Joshua – General
Is there anything in Joshua with its wars, its murders and massacres, its swords dripping with the blood of mothers and babes, its tortures, maiming and mutilations, its fraud and fury, its hatred and revenge; calculated to improve the world? Does not every chapter shock the heart of a good man? Is it a book to be read by children? The book of Joshua is as merciless as famine, as ferocious as the heart of a wild beast. It is a history, a justification, a sanctification of nearly every crime.
Joshua 1:3-5 - God promises to give Joshua all of the land that his "foot shall tread upon." He says that none of the people he encounters will be able to resist him. But later we find that God didn't keep his promise, and that many tribes withstood Joshua's attempt to steal their land.
Joshua 2:4-5 - Rahab lies to those who were searching for Joshua's spies. Lying is condemned several places in the Bible, but Rahab are reworded by God by being spared during the destruction of Jericho (Jos.6:25). And in James 2:24, Rahab is also praised for lying. So the Bible both condemns and approves of lying.
Joshua 3:10 - Joshua tells the Israelites that God will "without fail" drive out the Canaanites and the Jebusites. But later, the Bible tells us that he could not drive them out.
Joshua 5:2-3 - At God's command, Joshua makes some knives and circumcises "again the children of Israel the second time" (ouch!) at the "hill of the foreskins."
Joshua 6:17 - "And the city shall be accursed ... and all that therein, to the Lord: only Rahab the harlot shall live." God explains that Rahab is to be spared since she hid Joshua's spies and lied to those who were searching for them (2:4-5). But why was everyone else killed? Some of them were probably liars too.
Joshua 6:18-19 - Keep your selves from "the accursed thing". Whatever that is? But be sure to save all the silver and gold for God!
Joshua 6:21 - "And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword."
Joshua 6:24 - After killing everyone; "they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein." Only the valuables (silver, gold, brass, and iron) did they keep to "put into the treasury of the house of the Lord."
Joshua 6:26 - Joshua says that those who try to rebuild Jericho will be accursed by God, and will have to sacrifice both their oldest and their youngest sons in its construction. Well, Jericho still exists today, and is often considered to be the world's oldest, continuously occupied city.
Joshua 7:1-13 - Joshua and all the elders tear their clothes; fall on their faces, and put dust on their heads. They perform this tantrum because the Israelites lost a battle (God was punishing them because one man (Achan) "took of the accursed thing"). I wonder what "the accursed thing" was; knowledge, tolerance, kindness perhaps?
Joshua 7:15 - If you happen to see "the accursed thing", don't touch it. If you do, you, your family, and all of your animals must be burned.
Joshua 7:24-25 - "And Joshua ... took Achan ... and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his sheep... And all of Israel stoned them with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones." This is because Achan "took of the accursed thing", whatever that means. But why would God require that Achan's sons and daughters (and even his animals) be stoned to death along with him? The Bible doesn't say. But it does tell us that "the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger" when Achan, his children, and his animals were stoned to death and their dead bodies burned. This story tells us about the loving kindness of the biblical God. And what it takes to turn away from his anger.
Joshua 8:1-29 - In Joshua 8 the Israelites destroy Ai and make it a desolate heap. But archaeology has revealed that Ai was an abandoned city by the time of the Israelites and that this story is nothing more than a myth invented to explain the ruins of an ancient city that the Israelites encountered. [We will go into more detail about this later on in the book.]
Joshua 8:3, 12 - In verse 3, Joshua takes an army of 30,000 to destroy the city of Ai. But verse 12 says he took only 5,000 men.
Joshua 8:22-26 - Joshua and his army, per God's instructions, slaughter "all the inhabitants of Ai". This included the woman and children.
Joshua 8:28 - This verse says that Ai was never again occupied after it was destroyed by Joshua. But Nehemiah 7:32 lists it among the cities of Israel at the time of the Babylonian captivity.
Joshua 8:31 - After Joshua kills all the inhabitants of Ai, burns their city, and hangs their king on a tree, he kills some animals and burns them as a "peace offering" to his warlike God.
Joshua 9:21-27 - God curses the Gibeonites to be slaves of the Jews forever.
Joshua 10:10-11 - God slaughters the Amorites and even chases them "along the way" as they try to escape. Then he sends down huge hailstones and kills even more of them.
Joshua 10:12-13 - In a divine type of daylight savings time, God makes the sun stand still so that Joshua can get all his killing done before dark. "Is this not written in the book of Jasher?" Beats me?
Joshua 10:14, 42 - "The Lord fought for Israel." I wonder what kind of weapon he used. Probably the jawbone of some ass.
Joshua 10:28-42 - Joshua, at God's command, kills everyone and everything that he can find (including babies and little children) or, as the Bible puts it, he "utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord commanded."
Joshua 11:6-17 - God delivers the Hazorites into Joshua's hand, and he knows just what to do with them: he smites them all with (you guessed it) the edge of the sword until "there was not any left to breathe." – GENOCIDE!!!!!
Joshua 11:20 - "For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly." Notice that God hardens their hearts so that he can have an excuse to kill them.
Joshua 12:4 - "And the coast of Og king of Bashan, which as of the remnant of the giants ..." Why is there no record of any of these giants in the archaeological record?
Joshua 15:32, 36 - Poor Joshua must have had trouble with math. He says there are 29 cities in verse 32, but he lists 38 in verses 21-32. Then he says there were 14 cities in verse 36, but lists 15 in verses 33-36.
Joshua 15:63 - God promised the Israelites that he would drive out all the inhabitants of the lands they pass through. But this verse shows that he didn't keep his promise since he couldn't drive out the Jebusites.
Joshua 16:10 - "And they drove not out the Canaanites." Once again God fails keep his promise to destroy all the people the Israelites encounter.
Joshua 17:17-18 - Joshua tells Manasseh that he will be able to drive out the Canaanites, but it turns out (see Jg.1:27-28) that he couldn't do it.
Joshua 18:16 - "Which is in the valley of the giants on the north ..." Giants, according to the bible, were quite common in biblical times. Why then is there no archaeological evidence for them?
Joshua 21:43-45 - According to these verses, God fulfilled his promise to give the Israelites all of the lands that they encountered. But in several places the Bible tells us that these promises were not kept.
Joshua 24:19-20 - God is jealous and will never forgive you for your sins. And if you worship other gods, "He will turn and do you hurt, and consume you."
Joshua 24:32 - This verse says that Jacob purchased the sepulchre, but Acts 7:16 says that Abraham bought it.
