JOSHUA jŏsh’ ōō ə (יְהﯴשֻֽׁעַ, יְהﯴשׁ֣וּעַ, LXX ̓Ιησούς, Yahweh is salvation).
Joshua son of Nun. Alternately: HOSHEA hō she’ ə (הﯴשֵׁ֥עַ, salvation, Num 13:8, 16 RSV; Deut 32:44); OSHEA ō she’ ə (Num 13:8, 16 KJV); JEHOSHUA jə hŏsh’ ōō ə (יְהﯴשֻֽׁעַ, Num 13:16); JESUS (̓Ιησους, Acts 7:45 and Heb 4:8 KJV). The commander of the Israelites during the conquest of Canaan. (See Book of Joshua.)
1. Family. The son of Nun, he belonged to the tribe of Ephraim (Num 13:8 RSV). He settled in Tinnath-serah (Josh 19:50; Timnath-heres, Judg 2:9) in the hill country of Ephraim, and was buried there (Josh 24:30).
2. Training and experience. As Bezaleel and Oholiab (Exod 31:1-6) undoubtedly had received training as slaves in the arts and crafts of Egypt, and as Josephus imagines that Moses led an Egyp. army against the Ethiopians (Jos. Antiq. II. x. 1, 2), it is likely that Joshua had served in Pharaoh’s army before the Exodus. Foreigners were common in the army of Egypt. Moses considered him sufficiently battle-tested to appoint him leader of the Israelite defense against the attack of the Amalekites at Rephidim (Exod 17:8-16). Since Joshua was apparently known to Moses, he may already have been in charge of organizing the undisciplined crowd of slaves who had escaped from Egypt into orderly marching columns.
Joshua served as personal minister to Moses when the latter was on Mount Sinai receiving the law (24:13; 32:17). Joshua was in attendance whenever the Lord would speak to Moses in the tent of meeting outside the camp (33:11). From Moses he learned the value of the anointing of God’s Spirit when he would have forbidden certain elders to prophesy (Num 11:27-29).
His selection as one of the twelve spies gave Joshua the opportunity to learn the nature of the Canaanites and the topography of the land at first hand. This information became invaluable when his time came to plan the campaigns to conquer Canaan. Furthermore, he grew in strength of character as he and Caleb stood against the majority with their minority report of the reconnaissance (14:6-9). They called upon the community of Israel to rise up in faith and expect Yahweh to give them the excellent land to the N. Caleb and Joshua were spared when the ten who had incited the Israelites to grumble against Yahweh by disparaging the land were struck dead (14:30, 36-38). Of the generation numbered at the beginning of the wilderness journey only Joshua and Caleb followed the Lord faithfully and remained alive to be registered at the end of the forty year period (26:65; 32:12; Deut 1:34-40).
3. Commission. When Moses was told that he must die instead of being allowed to lead the Israelites into Canaan, the lawgiver asked God to give the community of Yahweh a new shepherd (Num 27:12-17). Telling Moses to select Joshua, a man indwelt by the Spirit, the Lord replied: “You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey” (27:20). Moses formally ordained Joshua in the presence of Eleazar the priest and the whole community (Num 27:21-23; Deut 3:21-28), and imparted to him the spirit of wisdom by the laying on of hands (Deut 34:9). Later, Moses commanded Joshua before the entire nation to be strong and to lead Israel across the Jordan in order to possess the land promised to the patriarchs (Deut 31:3, 7, 8). Then the two presented themselves at the door of the Tabernacle. There Joshua received the divine commission or charge from God (31:14, 15, 23). After Moses’ death the Lord graciously repeated this commission to Joshua privately and enlarged upon it, to prepare him for the overwhelming task lying ahead (Josh 1:1-9).
4. Leadership qualities. Several outstanding characteristics enabled Joshua to perform the responsibilities committed to him. First, he was humble enough to recognize that he was not the gifted and educated man that Moses was. Joshua accepted himself and thus leaned all the more heavily upon the Lord in his comparative ordinariness. He was not too big for God to use; hence God could exalt him (3:7; 4:14). Second, he was a man of strong faith and faithful to his calling. When the divine Commander-in-chief appeared in theophany to him as he scouted the Jericho defenses, Joshua was quick to bow in worship (5:13-15) and to receive orders how to capture the enemy bastion (6:2-5). Even though the daily encirclement with trumpets blowing might seem militarily stupid, and be subjected to the ridicule of the defenders, Joshua obeyed implicitly. He cried to God in repentance for his nation after the Ai debâcle (Josh 7:2-5). At the foot of Mount Ebal he put worship and covenant before further war and conquest (8:30-35). At Gibeon he prayed for supernatural assistance, and God answered with a terrifying hailstorm (10:10-14). Third, he saturated his mind and heart with the word of God, meditating therein day and night. Thus the people had confidence to execute his decisions (see 1:13-18; 8:30-35; 11:12, 15; 14:1-5), and he could appeal to them at his life’s end to continue adhering to the law of Moses (23:6).
Fourth, he displayed sound military strategy. He established his base of operations at Gilgal with its easy access to the Trans-Jordan tribes as a source of supplies and in its position guarding two trade routes up into the central highlands. By capturing Ai and silencing Bethel (8:17; 12:16) he took the heart of Canaan first, and cut the land in two. He was able to campaign separately against the southern and the northern kings. His military policy was a combination of surprise and speed, of catching his enemies in the open and destroying their troops, since his own desert army was untrained in siege operations. Israel’s six-day war of June, 1967, illustrates the result of high morale and incentive, brilliant leadership, and swift attack against numerically superior but terror-stricken enemies.
Fifth, Joshua was an able administrator in peace as well as in war. His keen geographic judgment enabled him to draw up boundaries for the tribal allotments that were sensible and not provocative of inter-tribal wars. He did make mistakes, as LaSor points out (pp. 75f.), by allowing the crafty Gibeonites to keep their territory, by not capturing Jerusalem from the Jebusites, and by failing to dispossess the small but growing enclaves of early Philistines. These factions divided the country across the middle, so that after Solomon’s death the nation split apart forming two kingdoms. Some would criticize Joshua for failing to pick and train a successor; on the other hand, after the partitioning of the land God meant that each tribe should consolidate its own territory as Caleb did at Hebron.
5. Typical significance. As seen in the similarity of their names, Joshua is a type of Christ as our conquering commander. Joshua was an agent both of grace (e.g., in the case of Rahab) and of damnation in the holy war of Yahweh against the seven wicked nations in the Promised Land, just as Jesus is both Savior and Judge of all men, who metes out death as well as life. “Everything in Canaan was put into the hands of Joshua as trustee for the people. It was his responsibility to divide and assign the land as each tribe came to claim its portion from him” (Redpath, p. 22). Even so each believer who desires to walk in the realm of victory and full salvation must claim the spiritual blessings and authority and power that are his rightful inheritance in Christ. We may rest from personal struggle because every spiritual foe that we face already has been defeated by our Joshua (Heb 3:12-4:8).
Bibliography F. B. Meyer, Joshua, and the Land of Promise (n. d.); C. Armerding, The Fight for Palestine in the Days of Joshua (1949); A. Redpath, Victorious Christian Living: Studies in the Book of Joshua (1955); W. S. La Sor, “Joshua,” Great Personalities of the Old Testament (1959), 69-77; J. L. Kelso, “Joshua, Whose Name Means Jesus,” Archaeology and Our Old Testament Contemporaries (1966), 47, 48.