4 min read

A Father Prayed for a Son Who Would One Day Kill Him

Before Joshua was born, his father saw what the child would do. The midrash records how the family tried to outrun the prophecy.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Vision He Could Not Unknow
  2. The Child Sent Away
  3. The Moment the Prophecy Tried to Fulfill Itself
  4. Moses Read the Fear Correctly

The Vision He Could Not Unknow

The man had been praying for a child for years. He was righteous, his prayers were heard, and his wife finally conceived. He should have been celebrating. Instead, God showed him the future, and he spent the rest of his pregnancy grieving.

The revelation was precise and terrible: this child, the one forming now in the womb, would one day cut off his father's head. The man understood the prophecy to be fixed. He sat in mourning through the months that should have been his joy.

His wife could not understand his grief. She saw a husband who ought to be rejoicing in God's answer to his prayers, instead wasting the gift in sorrow. When he finally explained what he had seen, she did not accept it as calmly as he had. She made a decision. The future the prophecy described would have to be prevented.

The Child Sent Away

When Joshua was born, his mother acted before any attachment could form. She sent the infant away to be raised at a distance, in circumstances that would make his origin invisible. The child who would grow up to lead the conquest of Canaan was raised as an orphan, not knowing who his father was, not knowing the prophecy that had shaped the conditions of his birth.

The father knew where the boy was. He watched from a distance, carrying the grief of a man who has been told what the future holds and cannot change it. He watched Joshua grow into the man who would become Moses' attendant, then his successor, then the general who led twelve tribes across the Jordan.

The Moment the Prophecy Tried to Fulfill Itself

The crisis arrived during the wilderness years. Eldad and Medad, two men whose names appear briefly in Numbers, began prophesying in the Israelite camp. The content of their prophecy reached Joshua: Moses would die and Joshua would lead the people into the land.

Joshua's reaction was immediate and alarmed. He ran to Moses and demanded: my lord Moses, stop them. The midrash preserved in Hibbur me-ha Yeshu'ah, a medieval collection of aggadic legends, understands Joshua's urgency in terms of the birth prophecy. He had learned by this point who his father was. He had heard the original prediction. And the new prophecy, the one about Moses dying and Joshua taking the lead, sounded to his ear like the mechanism by which the first prophecy would be fulfilled. If he became the leader, he would be in a position to harm his father. He wanted the prophecy stopped before it set the trap.

Moses Read the Fear Correctly

Moses answered him with the famous rebuke: are you jealous for my sake? Would that all of the Lord's people were prophets. Moses was not simply dismissing Joshua's alarm. He was telling him something about the nature of prophecy and the nature of fear. Eldad and Medad were not instruments of destruction. Their prophecy about Joshua's leadership was not a curse.

What happened to the father is preserved in the midrash as the resolution: the prophecy about Joshua killing his father was fulfilled, but not as the parents had imagined. In one version, Joshua's father died and was buried, and Joshua, following the military practice of the time, cut off the heads of the defeated Canaanite kings and placed them as markers. His father's head was among them by a coincidence no human agency could have arranged or prevented. The prophecy was fulfilled without malice, without intention, without any act that resembled murder.

The grief the father carried was real. The catastrophe the mother tried to prevent never came in the form she feared. The prophecy was true and the family's reading of it was wrong.

JoshuaProphecyFateFamilyDemonsDivine Decree
← All myths

From the tradition

Sources

2 sources

The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Hibbur me-ha Yeshu'ah 209Messianic Literature

Joshua as a great leader, a warrior, a successor to Moses is familiar. But what if his origins were shrouded in a myth mirroring some of the most famous stories in history?

In Hibbur me-ha Yeshu'ah, Joshua's father was a Tzaddik, a holy man, living in Egypt. He and his wife longed for a child, and God answered their prayers. But here's the twist: while his wife was pregnant, the heavens revealed a terrifying prophecy to the Tzaddik – his son would one day cut off his head! Understandably distraught, the holy man spent his days in mourning.

His wife, confused by his sorrow, urged him to rejoice in God's blessing. Finally, he revealed the grim prophecy. When Joshua was born, his mother, in a desperate attempt to avert fate, placed him in an ark coated with pitch and slime, just like Moses, and set him adrift on the Nile (Exodus 2:3-6).

The story doesn't end there. Like Jonah being swallowed by a whale (Jonah 2:1), God orchestrated another miraculous event. A giant fish swallowed the ark. It so happened that the king was holding a feast, and that very fish was caught and brought before him. Imagine the shock when they cut it open and found a weeping child!

The king, amazed, ordered that the child be nursed and raised in the palace. Joshua grew up to become a guardsman. Years later, fate took a cruel turn. Joshua’s father was accused of transgressing against the king. The king commanded his guardsman – Joshua himself – to execute him, take his wife, and inherit his property. This, apparently, was the custom of the land.

And so, Joshua, unknowingly, carried out the horrifying deed. But when he approached his mother, something extraordinary happened. Milk began to flow from her breasts, soaking the bed. Fearing witchcraft, Joshua was about to kill her, but she cried out, revealing the truth. "This is not sorcery! This milk is the milk you suckled! You are my son!" She then recounted the prophecy and the events that led to him being set adrift.

Talk about a plot twist!

Joshua then revealed his own story – being found in the belly of a fish, never knowing his true parents. In that moment, they both realized the terrible truth: the prophecy had been fulfilled.

This story bears an uncanny resemblance to the ancient story of Oedipus, who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. But here's where the Jewish version takes a different turn, one filled with hope and redemption.

Consumed by guilt and remorse, Joshua repented his sins. And, crucially, his repentance was accepted by God. He went on to serve Moses, and ultimately, to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land after Moses' death.

As Louis Ginzberg recounts in Legends of the Jews, this remarkable tale offers a Jewish response to the tragedy of Oedipus. While Oedipus ends his story in despair, blinding himself, Joshua finds forgiveness and purpose. As we find in Midrash Rabbah, no sin is beyond repentance. Joshua, redeemed, leads his people with clear vision, a stark contrast to the blind Oedipus.

Some scholars, like Howard Schwartz in Tree of Souls, suggest that this myth might have been inspired by the name of Joshua's father, "Nun," which is the Aramaic word for "fish." It seems this imaginative myth was crafted to give Joshua a grand, mythic origin, elevating him as a worthy successor to Moses, a leader with an equally extraordinary beginning.

It’s a powerful reminder that even when fate seems to have dealt us an impossible hand, repentance and redemption are always within reach. The story of Joshua, as told in this legend, isn't just a retelling of ancient myths; it's a evidence of the enduring power of forgiveness and the boundless capacity of the human spirit to overcome even the darkest of circumstances.

Full source
Legends of the Jews 4:72Legends of the Jews

Ever have one of those moments where you hear something so earth-shattering, so potentially disruptive, that your first instinct is... well, to shut it down? To make it go away?

That's kind of what happened in the desert, according to the Legends of the Jews.

The story picks up with Eldad and Medad, two men in the Israelite camp who began prophesying. And what were they prophesying? Not exactly sunshine and rainbows. They foresaw that Moses would die in the desert, and that Joshua would take his place. Big news. Gershon, Moses' son, hears this and, understandably perhaps, rushes to his father, breathlessly relaying what he’s heard. Imagine the scene. The weight of leadership, the constant pressure, the murmurings in the camp... then this.

Picture Joshua. He’s been Moses’ right-hand man. He's loyal, ambitious, and probably more than a little nervous about the future. Ginzberg, in his masterful retelling of the Legends of the Jews, paints Joshua as "greatly agitated" by this prophecy. And his reaction?

"O lord, destroy these people that prophesy such evil news!"

Wow. Talk about shooting the messenger! Joshua’s immediate response is not to ponder the prophecy, not to consider its implications, but to silence the prophets. To eliminate the source of the uncomfortable truth. It’s a very human reaction, isn't it? One driven by fear and uncertainty.

But here's where Moses' wisdom shines through.

Moses replies, "O Joshua, canst thou believe that I begrudge thee thy splendid future? It is my wish that thou mayest be honored as much as I have been and that all Israel be honored like thee." Moses, facing his own mortality and the transfer of power, isn't threatened. He's not jealous. He's not clinging to his position. Instead, he expresses a genuine desire for Joshua’s success and the well-being of all Israel. As we find in Midrash Rabbah, this episode displays Moses' profound humility and selfless leadership.

It's a powerful lesson, isn’t it? That true leadership isn't about protecting your own ego or clinging to power, but about fostering the success of those who will come after you. It's about embracing the future, even when it means accepting your own limitations.

So, what do we take away from this little desert drama? Perhaps it’s a reminder that sometimes, the most challenging prophecies, the most unsettling truths, are the very ones we need to hear. And that true greatness lies not in silencing those voices, but in embracing the future they reveal.

Full source