Following its exodus from Egypt, Israel was within eleven days from the land of promise. But the journey that could be made in eleven days stretched out for a total of 40 years. Near the end of this period, Moses died and was buried by the Lord Himself; and Joshua, an Ephraimite, assumed leadership of the nation. Joshua occupies comparatively little space in the record. He is introduced as Moses' successor and as the conqueror of Canaan (Deut. 1:38; 3:21,28; Josh. 1). Outside the book bearing his name, he is mentioned only in Exod. 17:8-16; Judg. 1:1, 2:6-9; 1 Kings 16:34; 1 Chron. 7:27; and Neh. 8:17.
Ruins of a temple at Hazor destroyed by Joshua in the conquest of Canaan.
Joshua led a three-campaign invasion of Canaan. At the close of the wilderness wanderings, the Israelites arrived on the plains of Moab in the Transjordan (“beyond the Jordan”). There they subdued two local kings, Sihon and Og (Num. 21:21-35). Some of the Israelite tribes— Reuben, Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh—chose to settle in this newly conquered territory (Num. 32).
As God instructed him, Joshua led the people across the Jordan River into Canaan. The crossing was made possible by a supernatural separation of the water of the Jordan (Josh. 3-4). After crossing the river, the Israelites camped at Gilgal. From there Joshua led the first military campaign against the Canaanites in the sparsely populated central highlands, northwest of the Dead Sea. The initial object of the attack was the ancient stronghold of Jericho. The Israelite force marched around the city once a day for six days. On the seventh day they marched around it seven times, then blasted trumpets and shouted. In response the walls of Jericho collapsed, allowing the invaders to destroy the city (Josh. 6).
The Israelites then attempted to conquer the nearby city of Ai, where they met with their first defeat. The reason for the failure was that Achan, one of the Israelite soldiers, had kept some booty from the invasion of Jericho —an action which violated God's orders to destroy everything in the city. After Achan was executed, the Israelites were able to destroy Ai (Josh. 7-8).
In the foreground the tel of NT Jericho with the tel of OT Jericho behind.
Not all of the Canaanites tried to resist Israel's invasion. One group, the Gibeonites, avoided destruction by deceiving the Israelites into making a covenant of peace with them (Josh. 9). Alarmed by the defection of the Gibeonites to Israel, a group of southern Canaanite kings, led by Adoni-zedek of Jerusalem, formed a coalition against the invading force. The kings threatened to attack the Gibeonites, causing Joshua to come to the defense of his new allies. Because of supernatural intervention, the Israelites were able to defeat the coalition. Joshua then launched a southern campaign that resulted in the capture of numerous Canaanite cities (Josh. 10).
Joshua's third and last military campaign was in northern Canaan. In that region King Jabin of Hazor formed a coalition of neighboring kings to battle with the Israelites. Joshua made a surprise attack upon them at the waters of Merom, utterly defeating his foe (Josh. 11:1-15).
The invasion of Canaan met with phenomenal success; large portions of the land fell to the Israelites (Josh. 11:16-12:24). However, some areas still remained outside their control, such as the heavily populated land along the coast and several major Canaanite cities like Jerusalem (Josh. 13:1-5; 15:63; Judg. 1). The Israelites struggled for centuries to control these areas.
The Israelite tribes slowly settled Canaan without completely removing the native population. Even though some sections of the land remained to be conquered, God instructed Joshua to apportion Canaan to the tribes which had not yet received territory (Josh. 13:7). Following the land allotments, Israel began to occupy its territory. Judges 1 describes the settlement as a slow process whereby individual tribes struggled to remove the Canaanites. In the final analysis the tribes had limited success in driving out the native population (Judg. 1). As a result, Israel was plagued for centuries by the infiltration of Canaanite elements into its religion (Judg. 2:1-5).
Numbers 14:2
All the Israelites complained about Moses and Aaron, and the whole community told them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness!”
45 THE JOURNEY FROM KADESH BARNEA TO THE PLAINS OF MOAB
Deuteronomy 2:2-3
“The LORD then said to me, 'You've been traveling around this hill country long enough; turn north.'”
46 JOSHUA'S CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN CAMPAIGNS
Joshua 10:12-13
On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to the Israelites, Joshua spoke to the LORD in the presence of Israel: “Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and moon, over the valley of Aijalon.” And the sun stood still and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on its enemies. Isn't this written in the Book of Jashar? So the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed its setting almost a full day.
Joshua 11:10
At that time Joshua turned back, captured Hazor, and struck down its king with the sword, because Hazor had formerly been the leader of all these kingdoms.
48 CITIES OF JOSHUA'S CONQUESTS
49 THE LEVANT FROM 1200 TO 1000 BC
50 LIMITS OF ISRAELITE SETTLEMENT AND THE LAND TO BE CONQUERED
Joshua 13:1
Joshua was now old, advanced in years, and the LORD said to him, “You have become old, advanced in years, but a great deal of the land remains to be possessed.”
51 THE TRIBAL ALLOTMENTS OF ISRAEL
Joshua 19:49-50
When they had finished distributing the land into its territories, the Israelites gave Joshua son of Nun an inheritance among them. By the LORD'S command, they gave him the city Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim, which he requested. He rebuilt the city and lived in it.
52 LEVITICAL CITIES AND CITIES OF REFUGE
Joshua 21:8
The Israelites gave these cities with their pasturelands around them to the Levites by lot, as the LORD had commanded through Moses.
Joshua 20:1-3
Then the LORD spoke to Joshua, “Tell the Israelites: 'Select your cities of refuge, as I instructed you through Moses, so that a person who kills someone unintentionally or accidentally may flee there. These will be your refuge from the avenger of blood.