Joshua

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Chapters in Joshua

1. Joshua 1: Joshua Commissioned to Lead Israel

   With Moses dead, the LORD commissions Joshua to lead Israel across the river and into the country promised to their ancestors. God pledges His presence, calls Joshua to courage and careful obedience to the law, and the eastern tribes agree to fight alongside their brothers.

2. Joshua 2: Rahab Hides the Spies

   Joshua sends two spies to Jericho, where Rahab hides them from the king and confesses that Israel's God rules over all. In return for her help, the spies swear to spare her family if a scarlet cord hangs in her window, and they return to report that the land is terrified.

3. Joshua 3: Israel Crosses the Jordan

   Israel moves from Shittim to the Jordan, where the people are told to follow the ark at a distance and to consecrate themselves for what God will do. God begins to honor Joshua as He had Moses, and when the priests step into the flooded river its waters stop, so the whole nation crosses on dry ground.

4. Joshua 4: Twelve Memorial Stones from the Jordan

   Twelve men, one per tribe, carry stones from the riverbed where the priests stood with the ark, and Joshua sets up twelve more in the river. The LORD honors Joshua before Israel, the river returns once the priests step out, and the stones at Gilgal are to remind future children of the crossing.

5. Joshua 5: Circumcision, Passover, and the Commander

   The kings of Canaan lose heart, and Joshua circumcises the generation born in the desert, so the place is named Gilgal. Israel keeps the Passover, the manna stops once they eat the land's crops, and near Jericho Joshua meets a commander leading the LORD's forces and removes his sandals on holy ground.

6. Joshua 6: The Fall of Jericho

   Israel marches silently around Jericho once a day for six days and seven times on the seventh, as priests blow rams' horns ahead of the ark. At the shout the wall collapses, the city is destroyed under God's judgment, Rahab and her family are spared, and Joshua curses anyone who rebuilds it.

7. Joshua 7: Achan's Sin and the Defeat at Ai

   After Jericho, Achan secretly keeps goods set apart for the LORD, and Israel is routed in its first attack on the small town of Ai. Joshua mourns, God reveals the hidden sin, and Achan is singled out, confesses, and is put to death with his household in the valley afterward named Achor.

8. Joshua 8: Ai Captured and the Law Renewed

   With the sin removed, the LORD sends Joshua against Ai again, and hidden troops seize and burn the town while the main army lures its defenders away. Joshua then builds an altar on Ebal, copies Moses' law on stones, and reads all of it, with its blessings and curses, to the entire assembly.

9. Joshua 9: The Gibeonites Deceive Israel

   As the kings of Canaan band together to fight Israel, the Gibeonites pose as travelers from a distant country and trick Israel into a peace treaty. Israel’s men fail to ask the LORD, but when the lie comes out the leaders keep their oath, sparing Gibeon and making its people cut wood and draw water.

10. Joshua 10: The Sun Stands Still at Gibeon

    Five Amorite kings attack Gibeon, and Joshua comes to its rescue as the LORD routs the enemy with panic and hailstones. At Joshua’s prayer the sun and moon halt until the battle is won, the five kings are captured, and Israel takes the cities of the south as the LORD commanded.

11. Joshua 11: The Northern Kings Defeated

    Jabin, ruler of Hazor, gathers a vast northern alliance against Israel, but the LORD promises victory, and Joshua routs the kings at Merom and burns Hazor. Joshua carries out all that Moses commanded, the LORD hardens the kings so that only Gibeon makes peace, the Anakim are destroyed, and the fighting comes to an end.

12. Joshua 12: Kings Defeated by Moses and Joshua

    Israel’s victories over the rulers of Canaan are recorded in a list. It begins with Sihon and Og east of the Jordan, whose land Moses gave to Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh, then names the kings west of the Jordan whom Joshua conquered, thirty-one in all.

13. Joshua 13: Land Still to Be Taken

    With Joshua grown old, the LORD lists the large areas Israel has not yet conquered and orders the land divided anyway. The chapter then reviews the territory Moses gave Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh east of the Jordan, notes Balaam's death, and explains that Levi received the LORD instead of land.

14. Joshua 14: Caleb Claims Hebron

    The division of Canaan by lot begins under Eleazar and Joshua, with the Levites receiving towns instead of territory. Caleb, now eighty-five, reminds Joshua of the promise made to him for his faithfulness at Kadesh-barnea, asks for the hill country of the giant Anakim, and receives Hebron.

15. Joshua 15: Judah's Territory and Caleb's Family

    Judah's allotment opens with its borders on every side, and Caleb drives the Anakim from Hebron, gives Acsah in marriage to Othniel for capturing Debir, and grants her springs. Judah's towns are then listed region by region, but Judah fails to expel the Jebusites from Jerusalem.

16. Joshua 16: Ephraim's Inheritance

    Joseph's descendants receive their territory through his two sons, and the borders of Ephraim's tribe are traced, including towns set within Manasseh's land. The chapter ends by noting that Ephraim left the Canaanites of Gezer in place and made them work as laborers.

17. Joshua 17: Manasseh's Land and Joseph's Complaint

    Manasseh's western clans receive land, and Zelophehad's daughters claim the share the LORD had promised them through Moses. Manasseh fails to remove the Canaanites from several cities, and when Joseph's tribes complain of too little land, Joshua tells them to clear the forests and overcome the iron chariots.

18. Joshua 18: Shiloh, the Survey, and Benjamin

    Israel gathers at Shiloh and pitches the tabernacle, and Joshua rebukes seven tribes for delaying to claim their land. Tribal representatives survey and record the land in seven parts, Joshua casts lots before the LORD, and Benjamin receives the first portion between Judah and Joseph.

19. Joshua 19: The Last Six Lots and Joshua's City

    Simeon receives towns inside Judah's land, followed by Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Dan, whose later move to another city is noted. Joshua then receives the town he asked for in Ephraim, and Eleazar, Joshua, and the tribal leaders complete the division of the land at Shiloh.

20. Joshua 20: The Cities of Refuge

    The LORD has Joshua set apart six towns where a person who caused a death by accident could flee from the one seeking to avenge the death. The elders shelter him until he is tried and the high priest dies, and three towns west and three east of the Jordan are named, open to Israelites and foreigners alike.

21. Joshua 21: Towns for the Levites

    At Shiloh the Levite family heads ask for the towns God had ordered Moses to provide, and Israel gives forty-eight towns with grazing land, assigned to the Levite clans by lot. The chapter ends by declaring that the LORD had given Israel the land and rest promised to their ancestors and kept every good promise.

22. Joshua 22: The Eastern Tribes and the Altar

    Joshua praises Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh for their faithful service and sends them home east of the Jordan. When they build a large altar by the river, Israel nearly goes to war, but Phinehas and ten leaders learn it is only a witness to their shared worship of the LORD, and peace is restored.

23. Joshua 23: Joshua's Farewell Charge to the Leaders

    The aged Joshua gathers Israel's leaders and reminds them that God fought their battles and will still drive out the nations left in the land. He urges them to obey the law, love God, and avoid the nations' gods and marriages, warning that God's threats are as sure as His kept promises.

24. Joshua 24: Covenant Renewal at Shechem

    At Shechem Joshua retells God's saving acts from Abraham's call out of idolatry to the gift of Canaan, and calls Israel to choose to serve God alone. The people pledge loyalty, Joshua sets up a stone as a witness, and the book closes with the burials of Joshua, Joseph's bones, and Eleazar.