Joshua

Ah, the Good Old Days! Days of blood and glory! Days of genocide and other general weirdness! That's what you'll find in this book. All in all, pretty thought provoking, in my opinion.

Jos 6:25 - But Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, Joshua spared. Her family has lived in Israel ever since. For she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
Wait a moment. I thought I read back in Numbers and Deuteronomy that God's instructions were to kill everyone, show no mercy and have nothing to do with the sub-humans living in the promised land. Here's a direct violation at the very beginning of the genocide process. God has no problem with this? The priests have no problem with this?? Has God changed his mind about the orders he gave?

Jos 7:10-12 - The LORD said to Joshua, "Stand up! Why have you fallen on your face? Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I imposed on them. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have acted deceitfully, and they have put them among their own belongings. Therefore the Israelites are unable to stand before their enemies; they turn their backs to their enemies, because they have become a thing devoted for destruction themselves. I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things among you.
There's a lot more, but here's the gist. God blames all of Israel for taking something "devoted to destruction." He brings military defeat to the people, threatens to abandon all of them. A few verses later, it turns out that one person, Achan, took a cloak and some silver and gold for himself. Naturally, because of this person's action, the whole nation of Israel was threatened. My take on this is that the priests saw that a little of their booty was missing, and told the people they'd better 'fess up or everyone would suffer (like in the Marines, I've heard). Note that the original threat was toward everyone, and God didn't just send the priests to Achan's tent. The threat was against the whole nation for sinning, whereas no one but Achan had performed any "unlawful" action. This story certainly encourages vigilantism, turning your neighbors into spies watching you when the priests aren't around.

Jos 7:24-26 - Then Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan, son of Zerah, with the silver, the mantle, and the bar of gold, with his sons and daughters, with his oxen, donkeys and sheep, and his tent and all that he had; and they brought them to the Valley of Achor. Joshua said, "Why did you bring trouble on us? The LORD is bringing trouble on you today." And all Israel stoned him to death; they burned them with fire and cast stones on them, and raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the LORD turned from his burning anger. Therefore that place to this day is called the Valley of Achor. [Trouble].
Interesting. Achan gets stoned, but it's unclear what else happened. Sons and daughters are mentioned, among other things. We see some pronoun trouble - "them" and "him" are all mixed up: it's hard to tell exactly which person(s) were executed. This sort of thing crops up all through the OT, making understanding what's going on difficult. One concept is clear - one person's "bad action" is named as the cause for the suffering of the whole people.

Jos 9:22-27 - Joshua summoned them, and said to them, "Why did you deceive us, saying, 'We are very far from you,' while in fact you are living among us? Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you shall always be slaves, hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God." They answered Joshua, "Because it was told to your servants for a certainty that the LORD your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land before you; so we were in great fear for our lives because of you, and did this thing. And now we are in your hand: do as it seems good and right in your sight to do to us." This is what he did for them: he saved them from the Israelites; and they did not kill them. But on that day Joshua made them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the LORD, to continue to this day, in the place that he should choose.
Where shall we begin? First, notice that a group of people who should have been wiped out managed to trick God's people, something that I would have thought to be quite difficult, seeing as they were carrying their omniscient god around with them in a box. Next, of course, it turns out that Israel once more fails to carry out their prime task of genocide. You'd think God would object to this, but not a peep is forthcoming. Lastly, we have an example of compelling an entire nation to become slaves for another nation for all time. Does this sound familiar to any Americans? Does it seem odd to anyone else that these people would so easily agree to eternal slavery?

Jos 10:10-14 - And the LORD threw them into a panic before Israel, who inflicted a great slaughter on them at Gibeon, chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth-horon, and struck them down as far as Azekah and Makkedah. As they fled before Israel, while they were going down the slope of Beth-horon, the LORD threw down huge stones from heaven as far as Azekah, and they died; there were more who died because of the hailstones than the Israelites killed with the sword. On the day when the LORD gave the Amorites over to the Israelites, Joshua spoke to the LORD; and he said in the sight of Israel, "Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and Moon, in the valley of Aijalon." And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in mid-heaven, and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. There has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD heeded a human voice; for the LORD fought for Israel.
A very famous passage, this is. God opened up a HUGE can of whup-ass, and killed more of the enemy than the Israelite warriors could. Then, for some reason not at all clear, Joshua tells the sun and moon to stop where they are. Or he tells God to do it - the text looks somewhat confused. So anyway, God apparently stops everything (including doing most of the killing!) so that Joshua's folks can have good daylight to take "vengeance" for something or other. Interestingly, this is one of the few places in the Bible where the writer refers to an outside source for confirmation of a miraculous claim. Even the person writing this knew that no one would take this tale seriously. Even if the Book of Jashar existed today, I'd have serious problems with the claim. It's quite popular with the geocentric folks, though.

Jos 10:28 - 11:23 - Multiple genocides. Multiple kings killed. Nothing left breathing. Read it for yourself.

Jos 22:20 - Did not Achan son of Zerah break faith in the matter of devoted things, and wrath fell upon all the congregation of Israel? And did he not perish alone for his iniquity?
Um, there's some question about that last part. Pronouns, you know.
See Jos 7:24-26 above.

 Jos 23:14-16 - And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one thing has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you; all have come to pass for you, not one of them has failed. But just as all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the LORD will bring upon you all the bad things, until he has destroyed you from this good land that the LORD your God has given you. If you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which he enjoined on you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land that he has given to you.
Let's check this out. God promised what? That if his commands weren't obeyed, he'd abandon Israel. They enslaved one group of people they were supposed to be exterminating, and he didn't abandon them, so far as this book tells. Also, here Joshua tells Israel once again that God will make Israel perish quickly if they stray. We all know that they later strayed, and they weren't destroyed.

Jos 24:27 - Joshua said to all the people, "See, this stone shall be a witness against us; for it has heard all the words of the LORD that he spoke to us; therefore it shall be a witness against you, if you deal falsely with your God."
This is too funny. I would just love to see someone try to question the rock, and find out exactly what it remembers. Can you imagine people eyeing the rock, wondering if it heard them whispering behind its back? This is, of course, a tattered remnant of the deep past of Israel, when they were just as pagan and multi-theistic as all those around them. Obviously, Joshua's speech here indicates a belief that the phallic stone being referred to had a spirit in it that would actually be a legal witness if the need arose.