Last time, nothing interesting happened. Now, it's time to finish the sixth book of the Bible.
CHAPTER 19
Now for everyone else. Simeon – here’s your land. You too, Zebulun. And Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Dan. I wonder why the other tribes get so much time. I suppose that’s who was in the Kingdom of
Judea. I know that Judah was obviously,
and they kept Benjamin with them, which is why they’re in the previous
tribes. These tribes will end up in the
northern kingdom of Israel and then destroyed, so there is less interesting in
going into detail here.
OK, so why spend so much time on Joseph’s tribes? That I really can’t say. I suppose it’s because of Joseph’s historical importance among the sons. Or maybe more of the refugees from the north were from those tribes. I really don’t know.
Oh, and Joshua gets a city to himself. It’s Timmah, whatever the hell that is.
One last thing – they are apparently putting the tent of the
Lord in the town of Shiloh. That will remain
the main religious center for Israel for quite some time as a result.
CHAPTER 20
It’s time for another incredibly short chapter – just nine
verses. This is just a cities of
refuge. As noted (repeatedly) in the
Torah, these were places a man could flee to upon committing accidental
murder. He’d be safe there and the
elders would investigate and come to terms to resolve the matter. Moses said
they should have them, so now they’ll create them. Sensibly, they space them out among the people – five in all by
my count.
CHAPTER 21
One last chapter of divvying up the land. Now that the tribes are done, time for the
Levites. They get a bunch of cities –
48 in all we’re told.
Then the chapter ends by saying God has done all that he’d
once told Abraham he’d do, give the land to his descendents. (Note: on other
occasions the Book of Joshua says it’s still incomplete, with other people
still living in the area, most notably in Jerusalem. Ah well).
CHAPTER 22
Well, now for something we haven’t seen in quite some time –
something interesting.
The eastern tribes – Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of
Manasseh – are told they can take their land east of the Jordan River. Joshua makes very clear as they leave,
though, that they are to stay tribe to God and the laws laid down in Moses.
Well, they leave and controversy almost immediately erupts –
they build their own altar. My golly,
is this ever a big no-no. Remember:
this chapter is believed to have been written by the same guy that did
Deuteronomy. That book strongly
stressed the importance of centralized religion and only having the one main
altar. Now that’s going by the
wayside.
So the tribes west of the Jordan are furious and go to
Joshua. He and the eastern tribes take
arms and decide to march on the western tribes. They’re not going to fight, yet.
They’re just going to ask, “The hell?” but if they don’t get a
satisfactory answer, they’ll take action right away. Israel is on the verge of civil war, so soon after their
victories.
Are you guys worshipping other gods? That’s the big question. And the eastern tribes then give a
satisfactory answer. Oh, hell no! We’re all about following’ God’s laws! This alter?
This one here? That’s just a
symbol of the one in Jerusalem, so our kids will be aware of it and follow
God’s laws in the years from now.
Writing it down like that, it sure sounds like a weak story, but the
eastern tribes are happy. The
easterners are going to follow God’s law and observe centralized religion all
at the same time.
In his book,”The Good Book,” Daniel Plotz argues that this
is an important chapter, because you remove a specific place from the worship
of God. You can worship God even if
you’re not in the Promised Land’s main altar.
Well, that isn’t quite what the book says, though.
Also, there is a quick side note. At one point the eastern tribes defend themselves by saying, “The
LORD is the God of gods.” Yeah – that
implies other gods actually exist. He’s
the most powerful, but the others are still there. Again, we see a sign of this religion evolving out of
polytheism.
CHAPTER 23
Now Joshua is old and on the verge of death and he’s going
to give his final speech. It’s Joshua’s
Farewell Address. Being Joshua, it
isn’t very memorable. Mostly, he just
says to make sure you observed the laws of Moses and the ways of God. There’s no interpreting it, just follow
along. Joshua doesn’t really add much
to the mix, he’s just about implementing what those before said. I wouldn’t mind that, but his way of implementing
is genocide.
Oh, and the author made sure to put in a warning – follow
God’s laws or he’ll abandon you. DavidElliot Friedman argues that stuff like this was edited in later after Judea
fell. By just putting a few things like
this in, you create some foreshadowing and can explain what did eventually
happen.
CHAPTER 24
Time for Joshua’s farewell ceremony. He’s still talking and he very briefly
recaps Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, and even this book of Joshua. This recapping takes 13 verses. Clearly, he isn’t as longwinded as
Moses.
And Joshua even gets another covenant made here. He gets everyone to agree that they will
continue to follow God’s laws. They
agree. He tells them that God is a
passionate god (again, that implies there are other gods), so they better be
sure to live up to their vow, or God won’t forgive them. (Wait – elsewhere the Bible stresses God’s
forgiveness). They all pledge not to
follow foreign gods.
Then he dies, at age 110.
This presents a problem for me.
Up until now, I’ve always been keeping track of how long things have
been since creation. But I don’t know
when Joshua was born in relation to all the rest. Was Joshua 40 when they left Egypt? That would make him 80 when they got here and thus he dies 30 years
later. At earliest, he was 20 when the
Exodus happened, so this would be 50 years after crossing the river.
Anyway you slice it, I’m now off the map of dates. I get the feeling that from this point on,
you have to date backwards. Checking
wikipedia, it says Joshua lived from 1355 to 1245 BC and that Moses lived 1391
to 1271 BC. So Joshua outlived Moses by
26 years, making him 94 when Moses died.
Really? Checking elsewhere,
dates are all over the map. The
Chronology of the Bible pages says the acts of Joshua, Judges, and Saul are
from 1476 BC to 1040 BC. Yeah, that’s
not even close, not at all close to what I had above.
Let’s see, my own numbers say that Moses dies 2,708 years
after creation. Now, if the world was
supposedly created in 4004 BC, which means Moses dies in 1296 BC. Now, I’m sure
I’ve made some mistakes in my pen-and-paper tallying, but I guess I’ll go with
Joshua died in 1245 BC.
Think those last few paragraphs
were boring? Trust me – that last half
of Joshua is much, much duller.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
This is a horrible book of the Bible, the worst so far. It’s horrible, just terrible.
The first half is genocide, and the last half is dull. Should I accept that the killing is
justified because God tells Joshua it’s OK?
I can’t imagine why I should.
After all, I don’t like it when people now feel their justified in
killing others because of God, so why would I feel it about people then?
Abraham debated things with God. Moses debated things with God. Jacob literally wrestled with
God. Joshua just nods his head and goes
“OK.” Want me to wipe out entire
peoples? (Shrugs). Sure, why not? Joshua is a cipher. He’s
just a walking sword, without much personality or humanity behind him; which I
guess makes sense given the lack of humanity in the first half of this
book. Joshua reminds me of Todd from
the TV show Breaking Bad. He’s a nice,
polite man who carries himself well when dealing with people, but if he has to
murder a 12-year-old kid who just saw them rob a truck, then fine – you shoot
the kid dead. Then you go home, say
“Shit happens” and get a good night’s sleep.
He’s a nice, polite, stone cold killer.
And the back half of the chapter is the worst kind of boring
– boring with no real lasting importance.
At least the boring parts of Leviticus told you about the beliefs,
values, and practices of the ancient Hebrew – and you can see how those values
have shaped us ever since. Joshua’s
boring parts are nothing like that.
It’s just a bunch of land being divvied up; land for a kingdom that
ceased to exist nearly 3,000 years ago.
So half is morally repellent, and the other half is
artistically bankrupt. This is easily
the worst book of the Bible so far.
EDITED to add: Click here to begin Judges, the next book in the Bible.
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