JOSHUA, jesh'yu-a: An Ephraimite, son of
Nun, servant and helper of Moses (Ex. xxiv. 13),
and his successor in the leadership of Israel
(Num. xxvii. 18-23).
On assuming the leadership, Joshua
sent spies who were entertained by Rahab in Jericho,
and on their return reported the situation in
Canaan (Josh. i. 10-ii. 24).
He then ordered preparations
to be made for the invasion, which took
place on the tenth day of the first month of the
forty-first year after the exodus from Egypt. It
has been said that Joshua used the fords of the
Jordan; but the place and the season of the year
are unfavorable to this supposition, since at that
time the Jordan overflows its banks (Josh. iii. 15;
I Chron. xii. 15). According to the narrative the
upper waters of the river stayed as if dammed up,
while the lower waters flowed off into the Dead
Sea. The suggestion of Klostermann that the phenomenon
may have been caused by a severe earthquake
which raised the bed of the river or produced
a landslide across the river bed, which was
afterward carried away by the flood, offers a natural
explanation of the way in which the river was
crossed dry-footed. To preserve the memory of
this crossing, the leader had twelve atones carried
from the bed of the river and set up at Gilgal, midway
between the river and Jericho (Josh. iv. 1-8,
20-24). The people were then circumcised and
the feast of the Passover was celebrated. The
promise made to Joshua that Yahweh, the leader
of the host of the people which had become Yahweh's,
would be his helper was fulfilled in the taking
of Jericho, the walls of which were thrown
down in an earthquake (Josh. v. 13-xxx. vi.), while
of the inhabitants only Rahab and her family were
saved alive. The punishment of Achan and the
treaty secured by the Gibeonites' device followed.
According to Deut. xxvii., after the capture of Ai
Joshua led the people in a northerly direction to
Ebal and Gerizim, and overcame a combination of
Canaanites gathered to punish Gibson for its treaty
with Israel, on which occasion occurred what has
been read as a miracle in the staying of the sun
and the moon in their courses, to be interpreted
probably as a subjective effect of the quickness and
completeness of the victory (
Josh. x. 1-14). This
was followed by the conquest of the southern part
of the land as far as Kadesh-barnea and westward
to Gaza (
Josh. x. 29 sqq.), succeeded by a third
campaign in which the kings of the northern cities
were subdued near Merom. While by these wars
the country was won, with the exception of the
Philistine and Phenician coast, not all was actually
in the possession of the Hebrews; and several
years after the ending of the campaigns Joshua's
seat of government was still at Gilgal (Josh. xiv. 6).
It was at this place that Joshua's second task
was begun--the division of the land among the
tribes. Judah, Ephraim, and Manasseh first received
their allotments, and the ark was carried
from Gilgal to Shiloh in Benjamin (Josh. xv.xviii. 1). This was followed by the allotment of
the portions to the other tribes, and the permission
to the East-Jordan tribes to return to their own
district, having fulfilled their duty to the tribes
west of the river (Josh. xviii.-xxii.). In anticipation
of his death Joshua gathered first the elders
and then the people at Shechem to receive his last
instructions, which he commemorated by a pillar
or stone under the terebinth at Shechem
(Josh. xxiv. 26-27).
He died at the age of one hundred
and ten.
(W. VOLCK†.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
J. H. Stähelin, in TSK, xxiv (1849). 394
sqq.; J. Sockel, Die Eroberung des heitigen Landes durch
Josua, Gleiwitz, 1870; J. B. Meyer, Joshua and the Land of
Promise, London, 1893; and the literature under
JOSHUA,
BOOK OF.
