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Joshua 1: What the Passage Says

66 claims across 18 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Joshua 1 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Moses has died, and the LORD tells Joshua to lead Israel across the Jordan into the land promised to their ancestors, promising to be with him and repeating the command to be strong and brave and to keep the law Moses gave. Joshua orders the people to get food ready for a crossing in three days. He reminds the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half of Manasseh that their fighting men must cross over armed ahead of the other tribes and help them until those tribes are settled, and they promise to obey him as they obeyed Moses. The chapter opens the book by handing leadership from Moses to Joshua.

Claim by Claim

  1. 1:1
    • Moses the servant of the LORD died.
    • After the death of Moses, the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun.
    • Joshua son of Nun was Moses' attendant.
  2. 1:2
    • The LORD said that Moses his servant was dead.
    • The LORD told Joshua to arise now.
    • The LORD told Joshua to cross over the Jordan.
    • Joshua and all the people were to cross over.
    • The crossing was to be into the land the LORD was giving to them.
    • The LORD said he was giving that land to the children of Israel.
  3. 1:3
    • The LORD said he had given the Israelites every place the sole of their foot would tread on.
    • The LORD said this was as he had spoken to Moses.
  4. 1:4
    • The territory would extend from the wilderness and Lebanon.
    • The territory would extend to the great river, the river Euphrates.
    • The territory would include all the land of the Hittites.
    • The territory would extend to the great sea toward the setting of the sun.
    • That extent would be their border.
  5. 1:5
    • No man would stand before Joshua all the days of his life.
    • The LORD said he would be with Joshua as he had been with Moses.
    • The LORD said he would not fail Joshua.
    • The LORD said he would not forsake Joshua.
  6. 1:6
    • The LORD told Joshua to be strong.
    • The LORD told Joshua to be courageous.
    • Joshua would cause this people to inherit the land.
    • The LORD had sworn to their fathers to give them that land.
  7. 1:7
    • The LORD told Joshua only to be strong and very courageous.
    • Joshua was to be careful to act according to all the law.
    • Moses the LORD's servant had commanded that law to Joshua.
    • Joshua was not to turn from it to the right hand or to the left.
    • The purpose was that Joshua would succeed wherever he went.
  8. 1:8
    • This book of the law was not to depart from Joshua's mouth.
    • Joshua was to meditate on it day and night.
    • The purpose was that Joshua would be careful to act according to all that is written in it.
    • Then Joshua would make his way prosperous.
    • Then Joshua would have good success.
  9. 1:9
    • The LORD asked Joshua whether he had not commanded him.
    • The LORD commanded Joshua to be strong and courageous.
    • The LORD told Joshua not to be afraid.
    • The LORD told Joshua not to be dismayed.
    • The LORD his God would be with Joshua wherever he went.
  10. 1:10
    • Joshua commanded the officers of the people.
  11. 1:11
    • Joshua told the officers to pass through the midst of the camp.
    • Joshua told the officers to command the people.
    • The people were told to prepare provisions for themselves.
    • Within three days the people would cross over the Jordan.
    • The crossing was in order to go in and possess the land.
    • The LORD their God was giving them that land to possess.
  12. 1:12
    • Joshua spoke to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh.
  13. 1:13
    • Joshua told them to remember the word Moses the servant of the LORD commanded them.
    • Moses had said the LORD their God was giving them rest.
    • Moses had said the LORD had given them this land.
  14. 1:14
    • Their wives, their little ones, and their livestock were to remain in the land Moses gave them across the Jordan.
    • The men were to cross over armed ahead of their brothers.
    • All the mighty men of valor were to cross over.
    • They were to help their brothers.
  15. 1:15
    • They were to help until the LORD gave their brothers rest as he had given them.
    • Their brothers also would possess the land the LORD their God was giving them.
    • Then they would return to the land of their possession.
    • They would possess that land.
    • Moses the servant of the LORD gave them that land across the Jordan toward the sunrise.
  16. 1:16
    • They answered Joshua.
    • They said they would do all that Joshua commanded them.
    • They said they would go wherever Joshua sent them.
  17. 1:17
    • They said they would obey Joshua just as they had obeyed Moses in all things.
    • They said only that the LORD his God be with Joshua as he was with Moses.
  18. 1:18
    • Any man who rebels against Joshua's command and does not obey his words in all that he commands him shall be put to death.
    • They told Joshua only to be strong and courageous.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

1:1
"Servant of the LORD" is a formal title of honor, used of Moses the way a royal court would speak of a king's chief minister. Joshua's own role up to this point, "minister" or assistant, is a subordinate one: he attended Moses personally and had been his second in military and religious matters. The chapter opens at the moment that subordinate becomes the leader.
1:2
The people are camped on the east bank of the Jordan, at the end of forty years of wandering; "this Jordan" is the river directly in front of them. Crossing it means entering Canaan, the land the previous generation had refused to enter.
1:3
Setting the sole of the foot on ground was a standard ancient way of speaking about taking legal possession of territory, not merely walking across it. The tense is worth noticing: the land is spoken of as already given, before any of it has been entered.
1:4
The boundaries name the outer limits of the territory as an ancient reader would have understood them: "the wilderness" is the desert to the south, Lebanon the mountains to the north, the Euphrates the great river to the northeast, and "the great sea" the Mediterranean to the west, hence "toward the going down of the sun," the standard Hebrew phrase for west. "The land of the Hittites" is used loosely in the Old Testament for the whole region of Syria and Canaan, not only for the Hittite empire proper.
1:5
"Stand before thee" is military language: to hold one's ground against an attacker rather than merely to be in someone's presence.
1:6
"Inheritance" here does not mean property left by someone who has died. It is the technical term for the permanent share of land allotted to each tribe and family, which could not be sold off for good and passed down the generations. Dividing the land among the tribes was one of the leader's defining tasks.
1:7
"The law" translates Hebrew *torah*, which means instruction or teaching as much as legislation, the whole body of direction given through Moses, not just a legal code. "Turn not to the right hand or to the left" is the language of keeping to a road.
1:8
Ancient reading was done aloud, so "shall not depart out of thy mouth" means the text is to be recited continually, not silently remembered. The Hebrew word behind "meditate" means to mutter or murmur under the breath, repeating the words aloud to oneself rather than silent reflection.
1:9
"Dismayed" in the King James is stronger than the modern word. The Hebrew means shattered or broken with terror, the state of an army that falls apart before the fighting starts.
1:10
These "officers" (Hebrew *shoterim*) were record-keepers and marshals who kept lists, passed orders down through the camp, and mustered the people, administrators rather than military commanders.
1:11
"Victuals" simply means food supplies. The instruction matters because the people had been living on manna gathered daily; preparing provisions in advance signals a shift to a campaign footing.
1:12
These two and a half tribes had already been given land on the east side of the Jordan, outside Canaan proper, because the grazing there suited their herds. Moses granted it on one condition: their fighting men had to cross over and fight alongside the other tribes until the whole land was taken. Joshua is now calling in that agreement.
1:13
"Rest" here is not sleep or leisure but the settled security of a people no longer at war or on the move, living safely on their own land with no enemy pressing them.
1:14
"On this side Jordan" reflects the standpoint of the writer, and here means the east side, where the speaker and hearers are standing. "Mighty men of valour" is a set phrase for able-bodied fighting men of standing in the community, not simply brave individuals.
1:15
"Toward the sunrising" means to the east. The two and a half tribes get their land first but collect it last: they cannot go home and enjoy it until the other tribes are also settled.
1:17
"Hearken" means more than hearing. In Hebrew the verb for listening carries the sense of obeying; to listen to someone's words is to act on them.
1:18
The people are stating the customary penalty for insubordination during a military campaign, not inventing a new law. Their closing words repeat back to Joshua the same charge God gave him in verses 6, 7 and 9.

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