Joshua 1


Joshua 1 is the first chapter of the Book of Joshua in the Hebrew Bible and in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. According to Jewish tradition, the book is attributed to Joshua, with additions by the high priests Eleazar and Phinehas, but modern scholars view it as part of the Deuteronomistic history, which spans the Book of Deuteronomy to 2 Kings, attributed to nationalistic and devotedly Yahwistic writers during the time of the reformist Judean king Josiah in 7th century BCE. This chapter focuses on the commission of Joshua as the leader of Israel after the death of Moses, a part of a section comprising Joshua 1:1–5:12 about the entry to Canaan.

Text

This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 18 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, Aleppo Codex, and Codex Leningradensis. Fragments containing parts of this chapter in Hebrew were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls including XJoshua with extant verses 9–12.
Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint include Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus. Fragments of the Septuagint Greek text containing this chapter is found in manuscripts such as Washington Manuscript I, and a reduced version of the Septuagint text is found in the illustrated Joshua Roll.

Old Testament references

  • :
Verse 8 is the first reference to Jewish meditation in the Book of Joshua.

Analysis

The narrative of Israelites entering the land of Canaan comprises verses 1:1 to 5:12 of the Book of Joshua and has the following outline:

Commissioning of Joshua (1:1–9)

This section forms a transition from the narratives of the wilderness wanderings of Israel into the settlement of the land of Canaan, which YHWH has promised to give to his people, as an overture to the book of Joshua. Moses had led the Israelites since the Exodus from Egypt throughout the time in the wilderness, but he was not to enter the promised land; rather, Joshua would do that, so the commissioning of Joshua in succession to Moses is the focus of this narrative, with a reference to Moses' death linking it to the closing words of the Book of Deuteronomy. The relationship between Moses and Joshua is well documented in Exodus 17:8–16; Numbers 27:12–23, and in the Book of Deuteronomy. The first speech in this chapter contains God's command to Joshua to cross the Jordan River, so the people of Israel could possess their land, and a transfer of the privileges and role of Moses to Joshua. The elements in this transfer are
  1. the encouragement of Joshua
  2. the task to possess the land for the people, with the implication of distributing its parts to the tribes
  3. the assurance of God's presence with him.
These recall the law of the 'king', which refer to all who would lead in Israel. Joshua's special position is that YHWH's promise of presence is peculiarly his, while Joshua place himself under the authority of the law of God given to Moses.

Verse 1

  • "Servant of the LORD" : a phrase that marks both relationship and responsibility, also used elsewhere of Moses, and of King David.
  • "Moses' servant": from, , "minister" or "assistant" of Moses, "the one who serves Moses". This was Joshua's continuous title in the Torah, an important role especially as it is associated with present of God's Spirit in him, a key reason for his designation as Moses' successor. From a 'second to Moses', Joshua's commissioning puts him in Moses' place, which is explicitly restated in . By the end of his life, Joshua was finally called "the servant of the ".

    Verse 2

  • "Moses My servant is dead": The death of Moses sets for Joshua's commission, because God did not allow Moses to enter the land.

    Joshua assumes command (1:10–18)

In verses 10–11 Joshua gave his first command to the 'officers of the people' to prepare each tribe for the coming military campaign. Verses 12–15 record Joshua's speech to the 'Transjordanian tribes' — the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh who had set their territories east of the Jordan river — that they should send their men to fight with other tribes to conquer the land west of Jordan and only return after the conquest is considered complete. The topic is addressed again in Joshua 22, thus bracketing the main parts of the book. The reply of these tribes in verses 16–18 echoes God's assurance in verses 1–9 and brings conclusion to this chapter.

Verse 15

  • "Rest" is the key theological idea for the goal of the conquest, 'entailing the complete possession of the land and the subduing of enemies'.

    Explanatory notes

General and cited references