SUMMARY
The conquest of Canaan that had occurred in the Book of JoshuaThe successor of Moses, Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan. More is remembered as a partial set of victories (1:1-21) but also numerous defeats (1:27-36) by various tribes.
ANALYSIS
Joshua 1-12 maintains that the settlement of Canaan by Israel was accomplished as a sudden and complete conquest by an Israel united under the leadership of Joshua: “So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD had spoken to MosesProphet who led Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land and received the law at Sinai. More; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. And the land had rest from war” (Joshua 11:23). Later chapters of the book of Joshua, however, acknowledge the gradual and incomplete nature of Israel’s conquest of Canaan (Joshua 13:1-7, 13; 15:63; 16:10; 17:12-13; 23:4). This more piecemeal depiction of Israel’s settlement of Canaan aligns more with the first two chapters of Judges. In Judges 1, the settlement of Canaan is depicted as a series of military and political struggles in which one or two tribes, led by charismatic individuals, sought to gain control of the hill country lying between the bands of Canaanite city states in the plain. The early successes of JudahJudah was the name of Jacob's fourth son and one of the 12 tribes. More and the southern tribes (Judges 1:1-21) give way to crushing defeats of the northern tribes (1:27-36) with the exception of Joseph (1:22-26). As a foreshadowing of things to come, Joseph’s success at Bethel (Hebrew meaning “House of God”) was based upon deception, as indeed Bethel’s former name Luz (Hebrew meaning “Deception”) might imply. The prologue ends with an angel warning the Israelites to stay faithful to Israel’s God alone and the narrative of the death of Joshua (Israel’s previous leader). The scene brings to a close the preceding era and opens up to a new mode of leadership in the form of the temporary rulers or deliverers called “judges.”
