re talking the bible here… Joshua and the elders take Achan to a field, set him on fire and pelt him with stones until he’s dead. They erect a monument above him as a reminder not to break the rules. It made God happy.
- I remember as a kid learning the whole story (without some of the gory details) of the fall of Jericho. The fall of Ai doesn’t resonate as something I remember. After the failure to capture it in the previous chapter, what’s next? God, now pleased with Joshua’s solution to having his orders ignored, tells him to try again. This time, Joshua stations most of his troops, hidden, around the city of Ai. Then he and a small number approach the city from the front. The troops of the city come out to meet them. Joshua and troops run away, and are pursued by the soldiers from Ai. As soon as they are out of sight, Joshua’s hidden ambushers rush into the city, slaughter everyone in it, and burn it to the ground. This time God says they can take loot for themselves. Now, the soldiers of Ai find themselves trapped between large groups of Joshua’s soldiers, and without a city to defend. They are slaughtered to the last man, and then the king of Ai is brought before Joshua who has him impaled on a stake. God seems pleased yet again.
- While some of the city-states in the area band together and prepare for war against the approaching Jewish army, the Gideonites decide to take a surreptitious approach to prevent being annihilated. They send a delegation, dressed in rags and carrying stale supplies. On arrival, they claim to be from a distant land, who had heard of the might of the Israelites and their God, and offer themselves and their home countries as servants in return for being spared. Joshua agrees, swearing an oath that they will be protected against slaughter. He discovers their duplicity, that they are men of nearby city-states. Does he declare his oath null and void? No. He gave his word, and he intends to keep it. But, he declares that Gideonites and their descendants must keep their oath, and remain servants to God for all time. Various historians and anthropologists have come to the conclusion that the modern day descendants of the Gideonites are the Falasha Jews of Ethiopia.
- So, the five kings of the other neighboring city-states are upset. But rather than approach Joshua and the Israelite army, they band together and attack Gibeon, which Joshua has sworn to protect. The Israelite army swoops in and routs them, chasing them away. The five kings hole up in a cave deciding what to do. Joshua has most of the army chase the kings’ armies and slaughter them, though most of the slaughtering is done by God, with giant hailstones. Meanwhile a contingent seals the kings in the cave. Once the armies are destroyed, Joshua has the kings released, humiliates them, and impales them on stakes. Then he has their bodies sealed up in the cave. Then Joshua requests God make the sun and moon stand still, in order to demonstrate more of his power. The rest of the chapter is a litany of the other city-states that the Israelite army marches on, until they’ve conquered the entire country.
- Although chapter 10 listed various city-states conquered and stated that Joshua and the Israelite army conquered all of the Promised Land, today’s page takes a step back and lists more of them, slaughtering, looting, and burning.
- First we finish off the list of kingdoms, or city-states, defeated by the Israelite army. And then we go back to the top and do a little checklist to make sure that all 31 were noted, and in the correct order.
- Apparently all this slaughtering, looting, and razing took longer than the last couple of chapters made it seem, as God talks to Joshua and says, “Dude, you’re old now. I’ll finish conquering the remaining kingdoms for you, you work on divvying up the conquered lands.” Joshua proceeds to apportion the lands that Moses hadn’t already done back when he granted certain ones to certain tribes. A point is made that the Levites don’t get any land, because God is their purview.
- More details of the apportionments of land to the various tribes. Joshua listens to the appeal of Caleb, from the Judites, who details the promises Moses made him 45 years earlier. Joshua grants him, and his descendants, the land of Hebron, now part of the West Bank.
- Caleb, now officially granted lands south of Jerusalem around Mt. Hebron, goes to check out his new holdings, only to discover that there are still people living there, and cities that have not capitulated to the Israelite army. More slaughtering and razing ensue.
- I can see we’re going to get a surveyor’s lay of the land for every single apportionment. Today it’s the Josephites, who have the territory between Jericho and Bethel. Except the town of Gezer, where some Canaanites remain and cannot be dislodged.
- There are rabbinical folk who have said that if not for all the sinning that the Israelites did over the years, the Tanakh would consist of just the five books of the Torah and the book of Joshua. The story of getting to Israel, conquering it, and apportioning it. And, indeed, we continue apportioning. Some of the tribes object to their allotments, and Joshua just tells them to look around for unclaimed (by the Israelites) territories, and go conquer them to add to their lands.
- Even Joshua’s getting tired of listing off the boundaries of each land allotment and the towns it contains. He calls together the tribal elders, points out that he has yet to describe the lands for seven of them. He has them select three men from each of their clans. Each of those teams of three are to go to the planned areas of allotment, and write out a detailed surveyors’ description of the boundaries and towns and then report back. When they’re all back, they draw lots for which tribe gets which described area. The Benjamites are first, and he reads off the description of the property which they will now take possession of.
- Yeah, yeah. Simeonites, check. Zebulunites, check. Issacharites, check. Asherites, check. Naphtalites, check. Danites, whoops, that one got away, had to reconquer the territory, check. And hey, Joshua, here’s a small town in the hills for you, Timnath-serah, settle in.
- The land having all been apportioned out, God reminds Joshua that there are always to be designated sanctuary cities where an accused murderer, rapist, or the like can live in safety from retribution until their trial. Innocent until proven guilty.
- Though the Levites, the priests, are not allocated their own lands within Israel, they remind Joshua that God promised them a portion of each of the other tribes’ lands for agricultural use to support themselves. Each tribe grants them one town and surrounding lands.
- Remember way back, in the days of Moses, when a trio of tribes asked for their land to be the area outside of Israel, on the approach to the River Jordan? So, Joshua tells them to head back there, live in peace, keep God’s rules, etc. They go back, some time passes, and Joshua learns that they’ve built a huge altar. Without bothering to find out any details, he dispatches an armed force to wipe them out for having violating God’s commandment against worshipping other gods. The troops arrive, announce why they’re there. The three tribal leaders there say, “Wow, dudes, this is an altar dedicated to God. We’re so far away from Jerusalem, we just want to make sure our kids grow up understanding the rules, and the need for sacrifices to God.” Leaders of the troops, “Oh, cool, nice idea. Sorry we came at you like that. Peace, out.” They head back to Joshua to tell him he got it all wrong.
- Joshua’s old and he knows it. He calls all the elders together and tells them it’s time for him to die. He wants them to remember everything he, and God, did for them. And for the future, to keep God’s rules, never deviating from that path. He reminds them, in particular, to never worship or swear allegiance to another god, and to never intermarry with other religions. If they stray from this, they bring down destruction on the Jewish people, with hate and a bleak future coming from all sides. I guess we know how we got to where things are today in 2022.
- Joshua calls all the elders together again. He speaks on behalf of God, reminding them of their history from a pagan god worshipping culture, through the adventures of their forefathers, on to Egypt, the exodus, and the conquering of the Promised Land. He asks that they choose, now and forever, to either swear loyalty to God or leave and return to the worship of their ancestors. In response, they repeat the history, and swear loyalty. Coming at it from the other side, Joshua asks them to also renounce any fealty to other gods. They do so. Joshua sets up a covenant stone marking the time and spot where they swore this oath to God, to himself, and to each other. Then he dies, at age 110. End scene.