Chapter XI. Conquest of the Promised Land
The glorious successor of Moses came from the tribe of Ephraim and was one of those two courageous and devoted people to Moses, who alone were given, out of all the people brought out of Egypt, to see the Promised Land. When Joshua left Egypt, he was about forty-five years old and, thus, by the time he entered the Promised Land, the weight of eighty-five years of age already lay on his shoulders. But like his great predecessor, Joshua, even at this age, was still full of strength and undaunted courage and fully corresponded to the height of his position. As the closest companion of Moses, he was fully familiar with everything related to the government of the people and therefore did not need detailed instructions. One was enough for him divine word: “Be strong and courageous” in order to devote himself entirely to the fulfillment of the task assigned to him - the conquest of the Promised Land.
The last camp of the Israelites was in Shittim, near the mountain on which Moses rested. The area around was amazing with its luxury, purely tropical vegetation, supported by many streams murmuring everywhere. They were separated from the Promised Land only by the Jordan, behind which, in all their splendor, stood the mountains and hills of the land flowing with milk and honey. But she was not completely open to them. First of all, it was necessary to cross the Jordan itself, and then, twelve miles away from it, rose the formidable strongholds of Jericho, which seemed to hold in its hands the keys to the Promised Land. Therefore, it was necessary to investigate both the place of crossing the Jordan and especially the state of Jericho. For this purpose, Joshua sent two spies who were supposed to secretly penetrate Jericho and scout out the state of both it and the surrounding country. Making their way to Jericho, the spies were probably amazed at the luxury and richness of the surrounding area, which even now amazes with the generosity of the gifts of its nature. Palm groves and balsam gardens filled the air with a wonderful aroma, and the whole area rang with the chirping of many different and rare birds. In Jericho itself, a lot of wealth, both natural and industrial, was collected, and its capture promised rich booty. But the city was one of the strongest in the country, and its citizens were on their guard. In order not to incur suspicion, the spies, having secretly entered the city, stopped at its very outskirts and found shelter with a certain Raava, who kept on the outskirts of the city, in the city wall itself, something like a hotel, but so dirty and dubious that she herself the landlady enjoyed the bad reputation of a harlot in the city. Despite all the precautions of the spies, the people of Jericho, obviously in terrible anxiety and vigilantly watching for all suspicious persons, learned of their presence and reported to the king, who immediately demanded their extradition from Rahab. But she, amazed by the stories of miracles that accompanied the procession of the Israelites to the Promised Land, and recognizing the superiority of their God, hid them in sheaves of flax on her roof and secretly released them through the window of the wall outside the city, directing them along a completely different road than the one on which The people of Jericho set off in pursuit of them. Anticipating the imminent fall of the city, she made the spies promise to spare her and her relatives during the capture of the city, having agreed that the sign of her house, unlike others, would be the same “scarlet rope” on which she lowered the Israelites over the wall.
Having safely returned to the camp, the spies reported that both the inhabitants of Jericho and other nations were struck with horror by the victories of the Israelites, and the very next morning Joshua ordered them to move across the Jordan. It was the time of the wheat harvest (in April), when the Jordan usually overflows its banks, thanks to the melting of the snow on the Anti-Lebanon mountains, and therefore crossing the river was more difficult than at any other time. But when, according to a special revelation, the priests, carrying the Ark of the Covenant at the head of the people, stepped into the river, the waters in it divided, the upper part became a wall, and the lower part flowed into the Dead Sea, so that a land passage to the other side was formed. The priests moved with the ark to the middle of the river bed and stood there, as if holding back the water, until all the Israelites had crossed the river. In commemoration of this miracle, twelve chosen men took twelve stones from the riverbed, from which a monument was later erected in Gilgal in front of Jericho, where the Israelites camped after crossing the Jordan, and from the other twelve stones taken on land, a monument was erected in that very place. where the priests stood with the ark of the covenant. A fortified camp was set up in Gilgal, which became not only a place for a long stay, but also a stronghold for conquest. There, the Israelites celebrated the Passover for the fortieth time after leaving Egypt, and since during their wanderings in the desert, due to constant worries and disasters, the law of circumcision was often left unfulfilled, then before celebrating the Passover on the soil of the Promised Land, the people had to fulfill this law, and all males were subject to circumcision. The manna that the people had hitherto fed on immediately ceased, and now they had to feed on the fruits of the Promised Land itself.
Finally, it was necessary to begin to capture the terrible strongholds of Jericho. When Joshua was inspecting the fortifications of the enemy city, he suddenly saw a man in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. “Are you one of ours, or one of our enemies?” – the brave leader asked him. “No, I am the leader of the army of the Lord,” answered the stranger. Joshua fell on his face in awe and received a revelation of how Jericho could be taken. According to this supreme command, Joshua ordered the priests to come out with the ark of the covenant and carry it around the walls of Jericho, with the seven priests walking in front of the ark and blowing the trumpets, and the armed soldiers walking silently in front and behind the ark. For six days they walked around the city once at a time - to the great amazement of the people of Jericho, who, of course, expected an attack on the city. On the seventh day, the procession was repeated seven times, at the end of the last round, suddenly a stunning cry was heard from the hitherto silent people, and the terrible strongholds of Jericho fell from a miraculous shaking, leaving the city completely defenseless against the Israelis. All the inhabitants, except Rahab and her relatives, were exterminated, the city itself was destroyed, and a curse was pronounced on anyone who would try to build it again. Rahab, for her faith in the omnipotence of the true God, was rewarded by her acceptance into the society of the chosen people. And this branch from the wild olive tree bore good fruit. Having married Salmon, she became the mother of Boaz, David's great-grandfather, and her name, along with three other women, is included in the genealogy of Christ (Matthew 1:5).
The fall of such a strong city as Jericho was very important for the Israelites, since the art of proper siege of cities was generally in its infancy, and even more so among such a shepherd people as the Israelites. Cities east of the Jordan were taken in battles on the open field, and some fortified cities in Palestine itself held out long after the Israelis settled there. Encouraged by this success, Joshua sent a detachment of 3,000 people against the neighboring city of Ai, which, according to the testimony of spies, was too weak to bother the entire army. But this arrogance was punished by the fact that the Gayans defeated the Israeli detachment and put it to flight. This failure struck fear into the entire people, and Joshua and the elders, tearing their clothes, fell in front of the tabernacle. Then the leader of the people had a revelation that the cause of this misfortune was an Israeli, who, out of self-interest, withheld part of the spoils of Jericho.
Destruction of Jericho
The lot was cast, and he pointed to Achan, from the tribe of Judah, who was stoned, and his corpse with all his property was burned - as a warning to others who would want to be carried away by self-interest and appropriate something from the common property of the people. After this, the Israelites again went against Ai and, using military stratagem, took the city. All the inhabitants were exterminated, the king was hanged, and the property became the property of the victors.
The capture of the first two fortified cities placed a vast area of the promised land at the disposal of the Israelites and served to ensure further successes of the conquest. But before continuing their aggressive activities, the people of Israel had to solemnly accept the obligation to sacredly preserve the law of God entrusted to them. The divine purpose in giving the Promised Land to the Israelites was not simply to replace the former inhabitants with new ones, but to destroy the pagans and settle in their place a chosen and sanctified people so as to establish the Kingdom of God on the ruins of the kingdom of this world. As evidence of this, the people had to take an oath in the most solemn atmosphere. The main provisions of the Sinai legislation were engraved on stone slabs, and abundant sacrifices were made on Mount Ebal. Then the priests with the Ark of the Covenant occupied the valley between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, and the people, divided into two halves, six tribes each, were to settle down on the mountains themselves. And so, when the priests proclaimed a certain position of the law, the people responded to his blessing from Mount Gerizim and his curse from Mount Ebal with a loud and unanimous “Amen”, thereby confirming the truth and inevitability of both blessings for fulfilling the law and curses for breaking it . The place where this solemn act was performed was capable, at the same time, of infusing new courage into the people and inspiring them with the most sublime feelings. All around were undulating hills, green on the slopes with vineyards and fields, among them the valley of Shechem lay like an emerald stripe, the same one where Abraham once erected his first altar to God and Jacob built his first headquarters in the Promised Land (Genesis 12:7; 33:19) , and at both ends of it the mountains Gerizim and Ebal rose like giants, the friendly “amen” from which echoed like thunder throughout the valley, dying away in the distant hills. And from these mountains, a wonderful picture of the whole of central Palestine unfolded before the astonished eyes of the people. To the north rose successively Gelbua, Tabor, Carmel and the snow-whitened northern guardian of the earth - Hermon, with green valleys and plains between them. To the east sparkled the clear waters of Lake Gennesaret with the blue ribbon of the Jordan stretching from it, and to the west one could see the wonderful blue of the Mediterranean Sea with a sandy strip bordering it. Thus, it was as if the whole Promised Land was a witness to the great oath of Israel, and the whole of it, with its mountains, lakes, rivers, hills and valleys, was solemnly dedicated to the Lord.
Meanwhile, a hundred thousand rumors about the victories and self-confident behavior of the Israelites, who ruled Palestine as if they were their own land, spread throughout the entire country and brought even more horror to the Canaanite tribes. Residents of some cities, not hoping to withstand the conquerors, even began to resort to tricks. Envoys arrived at the Israelite camp, still at Gilgal, who, judging by their worn clothes and shoes, were from afar; They declared to the elders that they had indeed come from a distant country, where, however, rumors had reached about the great victories of Israel, and asked for a peace treaty. The Israelis agreed to a treaty with them, but then it turned out that these were ambassadors from the inhabitants of the nearby city of Gibeon and the villages belonging to it. The treaty was considered sacred, and therefore its inhabitants were spared from beating, but turned into slaves to perform religious duties in the tabernacle, in which position they are found in subsequent times.
Meanwhile, other nations, seeing that each of them individually could not withstand the Israelis, entered into a defensive alliance among themselves. It was precisely the five kings united under the leadership of Adonizedek, the king of Jerusalem, and they first of all decided to punish the Gibeonites for their betrayal of the common cause. The Gibeonites turned to Joshua for help, who moved against the combined forces of the enemy. Having overtaken the enemy with a quick night march, he suddenly attacked him, defeated him and put him to flight. The hail of stones caused even greater devastation in it than the weapons of the Israelites. The sun was already setting towards evening, and yet the pursuit was not yet over. Then Joshua, strong in faith in the omnipotence of God, exclaimed commandingly: “Stay, sun, over Gibeon, and moon, over the valley of Aijalon! And the sun stood still and the moon stood while the people took revenge on their enemies. And there was no such day, either before or after that, on which the Lord would listen to the human voice so much; for the Lord fought for Israel.” This new extraordinary miracle again showed the Israelites what a strong Helper and Patron they had, and at the same time even more frightened the Canaanites, who now saw that their very gods (the sun and the moon) had taken the side of the conquering people. The allied kings, having fled from the battlefield, tried to hide in a cave, from which, however, they were taken and put to death.
After this victory, conquest began to be accomplished easily and quickly. The cities fell one after another, and along with them the peoples who owned them were exterminated or expelled. Thus, the entire southern half of the Promised Land was conquered, with the exception of a few strong fortresses, such as Jerusalem, and Joshua returned to Gilgal with rich booty.
Now it remained to conquer the northern half. Seeing the approaching thunderstorm, the kings of the northern tribes began to prepare for defense. At the head of the alliance of seven kings was King Jabin of Hazor, who gathered a large army “like the sand of the sea” and encamped near Lake Merom. The cavalry, which consisted of many military chariots, gave this army special strength. But Joshua, strong in his faith in a just cause, suddenly attacked them, and one battle decided the fate of this part of the country. The enemies were defeated, the cavalry was captured and destroyed, the city of Hazor, as “the head of all these kingdoms,” was burned, the inhabitants were exterminated and all their wealth became the spoils of the victors.
This decisive victory gave the entire Promised Land into the hands of the conquerors. They could no longer encounter strong opposition, although there were still fortified cities that held out thanks to the strength of their walls. The war lasted about seven years; During it, seven nations were conquered, although not completely exterminated, and thirty-one kings fell in battle. Finally, the Israelis were tired of the war and wanted to take advantage of the fruits of their victories. The warriors of the Trans-Jordanian tribes, long separated from their families, began to ask for leave to return to their possessions. As a result, the war was suspended, although the conquest was not ended, and many Canaanites remained within the Promised Land, subsequently becoming a source of terrible evils and all kinds of disasters for the Israelites.
Finally, the division of the land followed. Apart from the two and a half Trans-Jordanian tribes, which received allotments for themselves even before crossing the Jordan, the entire conquered land was divided between the remaining nine and a half tribes. The division was carried out according to a special lot, which indicated to each tribe a plot of land commensurate with its size. The first lot fell to the tribe of Judah, which received a vast district with Hebron in the center. Next to it, even further south, the tribe of Simeon, which formed the southern border of the land, received an inheritance, and then, starting from the north, the inheritances were distributed as follows. The northernmost part of the land went to the tribe of Naphtali, precisely in the beautiful valleys of Anti-Lebanon. The tribe of Asher was assigned the seaside coast, a long and narrow strip of land from the borders of Sidon to Mount Carmel. The tribe of Zebulun occupied a transverse strip of land between Lake Gennesaret and the Mediterranean Sea. To the south of it, one after another, the tribes of Issachar, the second half of Manasseh and Ephraim were located, occupying the space between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. The tribe of Ephraim thus occupied the very middle of the Promised Land, and thanks to this happy position, as well as its large numbers, it acquired special significance in the fate of the Israeli people, since the main centers of the religious and political life of the people were located precisely within this tribe. In the southern half of the country, the sea coast and the western part of the mainland fell to the lot of the tribe of Dan. The tribe of Benjamin was located along the plain of Jericho and along the Jordan Valley to the Dead Sea, reaching west to the unconquered fortress of Jerusalem. And then the rest of the southern half of the country, as said before, went to the inheritance of the tribes of Judah and Simeon. In general, the Trans-Jordanian plots were distinguished by rich pastures, the northern and middle ones were the most convenient for agriculture, and the southern ones abounded in vineyards and olive trees.
After the division of the land, according to a special revelation, an allotment was given to the leader of the people Joshua himself, namely the city of Timnath-Sarai in the tribe of Ephraim. Since the tribe of Levi, due to its special service, was left without a land allotment, forty-eight cities with land belonging to them were allocated to it among the various tribes; of these, thirteen cities were designated specifically for priests and six special cities with the right of refuge for innocent murderers. “Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land which he swore to their fathers to give; and they received it as an inheritance and settled in it. And the Lord gave them rest on all sides, as he swore to their fathers; and none of all their enemies stood against them; and the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hands. Of all the good words that the Lord spoke to the house of Israel, not one word remained unfulfilled; everything has come true.”
The Trans-Jordanian tribes also returned to their inheritance, whose soldiers Joshua, with an expression of gratitude for their assistance in the common cause and with an exhortation to hold on to faith in the one true God, finally found it possible to release. With great booty that fell to their share from the riches of Canaan, they went beyond the Jordan and erected a large altar at the place where the Israelites crossed the river. But this circumstance extremely alarmed the remaining tribes, who saw in this the desire of the Trans-Jordanian tribes to separate from their brothers in religious terms. The indignation was so great that a fratricidal war was ready to break out. But fortunately, prudence prevented this disaster. A special deputation appointed for this matter, consisting of the priest Phinehas and ten elected elders, found out the essence of the matter and, from the explanations of the Trans-Jordanian tribes, came to the conviction that, when building the altar, they not only did not think of separating from the religion of their fathers, but, on the contrary, with this visible altar they wanted to clearly confirm their connection with the rest of the tribes for their future generations.
The common connection for all tribes was the tabernacle with the Ark of the Covenant, but in order to make this national shrine accessible to all tribes, Joshua moved it to Shiloh, in the tribe of Ephraim, as it occupied the middle position in the country. And from here Joshua continued to rule the people peacefully until his death. His entire administration lasted twenty-five years. Finally, “he entered old age.” Feeling the approach of death, he called representatives and leaders of all tribes to his deathbed and addressed them with a strong exhortation to fulfill everything commanded in the book of the law of Moses. At the same time, he reminded them of everything that God had done to the Canaanite peoples for their sake, as well as of His promise that if they remained faithful to Him, the whole earth would become their complete possession, all the pagans would be driven out of it. He repeated the same admonition in Shechem, the sacred dwelling of Abraham and Isaac, and ended his dying conversation with the words: “So, fear the Lord and serve Him in purity and sincerity, reject the alien gods, whom your fathers served beyond the river in Egypt, and serve Lord. If it is not pleasing for you to serve the Lord, then choose for yourself now whom to serve... but I and my house will serve the Lord, for He is holy.” - “And the people answered and said: no, it will not happen that we leave the Lord and begin to serve other gods!” The dying leader wrote these words in the book of the law, took a large stone and placed it under the oak tree at the sanctuary, saying to the people: “Behold, this stone will be a witness for you... let it be a witness against you in the days to come, so that you will not lie before the Lord God.” yours." Having then released the people to their destinies, Joshua died peacefully and with the consciousness of fulfilled duty at the age of 110 and was buried in his hereditary allotment in Timnath-Sarai. Soon after him, the high priest Eleazar, son of Aaron, died. The remains of Joseph, carried by the Israelites from Egypt, were duly interred in Shechem, on the site that Jacob had once purchased and given to his beloved son.
“And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders whose lives were prolonged after Joshua, and who saw all the works of the Lord that he did to Israel.” Forty years of upbringing in the desert obviously had a very beneficial effect on the people. We almost never encounter such devoted faith in God in any of the subsequent periods in the history of the Israeli people.
In the 13th century. BC e. Israelite tribes coming from the south invaded Canaan and took possession of the land where the ancient population lived by force. Some of its inhabitants were driven from the land; an alliance was concluded with others, primarily with the “descendants of Abraham” who arrived here from the east. The Israeli tribes justified their right to Canaan with the promise of God. How Yahweh transferred the Canaanite land into the hands of a tribal union is told in one of the books of the Bible, in the Book of Joshua, which continues the story begun in the books of Moses.
At the time of the creation of the book, the Jews were already firmly established in Canaan; the author was already aware of the split of the country into two parts, which occurred in 932 BC. e. Consequently, the book was written in the era of kingdoms, when there was a danger of attack from Assyria, and was intended to maintain courage among the people: after all, if Yahweh fulfilled his vow and gave the people Canaan, then he will do everything to protect his people from an external enemy. All this does not mean, of course, that the book does not contain fragments based on traditions that go back to pre-Kingdom times.
Joshua became the leader of the Israelites after the death of Moses. His most important task was to conquer the land of Canaan. While on the Moab plain, he sent scouts to Jericho, who managed to get into the city and found shelter in the house of a harlot named Rahab. Rahab did not betray the spies to the Jericho people, but helped them escape with the help of a rope that she lowered from the city wall. As a sign of gratitude, after the conquest of the city, Rahab and her family were spared their lives (in the Gospel of Matthew, Rahab is counted among the relatives of Jesus).
Having listened to the spies, the sons of Israel, taking the ark of the covenant, moved to the Jordan River, the waters of which parted before them, and they passed and stepped on the opposite bank without getting their feet wet. In honor of this event, a monument of twelve stones was erected in Gilgal, circumcision was performed here for those born on the journey, and Passover was celebrated. So the Israelis prepared for a holy war for the “promised land.”
According to the rules of the holy war, conquered cities were subject to the spell of “herem” (the original meaning of this word is a fenced off place, forbidden from outsiders, hence the harem - women's quarters and Haram - a sacred site in Jerusalem with the al-Aqsa mosque). Everything that is in the fenced-off place belongs to the god who gives victory, therefore everything living and inanimate here should have been sacrificed to Yahweh, that is, destroyed.
The first city that was on the way of the Israelites was Jericho, it was taken with the help of a miracle: for six days the Israelites carried the ark around the walls of Jericho, and on the seventh day they surrounded it twice, then seven priests blew trumpets, and the people helped them with shouts . And the walls of Jericho collapsed. “And they consigned to destruction all that was in the city, both man and woman, both young and old, oxen, and sheep, and donkeys; they destroyed them all with the sword” (Joshua 6:20).
The second city conquered was Ai. At first, the Israelites were defeated by its inhabitants, as they angered Yahweh, but then God relented, and Ai was captured by the Israelites.
Science has established that during the period of the Jewish struggle for Canaan, both cities were already ruins (Jericho was destroyed in the 15th century BC, and Ai - at the end of the 3rd millennium BC). The author of the tales of the conquest of these cities, who worked during the period of kingdoms, found their ruins suitable for affirming the idea of how Yahweh fulfilled his vow: regardless of the death of entire cities, he ensured the capture of Canaan for the chosen people.
Seeing the victories of the Israelites, the Canaanite kings entered into a defensive alliance among themselves. The inhabitants of Gibeon, however, refused to join it, posing as strangers from distant lands, they offered services to Joshua, who made them his allies. When the truth became clear, Jesus had no choice but to have mercy on his allies. He did not give them up for exorcism, but turned them into eternal slaves.
The king of Jerusalem and four other kings attacked the inhabitants of Gibeon. Joshua hastened to the aid of his allies and defeated the armies of the five kings. Yahweh helped his chosen one by sending a terrible hail on the enemy, from which more soldiers died than from the swords of the Israelites. Then Jesus stopped the sun: “Stay, sun, over Gibeon, and moon, over the valley of Aijalon!” The sun and moon stood still until the Israelites had dealt with all their enemies (Joshua 10:12-13).
For many centuries, this miracle of Joshua caused much controversy among Bible interpreters. In ancient times, this phenomenon was interpreted literally, being convinced that the sun had actually stopped its “course”. Later, it was suggested that during the Battle of Gibeon there was a solar eclipse or that rain and hail obscured the sun. It was also believed that the sun was hidden behind the clouds and only after the prayer of Joshua appeared again from behind them. One thing is absolutely clear: the narrative does not contain a detailed description of any natural phenomenon, but meets the goal set by the authors of the Book of Joshua to substantiate the idea that Yahweh is ready to perform any miracles in order to lead the armies of the chosen people to victory: “Thus Yahweh gave Israel all the land which he swore to their fathers to give..." (21:43).
The Bible credits Joshua with dividing the land of Canaan, which was conquered by the Israelites. Already in the books of Moses, Joshua appears as a faithful follower of Moses, capable of great deeds (in the desert he leads Israeli soldiers to fight the Amalekites, and also goes to Canaan with other spies, etc.). No wonder he was allowed to climb Mount Sinai. It is quite clear that Moses himself appointed him as his successor, and Joshua acts as a leader during the period of the Jewish conquest of Palestine. However, this circumstance is caused by the desire to emphasize the importance of the tribe of Ephraim (from which, according to the Bible, Jesus comes), rather than to strengthen the significance of the legendary personality of Jesus, his leading role. The tribe of Ephraim - along with the tribe of Judah - played a large political role in the history of the Israelite tribal union.
The conquest of Palestine by the Israelite tribes cannot be associated only with the name of Jesus, since the process of conquest of Canaan went on for many centuries. This is evidenced by the biblical Book of Judges of Israel, which, as we will see later, continues the story of the conquest of Canaan. And in the Book of Joshua there is an indication that some territories of this land were conquered before the coming of Jesus, for example Gilgal. The conquerors came to Canaan from different directions and not at the same time; moreover, they did not always act in an alliance. The Book of Joshua tells us that the union of the twelve tribes of Israel took place at the end of Jesus' life in Shechem. Here they were joined by tribes that came from the north, from Egypt, and accepted faith in Yahweh. The basis of the union was a common faith in Yahweh, which was sealed by a large stone placed under an oak tree. This does not mean that the cults that existed in Canaan did not influence the religious life of the Israelites: the cults of various Els and Baals gradually merged into the cult of Yahweh. This was facilitated by the tradition according to which Yahweh - as the god of the forefathers - is the god of Canaan. The cult places of Canaan became ancient sanctuaries of Yahweh, and the Baals and Elis of Canaan became various forms of manifestation of Yahweh.
After entering into a tribal alliance, Joshua died at the age of 110. He led the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan and lived as many years as Joseph, with whose help the Israelite people came to Egypt and whose remains were taken out of Egypt and buried in Shechem. The Bible compilers tied up loose ends: “Not one word failed of all the good words that Yahweh spoke to the house of Israel; everything came to pass” (Joshua 21:45).
Joshua - Jewish commander, leader of the Jewish people during the conquest of Canaan, successor of Moses. One of the greatest and most severe military leaders in history. He is famous for gathering all 12 tribes of Israel. Through Joshua the Lord performed great miracles. Joshua and all the people crossed the Jordan River on dry land and saw the Archangel Michael face to face. Under him, miraculously, without a fight, the walls of Jericho were destroyed. During one battle with the enemy, Joshua, at the command of God, continued the day, stopping the sun until he defeated the enemies. Having brought the Jewish people into the Promised Land after the end of the war, he divided it between the tribes of Israel. His activities are detailed in the Book of Joshua.
Origin
Joshua, originally named Hoshea, the son of Nav, came from the tribe of Ephraim and was its leader. He was renamed Jesus by Moses when he was sent as a spy with representatives of the other eleven tribes, as a sign that he would save the people from the disasters of wandering in the desert and lead them into the Promised Land. Bible commentators attribute the reason for the name change to Moses' prayer so that Jesus would remain consistent with his opinion and not follow the rest of the spies.
Jesus- modern Church Slavonic transliteration of the Greek form Ιησούς Jewish nameישוע (pronounced [Yeshua]), which is a truncation of the name יהושע [Yehoshua], consisting of the roots of the words “Yehovah” - the name of God in the Old Testament and “shua” - salvation. Before the church reform of Patriarch Nikon, the name of Jesus was written and pronounced with one letter “and”: “Isus”. Patriarch Nikon changed the spelling and pronunciation to “Iesus” in order to bring them closer to the Greek version.
Tribes of Israel- tribes of the descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob, who formed, according to the Holy Scriptures, the Israeli people.
Jesus is nicknamed Naveen on behalf of his father, Nav or Non. An outdated suffix -in has been added to the name Nav, which, like -ov, indicates affiliation. Naveen- possessive on behalf of Nav ( Naveen or son of Nav).
Joshua was a faithful disciple and chief assistant to Moses during all the years of his 40-year wandering in the desert, until, after the death of the latter, all his power passed to him.
Joshua is appointed as successor to Moses
He accompanied Moses as he ascended Mount Sinai (Ex. 24:13 and Ex. 32:17), guarded the tabernacle in Moses' absence (Ex. 33:11), and also led the Israelites in the battle with the Amalekites at Rephidim (Ex. 17:9–13). He was one of the 12 spies sent by Moses to Canaan to gather intelligence and explore the country (Num. 13:8,16).
Leader of the Jewish People
After the death of Moses, Joshua stood at the head of his people, with whom he went through all the trials, all the hardships of desert life. He had unquestioned authority and was recognized by the majority of the tribes.
Joshua is a stern, unyielding man, he was a true son of his age with its cruelty, with its savagery. Unlike Moses, he was not a prophet, but he was a religious leader, realizing that by standing at the head of Israel, he was fulfilling the mission that the Lord had entrusted to him.
Promised land
The land that the Lord promised to the people of Israel was a mountainous strip, which is also known as Palestine. This land extends along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea from the spurs of the Lebanon Mountains in the north to the Sinai Peninsula in the south. The total length of Palestine is about 250 kilometers in length. The width of Palestine at the sources of the Jordan does not exceed 70 kilometers, but in the south this width reaches 250 kilometers. The entire territory of Palestine is divided into two parts by the Jordan Valley.
Palestine includes a wide contrast of topography and natural features found nowhere else on the globe. The snow-capped peaks of Lebanon in the north overlook the valleys and deserts of the south, where the sun beats down. In close proximity grow the most diverse trees - palm trees, which love the heat, and oak, which prefers a temperate climate.
The Jordan River flows from north to south, almost in a straight direction. The total length of the river is about 150 km. On its way, the Jordan flows through two lakes - Lake Merom and Lake Gennesaret, and finally flows into the Dead Sea. Lake Gennesaret is distinguished by the extreme clarity of its waters and has a large number of fish. Along the shores of the lake date and banana palms, fig trees, grapes, pomegranates and other fruit trees grow. The extremely warm and humid air makes the fruits of these trees especially wonderful. The area surrounding the lake amazes with its picturesqueness and fertility.
At the time when the people of Israel entered the Promised Land, it was like an artificial garden, carefully planted among the deserts surrounding the country. This land was distinguished by amazing fertility: with the slightest cultivation of the land, this area produced an unprecedented grain harvest. Palm trees, olives and lemons grow beautifully here.
So, the Land that Israel entered was beautiful in every way. Looking at her, the man saw the finger of God.
This small country was located between two ancient states, Egypt in the south and Mesopotamia in the north, the two greatest centers of the Ancient East. Along with political dependence on Egypt, there was the cultural influence of Babylon.
Before Israel entered Palestine, the country was inhabited by Canaanites and fragmented into many small possessions or principalities. The kings of these principalities were at enmity with each other, but all were vassals of the Egyptian pharaoh.
From ancient times it was densely populated by various tribes descended from Canaan, the son of Ham. Hence the land itself was called Canaan. The Jews themselves believe that this land was originally created for them and was given to the Canaanites in the same way that a slave is given the property of his master.
The population density of this land was quite high, there were cities and villages, between which stretched magnificent fields and pastures. The cities were quite well fortified; they were built on mountain tops, which made them even more impregnable to enemies.
For the most part, the descendants of Canaan were immersed in the darkest idolatry. The peoples of this country deified the forces of nature, which were personified in the divine couple under the name of Baal and Astarte. Baal personified the sun, and Ashtoreth the moon. The service to these gods was characterized by an extreme degree of depravity. At the temples there were special temple harlots who, for a whole year, indulged in debauchery both in the temples themselves and on the streets.
In addition to all of the above, there was incest, adultery, bestiality, depraved relations between the sexes (homosexuality) and everything else present in the society that Israel invaded.
It is clear that such a religion made the entire life of these peoples unclean and disgusting, already incurring the terrible wrath of God - in the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah.
At the same time, the Canaanite peoples were already at a fairly high degree of civilization, conducted extensive maritime trade, knew how to extract metals from mines, forged gold and silver things for decoration, weapons and chariots for war, built temples and palaces, knew how to fortify cities with walls, and familiar were with bookkeeping and writing.
Entering the Promised Land
Immediately after the death of Moses, God appeared to Jesus and ordered him to lead the people and cross the Jordan with them - to the Promised Land. The Lord commands Joshua to be a courageous, brave and zealous keeper of the Law of Moses. Only in this case will the Lord relentlessly help him, as He helped Moses (Joshua 1:2-6).
After a 40-year journey, the great land promised by God lay before the people of Israel. Luxurious fields and pastures awaited them ahead.
But at the same time, fortified cities awaited them, built on the heights of the mountains, making them completely impregnable to the conquerors. In short, the conquest of the earth required great courage and hope in the great help of the Living God.
Israel was truly ready to triumphantly enter the Holy Land. Israel always looked upon its wars as the holy wars of Yahweh, which were a cleansing storm that broke into the corrupting environment of superstition and perversion. These beliefs of Israel that she was waging a holy and just war were confirmed by the special victories that Israel won over her enemies.
Crossing the Jordan River. Siege of Jericho
First of all, in order to receive the land promised by God, the people of Israel had to cross the Jordan itself, and then take the city of Jericho, which stood ten kilometers from the Jordan, which seemed to hold the keys to the entire Promised Land within its formidable walls.
Strengthened by God's help, Joshua began to take decisive action. He ordered the Israelites to camp near the banks of the Jordan, opposite Jericho.
First of all, in order to obtain information about the strength of the garrison and defensive structures, Joshua sent two soldiers to reconnaissance, dressing them in Canaanite clothes. Having arrived there, the spies, i.e. The spies, so as not to incur suspicion, stopped to spend the night in the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab. Rahab was a very smart woman - she immediately recognized the strangers and even guessed who they were. But despite this, she showed them hospitality. Rahab believed that the God of the Israelites was the True God, who would miraculously help them conquer Jericho and all of Canaan, just as he had helped them escape from the land of slavery. Despite all the precautions of the scouts, the people of Jericho, who were watching all the suspicious individuals, learned of their presence and reported to the king. The king of Jericho immediately sent guards to Rahab's house with orders to detain the spies from the Israeli camp. But Rahab, with faith in God, hid the spies who came, and told the king’s servants that they had left her in the evening (Joshua 2:4–5). Then the servants chased them along the road leading from Jericho to the Jordan. Meanwhile, Rahab promised to help the spies if they would swear that when the Israelites captured the city, they would spare her life, as well as her father, mother, and brothers and sisters. The scouts were sincerely grateful to Rahab for her rescue and advised her to hang a bright red rope in the window: then her house would be spared during the battle. When night fell, Rahab helped the spies climb down through the window using a rope from the city wall.
Rahab saves the spies
Three days later, the spies arrived safely at their camp and told Joshua everything they had learned. Joshua gave orders to stock up on food for three days and prepare for the crossing. He also commanded the people to perform purification rites before entering the Promised Land. And so, when three days of purification had passed, at the appointed hour the silver trumpets began to play - and the people moved to the Jordan.
The priests walked ahead with the Ark of the Covenant. As soon as the feet of the priests were wet in the waters of the Jordan, the Lord performed a great miracle in front of all the Israelites, which was reminiscent of the miracle of crossing the Red Sea. Several miles up the river, near the city of Adam, the Jordan suddenly stopped, so that its waters stood like a high wall. The waters, which were still in the riverbed, quickly flowed into the Dead Sea, and the people of Israel crossed the riverbed without even getting their feet wet.
So, after 40 years of wandering in the deserts, around 1212 BC. e., the people of Israel, with God's help, finally set foot on the shores of the Promised Land. Joshua selected 12 men, one from each tribe, and ordered them to build a monument of 12 stones at the bottom of the Jordan. Then he ordered them to take another stone from the bottom of the river and make the same monument from them in the camp at the first stop, as a reminder of the people’s miraculous crossing of the Jordan. When the crossing was over and the priests carried the Ark out of the river, the Jordan again entered its channel.
The first stop was at Gilgal. The first thing the Israelites did when they came into contact with the Promised Land was to build an altar from 12 stones from the bottom of the river. The Lord commanded so.
In Gilgal, at the command of God, Joshua restored the rite of circumcision, which the Israelites had neglected when they were in the wilderness. All the male people who came out of Egypt were circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness were not circumcised. After the people left Egypt, this custom was not performed. There were many reasons: firstly, camping conditions, the inability to maintain hygiene, the constant danger of raids by nomadic tribes, and various dangers of desert life. Joshua commanded all adult men and boys to undergo the operation of circumcision, which signified the renewal of the Sinai union with God. After this event, the next day, the Israelis celebrated the Passover holiday for the fortieth time. A few days later, Joshua finally launched a siege of Jericho.
Fall of Jericho
Before starting hostilities, Joshua himself decided to inspect the walls of the city of Jericho. When he approached the city for this purpose, suddenly not far from him he saw a man with a drawn sword. " Are you one of ours, or one of our enemies?“- the brave leader asked him. " No, I am the leader of the army of the Lord", answered the stranger (Joshua 5:13–14). By Orthodox teaching This is the Archangel of God, Michael.
Joshua bowed to him to the ground and, as a sign of respect for the holiness of the place, at his command, took off his shoes. Then the Archangel of the Heavenly Host revealed to Joshua the will of God, how to take the impregnable fortress of Jericho. The entire Jewish people must walk around Jericho with the Ark of the Covenant for six days, once at a time, and on the seventh day walk around it seven times. Then, at a sign from his leader, he must shout loudly - and at this time, with God’s help, the walls of Jericho will collapse. Joshua did just that.
For 6 days in a row, the Israelites left the camp and once a day marched in a solemn procession around the fortress walls, led by priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant.
On the seventh day, the army walked around the city 7 times, accompanied by priests playing trumpets.
At a certain moment, Jesus ordered all the people to shout at the same time, and immediately the walls of the city fell of their own accord.
After this, Jesus ordered the entire population of Jericho to be exterminated, including women, old people, children and livestock.
Only the harlot Rahab and her relatives were spared, because Rahab had previously sheltered Jewish spies who had entered the city. Jericho itself was completely burned (Joshua, chapter 6).
Jericho
Jericho- one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, founded at the dawn of mankind, mentioned many times in the Bible. Biblical Jericho is located approximately 1.5 km northwest of the center of modern Jericho.
Archaeologists and historians estimate that the city of Jericho has existed for about 7,000 years. Moreover, the first settlement on the site of the biblical Jericho appeared about 10 thousand years ago (Mesolithic), and thus Jericho is the oldest among the centers of civilization that have been discovered so far. Is there anyone like him? Only Jerusalem, which existed for no one knows how long before the reign of Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God. In any case, Jerusalem is much more than 4000 years old. Babylon existed for 3000 years.
Jericho was destroyed and rebuilt several times.
Many biblical events took place in this city. From one of the mountains near Jericho, the prophet Moses saw the Promised Land from afar. Here, near Jericho, Joshua saw the Archangel Michael, who ordered him to enclose the Ark of the Covenant. Joshua miraculously took Jericho, walking around it for seven days with the Ark of the Covenant. Here the Archangel Michael appeared to Gideon.
Not far from this place, the miraculous taking of the prophet Elijah to heaven took place. Here the prophet Elisha miraculously purified the water of a bitter spring.
In New Testament history we also encounter this city. It was in this city that Herod the Great died, since during Roman times it was the royal residence. Here, near Jericho, in the Trans-Jordanian desert he lived greatest man of those born of women, John the Baptist.
Not far from here, in the Jordan River, our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized and here there was a great event - the Epiphany. Here, on Mount Forty Days, the devil tempted the Savior of the world.
Zacchaeus was a resident of Jericho, then Jesus Christ saw him on a fig tree. Leaving the city of Jericho and following to Jerusalem, the Lord heals Bartimaeus from blindness.
Christ the Savior loved these holy places and often visited here. Truly this was the chosen, great, historical place of God’s economy.
Conquest of Canaan
The fall of Jericho inspired the Israelites to further conquests.
The next target was the city of Ai, near Bethel, located in the highlands of Canaan in a strategic location - on one of the main roads leading from the Jordan Valley to the highlands. Jesus captured the city of Ai only the second time. The reason for the defeat of the first attack was an Israeli who, during the capture of Jericho, appropriated part of the spoils intended for the temple. Only the death of the culprit could save the Israelis then from further failures. The city was taken the second time. The inhabitants of the city were destroyed and completely killed, and the city itself was turned into a heap of ash.
After the victory, Joshua wrote down all the Mosaic laws on stone and on Mount Ebal read them to the people of Israel, demanding that they remain faithful to the Lord and never depart from him.
Five kings - Jerusalem, Hebron, Jerusalem, Lachish and Eglon - united against the Israelites. However, Jesus managed to defeat them. God took part in the battle on his side, throwing stones from the sky at the enemy’s army (Joshua 10:11).
In the battle, when Joshua raises his sword against the people of Gibeon and when these enemies are defeated, a miraculous phenomenon occurs, which we call solstice. During this battle, Joshua, according to the Bible, stopped the Sun and Moon in the sky so that the enemy could not retreat, taking advantage of the evening and night darkness: “ stand, sun, over Gibeon, and moon, over the valley of Aijalon!"(Joshua 10:12).
The phenomenon on Mercury, when the Sun stops in the sky and moves in the opposite direction, is called Joshua effect.
Five kings, having suffered defeat, hid in one of the caves. But they were discovered and Naveen ordered them to be killed and hanged on trees.
As a result of this battle, Joshua annexed five more Canaanite cities to the already conquered lands. All the inhabitants of these cities were massacred. " And Jesus smote all the land of the hills, and of the noon, and of the low places, and of the land that lay by the mountains, and of all their kings: he left none untouched, and consigned every thing that breathed to destruction, as the Lord God of Israel commanded; Joshua smote them from Kadesh-barnea to Gaza, and all the land of Goshen even to Gibeon;"(Josh. 10:40-41)
We, modern people who have information about international law, get the impression that the ancient Jews waged their wars in a completely barbaric manner. It seems to us that such barbarism is not permitted by Divine law. How can God allow such barbarity? But the Jews were not under modern international law. They had to use the same means as their opponents, otherwise they faced complete destruction. About how exactly they acted eastern peoples, the rule known as the “Law of the Jungle” clearly states: if you don’t kill, they will kill you. The treatment of the vanquished was extremely cruel. In some cases there was a complete and systematic extermination of the vanquished without distinction of classes, not excluding infants.
In addition, it is believed that the Canaanites deserved such punishment and extermination by their crimes, and the Jews were an instrument of Divine punishment.
Further conquest and division of the Promised Land
The conquest of all Canaan lasted 7 years. 31 Canaanite kings died in the bloody wars. With the exception of Jerusalem and a few other fortified cities by the sea and in the mountains, the entire country was conquered by the Israelites.
After this, Joshua began to divide the Promised Land among the Israelite tribes.
The Promised Land was divided into ten districts. The descendants of Simeon, Judah and Benjamin settled in the south. The remaining territory of the conquered land was occupied, moving from south to north, by the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, Zebulun, Nephalim, and Asher. A small tribe of Dan settled west of the tribe of Benjamin on the border with the Philistines. On the territory that Ephraim received was the city of Shiloh. Joshua decided to move the people's shrine to this city - the Tabernacle of Meeting and the Ark of the Covenant. Thus, Shiloh became the first capital of Israel, which was supposed to weld the scattered tribes into one nation. The Levites were given ownership of 48 cities, where, according to the covenant of Moses, they performed religious duties.
Death and burial place
Joshua himself led the tribes of Israel for another 25 years. His authority was the source of the nation's cohesion. The tribes scattered throughout Canaan unconditionally recognized his authority.
The temple at Shiloh played a major role in uniting the Israeli tribes. He was the spiritual heart of all Israel.
But Joshua was worried about the thought: what will happen after his death? He had no worthy successor, and he feared that the tribes, left without strong leadership and having lost faith in the True God, could quickly lose unity and cohesion and become captives of the local inhabitants.
Joshua saw the unity and power of the state in the preservation of the true religion, in the selfless service to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Shortly before his death, wanting to strengthen faith in God and thereby prevent the collapse of the state, he gathered all the sons of Israel in Shechem, read them the laws of Moses again and ordered them to swear that they would not serve foreign gods: “ fear the Lord and serve Him with purity and sincerity; put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord"(Joshua 24:14). The people unanimously swore: “ No, we will not leave the Lord and begin to serve other gods!"(Josh. 24:16). As a sign of memory of the renewed union with the Lord, Joshua placed a large stone under the oak tree and said: “ Behold, this stone will be a witness for us: for it has heard all the words of the Lord that He spoke to us... let it be a witness against you... so that you will not lie before the [Lord] your God"(Joshua 24:27).
Joshua died at the age of 110 and was buried in Timnath-sarai, on Mount Ephraim (Joshua 19:49-50, Josh. 24:29-30).
Righteous Joshua
In the Orthodox tradition, Joshua is revered as righteous, commemorated September 1/14.
Book of Joshua
Book of Joshua- is the first of twelve historical books (the last is the book of Esther). This corresponds to the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament), where the books are grouped as follows: Pentateuch (from Genesis to Deuteronomy), historical (from the book of Joshua to the book of Esther), poetic (from the book of Job to the Song of Solomon) and prophetic (from the book of Isaiah to the book of Malachi). Thus, the Book of Joshua is a continuation of Deuteronomy. Together with the five books of Moses, it forms something whole that even the first six books were called Hexatea, i.e. a book in six parts.
In the Hebrew canon the same books are grouped differently, namely: the Law, the Prophets and the Scriptures. Theologians have different definitions of the reason for classifying the book of Joshua as prophetic (in the Hebrew canon). Some see it in the fact that Navin was not a prophet, but was placed in the “position of a prophet.” Others are that the historical books, including the "major prophets", reflect the principles that the prophets preached.
The Book of Joshua describes the history of the Jewish people for a period of approximately 25-30 years, from the death of Moses to the death of Joshua (1272 BC - 1244 BC).
The authenticity of the events described in the book is confirmed by historical finds, found cuneiform writings that describe the intercourse of the Canaanite peoples during the time of Joshua.
Main theme of the book of Joshua- conquest of the Promised Land. Israel owes this conquest only to the union with God and the faithfulness of the Lord. Only the Lord put the covenant into practice and gave a homeland to the Israeli people. Therefore, the author of the book especially emphasizes the exceptional intervention of God in the history of Israel.
The purpose of the book of Joshua is an official account of how the Lord’s promise to the patriarchs to transfer the land of Canaan to the Jews was fulfilled in the history of Israel. This can be seen both from the command given to Joshua at the beginning of the book (Joshua 1:2-6) and from the summary of events at its end (Joshua 21:43).
Thus, the book of Joshua records how the promise made to the patriarchs was fulfilled as Israel took possession of the land that God had promised them centuries before.
The fact that the people were later deprived of this land reflects the fickleness of the people, who, having accepted God's blessings as something given to them once and for all, fell into paganism, began to worship the gods of neighboring peoples, for which they were subjected to the punishment about which God warned them (cf. Deut. 28:15-68). And yet, according to the promise he received, Israel should forever possess the land given to him, but this is already connected with the return of the Messiah and the repentance of Israel.
According to the prophecy of Isaiah, the Messiah will appear as a “second Joshua,” who will “restore the earth to return to the heirs” their inheritances (Is. 49:8).
The Apostle Paul taught that the events of the Exodus and the Conquest are filled with special significance for Christians, since these events are nothing more than prototypes of the future (1 Cor. 10: 1-11). As Joshua led Israel to victories over their enemies and to the possession of the Promised Land, and as he prayed and interceded for the people after they had sinned and failed, so does Jesus Christ. He leads God's people to their promised rest (Heb. 4:8-9); He continually intercedes for His own (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25) and gives them power to defeat their enemies (Rom. 8:37; Heb. 2:14-15).
Material prepared by Sergey SHULYAK
The Book of Joshua and the Book of Judges are dedicated to the events associated with the Jewish conquest of Palestine and the subsequent period. When analyzing these books, one cannot help but notice a certain stylistic similarity, primarily due to the fact that both of them are based largely on the material of the Jewish epic. Actually, the Book of Joshua is primarily a collection of ancient heroic songs dedicated to the conquests and raids of Jewish tribes on the cities of Galilee and the Jordan Valley, as well as surrounding areas. The only exception is the list of defeated local rulers given in Iis. Nav. XII, 7 – 24, and a description of the boundaries of settlement of Jewish clans throughout the territory of Palestine (Joshua XIII, 2 – XXI, 43). It should be noted that texts of this kind are typical of all Middle Eastern cultures, and they should be considered the most archaic part of the book. It is possible that both the list of defeated kings and the list of tribal boundaries existed in written form already in the pre-state period, i.e. OK. XII century, while the heroic legends were recorded, most likely, much later, during the reign of Solomon (X century), whose court scribes apparently paid special attention to the collection and preservation of Jewish epic. It is also impossible not to pay attention to the fact that the author of the Book of Joshua retains that unique flavor that was characteristic of the Jewish heroic epic, although its final processing apparently took place during the period of the Babylonian captivity, simultaneously with the appearance of the Torah. The main idea of the book was the idea of God fulfilling the promises given to His people about the Exodus and giving them the land on which they could live (Joshua XXI, 43 - 45). It was this idea that determined both the appearance of early, pre-exile versions of the Book of Joshua, and their inclusion in the pre-exile versions of sacred history, of which it served as the logical conclusion. Apparently, the additional editions ended with a description of the renewal of the union between God and the people of God, accomplished by Joshua in Nablus (Shechem) shortly before his death (Joshua XXIV, 1 - 28), and which apparently followed shortly after the specified event of his death (Joshua XXIV, 29 – 30). The Book of Judges, the main idea of which is expressed in the Judgment, is a different matter. II, 6 – 19: it, in essence, already fully corresponds to the logic underlying the version of the later history of ancient Israel set out in the Books of Kings, which fits into a simple scheme: the welfare of the people - spiritual relaxation and apostasy - a national disaster allowed by God (as a rule, military disaster) - the conversion and emergence of a faithful national leader (judge or godly ruler) - deliverance from disaster (usually after victory over enemies) and the beginning of a new period of prosperity, after which the cycle usually repeated. At the same time, the basis of the text of the Book of Judges is historical midrash, which in turn suggests its relatively late (exilic or post-exilic) final edition, although the midrash that made up the book was obviously based on ancient epic traditions, most likely recorded simultaneously with the heroic epic.
However, when analyzing any epic legend, the question first of all arises about its historical basis. We have already said above that the most probable date of the Exodus should be considered the first half of the 15th century. In this case, we can assume that the first attempts to penetrate Palestinian territory could have been made by Jews already in the second half of the 14th century, shortly after the death of Moses. Apparently, by this time the Jews had already formed as a nation (which is not surprising, since there was already the second generation after the Exodus, who grew up in the desert) and occupied territories on the eastern bank of the Jordan in its middle reaches, from where they began their penetration to Palestine. An extra-biblical source reflecting the situation developing here during this period is the so-called. Tel el-Amarna Archive , discovered by archaeologists in the Egyptian village of the same name. It dates back to the 14th century. and represents the correspondence of the rulers of Palestinian cities, who were at that time in vassal dependence on Egypt, with the central government. The meaning of their reports usually boils down to requests for help in the fight against nomads who constantly raid Palestinian cities and periodically subject some of them to complete defeat. It is most likely to assume that these nomads were representatives of Jewish tribes, who actually made their first forays into the territory of Palestine from the eastern bank of the Jordan already in the middle of the 14th century. However, in the XIV century. There were still Egyptian garrisons on Palestinian territory, and therefore the Jews were able to finally settle here only in the second half of the 13th century, when the Egyptian army left it (as it turned out later, forever). The book of Joshua mentions military campaigns against Jericho (Joshua VI, 1 - 26), Ai (Joshua VIII, 1 - 29), Gibeon (Gabaon) (Joshua X, 5 - 15 ), and also - briefly - against some other cities of Palestine (Joshua X, 28 - 42). In addition, a certain battle between the Jewish militia and the combined forces of a number of local rulers is mentioned, which ended in the victory of the Jews (Joshua XI, 1 - 14). Unfortunately, it is not possible to restore the chronology of these campaigns, because... epic legends generally do not usually reflect the chronological sequence of events; Based on the data in the book, it is impossible to even say with certainty whether the military expeditions it mentions took place sequentially or simultaneously, and even more so it is completely impossible to determine their sequence. Indirectly, the duration of the process of Jewish penetration into Palestine is indicated only by the fact that Joshua himself, being a youth when it began, was already a very old man by the end (Joshua XXIV, 29). In this case, we can assume that Jews settled in Palestine at the beginning of the 14th or at the end of the 13th century. It should be borne in mind that the Jews, of course, were not the complete masters of the country during this period. They only got the opportunity to live on its territory, maintaining their independence. Of the twelve Jewish clans, two and a half - Dan, Gad and half of the Menashe (Manasseh) clan - settled in Transjordan, on the eastern bank of the Jordan, three - Yehuda (Judah), Benjamin (Benjamin) and Shimon (Simeon) - south of the Judean Highlands , in the Hebron area, while the rest settled throughout the territory of Galilee and Samaria. The structure of Jewish society during this period was tribal, and tribal leaders - elders played very important role; After the death of Joshua, the Jews did not have a national leader until the election of the first king. There were no Jewish cities in the pre-state period in Palestine; The local pre-Jewish population continued to live in the cities, while the Jews settled in small, more or less fortified settlements, which apparently maintained their independence both from neighboring Jewish tribes and from nearby cities. At the same time, Jews (especially in the North) actively joined the local settled civilization, quickly mastering agriculture, gardening and some types of crafts previously unknown to them, as well as assimilating the cultural achievements of their neighbors. In particular, it was after the transition to sedentarism that the Jews acquired their own written language, and with it the first written monuments. However, this process also had a negative side, connected with the fact that the Jews, joining the local culture and civilization, sometimes also sought to join the local religion, which some of them, especially those who did not participate in the aggressive campaigns and did not live in that heroic era young people began to look at it as a religion worthy of a civilized person, in contrast to Yahwism, which, according to their concepts, was appropriate only for wild nomads. Thus, paganism gradually began to penetrate into the Jewish environment, which was resolutely opposed by the early prophetic communities that existed in the pre-state period and later.
Actually, the first of such communities was the community of Moses, which emerged during the period of the Exodus. After the death of its founder, it, of course, did not cease to exist, but over time, being primarily associated with the Tabernacle and responsible for it, it transformed into a priestly community. However, she was not the only one, and after the Jewish conquest of Palestine, the number of prophets and prophetic communities apparently increased markedly, so that the Yahwist prophet becomes a fairly frequently mentioned figure in the biblical narratives. It should be noted that outwardly, from the point of view of the religious type, these prophets did not differ fundamentally from the pagan prophets, which we have already discussed above. The only difference was that the Yahwist prophets prophesied in the name of Yahweh, in contrast to the pagan prophets, who prophesied in the name of other, pagan gods. Characteristic feature early prophetic religiosity was ecstasy, i.e. the experience of altered mental states that allow a person to perceive such layers of reality that in the normal state remain imperceptible to him. Often ecstasies were accompanied by certain external manifestations, such as convulsions, catalepsy, etc. (to designate them, a special expression appeared in the prophetic language - “the hand of Yahweh”, or “the hand of the Lord” of the Synodal translation). Almost always, ecstasy was accompanied by a complete switch of attention and feelings of the perceiver to the object of his perception, so that external reality ceased to exist for him; however, having emerged from a state of ecstasy, he remembered everything he had seen and experienced and could tell others about it, which fundamentally distinguished Yahwist ecstasies from the so-called very common in the pagan world. orgiastic ecstasies, experiencing which, a person completely lost his own “I”, so much so that, coming out of the ecstatic state, as a rule, he did not remember what he had experienced. It was in ecstasy that the early prophets usually experienced the Divine presence. Often such experiences were accompanied by hearing an internal (and sometimes external) voice, which was perceived by those hearing it as the voice of Yahweh (to denote such an experience, the expression “the word of Yahweh” or “the word of the Lord” appeared in prophetic language). Characteristic of early prophetic religiosity was also a visionary experience, which we have already had to talk about - in ecstasy, the prophets often saw a heavenly rider on a white horse, proclaiming the will of Yahweh, and they called this rider the “messenger of Yahweh” (“angel of the Lord” in the Synodal translation). However, such a messenger was not perceived by the visionaries as a being separate from Yahweh; they usually addressed him as Yahweh Himself, and he spoke about himself as if he were Yahweh Himself; Thus, it is obvious that in this case it would be more correct to talk about the appearance of God, and not about the appearance of an angel in the modern sense of the word. Judging by what we know today about the early prophets, we can think that they usually lived in more or less closed communities, although there may have been wandering prophets who moved from community to community. Communities were led, as a rule, by a charismatic leader who was not elected or appointed. Most often, apparently, it happened that the community formed around its leader, and did not choose him, and therefore, naturally, there could be no talk of any re-election of him. Such a leader usually chose his successor himself, and the community, as a rule, unquestioningly agreed with this choice. If for some reason the leader of the community lost his charisma, the community either disintegrated or nominated another leader, but not in accordance with one or another election procedure, but bearing in mind only the charisma of the nominated one. It is not surprising that in the early prophetic environment theocracy was considered the optimal form of social order - after all, it involves the transfer of supreme power in society and in the state to just such a charismatic leader, not appointed or elected and accountable to God alone. Actually, the judges mentioned in the Book of Judges were precisely a typical example of such charismatic leadership, and the type of government they practiced was a typical example of theocracy, but no longer within the framework of a prophetic community, but within the framework of one or more Jewish clans. It should be noted that from a chronological point of view, the Book of Judges leaves the researcher no more certainty than the Book of Joshua: it only tells (often more than briefly) about the activities of a number of theocratic rulers who, in a critical situation, united several tribes to organize armed resistance to the enemy, without giving no chronological details. Based on the Book of Judges, one cannot even say with certainty whether we are talking about successive rulers, or whether some of them could act in parallel, extending their power to different Jewish tribes. Only one thing can be said with confidence: it was the activity and preaching of these people that made possible both the conquest of Palestine by the Jews and the preservation of Yahwism in the subsequent period.
This issue requires special consideration. There is no doubt that the conquest of Palestine was perceived not only by the prophets, but also by everyone who participated in it, as a holy war. Moreover, we have to admit that the idea of a holy war was generally very widespread in the early prophetic environment. Actually, the very idea of the Exodus, which, as we already had to mention, was not a spontaneous movement, but an organized religious campaign, was associated with a return to the altars of the ancestors, to the land promised by Yahweh to His people back in the days of the fathers. Naturally, in such a situation, anyone who opposes the people of God also becomes an opponent of God, and there could be only one attitude towards them, and it presupposed a war until victory, and if necessary, then until their complete destruction. In essence, early Yahwism, both in spirit and in religious type, is much more reminiscent of early Islam, with its belligerence and intransigence towards any manifestations of paganism, than, for example, modern Christianity. What is the reason for such belligerence and intransigence? One could, of course, say that such was the general religiosity of the era: all the gods of all ancient peoples accompanied their charges during the war and certainly walked ahead of the army; if the army won, the victors were sure that their gods had also won their war and were stronger than the gods of their opponents. The power of Yahweh was also supposed to manifest itself in winning the battles in which His people participate - another power was still very little understood by the people of the times of Moses and Joshua. There is also no doubt that the conquest of Palestine by the Jews at that time was neither particularly cruel nor particularly bloody, as it sometimes seems to us today - it did not stand out in any way among the wars of its era. But such an answer would suggest that Yahwism, in essence, differs little from any pagan religion. Of course, if we keep in mind the massive religiosity of the Jewish people during the conquest of Palestine, this was indeed the case, which is not surprising: after all, we are facing a spiritually still very young people, who only recently received commandments from God and barely had time to form into a nation. And yet it’s not just about the era. The best evidence of this is the gospel story told by Luke about a small episode that took place on the road to Jerusalem (Luke IX, 51 - 56). Here, people of a completely different era are ready to call heavenly fire on the heads of their enemies, when, it would seem, the times of the holy war are in the distant past (however, not for everyone, as evidenced by Jewish history this period). Of course, after Pentecost, nothing like this ever occurred to any of the apostles, and then it becomes clear that the point is not in the era, but in the spiritual maturity of individuals and entire nations. The neophyte is almost always somewhat harsh, and sometimes even intolerant, and this does not matter; It’s a disaster if this condition drags on for the rest of his life. Young nations have always been prone to holy wars, and christian world this is no exception - just remember the crusades, in which representatives of barely formed nations - the French, English, Germans - so willingly participated; For example, nothing like this ever occurred to the “old” and already calmed Byzantines. But does all this mean that God really wanted those holy wars with the pagans that we read about today in the Book of Joshua and the Book of Judges? The answer is simple and clear: of course not. Were these wars inevitable? The answer is equally clear: of course, yes. In order to stop them, God would have to recreate humanity anew; but His plans included the salvation of that which exists, and not the creation of a new one. And then it becomes clear that in the war that the people of God waged, making their way to Palestine, to the altars of their ancestors, and in their victory over their enemies, as theologians say, providential meaning, i.e. These events were part of God's plan for His people and the destiny of all mankind. The same could be said about the religiosity of the early prophets: not everything in it corresponded to the ideal, and, undoubtedly, God also did not like everything that these people did and said. But, in any case, they remained faithful to Him, and were ready to pay the most for their loyalty. expensive price; and neither Moses, nor Joshua, nor any of the other early prophets could have been like the apostles after Pentecost - at that stage of the spiritual formation of the people, this was still impossible for anyone. But God works in real story and finds Himself witnesses and helpers among real, living people, and the biblical authors do not consider it necessary to hide this from us simple fact. After all, the Kingdom of God only completes history, and does not cancel it.
The Book of Joshua is dedicated to the theme of the Jewish conquest of Palestine. Apparently, it was originally included in the final version of the Torah, which was created during the Babylonian captivity. This would be quite natural, given that compositionally it forms a single whole with the Pentateuch: the plot of the Book of Joshua is devoted not just to the conquest of Palestine by the Jews, but, above all, to the theme of the fulfillment of the promises given by God to Abraham during the alliance concluded with him (Gen. 15 :18-21). Of course, they did not come true by themselves: the Jewish people had to make a lot of efforts to get what was promised, but they received the opportunity to fight and capture the land on which the first Jewish state would later be created.
Thus, in the format of the Hexateuch, the Torah was a complete version of sacred history, covering the most ancient period of the history of the people of God. Later, when the Torah was supplemented by a collection of prophetic texts, the logic of its construction became different, and then the Book of Joshua was transferred from the Torah to the early prophetic books that in the Christian tradition are called historical. But sacred history is not just history; here it is not the historical events themselves that come to the fore, but their spiritual and, as theologians sometimes say, providential meaning, that is, the meaning that these events acquire in the context of God's general plan for His people and all humanity, as far as it was revealed to the biblical authors.
The Book of Joshua is undoubtedly based on texts that reflect real historical events. First of all, this relates to the description of the boundaries of the settlement of Jewish clans in Palestine, which appears in the context of the story about the renewal of the union with God at the end of the life of Joshua (chap. 13-24). It should be noted that the issue of tribal boundaries in a tribal society was one of the most important, and violating them could entail very serious consequences, up to and including inter-tribal wars, sometimes lasting for centuries. Such boundaries were usually determined either on the basis of custom, or by the decision of authoritative leaders, and then formalized by a special agreement and consecrated. Apparently, during the solemn ritual of renewing the union with God (chapter 24), the newly established inter-tribal boundaries were also consecrated, which was then recorded. It is possible that the initial fixation was oral, in the form of a solemn promise to observe the established boundaries, given in front of witnesses, and subsequently, with the advent and development of Jewish writing, the established oral agreements were written down. All ancient peoples have records of this type, and they are usually quite reliable as a historical source.
The first part of the Book of Joshua is somewhat different. Apparently, the earliest of all the texts found here is the list of defeated rulers of Palestinian cities and leaders of the tribes inhabiting Palestine, given in chapter 12 (the so-called “list of kings”). Similar lists of rulers of hostile states defeated during the war are known from Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Hittite sources, and they are usually compiled in hot pursuit, immediately or shortly after the end of hostilities. Usually, such lists can be trusted, since they are compiled during the lifetime of the direct participants in the events, which makes distortion of all obvious facts pointless, that is, we have before us a completely reliable historical source testifying to the military successes of the Jews in Palestine.
However, we have to take into account that on the basis of such lists it is very difficult to establish the chronology of events: after all, if we know nothing about the lifetime of the defeated rulers, there is no need to talk about chronology at all. Meanwhile, in the case of the “list of kings” we find ourselves in exactly this situation: we know nothing about the rulers of cities and tribal leaders mentioned in it, except what we learn about them from the list itself, since in no other ancient texts do they names are not mentioned.
As for the remaining evidence of the first part of the Book of Joshua, here we obviously have before us an initially different genre, less based on historical specifics, namely the heroic epic. However, the book itself undoubtedly does not represent epic legends in their original form, but rather a processing of the latter, made within the framework of well-defined theological and historiosophical concepts, and quite late ones at that. At the same time, however, one should also take into account the fact of the influence on the emerging epic cycles of the early prophetic tradition, whose roots were associated with the Mosaic community, for which the main characters of the events associated with the Exodus and the conquest of Palestine were, first of all, Moses and Joshua. It should be noted that the Old Testament books mention such sources that have not reached us, such as the “Book of the Righteous” (Heb. ספר הישר sefer ha-yashar; another possible translation is “Book of Righteousness”) (Joshua 10:13, 2 Kings 1:18) and “Book of Yahweh’s Wars” (Num. 21:14; Heb. ספר מלחמת יהוה Sefer Milhamot Yahweh; in the Synodal translation - “The Book of the Wars of the Lord”). Judging by the quotes given, both of them were nothing more than an ancient (in any case, pre-exile) written adaptation of the Hebrew heroic epic. Apparently, representatives of the prophetic movement also participated in the creation of these texts, introducing characteristic ideas and flavor into them, and on the basis of the mentioned texts the Book of Joshua was written during the period of the Babylonian captivity.
Of particular interest are chapters 1-5 of the Book of Joshua, which represent a kind of introduction to the entire book as a whole. It begins with the instructions God gave to Joshua as the new leader (chapter 1), and ends with a description of the rite of circumcision performed immediately after crossing the Jordan (5:1-9) and the solemn celebration of the first Passover on God's given land (5 :10-15). Such an event could well have taken place in reality, but not earlier than the moment when, having crossed to the western, Palestinian bank of the river, the Jews could feel safe there. The first raids on Palestinian cities could have taken place much earlier, and it is possible that memories of them were included in the epic cycles dedicated to the Jewish conquest of Palestine, along with legends about later victories that allowed the Jews to finally gain a foothold in the West Bank. Such an introduction was supposed to give all the events described in the book a providential meaning, and, quite possibly, it appeared in its final form already in its final (captive) edition. However, the legend about the first Easter in Palestine could and should have been preserved from the time of Joshua, and it could have been used by different authors in different eras.
The same can be said about the solemn crossing of the Jordan described in the introduction (chap. 3-4). Actually, what we have before us is a typical etiological legend, that is, a legend dedicated to explaining the origin of a particular monument or custom. We are talking, apparently, about the sanctuary built on the site from which the invasion of Palestine began (4:20-24), which decided the outcome of the campaign of conquest. Such memorial sanctuaries are not rare in the ancient world, and they are always associated with one or another legend about a miracle that became an omen of future victories. In this case, such a miracle was the miraculous crossing of the Jordan, described in Chapter 3. It should be noted that fluctuations in the water level in the Jordan can indeed occur at almost any time of the year, and during low water the river in some places (by the way, nearby from Jericho, where in general it is not very deep, so much so that one could even ford the river there (2:7), where a nearby crossing is mentioned, and, judging by Heb. maeurot, we should be talking specifically about the ford) was completely shallow. The most interesting thing from the point of view of the general composition of the book is that this story was obviously written in such a way as to evoke associations associated with the miraculous passage of the people across the Reed Sea. Before us, in essence, is a description of the completion of the Exodus, which began under Moses and ended under Joshua, who completed the work of his teacher.
When could all these events take place? One might think that the Jews came to Transjordan during the lifetime of Moses, as the legend reflected in the Pentateuch says. If we assume that the Exodus took place in the second half or at the end of the 15th century, then the appearance of the Jews in Transjordan can be dated to the first half of the 14th century. In this case, we have to assume that they remained on the eastern bank of the Jordan for more than half a century. Actually, during this time, a generation managed to grow up that was no longer afraid of war and did not think about Egypt. Apparently, the bulk of the Jews lived in the middle reaches of the Jordan, in the valley on the left (eastern) bank of the river, where their closest neighbors were the Ammonites and Moabites - related peoples of Semitic origin, relations with which were not always hostile. Sometimes too close relations between Jews and foreigners began to negatively affect the religious state of the people, which sometimes forced religious leaders to take very drastic measures against the apostates (Numbers 25:1-5). The leaders of some Jewish clans were even inclined to remain in Transjordan forever (Numbers 32).
In such a situation, the only way out of the situation could be decisive action. In general, the idea of a holy war can become popular among people inspired by religious slogans, but the resulting social energy usually requires immediate release. Any delay in taking decisive action in such a situation usually reduces the religious intensity of society, especially if, in addition, over the course of one or two generations the very way of life changes, as was the case in Transjordan, where conditions were created for the gradual transition of Jews to a settled life. But, however, time worked not only against the religious leaders, but in a certain respect also for them: overpopulation inevitably developed in the rather limited territory inhabited by the Jews. As a result, the situation for starting a war under religious slogans was very favorable: the youth, who literally had no place in Transjordan, brought up by the religious leaders of the people on the idea of a holy war for the altars of their ancestors, were quite ready for decisive action. Most likely, these were no longer children, but grandchildren of those who left Egypt, who lived at the end of the 14th - beginning of the 13th centuries. At the same time, or perhaps a little earlier, Egypt, preoccupied with internal problems, finally left Palestine to the mercy of fate, making a decisive Jewish invasion only a matter of the leaders and people’s own readiness.
Meanwhile, with a high degree of probability, only the last, decisive invasion of the Jews into Palestine can be dated to the beginning of the 13th century. Apparently, the first raids on Palestinian cities began much earlier. In the Book of Joshua, the conquest of Palestine is described as a series of military campaigns, and compositionally, each description of one of these campaigns represents a complete story. Apparently, this fact is due to the fact that these descriptions are based on pre-war sources, which were probably collections of individual heroic songs-legends, which, in turn, went back to oral epic cycles, consisting of individual episodes dedicated to specific military hiking. One might think that in ancient Israel there were no heroic poems that would have united individual legends or cycles of legends into a single compositional whole, connected by a cross-cutting plot and cross-cutting heroes, similar to the Iliad or the Odyssey. However, today it is impossible to say exactly what the above-mentioned “Book of Wars of Yahweh” and “Book of the Righteous” were, since only three quotations from these works have reached us. In any case, judging by archeological data and the Tel el-Amarna archive, nomadic raids on Palestine began already in the second quarter of the 14th century.
One of these traditions was the legend of the capture of Jericho, described in chapter 6 of the Book of Joshua. It appears to have taken place in the early or mid-14th century and was perhaps one of the first serious Jewish military forays into Palestinian territory. Jericho, located not far from the fords across the Jordan, on a large trade road, was easy prey for the nomads, who could easily cross the Jordan and raid the city, then go back across the river the same day with the loot. However, Jericho, located on a hill, was still fairly well protected, and it was not easy to take it, although this happened many times over the course of the city’s millennia-long history. It should be noted that, judging by archaeological data, the city was destroyed almost to the ground during an assault that took place around the middle of the 14th century and was revived only about a century later. Perhaps this is precisely what is reflected in the chapter we are considering. Judging by the data available today, during this assault the walls of the city collapsed not inward, as usually happens during an assault, but outward - they seemed to slide down the slope of the hill on which they were located. This could have happened as a result of a landslide, and the landslide could well have been triggered by a procession organized by the besiegers at the city walls (Joshua 6:6-20).
Another legend reflected in the book of Joshua was the legend about the capture of Ai (Ai), which we find in ch. 7-8 books. Here, as in the story of the crossing of the Jordan in the introduction, there are elements of etiological tradition that explain the origin of the sanctuary on Mount Ebal (8:30-35). It is interesting to note that in this description there are elements of a ritual for the renewal of union with God, such as the recreation of the sacred text (v. 32), which most likely was the text of the Decalogue, and the solemn pronouncement of blessings on those who keep the law and curses on those who break it (v. 33). -34). However, it is possible that the sanctuary was built as a gift of gratitude to God, who granted victory in the next battle, and also as a sign of repentance for the previously committed violation of the taboo (“spell”) (7:1). At the same time, it is completely impossible to determine how much time passed between the raid on Jericho and the capture of Ai (Gai). Initially, apparently, we have before us two different stories, only later connected by plot with an episode of breaking a taboo, and today it is no longer possible to say for sure whether such a connection was in any earlier (additional) collections, or whether it belongs to the author of the Torah.
Otherwise, the Jewish conquest of Palestine is described in the Book of Joshua quite generally, as two military campaigns against two coalitions, one of which was led by the ruler of Jerusalem, and the other by the ruler of Hazor (Hasor) (chapter and books, respectively). Here we have, it seems, not so much a processing of ancient legends or literary works based on them, but rather a summary of events, created, obviously, on the basis of these sources that have not reached us. Chapter 9 of the book sets out an etiological legend explaining the origin of the traditional occupation of the inhabitants of one of the cities of the Judean Highlands. Based on such data, it is quite difficult to reconstruct a detailed picture of events. It is only obvious that the rulers of the Palestinian cities did not have enough strength to resist the Jewish invasion of Palestine. Perhaps this was due to the lack of clear coordination of their actions, but it cannot be ruled out that the Jewish leaders managed to take advantage of the never-ending mutual hostility between the rulers of the Palestinian cities. Another thing is also obvious: in the year of Joshua’s death, the conquest of Palestine was still far from complete (13:1-5). But the death of Joshua, who was the national Jewish religious leader, marked the end of the first, active period of the Jewish conquest of Palestine. Now we had to learn to live on the land given by God and develop it.
Excerpts to the text:
Genesis 15
Is Nav 24
2 Kings 1
Is Nav 1-5
Is Nav 12
Number 25
Number 32
Is Nav 6
Is Nav 7
Is Nav 8
Is Nav 13
After these incidents, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision (at night), and it was said: Do not be afraid, Abram; I am your shield; your reward (will be) very great.
Abram said: Sovereign Lord! what will you give me? I remain childless; this Eliezer from Damascus is the steward of my house.
And Abram said, Behold, thou hast not given me seed, and behold, the man of my household is my heir.
And the word of the Lord came to him, saying, He shall not be your heir, but he who shall come out of your body shall be your heir.
And he brought him out and said (to him): Look at the sky and count the stars, if you can count them. And he said to him: You will have so many descendants.
Abram believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.
And he said to him: I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land for your possession.
He said: Sovereign Lord! how can I know that I will own it?
The Lord said to him: Take Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle dove, and a young dove.
He took them all, cut them in half and put one part opposite the other; only he didn’t cut the birds.
And birds of prey swooped down on the corpses; but Abram drove them away.
When the sun set, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him.
And the Lord said to Abram: Know that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will enslave them, and will oppress them for four hundred years,
but I will bring judgment upon the people to whom they shall be enslaved; after this they will come out (here) with great wealth,
and you will go to your fathers in peace and will be buried in a good old age;
in the fourth generation they will return here: for the measure of the iniquities of the Amorites has not yet been filled.
When the sun set and darkness fell, behold, smoke as if from a furnace and the flames of fire passed between the dissected animals.
On this day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:
Keneev, Kenezeev, Kedmoneev,
Hitteyev, Ferezeyev, Refaimov,
Amorites, Canaanites, (Hivites,) Gergesites and Jebusites.
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And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called the elders of Israel, and their rulers, and their judges, and their overseers, and they appeared before (the Lord) God.
And Jesus said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Your fathers lived beyond the river of old, Terah the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods.
But I took your father Abraham from beyond the river and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed and gave him Isaac.
He gave Jacob and Esau to Isaac. I gave Mount Seir to Esau as an inheritance; Jacob and his sons went over to Egypt (and there they became a great, strong and numerous people, and the Egyptians began to oppress them).
And I sent Moses and Aaron and smote Egypt with the plagues that I made in the midst of it, and then I brought you out.
I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the (Red) Sea. Then the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea;
but they cried out to the Lord, and He placed (cloud and) darkness between you and the Egyptians and brought the sea upon them, which covered them. Your eyes have seen what I did in Egypt. Then you spent a lot of time in the desert.
And I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan; they fought against you, but I delivered them into your hand, and you received their land as an inheritance, and I destroyed them before you.
Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, rose up and went to war against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you;
but I did not want to listen to Balaam - and he blessed you, and I delivered you from his hands.
You crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. And the inhabitants of Jericho, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, began to fight with you, but I delivered them into your hands.
I sent hornets before you, which drove them away from you, the two kings of the Amorites; It was not done with your sword or with your bow.
And I gave you a land that you did not labor for, and cities that you did not build, and you live in them; from the vineyards and olive gardens, which you did not plant, you eat the fruit.”
So fear the Lord and serve Him with purity and sincerity; put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.
If it does not please you to serve the Lord, then choose for yourself now whom to serve, whether the gods that your fathers served who were beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live; but I and my house will serve the Lord (for He is holy).
And the people answered and said: No, it will not happen that we leave the Lord and begin to serve other gods!
For the Lord is our God, He brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and did great signs before our eyes and kept us along all the way that we walked, and among all the nations through which we passed.
The Lord drove out from us all the nations and the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we will serve the Lord, for He is our God.
Jesus said to the people: You will not be able to serve the Lord (God), for He is a holy God, a jealous God, who will not tolerate your iniquity and your sins.
If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, He will bring evil upon you and destroy you, after He has done you good.
And the people said to Jesus: No, we will serve the Lord.
Jesus said to the people: Are you witnesses about yourselves, that you have chosen the Lord for yourself to serve Him? They answered: witnesses.
Therefore put away the strange gods that are among you, and turn your heart to the Lord God of Israel.
The people said to Jesus: Let us serve the Lord our God and listen to His voice.
And Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and gave them statutes and laws in Shechem (before the tabernacle of the Lord God of Israel).
And Jesus wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a large stone and laid it there under the oak tree, which was near the sanctuary of the Lord.
And Jesus said to all the people: Behold, this stone will be a witness for us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord that He spoke to us (today); let him be a witness against you (in the days to come), so that you do not lie before (the Lord) your God.
And Jesus sent the people away, each to his own portion.
After this Jesus the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being one hundred and ten years old.
And they buried him at the border of his inheritance in Timnath-sarai, which is on Mount Ephraim, north of Mount Gaasha. (And they laid there with him in the tomb in which they buried him the stone knives with which Joshua circumcised the children of Israel in Gilgal when he brought them out of Egypt, as the Lord commanded; and they are there even to this day.)
And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders whose lives were prolonged after Jesus, and who saw all the works of the Lord that he did to Israel.
And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel carried out of Egypt, were buried in Shechem, in a portion of the field which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred coins, and which became an inheritance for the sons of Joseph.
(After this) Eleazar the son of Aaron (the high priest) also died, and they buried him on the hill of Phinehas his son, which was given to him on Mount Ephraim.
(On that day the children of Israel took the ark of God and carried it with them, and Phinehas was priest in the place of his father Eleazar until he died and was buried in his city of Gibeath.
And the children of Israel went every one to his own place and to his own city.
And the children of Israel began to serve Ashtoreth and Ashtaroth and the gods of the surrounding nations; and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Eglon king of Moab, and he possessed them eighteen years.)
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After the death of Saul, when David returned from the defeat of the Amalekites and stayed in Ziklag two days,
behold, on the third day there came a man from Saul's camp; His clothes were torn and dust was on his head. Coming to David, he fell to the ground and bowed down (to him).
And David said to him: Where did you come from? And he said: I have fled from the camp of Israel.
And David said to him: What happened? tell me. And he said, The people fled from the battle, and many of the people fell and died, and both Saul and his son Jonathan died.
And David said to the young man who was telling him, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?”
And the lad who told him said, I came by chance to Mount Gilboa, and behold, Saul fell on his spear, and the chariots and horsemen overtook him.
Then he looked back and, seeing me, called me.
And I said: here I am. He said to me: "Who are you?" And I said to him: “I am an Amalekite.”
Then he said to me: “Come to me and kill me, for mortal anguish has seized me, my soul is still within me.”
And I went up to him and killed him, for I knew that he would not live after his fall; and I took the (royal) crown that was on his head, and the bracelet that was on his hand, and brought them to my master here.
Then David grabbed his clothes and tore them, and all the people who were with him also tore their clothes.
and they wept and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for his son Jonathan, and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel, because they fell by the sword.
And David said to the young man who was telling him, Where are you from? And he said: I am the son of the stranger Amalekite.
Then David said to him: How were you not afraid to raise your hand to kill the Lord’s anointed?
And David called one of the youths and said to him: Come, kill him.
And he killed him, and he died. And David said to him, “Your blood is on your head, for your mouth testified against you when you said, “I have killed the Lord’s anointed.”
And David mourned Saul and his son Jonathan with this lamentable song,
and commanded that the sons of Judah should be taught the bow, as it is written in the book of the Righteous One, and said:
Your beauty, O Israel, is stricken on your heights! how the mighty have fallen!
Do not tell it in Gath, do not proclaim it in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice.
Mountains of Gilboa! let neither dew nor rain fall upon you, and let there be no fields of fruit upon you, for there the shield of the mighty is cast down, the shield of Saul, no matter how anointed it was with oil.
Without the blood of the wounded, without the fat of the mighty, Jonathan's bow did not return, and Saul's sword did not return in vain.
Saul and Jonathan, amiable and agreeable in their lives, were not separated in their death; They were faster than eagles, stronger than lions.
Daughters of Israel! weep for Saul, who dressed you in scarlet robe with ornaments and set your garments with gold ornaments.
How the mighty fell in battle!
Jonathan is slain on your high places.
I grieve for you, my brother Jonathan; you were very dear to me; your love was for me higher than a woman’s love.
How the mighty have fallen, how the weapons of war have perished!
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After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of Moses:
Moses my servant died; Therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, the children of Israel.
Every place upon which the soles of your feet will tread I give to you, as I said to Moses:
from the desert and this Lebanon to the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites; and as far as the great sea toward the west of the sun shall be your borders.
No one will stand before you all the days of your life; and as I was with Moses, so I will be with you: I will not depart from you, nor forsake you.
Be strong and courageous; For you will give to this people a possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them;
just be strong and very courageous, and carefully keep and fulfill all the law that Moses My servant bequeathed to you; Do not turn away from it, either to the right or to the left, so that you may act wisely in all your undertakings.
Let not this book of the law depart from thy mouth; but study in it day and night, so that you do exactly everything that is written in it: then you will be successful in your ways and will act wisely.
Here I command you: be strong and courageous, do not be afraid and do not be dismayed; For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
And Jesus gave commandment to the overseers of the people and said:
go through the camp and give a command to the people and say: prepare yourselves food for the journey, because after three days you will go beyond this Jordan to come and take the land that the Lord God of your fathers is giving you as an inheritance.
And to the tribe of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh Jesus said:
Remember what Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying: The Lord your God has given you rest, and has given you this land;
let your wives, your children and your cattle remain in the land that Moses gave you beyond the Jordan; But all of you who are able to fight, go armed before your brothers and help them,
until the Lord (your God) gives rest to your brothers, as well as to you; until they also receive as an inheritance the land which the Lord your God is giving them; Then return to your inheritance and possess the land that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan towards the east of the sun.
They answered Jesus and said: Whatever you command us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go;
As we listened to Moses, so we will listen to you: only the Lord your God will be with you, as He was with Moses;
Anyone who opposes your command and does not listen to your words in everything that you command him will be put to death. Just be strong and courageous!
And Joshua the son of Nun sent two spies secretly from Shittim, and said, Go, spy out the land and Jericho. (The two young men) went and came (to Jericho and entered) the house of the harlot, whose name was Rahab, and stayed there overnight.
And it was said to the king of Jericho, Behold, some men from the children of Israel came hither this night to spy out the land.
The king of Jericho sent to say to Rahab: hand over the people who came to you, who entered your house (at night), for they came to spy out the whole land.
But the woman took those two people and hid them and said: “As if people came to me, but I did not know where they came from;
when at dusk it was time to close the gates, then they left; I don’t know where they went; chase them quickly, you will catch up with them.
And she took them to the roof and hid them in sheaves of flax laid out on her roof.
The messengers chased them along the road to the Jordan until the crossing; The gates were immediately closed after those who were pursuing them came out.
Before they went to bed, she went up to their roof
and she said to them: I know that the Lord has given this land to you, for you have brought terror upon us, and all the inhabitants of this land have become timid because of you;
for we heard how the Lord (God) dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and how you dealt with the two kings of the Amorites beyond the Jordan, with Sihon and Og, whom you destroyed;
when we heard about this, our heart weakened, and there was no spirit in any of us against you; For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below;
So swear to me by the Lord (your God), that just as I have shown mercy to you, so you will show mercy to my father’s house, and give me a sure sign,
that you will keep alive my father and my mother, and my brothers and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our souls from death.
These people said to her: Let our soul be put to death in your place if you (now) do not reveal this matter of ours; when the Lord gives us the land, we will show you mercy and truth.
And she let them down by rope through the window, for her house was in the city wall, and she lived in the wall;
and she said to them: go to the mountain so that those who pursue you do not meet you, and hide there for three days, until those who pursued (after you) return; and then you will go on your way.
And those people said to her: We will be free from your oath with which you swore us, if you do not do this:
behold, when we come to this land, you will tie a scarlet rope to the window through which you let us down, and gather your father and your mother and your brothers, all your father’s family, into your house;
and if anyone comes out of the door of your house, his blood will be on his head, but we are free (we will be free from this oath of yours); and whoever is with you in (your) house, his blood will be on our head if whose hand touches him;
if (someone offends us, or) you open this matter of ours, then we will also be free from your oath with which you have cursed us.
She said: Let it be done according to your words! And she sent them away, and they went, and she tied a scarlet rope to the window.
They went and came to the mountain, and stayed there three days, until those who were pursuing them returned. Those who were pursuing them looked for them all along the road and did not find them.
So these two men went back, came down from the mountain, crossed (the Jordan) and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and told him everything that had happened to them.
And they said to Jesus: The Lord (our God) has given the whole land into our hands, and all the inhabitants of the earth are in fear of us.
And Joshua arose early in the morning, and they journeyed from Shittim and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and they spent the night there, not yet crossing it.
Three days later the guards went around the camp
and they commanded the people, saying: When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God and the priests (ours and) the Levites carrying it, then you also move from your place and follow it;
however, the distance between you and him should be up to two thousand cubits; do not come close to him, so that you may know the path to follow; for you did not walk this way either yesterday or the day before.
And Jesus said to the people, Sanctify yourself (by morning), for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.
Jesus said to the priests: Take the ark of the covenant (of the Lord) and go before the people. (The priests) took the ark of the covenant (of the Lord) and went before the people.
Then the Lord said to Jesus: This day I will begin to glorify you in the sight of all (the sons of) Israel, so that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you;
and you give a command to the priests carrying the ark of the covenant, and say: as soon as you enter the waters of the Jordan, stop in the Jordan.
Jesus said to the children of Israel, Come here and hear the words of the Lord your God.
And Jesus said, “By this you will know that there is a living God among you, who will drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites:
Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go before you through the Jordan;
And take unto you twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man per tribe;
and as soon as the feet of the priests carrying the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, step into the water of the Jordan, the water of the Jordan will dry up, and the water flowing from above will stop like a wall.
So when the people moved from their tents to cross the Jordan, and the priests carried the ark of the covenant (of the Lord) before the people,
then, as soon as those carrying the ark (of the covenant of the Lord) entered the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark sank into the water of the Jordan - the Jordan protrudes from all its banks all the days of the wheat harvest -
the water flowing from above stopped and became a wall for a very long distance, to the city of Adam, which is near Tsartan; and the plain flowing into the sea, into the Salty Sea, has gone and dried up.
And the people passed over against Jericho; The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood on dry land in the middle of the Jordan with a firm foot. All the (children of) Israel walked on dry land until all the people had passed over the Jordan.
When all the people had crossed the Jordan, the Lord said to Jesus:
Take for yourselves twelve men from among the people, one man from each tribe,
and give them a command and say: take yourself from here, from the middle of the Jordan, where the feet of the priests stood motionless, twelve stones, and carry them with you, and put them in the lodgings where you will spend the night that night.
Joshua called twelve men whom he appointed from among the children of Israel, one man per tribe,
And Jesus said to them, “Go before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and (take from there) put each one on his shoulder one stone, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel,
so that they may be with you (always) a sign; When your sons ask you in the future and say, “Why do you have these stones?”
you will say to them: “in remembrance of the fact that the water of the Jordan was divided before the ark of the covenant of the Lord (of all the earth); when he passed through the Jordan, then the water of the Jordan was divided”; Thus these stones will be (with you) for the children of Israel as a monument forever.
And the children of Israel did as Joshua commanded: they took twelve stones from the Jordan, as the Lord had spoken to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them with them to lodge for the night, and laid them there.
And Jesus set (other) twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan in the place where the feet of the priests stood, carrying the ark of the covenant (of the Lord). They are there to this day.
The priests carrying the ark (of the Lord's covenant) stood in the middle of the Jordan until everything that the Lord commanded Jesus to say to the people was finished (by Jesus) - just as Moses commanded Jesus; and meanwhile the people hastily crossed.
When all the people had crossed over (the Jordan), then both the ark of the Lord and the priests crossed over before the people;
and the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh went over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses had spoken to them.
About forty thousand armed men went over to the plains of Jericho before the Lord to fight.
On that day the Lord glorified Jesus in the sight of all Israel, and they began to fear him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.
And the Lord spoke to Jesus, saying:
command the priests carrying the ark of the testimony to come out of the Jordan.
Jesus commanded the priests and said, “Get out of the Jordan.”
And when the priests, carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord, came out of the Jordan, then, as soon as their feet stepped on dry land, the water of the Jordan rushed to its place and went, as yesterday and the day before, above all its banks.
And the people came out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month and pitched their camp at Gilgal, on the east side of Jericho.
And the twelve stones which they took from the Jordan Jesus set in Gilgal
And he said to the children of Israel, “When your sons ask their fathers in the time to come, “What do these stones mean?”
Tell your sons, “Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry ground.”
For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, just as the Lord your God did with the Red Sea, which the Lord your God dried up before us until we crossed over.
so that all the nations of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is strong, and that you may fear the Lord your God always.
When all the kings of the Amorites who dwelt on this side of the Jordan to the sea, and all the kings of Canaan who were by the sea, heard that the Lord (God) dried up the waters of the Jordan before the children of Israel, while they were crossing, then their hearts fainted, (they were horrified) and there was no more spirit in them against the children of Israel.
At that time the Lord said to Joshua: Make yourself sharp (stone) knives and circumcise the children of Israel a second time.
And Joshua made himself sharp (stone) knives and circumcised the children of Israel at (the place called): “The Hill of Circumcision.”
This is the reason why Jesus circumcised (the sons of Israel, who were then born on the way, and who of those who came out of Egypt were not then circumcised, Jesus circumcised them all): all the people who came out of Egypt, males, all capable of war, died in the wilderness on the way after leaving Egypt;
but all the people that came out were circumcised, but all the people that were born in the wilderness on the way, after they came out of Egypt, were not circumcised;
For the children of Israel walked forty (two) years in the wilderness (therefore many were not circumcised), until all the people who were capable of war, who came out of Egypt, died, who did not listen to the voice of the Lord, and to whom the Lord swore that they would not see the land which the Lord promised with an oath to their fathers, to give us a land flowing with milk and honey,
and in their place he raised up their sons. These Jesus circumcised, for they were uncircumcised; because they (as born) on the way were not circumcised.
When all the people were circumcised, he remained in his place in the camp until he was healed.
And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have taken away the shame of Egypt from you.” That's why that place is called "Gilgal", even to this day.
And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening in the plains of Jericho;
and on the next day of Passover they began to eat from the produce of this land, unleavened bread and dried grain on that very day;
and the manna ceased to fall the next day after they began to eat the produce of the land, and the children of Israel had no more manna, but they ate that year the produce of the land of Canaan.
Jesus, being near Jericho, looked and saw, and behold, a man stood before him, and in his hand was a naked sword. Jesus came to him and said to him, “Are you one of ours, or one of our enemies?”
He said: no; I am the captain of the army of the Lord, now I have come (here). Jesus fell with his face to the ground, and bowed down, and said to him, “What will my lord say to his servant?”
The captain of the Lord's army said to Jesus, “Take off your sandals from off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” Jesus did just that.
Jericho shut up and was shut up for fear of the children of Israel: no one came out (of it) and no one entered.
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These are the kings of the land whom the children of Israel smote, and whom they took as an inheritance on the other side of Jordan toward the east of the sun, from the brook Arnon to Mount Hermon, and all the plain eastward:
Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, ruled from Aroer, which is on the bank of the brook Arnon, and from the middle of the brook, half of Gilead, to the brook Jabbok, the border of the Ammonites,
and by the plain as far as the sea of Hinnereth to the east, and to the sea of the plain, the Salt Sea, to the east along the road to Beth-jeshimoth, and to the south in places lying at the foot of Pisgah;
neighboring Og, king of Bashan, the last of the Rephaim, who lived in Astaroth and Edrei,
who owned Mount Hermon and Salcha and all Bashan, to the border of Geshur and Maah, and half of Gilead, to the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.
Moses the servant of the Lord and the children of Israel slew them; and Moses the servant of the Lord gave it as an inheritance to the tribe of Reuben and Gad, and to half the tribe of Manasseh.
And these were the kings of the (Amorite) land whom Joshua and the children of Israel smote on this side Jordan to the west, from Baal-Gad in the valley of Lebanon to Halak, the mountain stretching towards Seir, which Joshua gave to the tribes of Israel for an inheritance after their division,
on the mountain, in the low places, in the plain, in the places on the mountains, and in the wilderness, and in the south, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites:
one king of Jericho, one king of Ai, which is near Bethel,
one king of Jerusalem, one king of Hebron,
one king of Jarmuth, one king of Lachish,
one king of Eglon, one king of Gezer,
one king of Debir, one king of Gader,
one king of Hormah, one king of Arad,
one king of Libnah, one king of Adollam,
one king of Makeda, one king of Bethel,
one king of Tappuah, one king of Hephera.
One king of Aphek, one king of Sharon,
one king Madon, one king Hazor,
one king of Shimron-Meron, one king of Ahsaf,
one king of Taanach, one king of Megiddon,
one king of Kedesh, one king of Jokneam at Carmel,
one king of Dor under Naphath-dor, one king of Goim in Gilgal,
one king of Tirzah. There are thirty-one kings.
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And Israel dwelt in Shittim, and the people began to commit fornication with the daughters of Moab,
and they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate (their sacrifices) and bowed to their gods.
And Israel cleave to Baalpeor. And the wrath of the Lord was kindled against Israel.
And the Lord said to Moses, Take all the leaders of the people and hang them before the Lord before the sun, and the fury of the wrath of the Lord will be turned away from Israel.
And Moses said to the judges of Israel, Every man kill his men that cling to Baal-peor.
And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought the Midianite woman to his brothers, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, as they wept at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
Phinehas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, seeing this, stood up from among the congregation and took a spear in his hand,
and he followed the Israelite into the chamber, and pierced both of them, the Israelite and the woman, into her womb: and the slaughter of the children of Israel was ceased.
There were twenty-four thousand who died from the defeat.
Phinehas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest turned away My wrath from the children of Israel, being jealous for Me among them, and I did not destroy the children of Israel in My jealousy;
therefore say, Behold, I give him My covenant of peace,
and it will be to him and to his descendants after him as a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he showed zeal for his God and interceded for the children of Israel.
The name of the slain Israelite, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, the leader of the generation of Simeon;
and the name of the slain Midianite woman was Hazvah; she was the daughter of Zur, the chief of Ommoth, the tribe of Midian.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
fight against the Midianites and defeat them,
for they dealt hostilely with you in their deceit, deceiving you with Peor and Hazba, the daughter of the ruler of Midian, their sister, who was killed on the day of defeat for Peor.
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The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad had very many herds; and they saw that the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead was a suitable place for flocks;
And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the princes of the congregation, saying:
Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimra, and Heshbon, and Eleale, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon,
The land which the LORD smote before the congregation of Israel is a land fit for flocks, and thy servants have flocks.
And they said: If we have found favor in your eyes, give this land to your servants for a possession; don't take us across the Jordan.
Why do you turn away the hearts of the children of Israel from going to the land that the Lord is giving them?
This is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to survey the land:
They reached the valley of Eschol, and saw the land, and turned away the heart of the children of Israel, so that they would not go into the land that the Lord was giving them;
And that day the wrath of the Lord was kindled, and He swore, saying:
“This people who came out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward (knowing good and evil,) will not see the land about which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, because they did not obey Me,
except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenite, and Joshua the son of Nun, because they obeyed the Lord.”
And the wrath of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and He led them through the wilderness for forty years, until the whole generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was finished.
And so, instead of your fathers, you, a generation of sinners, have arisen to increase the fury of the wrath of the Lord against Israel.
If you turn away from Him, He will leave it again in the wilderness, and you will destroy all this people.
We ourselves will be the first to arm ourselves and go before the children of Israel until we bring them to their places; and let our children remain in fortified cities, for safety from the inhabitants of the earth;
We will not return to our houses until the children of Israel have entered into each one his inheritance;
for we will not take inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan and further, if the inheritance goes to us on this side of the Jordan, to the east.
And Moses said to them, If you do this, if you go armed to war before the Lord,
And every one of you will go over the Jordan armed, before the Lord, until He has destroyed His enemies before Him,
and the land will be subdued before the Lord, then return and you will be blameless before the Lord and before Israel, and the land will be your possession before the Lord;
if you do not do this, then you will sin before the Lord, and you will experience the punishment for your sin that will befall you;
build yourself cities for your children and folds for your sheep, and do whatever is spoken by your mouth.
And the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben said to Moses, Thy servants will do as our lord commandeth;
our children, our wives, our flocks and all our livestock will remain here in the cities of Gilead,
and all your servants, armed as warriors, will go before the Lord to war, as our lord says.
And Moses gave commandment concerning them to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the captains of the tribes of the children of Israel,
And Moses said to them: If the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben cross the Jordan with you, all armed for war before the Lord, and the land is subdued before you, then give them the land of Gilead for possession;
But if they do not go with you armed (to war before the Lord), then send before you their property, their wives and their cattle to the land of Canaan, and they will receive possession with you in the land of Canaan.
And the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben answered and said, As the Lord hath spoken unto thy servants, so will we do;
We will go armed before the Lord to the land of Canaan, and let the portion of our possession be on this side of the Jordan.
And Moses gave them, the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben, and half the tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land with its cities and its environs - the cities of the earth in all directions.
And the sons of Gad built Dibon and Ataroth and Aroer,
and Ataroth-Shophan, and Jazer, and Jogbehu,
and Beth-Nimru and Beth-Garan, fortified cities and sheepfolds.
And the sons of Reuben built Heshbon, Eleale, Kiriathaim,
and Nebo, and Baal-meon, whose names were changed, and Sibmu, and gave names to the cities that they built.
And the children of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead, and took it, and drove out the Amorites that were in it;
and Moses gave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh, and he dwelt in it.
And Jairus the son of Manasseh went and took their villages, and called them the villages of Jairus.
And Novach went and took Kenath and the cities that depended on it, and called it by his own name: Novach.
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Then the Lord said to Joshua: Behold, I have delivered into your hands Jericho and its king, (and the mighty people who are in it);
go around the city everyone capable of war and go around the city once (per day); and do this for six days;
and the seven priests shall bear the seven trumpets of jubilee before the ark; and on the seventh day go round the city seven times, and let the priests blow the trumpets;
When the jubilee horn blows, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then let all the people shout with a loud voice, and the wall of the city will collapse to its foundation, and (all) the people will go (to the city, rushing) each from his side.
And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests (of Israel) and said to them: Bring up the ark of the covenant; and the seven priests shall bear the seven trumpets of jubilee before the ark of the Lord.
And he said (to them to say) to the people: Go and circumambulate the city; Let those armed go before the ark of the Lord.
As soon as Jesus told the people, the seven priests who carried the seven jubilee trumpets before the Lord went and blew the trumpets (loudly), and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them;
the armed men walked ahead of the priests, who blew trumpets; and those who walked behind followed the ark (of the covenant of the Lord), blowing trumpets as they went along.
Jesus gave a command to the people and said: Do not shout, and do not let your voice be heard, and do not let a word come out of your mouth until the day I say to you: “Shout!” and then exclaim.
Thus the ark of the Lord went around the city and went around one day; and they came to the camp and spent the night in the camp.
(The next day) Jesus rose early in the morning, and the priests carried the ark (of the covenant) of the Lord;
and the seven priests who carried the seven trumpets of jubilee before the ark of the Lord walked and blew the trumpets; those armed went ahead of them, and those walking behind followed the ark of the Lord and blew trumpets as they walked.
Thus, the next day they walked around the city once and returned to the camp. And they did this for six days.
On the seventh day they got up early, at dawn, and walked around the city in the same way seven times; On this day alone they walked around the city seven times.
When the priests blew the trumpets the seventh time, Jesus said to the people, “Shout, for the Lord has delivered the city to you!”
the city will be under a spell, and everything in it will be given to the Lord; Only let Rahab the harlot live, she and everyone who is in her house; because she hid the messengers whom we sent;
but beware of the accursed, lest you yourself be cursed if you take anything from the accursed, and lest you bring a curse upon the camp of the (sons of) Israel and cause harm to it;
and all silver and gold, and vessels of copper and iron, shall be holy to the Lord, and shall enter into the treasury of the Lord.
The people shouted and blew trumpets. As soon as the people heard the voice of the trumpet, the people (all together) exclaimed with a loud (and strong) voice, and (the entire) wall (of the city) collapsed to its foundation, and (all) the people went into the city, each from their side, and they took the city .
And they consigned to the curse everything that was in the city, both husbands and wives, both young and old, oxen, and sheep, and donkeys, (everything) they destroyed with the sword.
And Jesus said to the two young men who were spying out the land: Go to the house of that harlot and bring her out from there and all that are with her, since you swore to her.
And the young men who had been spying (the city) went to the woman's house and brought out Rahab (the harlot), and her father and her mother, and her brothers, and all that she had, and brought out all her relatives, and put them outside the camp of Israel.
And they burned the city and everything in it with fire; only silver and gold and vessels of copper and iron were given (to bring to the Lord) into the treasury of the house of the Lord.
But Joshua left Rahab the harlot and her father's house and all that she had alive, and she lives among Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Jesus sent to spy out Jericho.
At that time Jesus swore and said: Cursed is the Lord who raises up and builds this city of Jericho; On his firstborn he will lay the foundation thereof, and on his youngest he will erect the gate thereof. (This is what Azan, a native of Bethel, did: he founded it on Abiron, his firstborn, and set up its gates on the youngest, the saved one.)
Jesus tore his clothes and fell with his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord and lay there until evening, he and the elders of Israel, and they sprinkled dust on their heads.
And Jesus said: O Lord Sovereign! Why did You bring this people across the Jordan, to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites and destroy us? Oh, if only we could stay and live beyond the Jordan!
Oh my God! What should I say after Israel has turned its rear to its enemies?
The Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the earth will hear and surround us and destroy our name from the earth. And what will you do then for Your great name?
The Lord said to Jesus: Arise, why did you fall on your face?
Israel has sinned, and they have transgressed My covenant which I commanded them; and they took from the accursed thing, and stole, and hid, and put it among their things;
therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies and turned their backs to their enemies, for they fell under the spell; I will no longer be with you unless you destroy the accursed one from among you.
Arise, sanctify the people and say: sanctify yourself by the morning, for this is what the Lord God of Israel says: “The accursed thing is in the midst of you, O Israel; therefore you cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed the accursed thing from you.”
tomorrow you will come (all) according to your knees; The tribe that the Lord will indicate, let it come up according to tribes; let the tribe that the Lord designate be suitable according to families; Let the family that the Lord designate be suitable one person at a time;
and let him who is convicted of stealing the accursed be burned with fire, him and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord and committed iniquity among Israel.
Jesus, getting up early in the morning, ordered Israel to approach according to their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was indicated;
then he ordered the tribes of Judah to approach, and the tribe of Zara was indicated; ordered the Zarina tribe to approach by family, and the Zavdievo family was indicated;
He ordered his family to approach one person at a time, and Achan, the son of Charmias, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zara, from the tribe of Judah, was indicated.
Then Jesus said to Achan: My son! Give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and make a confession to Him and tell me what you have done; don't hide it from me.
In response to Joshua, Achan said: Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and have done this and that:
Among the spoils I saw one beautiful robe from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and an ingot of gold weighing fifty shekels; I liked it and took it; and behold, it is hidden in the ground in the midst of my tent, and the silver is under it (hidden).
Jesus sent people, and they ran into the tent (camp); and behold, all this was hidden in his tent, and the silver under it.
They took it from the tent and brought it to Joshua and to all the children of Israel and laid it before the Lord.
Joshua and all the Israelites with him took Achan the son of Zarin, and the silver, and the garment, and the bar of gold, and his sons and his daughters, and his oxen and his donkeys, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had. , and they brought them out (with everything) to the valley of Achor.
And Jesus said, Because you have brought trouble upon us, the Lord will bring trouble upon you this day. And all Israel stoned him, and burned them with fire, and threw stones at them.
And they threw a large pile of stones on it, which has survived to this day. After this, the fury of the wrath of the Lord subsided. Therefore that place is called the Valley of Achor even to this day.
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The Lord said to Jesus: Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed; take with you all the people capable of war, and get up and go to Ai; Behold, I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai and his people, his city and his land;
do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king, only divide its spoils and its cattle for yourselves; set up an ambush behind the city.
Jesus and all the people capable of war arose to go to Ai, and Jesus chose thirty thousand brave men and sent them by night,
and he gave them orders and said: Look, you will lay an ambush at the city behind the city; do not go far from the city and be ready;
and I and all the people who are with me will approach the city; and when (the inhabitants of Ai) come against us, as before, we will flee from them;
they will follow us, so that we will distract them from the city; for they will say: “They flee from us, as before”; when we run from them,
then rise from ambush and take possession of the city, and the Lord your God will deliver it into your hands;
When you take the city, set the city on fire, do it according to the word of the Lord; look, I command you.
So Joshua sent them, and they went into ambush and sat down between Bethel and between Ai, on the west side of Ai; and Jesus slept that night among the people.
Rising early in the morning, Jesus looked around at the people, and he and the elders of Israel went ahead of the people to Ai;
and all the people capable of war, who were with him, went, drew near and approached the city (from the eastern side, but the ambush was to the west of the city),
and he pitched his camp on the north side of Ai, and between it and Ai there was a valley. Then he took about five thousand people and put them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the western side of the city.
And the people arranged the whole camp, which was on the north side of the city, so that the rear part was on the west side of the city. And Jesus came that night into the middle of the valley.
When the king of Ai saw this, immediately with the inhabitants of the city, rising early, he and all his people went out against Israel for battle, he and all his people, to the appointed place in front of the plain; but he did not know that there was an ambush for him behind the city (him).
Joshua and all Israel, as if struck by them, ran towards the desert;
and they called out to all the people who were in the city to pursue them, and, pursuing Jesus, they moved away from the city;
there was not a single man left in Ai and Bethel who did not pursue Israel; and they left their city open, pursuing Israel.
Then the Lord said to Jesus: Stretch out the spear that is in your hand towards Ai, for I will deliver him into your hands (and the ambush will immediately rise from its place). Jesus stretched out (his hand and) the spear that was in his hand towards the city.
Those sitting in ambush immediately rose from their place and ran, as soon as he stretched out his hand, they entered the city and took it and immediately set the city on fire.
The inhabitants of Ai, looking back, saw that the smoke from the city was ascending to the sky. And there was no place for them to run - neither here nor here; for the people who had fled to the wilderness turned against their pursuers.
Joshua and all Israel, seeing that those sitting in ambush had taken the city, and the smoke from the city was ascending (to heaven), returned and began to defeat the inhabitants of Ai;
and those from the city came out to meet them, so that they were in the midst of the Israelites, some of whom were on this side, and others on the other; they were so struck that they did not leave a single one of them, surviving or escaping;
and they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Jesus.
When the Israelites had killed all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness, where they had pursued them, and when they had all fallen to the last by the edge of the sword, then all the Israelites turned to Ai and struck him with the edge of the sword.
The men and wives who fell that day, all the inhabitants of Ai, numbered twelve thousand.
Jesus did not lower his hand, which he stretched out with a spear, until he condemned all the inhabitants of Ai;
only the cattle and spoil of this city (the sons of) Israel divided among themselves, according to the word of the Lord, which (the Lord) spoke to Joshua.
And Jesus burned Ai and turned it into eternal ruins, into a desert, to this day;
and he hung the king of Gai on a tree (and he was on the tree) until evening; When the sun had set, Jesus commanded, and they took his corpse down from the tree, and threw it at the city gate, and threw a large pile of stones over it, which has survived even to this day.
Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebal,
as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel, which is written in the book of the law of Moses - an altar of solid stones, on which no iron was lifted; And they offered burnt offerings to the Lord on it and made peace offerings.
And (Jesus) wrote there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written before the children of Israel.
All Israel, its elders and overseers and its judges, stood on either side of the ark against the priests (and) Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, both strangers and natural inhabitants, one half of them at Mount Gerizim, and the other half at Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded before to bless the people of Israel.
also the (Philistine) land of Gevla and all Lebanon to the east of the sun from Baal-Gad, which is near Mount Hermon, to the entrance to Hamath.
I will drive out all the inhabitants of the mountains from Lebanon to Misrefoth Maim, all the Sidonians, from before the children of Israel. So divide it as an inheritance for Israel, as I commanded you;
divide this land as an inheritance to the nine tribes and half the tribe of Manasseh (from Jordan to the great sea to the west, give it to them; the great sea will be the limit).
And the tribe of Reuben and Gad, with the other half of the tribe of Manasseh, received their inheritance from Moses beyond the Jordan to the east (of the sun), as Moses the servant of the Lord gave them,
from Aroer, which is on the bank of the stream Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the stream, and all the plain of Medeva to Divo;
also all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, even to the borders of the Ammonites,
also Gilead and the region of Geshur and Maah, and all Mount Hermon and all Bashan as far as Salcha,
Beth-peor and the places at the foot of Pisgah and Beth-jeshimoth,
and all the cities of the plain, and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses slew, as well as the leaders of Midian: Ebiah, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, the princes of Sihon, who dwelt in the land ( that);
The children of Israel also killed Balaam the son of Beor, the prophet, with the sword, among those killed by them.
The border of the sons of Reuben was Jordan. This is the inheritance of the children of Reuben according to their families, their cities and their villages.
Moses also gave inheritance to the tribe of Gad, the sons of Gad, according to their families:
their border was Jazer and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon as far as Aroer, which is before Rabbah,
and the lands from Heshbon to Ramath Mizpah and Betonim, and from Mahanaim to the borders of Debir,
and in the valley of Beth-Garam and Beth-Nimra and Succoth and Zaphon, the remnant of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon; its border was the Jordan to the Sea of Hinnereth beyond the Jordan to the east.
This is the inheritance of the children of Gad according to their families, their cities and their villages.
Moses also gave inheritance to half the tribe of Manasseh, which belonged to half the tribe of the sons of Manasseh, according to their tribes;
their border was: from Mahanaim all Bashan, the whole kingdom of Og king of Bashan, and all the villages of Jair, which are in Bashan, sixty cities;
and half of Gilead and Ashtaroth and Edrei, the royal cities of Og of Bashan, (were given) to the sons of Machir the son of Manasseh, half of the sons of Machir, according to their families.
This is what Moses gave as an inheritance in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan against Jericho to the east.
But Moses gave no inheritance to the tribe of Levi: the Lord God of Israel Himself is their inheritance, as He told them.