Joshua chapter 24 part 2, plus wrap up.

*We have come to the end of the book of Joshua. Joshua sent the people away, each to his own inheritance. Then he dies. He was 110 years old. That would make this somewhere around the year 1267 B.C.E. (I've been counting back from Bishop Ussher's date of 4,004 B.C.E. as the supposed date of the beginning.) Joshua was buried at his inherited land. The Israelites served Yahweh during the lifetime of Joshua. Joseph's bones, which had been brought from Egypt and presumably carried around this whole time, were buried at Shechem on a piece of land that Jacob had supposedly once bought. Though how they could know that after over 400 years in captivity is a mystery. Think of all the ways of record keeping we have today, and it is still very difficult to know much about our ancestors of 100 years ago, let alone over 400. The high priest Eleazor, son of Aaron, died and was replaced by his son Phinehas.

Wrap Up

*In this book, we are not told it is the word of God, or that it was written by Joshua. We find no mention of heaven, hell, satan, Angels, demons, etc., except for the hornet and we are not told what that is.  The only obviously supernatural event is the crossing of the Jordan in chapter 3. It clearly mirrors the crossing of the Red Sea. There is no mention of a messiah. There are only earthly blessings and cursings that pertain to the lives and conduct of the Israelites, not their thoughts.

*Joshua has become the new conduit for Yahweh's commands and instructions after Moses's death. . He alone hears the words of Yahweh. The people are expected to believe and obey. Obedience is stressed over and over. Consequences of disobedience are usually death.

* Yahweh is a jealous God, vengeance is his, he will repay. He pelts hailstones at his enemies while they run away. He changed his mind about the no plunder rule. He orders the deaths of multitudes of men, women and children, so that the Israelites can have the land that he supposedly promised one of their ancestors over 400 years ago. He orders the torture of horses. His power to help eliminate the remaing tribes living in the promised land seems limited after the initial slaughter. He is currently living in Shiloh.

*The Israelites have conquered the land and taken posession, just like Yahweh promised. Sort of. The land was allotted to each of the Israelite tribe by casting lots.  However, there is still plenty of clean up to do. Some pesky tribes refuse to be conquered so they are made to do menial tasks for the Israelites. Make sense of that.

*Finally, there is little to no historical evidence of any of the events in this book. It is probably historical fiction, used by the Israelites to explain and justify their presence in the land. It also was probably used to retroactively "foresee" the eventual conquering and exile of their people. This is attributed to disobedience, of course.

*This wraps up the story of the origins of "the people" of the land of Israel. It establishes their group identity. It is interesting to note that most ancient tribes had origin stories and a large percentage of them called them selves "the people" of some sort. Just take a look at some names of Native American tribes and their meanings. Look at the Preamble of the constitution of the United States, "we the people." It is natural for people to group themselves with those who are like them in culture and background  and think of everyone else as "other." It makes us feel more comfortable, but it artificially separates and divides people from each other. This is one of the causes of war and genocide throughout history.

Edited

Joshua chapters 11 and 12

After reading chapter 11:

*The fighting is not done. Other Kings and armies came to fight the Israelites and joined forces. They had a massive number of troops, plus chariots and horses. Yahweh told Joshua not to worry. The Israelites would slay the armies, hamstring the horses, and burn the chariots. (Aside: what purpose is served by torturing horses? Why don't they just kill them outright?) So, the Israelites went to battle and supposedly did what Yahweh said they would do.

*Joshua turned back and also decimated the city of Hazor and its King, which had been the head of the coalition of armies. In fact he totally destroyed the inhabitants of all the royal cities, but the only one burnt was Hazor. They also carried off plunder, because now it seems to be okay to do that, in spite of the previous command to never plunder, which is why Achan was killed in chapter 7.

*Joshua took the entire land and did battle for a long time. Everyone in "Israelite territory" was destroyed except for the people of Gibeon. According to verse 20, Yahweh was responsible for hardening the hearts of the various tribes so they would go to war and the Israelites could "exterminate them without mercy." It had nothing to do with them protecting or defending their personal property from a hostile takeover. And all this happened because Yahweh had promised the land would be an inheritance to Israel. After these things were accomplished, the land had rest from war.

After reading chapter 12:

*This chapter is a list of the Kings that were conquered by Moses, Joshua, and the Israelites. There were 31 in all.

Joshua chapter 10, part 2

*The five kings from the beginning of the chapter ran away and hid in a cave at Mekkedah. Joshua ordered the mouth of the cave to be blocked and guarded while the kings' armies were being chased down. The Israelites destroyed almost every member of the Kings' armies, except for a few. Seemingly, no Israelites were harmed, and the whole army returned to the camp by the cave where the Kings were being held. Joshua ordered the Kings to be brought out of the cave. The army commanders were told to put their feet on the Kings' necks, presumably to hold them down while Joshua personally killed them. Then the bodies were hung on trees till evening, when they were taken down and thrown back into the cave. The cave was then blocked up with rocks. As a bonus, they also conquered the nearby city of Mekkedah, totally destroyed its inhabitants, and did the same thing to its King that they did to the previously mentioned Kings.

*Next, they conquered Libnah and left no survivors. Then came the cities of Lachish and Eglon, plus the King and the army of Gezer, no survivors. Then they utterly destroyed Hebron and its King, which is odd because its King was one of the five Kings that had been held in the cave, unless it had a new King in the meantime. The same was done to Debir. So, according to this account, Joshua and the Israelite army decimated the whole region from Kadesh Barnea to Gaza and from Goshen to Gibeon, in one campaign, with no Israelite losses. All because Yahweh fought on their side. If Yahweh was so powerful, why couldn't he have done the dirty work himself? Funny how murdering is forbidden in the Ten Commandments, but when God authorizes it, it becomes okay.

* The Israelites returned to the camp at Gilgal.

Joshua chapter 8

After reading chapter 8:

*Now that the disobedient Achan is dead, Yahweh tells Joshua to take the whole army, approx. 600,000 men, (they only took 3,000 the last time) and destroy Ai. However, this time, Yahweh will generously let them take the plunder and livestock for themselves. What was different about this city that God let them break his prerranged rule of total destruction of life forms and saving the gold for the God?

*30,000 men were sent to hide behind the city to ambush it. Joshua and his men would attack from the front, then appear turn to tail and run, luring the fighting men away from the city in a chase. When that happens, the men in hiding are to rise up, take over the city, and then set it on fire. Things happened pretty much according to plan. The men of Ai were lured away from the city in pursuit of the Israelite army, supposedly leaving no fighting men left inside. At a signal from Joshua, the ambush began. The men of Ai saw they were trapped and the Israelite army turned back on them. There were no survivors of the Ai army except the king, who was brought to Joshua. Twelve thousand men and women of Ai were slaughtered that day. The plunder was taken, the city burned, and the king was hung on a tree then buried under a pile of rocks at the city gate.

*So, Ai was  made a permanent heap of ruins, not because of anything they had done, but because they happened to be in the way of the Israelite's path to exclusive ownership of the land of Canaan.

*After that, Joshua built an altar to Yahweh on Mount Ebal as prescribed in the law of Moses. Then he carved the law of Moses on stones. The people stood half on Mount Ebal, half on Moubnt Gerizim and recited the blessings and curses as Moses had told them to do back in Deuteronomy 11. After that, Joshua read the entire book of the law of Moses to the assembled people.

*My study bible says there is a worrisome problem with this sequence of events. The Israelites would have had to conquer more people groups to be able to assemble peacefully between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerazim. The excuse made for this problem is that the narrator of the story wasn't being particularly chronological.

Deuteronomy chapter 7

After reading chapter 7:

*We shall call this the "sanctioned genocide" chapter. Here, Moses tells the Israelites that God will deliver 7 nations stronger than they are into the Israelite's hands. When that happens, they are to show no mercy and take no prisoners alive. Total destruction is the name of the game. All symbols of the worship of other Gods are also to be destroyed.

*God picked the Israelites as his special people because he loved them best. Why? Who knows. There is a caveat: they better keep his commands if they want to stay in his good graces. If they do, they will be blessed with an increase of population and material goods. No couple, animal or human, will be childless. As for the people who hate the Israelites, they will come down with horrible diseases, if they aren't slaughtered first.

*Moses tells the Israelites to remember what happened 40 years ago when they left Egypt. He tells them they saw it with their own eyes. However, we must remember that everyone who was over twenty at that time is now dead, except Joshua, Caleb and Moses.  Plus, surely half of the Israelites alive at this time were not even born yet.

*Anyway, they are told not to be afraid, God will deal with the people they will drive out, the same way he dealt with the Egyptians. He will even send " the hornet" to find any survivors who may be hiding. This passage is a reiteration of what Yahweh told the Israelites in Exodus 23:23-30. The hornet appears there also and seems to be an agent of Yahweh's that is not very pleasant. As in Exodus, they are told it will take some time to drive all the people out. That is so the land won't become overrun with wild animals. In the meantime, everything will be in confusion, until the destruction is complete.

*Also, they are not to take any silver or gold from the people they conquer. It must be "set apart for destruction." The cynic in me wonders if that means it was supposed to be given to the priests.