By July 6, 2008 Read More →

Joshua 1: Joshua Succeeds Moses, Texts and Traditions, ed. Lawrence H. Schiffman, Ktav Publishing House, Hoboken NJ, 1998.

In this passage, Joshua is charged with the task of succeeding Moses, leading the Israelites into the land across the Jordan, and promulgating the “Book of the Teaching,” the Torah of Moses. Accordingly, Joshua was seen by later tradition as the second of the prophets of Israel.

1- 1 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ attendant- 2 “My servant Moses is dead. Prepare to cross the Jordan, together with all this people, into the land that I am giving to the Israelites. 3 Every spot on which your foot treads I give to you, as I promised Moses. 4 Your territory shall extend from the wilderness and the Lebanon to the Great River, the River Euphrates [on the east]—the whole Hittite country—and up to the Mediterranean Sea on the west. 5 No one shall be able to resist you as long as you live. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.

6 “Be strong and resolute, for you shall apportion to this people the land that I swore to their fathers to assign to them. 7 But you must be very strong and resolute to observe faithfully all the Teaching that My servant Moses enjoined upon you. Do not deviate from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Let not this Book of the Teaching cease from your lips, but recite it day and night, so that you may observe faithfully all that is written in it. Only then will you prosper in your undertakings and only then will you be successful.

9 “I charge you- Be strong and resolute; do not be terrified or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Posted in: Exodus

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