Joshua 23 Footnotes

23:3-11 The theological justification for the conquest was the declaration that it was the Lord’s doing, not Israel’s. The Israelites had not subdued the Canaanites merely to satisfy an agenda of aggression. The Lord had determined to remove them from the land and give it to Israel. Joshua admonished the people to remain faithful to the Mosaic covenant and to avoid committing idolatry with the gods of the Canaanites who remained in the land. Joshua’s speech echoes the words of Moses in Dt 7:1-5.

23:15-16 Reminiscent of the curse ceremony of Dt 28, Joshua warned the people that disobedience would bring disaster and dispossession for Israel. The Lord was faithful to bless obedience and curse disobedience. If Israel repeated the Canaanites’ sins of idolatry, she would experience the same consequence: removal from the land. The entire section of Jos 23:1–24:24 parallels the book of Deuteronomy, Moses’s “farewell address,” as a ceremony of the renewal of the covenant. It contains the same elements: a rehearsal of the Lord’s deeds in delivering his people (24:2-13); the people’s pledge of loyalty (24:14-26); the reference to witnesses (24:22,27); mention of the laws of the covenant, “a statute and ordinance” (24:25); and the sanction of judgment to come if Israel abrogates the covenant (23:12-16). The order differs, but all the components are present.