The Bible: Commentary and Controversy

So Moses died at the age of one hundred and twenty, and the Lord buried him in a valley near the town of Beth-Peor, and Joshua took his place as leader of the Israelites. One day the Lord told Joshua to lead Israel across the Jordan to “the land I am giving to all of you,” saying “I’ve commanded you to be strong and brave. Don’t ever be afraid or discouraged! I am the LORD your God, and I will be there to help you wherever you go.” So Joshua gathered the tribal leaders and approached the Jordan.

Then the Lord told Joshua to have the priests go a little way into the river, which they did, and the Jordan stopped flowing as if someone had built a dam across it, and the Israelites crossed over. When they were across, the Jordan started flowing again.

They set up camp at Gilgal, near Jericho. One day Joshua saw a man with his sword drawn standing some distance in front of him, and asked whether he was on the side of the Israelites or on the side of their enemies. The man answered “Neither. I am Prince of Jehovah’s host.” Hearing those words, Joshua “fell on his face to the earth” and asked what the Lord wanted him to do.

There seems to be some controversy about who or what this “man” was: an angel, the archangel Michael, Christ, or Jehovah Himself. However, it seems to be made clear in Joshua 6:2, which describes Jehovah speaking to Joshua about the coming battle. He gives him very detailed instructions on how to defeat Jericho, which is shut tight against the invaders.

These involve the ark, and seven priests, and seven trumpets, and the Israelites in a mass march around the town. On the seventh day they march around the city seven times, and on the seventh time the priests blow the trumpets, and Joshua commands the Israelites to shout, and the walls of the city come tumbling down. (You can find a very interesting description of the event from a military perspective in the Warfare History Network[1])

This was quite an achievement, since the walls apparently were made of stone six feet thick and fifteen feet high, topped with mud brick to a height in places of forty-six feet. Could they have walked around the city seven times in a day? Well, cities were a lot different then. Jericho was about nine acres in area, in an amoeba-like shape, surrounded by that huge wall. So the Israelites would have had to march about three thousand feet to get completely around it, or a little over a half mile. That would have taken them, at a normal marching pace of 3.4 miles per hour, just about an hour of marching time, disregarding problems with terrain.

According to the Warfare History Network, Joshua’s army was “a large force led by experienced commanders and equipped with the same weapons found in Egyptian and Canaanite armies of the day. It was highly trained and capable of executing a broad array of tactical maneuvers, including special operations and the ability to take fortified cities by storm. Its commander was a charismatic general, a veteran of many battles who had been a soldier all his life.”

imagine the terror that army must have caused the thousand or so inhabitants, watching a horde of seasoned troops circling their walls, hearing the wailing sound of the shofars, the shouting of thousands of voices, as they sat huddled in their homes.

“And they destroyed all that was in the city, from man even to woman, from young even to aged, and to ox, and sheep, and ass, by the mouth of the sword, and burned the city with fire, and all that was in it.” This was to signify that the conquest of Jericho was not for plunder, but as a sign of God’s vengeance against those who did not worship Him. But of course any treasure found – silver, gold, vessels of iron or bronze – these were taken for Jehovah’s treasury.

In spite of the interdiction to take nothing away from Jericho for personal use, Achan lusted after some silver and gold that he found, took it and hid it under his tent. When Joshua found he had done so, at the command of Jehovah he took everything from him, and sent him and his family, and his sons and daughters, and his flock, and his tent, and everything that he owned to the valley of Achor, where the Israelites stoned them to death and burned them.

Evidently forgetting His speech on Mount Sinai, where He proclaimed that Jehovah is “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth; keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”

In fact, the number of people killed by God, or by others at His command, is staggering. Adding up the specific numbers given in the text, the total comes to 2,821,364. But this number, of course, does not include unnumbered events like the great flood, the plagues of Egypt, the killing of the first born, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, etc. Adding estimates of these brings the total number by some estimates closer to at 25 million. Thanks be to Him for sending Jesus, who brought the concept of forgiveness, or the world might be empty as a basketball today.

As I’ve said before, those were different times, and the events in the bible were designed to impress the Jews (and others) of God’s power and the penalty for not worshipping Him as Jehovah, the one God. So the proof had to be indisputable and devastating, which it certainly is. As overboard as those events might seem to many of us, certain religious factions today still follow His old testament lead, ignoring the promises of Jesus, killing “idolators” and “sinners,” of which the destruction of the twin towers on 9/11 is a recent example.

It occurs to me that the authors of the old testament were presenting God as a stern, implacable, idealistic (to their way of thinking) father, who loved his “children” but punished them if they strayed from the path He had set for them.

Next Jehovah directs Joshua to the city of Ai and tells him how to attack it, which Joshua does, and kills everyone in the city – 12,000 souls – then sets the city on fire and destroys it.

I can’t discover exactly why God wanted to destroy Ai, unless it was part of a concerted effort to wipe out the Canaanites, who were, it seems idolaters, worshipping a number of gods, including Maltec, who evidently required that children be sacrificed as burnt offerings. It appears that Jehovah was intent on massacring anyone who worshipped false gods, and committed various “sins,” such as  idolatry, incest, adultery, child sacrifice, homosexuality, and bestiality. Some call it genocide; others call it capital punishment, since the old testament clearly states that anyone who does those things deserves to die. So Joshua, among others, becomes God’s final solution, the executioner of thousands who have sinned, and whom God believes are beyond redemption.

[1] https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/military-history/joshua-in-canaan/