Chapter 1

1 After Moses the Lord’s servant died, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant: 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Get ready! Cross the Jordan River. Lead these people into the land that I am ready to hand over to them. 3 I am handing over to you every place you set foot, as I promised Moses. 4 Your territory will extend from the desert in the south to Lebanon in the north. It will extend all the way to the great River Euphrates in the east (including all Syria) and all the way to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. 5 No one will be able to resist you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not abandon you or leave you alone. 6 Be strong and brave! You must lead these people in the conquest of this land that I solemnly promised their ancestors I would hand over to them.⁠ 7 Make sure you are very strong and brave! Carefully obey all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep.⁠ Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful in all you do.⁠ 8 This law scroll must not leave your lips. You must memorize it day and night so you can carefully obey all that is written in it. Then you will prosper and be successful.⁠ 9 I repeat, be strong and brave! Don’t be afraid and don’t panic, for I, the Lord your God, am with you in all you do.”⁠ 10 Joshua instructed the leaders of the people: 11 “Go through the camp and command the people, ‘Prepare your supplies, for within three days you will cross the Jordan River and begin the conquest of the land the Lord your God is ready to hand over to you.’” 12 Joshua told the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh: 13 “Remember what Moses the Lord’s servant commanded you. The Lord your God is giving you a place to settle and is handing this land over to you. 14 Your wives, children, and cattle may stay in the land that Moses assigned to you east of the Jordan River.⁠ But all of you warriors must cross over armed for battle ahead of your brothers. You must help them 15 until the Lord gives your brothers a place like yours to settle and they conquer the land the Lord your God is ready to hand over to them. Then you may go back to your allotted land and occupy the land Moses the Lord’s servant assigned you east of the Jordan.” 16 They told Joshua, “We will do everything you say. We will go wherever you send us. 17 Just as we obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. But may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. 18 Any man who rebels against what you say and does not obey all your commands will be executed. But be strong and brave!”

Texts in conversation

Compare Joshua 1:8 and Psalm 1:2

Hebrew Bible

Summary

Psalm 1 alludes to Joshua, echoing its call to meditate on the Torah “day and night.” By opening the Psalms with this imagery, it places every reader in Joshua’s position after Moses’ death, presenting Torah study and obedience as central to a good life.

Passages

Joshua 1:8

Hebrew Bible

7 Make sure you are very strong and brave! Carefully obey all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep. Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful in all you do. 8 This law scroll must not leave your lips. You must memorize it day and night so you can carefully obey all that is written in it. Then you will prosper and be successful. 9 I repeat, be strong and brave! Don’t be afraid and don’t panic, for I, the Lord your God, am with you in all you do.”

600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Joshua

Psalm 1:2

Hebrew Bible

1 How blessed is the one who does not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand in the pathway with sinners, or sit in the assembly of scoffers. 2 Instead he finds pleasure in obeying the Lord’s commands; he meditates on his commands day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by flowing streams; it yields its fruit at the proper time, and its leaves never fall off. He succeeds in everything he attempts. 4 Not so with the wicked! Instead they are like wind-driven chaff.

600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... A law given by God invites meditation and study as well as obedience. The meditation enjoined in Joshua 1:8 (“This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it”) has obedience as its explicit goal. But when meditation on the law (again carried on “day and night”) is paralleled with “delight ... in the law of the LORD” in Psalm 1:2, it is clearly viewed as a good in itself. Psalm 19 praises the perfections of God’s commandments and finds them “more to be desired ... than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb” (19:7–11, here verse 10).The psalmist of Psalm 119 refers not only to the “keeping” and “observing” of God’s commandments (verses 2, 4, 5, 8, etc.), but also of “learning” them (verse 7), “treasuring” them (11), “meditating on” them (15), “delighting in” them (16), “longing for” them (20), “clinging to” them (31), “hoping in” them (43), even “loving” them (47). To seek and delight in God’s commandments is to seek and delight in God (119:2, 10, 12, etc.) ..."

Stephen Westerholm, Law and Ethics in Early Judaism and the New Testament (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017), 35.

"... Psalm 1 maintains that whoever orients themselves toward instruction (“Torah”) will have a successful life. It is not merely incidental that the Torah in this psalm is the Torah of Yhwh (and not the Torah of Moses), recalling the terminology of Chronicles. This statement makes clear that Psalm 1 subordinates itself to the Torah. Torah is the entity toward which the pious should orient themselves. In addition to this explicit reference, there are also implicit allusions in Psalm 1 that are meaningful in terms of a specific canon theology. Psalm 1 recalls the above-mentioned opening text from the Neviʾim (Joshua 1:8), where God speaks to Joshua after the death of Moses ... By way of this reference, Psalm 1 places its reader, that is every reader, back into the position of Joshua immediately after the death of Moses. One could even say that Psalm 1, on the one hand, returns the history of Israel’s salvation back to the point before the entrance into the land so that every possibility is again open for the individual. Psalm 1 thereby places the responsibility on each individual. Each person is charged with Torah observance, which is linked to one’s welfare—not only the leaders like Joshua or the kings ..."

Konrad Schmid, Is There Theology in the Hebrew Bible?, CSHB 4 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015), 103.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Joshua24 chapters

Compare Joshua 1:8 and Psalm 1:2

Summary

Passages

Joshua 1:8

Psalm 1:2

References

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