Here Caleb recalls the episodes from Numbers 13-14, when Moses had sent twelve spies to investigate the land of Canaan. The majority of the spies brought back a report that "made the heart of the people melt". In their opinion, the cities of Canaan were highly fortified and their warriors were immense - Israel would be like a school rugby

Now we move back to considering the land of Canaan - to the West of the Jordan, the main section of territory the LORD gave to His people. These verses mention twice (v3, v4) that the tribe of Levi did not receive an allocation of land like the other tribes. This adds to what we already saw in the previous

This passage contains a dangerous sign of Israel's fading watchfulness. V8-13 describe the boundaries of the land possessed by the 'East of Jordan' tribes. V13 is the first in a series of similar statements that we'll see throughout the rest of Joshua and even into Judges 1 - accusations of tribal failure to fully follow up the initial conquest. It was

Probably even the most enthusiastic reader of Joshua will find the going tough as we move into chapters 13-21. Watching war movies tends to be more exciting than taking part in land surveys! Chasing a Canaanite out of the hill country certainly seems more thrilling than plodding through his former land counting villages and tracing borders! But our problem is

Why do we have a chapter like this? What are we to learn? V1-6 describe the territory of two once-great kings on the East of the Jordan, whose land was now Israel's. Two and a half tribes were going to settle in that land, but for now they were helping their fellow Israelites with the conquest of the West of

This section - summarising the whole conquest, south and north - tells us that it took "a long time"! This is probably inserted to guard us against the impression that, since the record of these wars is brief, the time taken must have been brief too. The conquest was a long, gruelling, demanding process. God had told His people it

Joshua seems to be presented in these verses as the model of God's servant. This is hinted at in v12, but v15 is emphatic: "Just as the LORD had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did. He left nothing undone of all that the LORD had commanded Moses". You can look up some of the

Now the action moves to the north of the Promised Land. A group of northern rulers unite in a coalition to try to stop Israel. Verses 1-5 detail the precise kings, locations and ethnic groups opposing Israel. The names and specifics might seem confusing to us, but the purpose is for us to feel how overwhelming the enemy is. As

Verse 24 tells us: "Joshua summoned all the men of Israel and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with him, 'Come near; put your feet on the necks of these kings.' Then they came near and put their feet on their necks". This was not cruel mistreatment of prisoners-of-war or macho showing-off by Israel. It

These verses record one of the most remarkable miracles in Scripture! In response to Joshua's prayer (v12), the sun stopped (v13). There is a lot of discussion among Bible experts about whether this meant that the daylight was extended or the darkness was extended, but we must be very careful not to miss the main point. V14 takes care to