Joshua
Overview
As the book of Joshua begins, Moses has just died. As the book of Joshua ends, Joshua has just died. The deaths of these two great leaders of Israel frame a book that, in popular perception, has much to do with death throughout. While there is no denying that the narratives of military campaigns and their attendant destruction and loss of life dominate the first half of Joshua, closer inspection discloses that there is much in the book that also affirms life and hope.
This narrative of Israel’s entry into and settlement of the land promised to Abraham and his descendants serves as a significant transition point in the history of God and his people. The contrasts between Israel’s situation as the book begins and as it ends display the major changes that have been experienced. As the book begins, not only has the great exodus leader, Moses, died but the people remain outside the land, a wandering nation looking westward over the Jordan River to the land that they have understood to be their ancestral inheritance but is presently occupied by others—broadly designated “Canaanites.” The people of Israel come to the borders of this land as immigrants or, since their departure from Egypt forty years and a generation earlier, as landless refugees.
But as the book ends, all of that has changed. They are now settled into this landscape, and they are a distributed people with a shared past and a hopeful future. Many of those who previously occupied these cities, towns, and villages are dead, killed by Israelite swords. There are, however, those Canaanites who remain, and whose fractious relationship with Israel will form part of the sequel to this history in the book of Judges. As for Israel, its unity has already been tested, its resilience deepened, and its resolve strengthened to live well as God’s people in the place he has gifted to them. As the book begins, Israel carries the ark signifying God’s presence with them on their way; as the book ends, God has chosen the first place for his “name to dwell” (Deut. 26:2) in the land and has established it as a meeting place between himself and his people.
The book divides readily into three main sections. The first section, beginning with an introduction to the whole, occupies chapters 1–12. It tells the history of Israel’s entry into the land, presented by a number of allusions and echoes as the counterpart to Israel’s departure from Egypt. In these chapters military action dominates as the first probes into the new land provoke hostile responses, leading to a sequence of battles in the central, then southern, then northern territories, in which the indigenous inhabitants are destroyed, routed, or subjugated. The narrator does not linger over details or describe bloody battle scenes; rather this is depicted as holy war, the enactment of sacral destruction at God’s command. There are, however, surprises along the way: some Canaanites find life in Israel’s midst, while some Israelites, in opposing God as most of the Canaanites did, lose their lives in consequence.
With the land now in Israel’s possession, it remains for the various tribes to settle into its regions. The account of this land allotment is given in chapters 13–21. This process unfolds in three phases. First the leading tribes of the south (Judah) and north (Ephraim and Manasseh) settle into their territories. This is accompanied by a small number of military skirmishes, which are the end of war of any kind in the book. At this point (18:1) the base of Israel’s operations shifts to Shiloh; that base had been the border camp of Gilgal, near Jericho, until this time. Second, the remaining tribes are allocated homes after a joint land-survey project identifies suitable divisions. Third, this account finishes with the distribution of cities of asylum and for the tribe of Levi, whose inheritance as the custodians of Israel’s worship does not consist of land.
The final section of chapters 22–24 offers three conclusions, one in each chapter, as Joshua addresses the people, either in part (ch. 22) or as a whole (chs. 23–24). An apparent threat to the unity of God’s people provides an opportunity for affirming it. Then, much like the speeches of Moses that cluster near the end of Deuteronomy, Joshua’s final speeches exhort Israel to an obedient life on the land and to faithful service of the God who has gifted it to them.
Date and Occasion
Although the events anonymously narrated in Joshua are set in the period of the horizon between the end of the Late Bronze and the onset of the Iron Age, the book in its current form comes from a much later period and, in all likelihood, incorporates material from very different times. Frustratingly, few chronological controls are present, including nothing that could count as hard evidence by which to date the book. Internal evidence points in more than one direction. The lack of embarrassment regarding the status of Jerusalem and the assumption of the functional cultic role for Shiloh both suggest early memories. The notices that some situation, name, or monument persists in Israel “to this day” is a clear sign of some historical distance from those events.1 The further integration of intertextual elements corresponding with the trajectory into the story of Samuel–Kings (e.g., Josh. 6:26), as well as the theological stylization reflecting later national developments, push the final shaping of the book toward the exilic period. On the other hand, confident chronological conclusions cannot be drawn from either the doublets in the lists of city names in the land distribution or the (significant) divergences between the Hebrew text and the Septuagint. Commentators have evaluated such features in strikingly different ways. At best, one can affirm that the book contains materials of varying dates, some of which may be close to the events the book describes, while the book’s final shape seems to have been achieved with the benefit of hindsight gained in the exilic period.
This is not to counsel despair concerning the book’s purpose—far from it (cf. Theology of Joshua). Rather, this is to appreciate that the traditions preserved in Joshua speak to different staging posts in the history of God’s relationship with his chosen people. The book celebrates the achievement of God’s promise and the actions of his faithful people in realizing that blessing. It cautions concerning the inherent weakness of the best-intentioned human response to a holy God. Joshua records triumphs, but it is never triumphalist. It contributes significantly to the integrated theological project that runs to the end of 2 Kings, demonstrating how the seeds that will bring divine judgment and national destruction persist even through the high points enjoyed by Israel with its covenant God.
Genre and Literary Features
In broad terms, the book of Joshua relates history in prose form. There is remarkably little poetry, with the only clear example found in the brief epic lines found at Joshua 10:12–13, unless the list of kings conquered by Joshua (12:9–24) is also to be regarded as poetry, following the Masoretic convention.2 Beyond the simple prose/poetry distinction, however, a number of more precise genres may be discerned. The bulk of the narratives in the first part of the book (chs. 6; 8–11) can be regarded as conquest accounts, seeking the destruction of the enemy and promoting the totality of victory. These often bear comparison to ancient Near Eastern annals recording the exploits of kings. The text also includes stories and anecdotes, which have a discernible plot alongside characterization and dialogue (e.g., chs. 2; 7; 22; or Achsah’s settlement [15:16–19]). Direct speech is prevalent at the beginning and end of the book (1:1–18; 22:2–5, 8; 23:1–16; 24:2–15), although speeches of varying lengths form a significant part of many of the book’s episodes. The speech of 24:2–13 has an even more specific character, as it is deliberately shaped as a prophetic oracle. The settlement account (chs. 13–19) in the second major part of the book may well make use of administrative texts for the geographical lists that describe the tribal allotments, with the more straightforward lists of tribal contributions of cities for asylum and the Levites in chapters 20–21 having a different literary character.
Theology of Joshua
The theology of Joshua naturally shares many of the contours that take shape in God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. God is sovereign over the elements and the natural world, just as he is over Egypt’s king and its supernatural world, demonstrating both his power and his authority. God demands that his people be sanctified as he meets with them at the mountain, demonstrating his holiness. God’s presence accompanies his people on the way and provides for their needs, demonstrating his graciousness. He fights on their behalf to deliver them from hostile nations, showing him to be victorious over every form of opposition. He judges his own people in their rebellion, displaying his justice. He brings them to a good land in accordance with his promise, showing himself to be faithful.
Each of these theological disclosures encountered in the exodus finds a counterpart in Israel’s entry into the Promised Land. God’s sovereignty over the elements and natural world is seen in his stopping the Jordan River to allow Israel to cross on dry land (Joshua 3–4) and spectacularly in the celestial events accompanying the battle of the Valley of Aijalon, as Israel delivers its new covenant partner, the people of Gibeon, from hostile kings (10:6–14). His power and authority (cf. Ex. 19:5; “all the earth is mine”) are seen in his vanquishing every king that opposes him—for every Canaanite king does so (Joshua 12; cf. Psalm 2). God requires his people to be sanctified at the river (Josh. 3:5) and as they enter the land (5:2–9), for his presence makes it holy (5:15). God requires his people’s purification when he judges them for polluting sacred things in an act of disobedience (ch. 7). His presence, represented by the ark, accompanies Israel as they cross the Jordan (chs. 3–4) and march around Jericho (6:11, 13). He fights for them, so that Israel’s victories could truly be said to be God’s victories in the first place (10:42; 23:9–10). In gifting Israel this good land he graciously provides also for their needs (5:10–12; 24:13). It is a book of promises kept (21:43–45; 23:14).
Theologically, it is important to affirm that God’s holiness is destructive of sin; his presence requires the eradication of that which is contrary to his nature. However, God’s love expresses itself in fellowship, and so his removal of sin graciously makes redemption possible.3 As we affirm these deep truths regarding God’s nature (cf. Ex. 34:6–7), much of Joshua comes into focus. Insofar as God’s creatures recognize and respect God’s holiness—that is, as they worship him—his holiness is redemptive, delivering and saving those who thus turn to him. This is, for the most part, Israel’s experience in the book, although the episode featuring Achan in Joshua 7 demonstrates that this is not a blessing to be enjoyed automatically. Likewise, for the most part the experience of the Canaanites is to know the inexorable force of God’s judgment and his purpose to eradicate that which is abhorrent to him, although this fate is not inevitable for those Canaanites who, like Rahab (chs. 2; 6) or even the Gibeonites (chs. 9–10), acknowledge God’s right to their lives and, as a consequence, to save them.
This truth is conveyed through narrative in the bulk of the book, but the theological concepts are also expressed explicitly in Joshua’s closing speeches in chapters 23–24 (cf. 24:19 for their culmination).
Relationship to the Rest of the Bible and to Christ
Joshua occupies a pivotal place between the preceding books of Moses and the subsequent developments of the federal life of the nation on its way toward monarchy in Judges and the books that follow.
Especially as Israel crosses the Jordan we find numerous echoes of the exodus experience, as the exit from the land of Egypt and the entry to the land of Canaan bookend the narrative. Many passages in Numbers anticipate developments realized in the conquest accounts and form significant cross-references with them. The sermons of Moses on the plains of Moab in Deuteronomy that prepare Israel for its next phase of life likewise forge strong links with some of the diction and outlook of Joshua’s opening chapters in particular.
In the other direction, the book of Judges is often thought to contrast sharply with the outlook of Joshua. While at a surface level and in terms of overall tone this is certainly true, one of the burdens of this commentary is to demonstrate that, at a deeper level, Joshua and Judges are intrinsically connected, that the relationship between them is organic and intertwined rather than forced or juxtaposed. The trajectory followed so precipitously in Judges is not alien to the outlook of Joshua but emerges almost inevitably, given the seeds sown in the narrative of this book.
When it comes to NT connections, a distinction must be borne in mind between the man and the book of Joshua. The figure of Joshua as Moses’ successor has only a few echoes in the NT, but these sometimes have to do with episodes outside the book of Joshua itself.4 However, Joshua is named explicitly only twice in the NT (Acts 7:45; Heb. 4:8), while even Rahab gets three mentions (Matt. 1:5; Heb. 11:31; James 2:25).5 The nonmention of Joshua is all the more surprising when one remembers that in Greek he shares Jesus’ name: Hebrew “Joshua” is Greek “Jesus.” On this basis the Joshua/Jesus type/antitype was exploited in some early Christian writing.6 The book is never quoted directly in the NT, although its wording or episodes are alluded to on a number of occasions. Some of these are quite subtle, however, and the connection is not very illuminating. On the other hand, broad resonances can be discerned between the conflicts represented in the book of Revelation and the battles of Joshua, and these are suggestive for Christian interpretation. On the whole, however, in later reception Joshua and the book that bears his name are very much in the shadow of his great predecessor, Moses.
Preaching from Joshua
Given the particular difficulties Joshua presents, two of which are considered below, preaching from the book poses challenges. As the book is notorious for its violence, the option of simply spiritualizing its stories to provide pious object lessons is unacceptable: this would in any case be a failure to hear what the book can teach contemporary Christians who are willing to attend to it with patience and care. Perhaps it does not need saying, but it is worth being clear that Joshua’s violence cannot be proclaimed as a template for Christian action of any kind—in the same way that the fate of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) is not a persistent model for church discipline—in spite of this having occurred in times past (cf. Interpretive Challenges).
As ever, the preacher’s first question should be “What is God doing in this text?” rather than “Where am I in this text?” In the book of Joshua God is directing his people to look to him, calling to strangers, fulfilling his promises, embedding memories of his acts of deliverance, purifying and providing for those he has called, subduing their enemies, disciplining his people’s transgressions, upholding his covenant, establishing justice, provoking godly responses, meeting his people at worship, rewarding those who diligently seek him, reminding his people of his fidelity, exhorting them to a corresponding faithfulness, and preparing them to display his holiness. This sketch is hardly exhaustive, but it suggests a dynamic that works through the book and informs the proclamation of good news from a book that often elicits hostile reactions.
It would be too easy, however, to ignore the Canaanites. The book also contains abiding truths concerning the holiness of God’s love, the reality of judgment, the inevitability of serving something or someone, the choice of what or whom that master will be as a matter of life-and-death, and the inevitable tragedy of opposing the true and living God. The book of Joshua deepens the gravity of God’s word through Ezekiel, “I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live” (Ezek. 18:32).
The narratives of Joshua 1–12 and the three closing chapters lend themselves readily to preaching that attends to the faithfulness of the God of promise, the patterns God weaves in his redemptive work, and the covenant-shaped engagement of God with people that points to the foundations of divine indicatives (the truth of who God is for his people) for hearing the claim of divine imperatives (the obedience God requires of his people). Each of these, too, has a natural trajectory to its fuller realization in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the faithful community life of the church. The land distribution chapters (13–21) should not be neglected, however. They may call for more creative handling, but the framing of this phase of Israel’s life in the land still has significant things to say about what it means to settle well, what responsiveness to God’s gracious gifts looks like, how God shapes his people for being a nation rather than nomads, and how a place is found for the exercise of justice and the practice of gathered worship.
Interpretive Challenges
Joshua shares with a number of other biblical books certain challenges for twenty-first-century readers: historicity, the reality of miracles, text-critical issues, and so on. But two stand out as especially pertinent for any close engagement with this book in particular: (1) divinely mandated slaughter of the Canaanites and (2) the close attention to the geography and topography of its events in the first half of the book, and even more so in the settlement of the second half.
(1) There is no evading the violence that occurs throughout the book of Joshua.7 In Joshua this is especially associated with the technical Hebrew term kherem (and its related verb), sometimes translated by “ban” in English or more expansively, as in the ESV, by “devoted thing” or the like. In Joshua, since the Canaanites and their gods and goods are designated as kherem, God declares that as a totality they are “devoted to destruction.” It is for this reason that the book has been seen as “genocidal,” as is the God who gives the command (cf. Deut. 7). There is an obvious difficulty for evangelical readers of Scripture here: clearly, genocide is immoral—yet in relation to the conquest of Canaan it appears that God commands it. Is God, then, immoral too?8
Over the centuries a number of strategies have been developed for avoiding the force of this dilemma, ranging from dismissing the charge against God as impossible, since all of God’s actions are inherently moral, to dismissing the text as incompatible with an enlightened faith. Neither of these approaches is satisfactory. Other attempts at a solution are frequently made, some of which are untenable, while others are fairly limited in achieving their goal, including (a) historical-critical readings that seek to show the texts of Joshua to be “late” and the conquest tales to be nothing more than tales, (b) readings that argue the Canaanites were sufficiently morally reprehensible that they deserved their fate, (c) comparisons of Joshua to other ancient conquest accounts that claim the language in Joshua is exaggerated, and (d) arguments that hold that the battles of Joshua cannot be called genocide since that is a modern concept applied anachronistically to the OT.
This last point deserves further reflection. Extermination of one population by another by whatever means was framed as genocide under the United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (December 1948), which defined the term as any act “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” It is easy to see how the events of Joshua correspond to that definition. Yet there are problems with the application of this concept to Joshua beyond the real but ineffective observation that it is anachronistic. First, it is clear from the testimony of Joshua itself that many elements of the Canaanite population persisted in the land; there was no extermination, and the totality language the book adopts should be seen as a consequence of ancient literary conventions.9 Second, to reduce the action to “genocide” is to remove God from consideration. To some skeptics this may be a welcome outcome, but it is not the biblical perspective.
Five affirmations provide a framework for understanding this challenging biblical concept:
(a) The OT does speak of a God who kills. It is God who brings death for sin, and all life and death are at God’s behest. Deuteronomy 32:39 shows this:
See now that I, even I, am he,
and there is no god beside me;
I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
Israel feels the force of this truth long before the Canaanites do, such as in the aftermath of the golden calf episode (Ex. 32:27–28).
(b) Bronze Age people have a “Bronze Age deity.” There is something to the argument that ancient conquest accounts use conventional language and communicate in forms that are rooted in that time and place. The principle in antiquity is clearly articulated in a political vein in the book of Daniel in connection with a Babylonian king, but it applies equally to the political theology of Joshua:
O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty. And because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he killed, and whom he would, he kept alive; whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled. (Dan. 5:18–19)
(c) The God who brings death also gives life. This is affirmed already in the Song of Moses (Deut. 32:39), but it runs like a thread through Scripture as well. Psalm 85 is eloquent testimony to the restorative grace of a God whose anger is not prolonged (cf. Psalm 103) but whose “salvation is near to those who fear him” (Ps. 85:9). In the book of Joshua, Rahab is the most obvious example of a foreigner who comes to enjoy life in the presence of this God, but she is not alone.10
(d) The holiness of God must be confronted. This reality has already been explored (cf. Theology of Joshua), but it is crucially important for this theme. What is holy cannot tolerate the polluted—the entire priestly/sacrificial system that points to the cross of Calvary is predicated on this affirmation.
(e) Christian reflection on Joshua must also engage NT perspectives. The third affirmation above already points in the direction of the gracious, redeeming love of God that is of a piece with his gracious, electing love. So Paul could counsel the Gentile Christians in Rome, “Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off” (Rom. 11:22). Ultimately, however, God’s redemptive purpose finds its culmination in a representative individual, for he “did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all” (Rom. 8:32).
While the fate of the Canaanites as a group speaks to the severity of God, the saving of some and the tolerance of others is just one pointer in the trajectory of salvation history that finds its climax in the incarnation, humiliation, crucifixion, resurrection, and exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
(2) The concept of the land is a prominent theme in biblical theology. However, while land has a central importance in the OT and informs much of the book of Joshua, it has a lesser place in NT thinking and, as a consequence, is sometimes overlooked in Christian reflection on this book. Oliver O’Donovan identifies the contrasting roles that “place” plays in the two Testaments:
The Old Testament is the story of a love affair between a tribe and its God, and a piece of land is the token of their affection and disaffection. The New Testament is the charter of a world faith with eternity in view . . . [and] systematically cancels the [OT’s] preoccupation with land and city.11
Here again there is a trajectory from the OT to the NT in which Joshua plays a significant role, even if this contrast—stated in its sharpest terms by O’Donovan—is subject to refinement. The gifted land is a place of meeting for God and people, first expressed briefly, even tentatively, in Joshua 18. Beyond Joshua’s horizon, Jerusalem will come to be identified most fully with the dwelling place of God with his people (cf. 1 Kings 8), but even this will prove to be in some sense temporary, as seen in Jeremiah 7:1–15. The hopes that it kindles are pointedly expressed in the magnificent finale to Ezekiel’s vision of a new temple and land, the last verse of his long book: “And the name of the city from that time on shall be, The Lord Is There” (Ezek. 48:35). The frailty of Joshua’s achievement, poignantly captured in the book’s final three chapters, contributes to the growing realization that this place for God’s presence is not finally the place of “rest” of which the book speaks on several occasions. There is another “rest” (cf. Hebrews 4) to which the tensions in the book of Joshua point, of which God’s presence is itself the place—a “better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:16).
Outline
I. Taking the Land (1:1–12:24)
A. God’s Instructions to Joshua (1:1–9)
1. Narrator’s Introduction (1:1)
2. Commission to Enter the Land (1:2–4)
3. Promise of Divine Presence and Assistance (1:5–9)
B. Joshua’s Instruction to the People (1:10–18)
1. Joshua Instructs the Officers (1:10–11)
2. Joshua Speaks with the Transjordan Tribes (1:12–18)
C. Rahab and the Spies (2:1–24)
1. Joshua Sends Out Spies to Jericho; They Arrive at Rahab’s Lodgings (2:1)
2. Rahab and Jericho (2:2–7)
3. Rahab with the Spies (2:8–21)
4. The Spies Return to Joshua and Report (2:22–24)
D. Israel Passes Over the Jordan River (3:1–4:24)
1. Joshua Prepares the Priests and the People (3:1–6)
2. The Lord Affirms Joshua; Joshua Instructs the People (3:7–13)
3. The Priests Enter the Jordan; The People Pass Over on Dry Ground (3:14–17)
4. The Memorial Stones and the Ark, and the People’s Passing Over (4:1–13)
5. Joshua Is Magnified (4:14)
6. The Priests, the Ark, and the Memorial Stones (4:15–24)
E. The Camp at Gilgal (5:1–12)
1. The Nations React (5:1)
2. Circumcising Israel (5:2–9)
3. The First Passover in the Land (5:10–12)
F. Joshua and the Commander of the Lord’s Army (5:13–15)
1. Joshua Meets the Commander (5:13–14a)
2. Joshua Worships the Commander (5:14b–15)
G. The Fall of Jericho (6:1–27)
1. Jericho Secured (6:1)
2. Commands and Actions: Days One through Six (6:2–14)
3. Commands and Actions: Day Seven (6:15–21)
4. The Fate of Rahab (6:22–25)
5. Jericho Cursed (6:26)
6. Joshua Affirmed (6:27)
H. Rebellion and Restoration in Israel (7:1–26)
1. Sin in the Camp (7:1)
2. Israel’s First Campaign against Ai (7:2–5)
3. Prayer and Response (7:6–15)
4. Dealing with Achan (7:16–25)
5. The Anger of the Lord Abates (7:26)
I. The Second Ai Campaign (8:1–29)
1. The Lord Instructs Joshua (8:1–2)
2. Joshua Sets an Ambush (8:3–9)
3. The Destruction of Ai (8:10–29)
J. The Covenant Renewed (8:30–35)
1. Joshua Builds Altar, Copies Law (8:30–32)
2. The Composition and Disposition of the People (8:33)
3. Joshua Reads the Law to Israel (8:34–35)
K. The Gibeonite Ruse (9:1–27)
1. The Canaanite Kings Assemble (9:1–2)
2. The Gibeonite Treaty (9:3–15)
3. The Israelite Discovery (9:16–27)
L. The Central Campaign (10:1–28)
1. The Anti-Gibeonite Coalition (10:1–15)
2. The Five Amorite Kings Executed (10:16–28)
M. The Southern Campaign (10:29–43)
1. Libnah (10:29–30)
2. Lachish with Gezer (10:31–33)
3. Eglon (10:34–35)
4. Hebron (10:36–37)
5. Debir (10:38–39)
6. Southern Summary (10:40–43)
N. The Northern Campaign (11:1–15)
1. Northern Coalition Formed (11:1–5)
2. Battle of the Waters of Merom (11:6–9)
3. Hazor and Its Allies Defeated (11:10–15)
O. Conquest Summary (11:16–23)
1. Geographical Summary Updated (11:16–17)
2. Theological Summary Updated (11:18–20)
3. Destruction of the Anakim (11:21–22)
4. The Land Had Rest from War (11:23)
P. Summary of Israel’s Battles (12:1–24)
1. Kings Conquered East of the Jordan (12:1–6)
2. Kings Conquered West of the Jordan (12:7–24)
II. Inhabiting the Land (13:1–21:45)
A. The Land That Yet Remains (13:1–7)
1. Joshua’s Advanced Years (13:1a)
2. God’s Renewed Charge to Settle the Land (13:1b–7)
B. Settlement under Moses: A Retrospective (13:8–33)
1. Regional Overview of the Transjordanian Settlement, Excluding Levi (13:8–14)
2. Moses Assigns Reuben’s Settlement (13:15–23)
3. Moses Assigns Gad’s Settlement (13:24–28)
4. Moses Assigns the Half-Tribe of Manasseh’s Settlement (13:29–31)
5. Summary of the Transjordanian Settlement, Excluding Levi (13:32–33)
C. Settlement West of the Jordan Begins (14:1–15)
1. Remaining Settlement according to Lord’s Command to Moses (14:1–5)
2. Caleb the Kenizzite Settles at Hebron (14:6–15)
D. The Settlement of Judah (15:1–63)
1. Judah’s Borders (15:1–12)
2. Caleb’s Portion; Achsah’s Request (15:13–19)
3. The Cities of Judah Enumerated (15:20–62)
4. The Jebusites Remain (15:63)
E. The Settlement of Joseph (16:1–17:18)
1. The Border of Joseph (16:1–3)
2. Joseph Disaggregated into Manasseh and Ephraim (16:4)
3. Ephraim’s Borders (16:5–10)
4. Manasseh’s Borders (17:1–13)
5. Joseph’s Complaints; Joshua’s Riposte (17:14–18)
F. Seven Tribes Settle from Shiloh (18:1–10)
1. Israel Moves to Shiloh (18:1)
2. Arranging Allotments for the Seven Remaining Tribes (18:2–10)
G. Territories and Cities of the Seven Remaining Tribes (18:11–19:51)
1. The Settlement of Benjamin (18:11–28)
2. The Settlement of Simeon (19:1–9)
3. The Settlement of Zebulun (19:10–16)
4. The Settlement of Issachar (19:17–23)
5. The Settlement of Asher (19:24–31)
6. The Settlement of Naphtali (19:32–39)
7. The Settlement of Dan (19:40–48)
8. Joshua’s Portion (19:49–50)
9. The Settlement from Shiloh Concluded (19:51)
H. The Cities of Refuge (20:1–9)
1. God Directs Joshua to Designate Cities for Refuge (20:1–6)
2. The Cities Identified; Summary (20:7–9)
I. The Levitical Cities (21:1–42)
1. Israel Donates Cities to the Levites under Joshua and Eleazar (21:1–3)
2. Summary of Distribution by Levitical Clans (21:4–7)
3. Details of Distribution by Levitical Clans (21:8–40)
4. Summary (21:41–42)
J. God’s Promises Fulfilled (21:43–45)
III. Life in the Land (22:1–24:33)
A. National Tragedy Averted (22:1–34)
1. Dismissal of the Transjordan Tribes (22:1–8)
2. The Altar of the Transjordan Tribes (22:9–34)
B. How Shall Israel Then Live? (23:1–16)
1. Joshua Summons Israel (23:1–2a)
2. Joshua Exhorts Israel to Obedience (23:2b–16)
C. Whom Shall Israel Serve? (24:1–28)
1. Joshua Summons Israel to Shechem (24:1)
2. Joshua’s Prophetic Proclamation (24:2–15)
3. Israel’s Response, Challenge, and Resolution (24:16–27)
4. Joshua Dismisses Israel from Shechem (24:28)
D. Two Deaths; Three Burials (24:29–33)
1. Joshua’s Death and Burial at Timnath-serah; Israel’s Fidelity (24:29–31)
2. Joseph’s Burial at Shechem (24:32)
3. Eleazar’s Death and Burial at Gibeah (24:33)