The Book of Joshua

Marten H. Woudstra’s The Book of Joshua is a detailed commentary on the whole book of Joshua, combining Hebrew exegesis, historical and literary questions, theology, and interpretation for the life of faith. Woudstra identifies the book’s central theme as the fulfillment of God’s promise to the patriarchs concerning the promised land. The narrative is therefore not chiefly a biography of Joshua. It is a record of what God does in bringing Israel into the land, giving victory, distributing the inheritance, and calling the people to remain faithful to the covenant.

Woudstra structures Joshua around three major movements. Joshua 1–12 describes the promised land conquered. Joshua succeeds Moses, Israel prepares to cross the Jordan, Rahab receives the spies, the people enter the land, Jericho falls, Achan’s covenant violation brings defeat, and the campaigns against Canaanite kings unfold. The commentary gives careful attention to the relationship between divine promise and human obedience: the conquest succeeds because the Lord gives the land, yet Israel is repeatedly required to act faithfully according to God’s command.

Joshua 13–22 concerns the promised land distributed. Woudstra treats the tribal allotments, Caleb’s inheritance, the boundaries and cities assigned to the tribes, cities of refuge, Levitical cities, and the return of the eastern tribes. These chapters can appear merely geographical, but the commentary reads them as part of the fulfillment of God’s sworn promise. The language of inheritance, possession, gift, and rest shows that the land is not simply territory acquired by military strength. It is a covenant gift whose distribution demonstrates the reliability of God’s word.

The final section, Joshua 23–24, describes the promised land to be kept in covenant obedience. Joshua’s farewell addresses look both backward and forward. Israel is reminded of what God has already done, warned against turning to other gods, and summoned to cling to the Lord. Joshua 24 rehearses God’s gracious acts from the patriarchal past through the exodus and conquest, then brings the people to covenant renewal at Shechem. Woudstra therefore connects promise fulfillment with continuing responsibility: receiving the land does not remove the need for covenant loyalty.

The commentary also explores the relationship between Joshua and Moses, the continuity between the Pentateuch and Joshua, the nature of Israel’s conquest, and the tension between statements of extensive victory and passages that show land still remaining to be possessed. This allows Woudstra to explain complete and incomplete fulfillment without treating the book’s summaries and later details as contradictory. The land can be truly given and conquered while the task of occupying and keeping it remains.

Readers looking for help with difficult questions about the conquest of Canaan, holy war, Jericho, Rahab, Achan, the distribution of the land, covenant renewal, or Joshua’s leadership will find sustained exegetical guidance. The commentary also helps answer larger theological questions: Can God’s promises be trusted? What does it mean for God to give an inheritance? How are divine faithfulness and human obedience related? Why does Israel’s possession of the land remain morally and covenantally conditioned?

Woudstra’s study presents Joshua as a major Old Testament witness to the faithfulness of God. Promise, conquest, inheritance, rest, covenant, obedience, and remembrance are joined in a single theological movement. God fulfills what he pledged to the patriarchs, and the people who receive that gift are called to serve the Lord faithfully in the land he has given.