1:10 The status of the “officers [shoterim] of the people” is difficult to determine with precision.16 They appear first in the infamous “bricks without straw” episode narrated in Exodus 5, where the ESV translates the designation as “foremen” (Ex. 5:6). In Numbers 11:16 and on several occasions in Deuteronomy these men are aligned with (even drawn from) the “elders” of Israel yet are distinct from them. In Deuteronomy 20:5–9 they exercise a management function in a military rather than civilian capacity. They are drawn into judicial functions in Deuteronomy 16:18 and in the late texts of 1 Chronicles 23:4; 26:29, although 2 Chronicles 19:11; 34:13 puts them within the sphere of the Levites and scribes. When we meet them later in the book of Joshua, they form part of a group with elders and judges (Josh. 8:33; 23:2; 24:1). Across these texts, then, the shoterim are seen as exercising a broad organizational authority in the life of the Israelite community, one in which such authority is derived rather than inherent; this is a matter of function, not status. Here that authority involves serving as the conduit for Joshua’s commands to the wider populace (cf. 3:2), much as Joshua himself is the conduit for God’s commands to his people.

1:11 The narrative chronology in Joshua can be difficult at times for the modern reader to follow. Here, Joshua stipulates “three days” of preparation before breaking camp and crossing into the gifted land. This is resumed at 3:2, but intervening is the story of the “spies” (2:1) in Jericho in chapter 2. This story includes its own three-day span (2:22), although that episode as a whole would seem to require more time than that to be completed. It could be, then, that “three days” is more like our “a few days,” and the reader of these stories is to fit them together as a single unfolding chronology.

1:12–15 God’s speech in verses 1–9 included several implied references to passages in both Numbers and Deuteronomy, and the same is true here. As a group, “the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh” are sometimes designated by commentators as the “Transjordan tribes” or the “eastern tribes” or even the “two and a half tribes.” The origins of this grouping are found in Numbers 32, particularly verses 19–32. They are grouped at a few points as the book proceeds (Josh. 4:12; 12:6; 13:29; 18:7). The exchange here, however, serves as something of a foreshadowing of the dramatic events of chapter 22. In this way the claims and actions of the Transjordan tribes have a special role in displaying the status of the people as a whole before God.

The arrangements with the Transjordan tribes made in Numbers 32 find a summary repetition in Deuteronomy 3:18–20; the latter passage provides the template for Joshua’s words here. One small but significant difference should be noted: the opening words (“The Lord your God is providing you a place of rest”; Josh. 1:13) do not feature in the arrangements either of Numbers 32 or of the summary in Deuteronomy 3:18–20. The closest parallel found in Moses’ speeches is Deuteronomy 12:10, which concerns the people as a whole in anticipation of the new arrangements for worship that will come into force when the Lord “gives you rest from all your enemies.”17 For the writer to the Hebrews, the theme of rest marks out Joshua for comment (Heb. 4:8) between Moses (Heb. 3:2, 3, 5, 16) and Aaron (Heb. 5:4). Here the theme puts down a marker that will be picked up again in Joshua 22:4, providing an explicit link between this passage as the people prepare to enter the land with the later one narrating the dangers encountered in their first settled days in their territories.

1:16–18 The collective response of the Transjordan tribes is swift, affirmative, and comprehensive. It is everything that Joshua could hope it would be, and it gives expression, at least from this segment of the people, to the same notes of continuity as those expressed by the Lord in 1:5 in particular. The chain of command from the Lord through the ordained leader and to the rest of the people persists unbroken. The Transjordan tribes’ closing words in verse 18 are striking on two counts. First, their commitment to put to death any disobedient Israelites is sobering and, looking back, may have a resonance with the zeal of Phinehas (cf. Num. 25:6–12). Looking ahead, it also provides a foreshadowing of events nearer than those of Joshua 22: these words contemplate the possibility of infidelity in Israel’s ranks and the deadly outcome of such behavior. It will come true all too quickly. The other surprise is found in their encouragement back to Joshua to “be strong and courageous.” These are the same words as those spoken by the Lord to him (1:6, 7, 9). In literary terms they provide a strong sense of closure to the opening chapter of Joshua. More importantly, we hear, just for a moment, a portion of Israel sounding very much like their God.