114 myths · Page 1 of 4
Moses' successor who led Israel across the Jordan, conquered the Promised Land, and made the sun stand still at Gibeon.
114 myths on JewishMythology.com retell how Jewish tradition imagines joshua, drawn from the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, Talmud, Kabbalah, and later Jewish literature. Each story below synthesizes primary sources into a single narrative; follow any myth to read it, and from there into the source passages behind it.
Twelve spies slipped through Canaan's open gates while the cities buried their dead, then came home swearing the land devoured its own people.
Six tribes climbed Gerizim, six climbed Ebal, the Ark stood in the valley, and Israel had to shout Amen twelve times across the gap.
For forty years the cloud stood over Moses. On his last day it rose from his tent and settled over Joshua's, and Moses watched it go.
For thirty-six nights Moses rose at midnight, slipped into Joshua's room, and cleaned the shoes of the man who would replace him.
Joshua cast lots to divide Canaan among the twelve tribes. The rabbis said the lots already knew the answer. Jacob had written it four centuries earlier.
Two demons offered to scout Jericho for Joshua. He would not trust a word they said, so he twisted their faces and sent them ahead to scare the city.
Two urns stand before the High Priest. One holds twelve tribes, one holds twelve lands, and his hand must find what God already knows.
Moses blessed Dan as a lion leaping from the Bashan. The Sifrei Devarim reveals this was a prophecy: the tribe would divide and claim two separate territories.
Moses wanted one of his sons to inherit the burden of leadership. God chose Joshua instead, then made Moses strengthen him in public.
Eldad and Medad prophesied in the camp that Moses would die and Joshua would replace him. Joshua had two words for that: imprison them.
The sun refused Joshua's command at Gibeon, insisting it was older than any man. Joshua answered it, and the sun stood still.
Jochebed walked to Egypt, the Nile, the sea, the desert, and Sinai, asking each landmark where Moses had gone after he died on Nebo.
Moses could have kept himself alive for years by stalling the campaign against Midian. He gave the order the same day. Then his soldiers sat down.
Before the first wall fell, Joshua sent every nation a letter with three choices. One nation left. The others forced his arm into the sky.
Ten spies saw the same Canaan and came back broken. Two saw the same land and held. Ben Sira says it was the greatest act of faithfulness in Israel's history.
The drawn sword outside Jericho carried an old refusal. Moses had turned away the angel, but Joshua bowed low enough to receive him.
No horse, donkey, or mule could carry Joshua's weight into battle, so a steer bore him to Jericho and kept its mark forever.
A shard engraved with God's Name lies over the abyss, and every false oath knocks a letter loose. The angel Ya'asriel keeps seventy pencils.
Joshua falls at Moses' feet and names the terror beneath succession, a nation losing the one man who could pray it back from disaster.
Fifty thousand men crossed the Jordan to fight for land they would never live on. When they went home and built an altar, Israel armed against them.
From Mount Nebo, God showed Moses every corner of the promised land like a set table. Moses's first question was who would lead after him.
God told Moses his time had come, and gave him one task first: bring Joshua to the Tent and stand beside him. The pillar of cloud would do the rest.
When God told Moses his sons would not succeed him, the reason was not wickedness. It was that they did not watch the fig tree. Joshua had watched it every day.
Moses named Joshua his successor. Joshua declared he had no questions. Within moments he had forgotten hundreds of laws and nearly been killed for it.
The river piled up three hundred miles high. Joshua walked the whole nation down onto the dry bottom and read them the terms there.
Word reached Canaan ahead of the army. Men pried up their own floors and packed silver into the walls. One nation harnessed its carts instead.
The Gibeonites posed as travelers from far away to trick Joshua into a covenant. He honored it anyway, to show what an oath meant to Israel.
Shobach's letter called Joshua a wolf of the desert and gave him thirty days. Joshua took it to the elders, who put his whole conquest on trial first.
While ten spies conspired against entering Canaan, Caleb slipped away to Hebron to pray at the patriarchs' graves. He needed help the living could not give.
The crowd silenced Joshua before he finished a sentence. Caleb found another way in, using a trick that made him look like he was about to betray Moses.
