JOSHEB-BASSHEBETH (njfj 37') occurs in RV of 2 .S 23' as a proper name in place of tlie utterly meaningless ' that sat in the seat ' of the AV. It is evident that the t«.xt is corrupt, and that the orij,'inal name Jashobeam must he re- stored from tlie parallel passage, 2 Ch 11", just as the ' Hachmonite ' must be substituted for tlie ' Tahchemonite.' (Cf. Driver, ^efi. Text of Sam., ad lor.). Budde and others would go further. In Jasliobeam itself they tind a corruption of the ori^;inal name, and they recover the latter by the following steps. In B we find 'U^iaSe, and in Luc. 'IcffSdoX, from which it is inferred that n3-r33»' = rr:s" = Sy:»' (S;':cn), so that the name of David's commander was really Eshbiuil. (See notes on
2 S 23" in Haupt's Sacred Bks. of OT, and in Kautzsch's AT). J. A. Sblbie.
JOSHIBIAH (n;:sV -J" canseth to dwell'; Oxf. Beb. Lex. compares Phcen. Sy^K" perhaps = Sv33l-). —A Simeonite chief, 1 Ch 4". See GENEALOGY.
JOSHUA (on forms and meaning of the name see next art.). — 1. The successor of Moses. See next article. 2. The Bethshemite in whose field was the stone on which the ark was set, on its return from the land of the Philistines, 1 S 6'*- ". 3. The governor (ij') of Jerusalem in the time of Josiah, 2 K 23'. 4. The high priest who along with Zenibbabel directed aflairs at Jerusalem after the restoration, Hag li'-'-i* etc.. Zee 3'-'-* etc. In the books of Hag and Zee he is called Joshua, in Ezr and Neh Jeshua (which see).
JOSHUA.—
L Name.
IL Cont«nta of the Book.
UL Illation to the He[itat«uch.
Iv. Conittituent DocuincnU.
T. Problems of their Ueiation &nd Coropoeltloil. ri. Sepamtion from the F'entAteuch, aaa Date. vU. Uelatioii to the Hook of Judges, riij. Fliatohcal Value of the Book. ix. The Person Joahua.
X. His Work.
xf. Uoliffious TeachlDgof the Book. Literature.
L The Name.— 1. The English form Joshua is an abbreviation of the Heb. yisi'i.T (only in Dt 3", Jg2') or vsnn: (the usual form, e.g. Ex 17*, Dt I» etc., I K 16**), later abbreviated to re*: (of Joshua himself, Neh 8") in order to avoid, it is said, the sequence of the vowels ft, ft (SK, 185)2, 177, 573 ; WZhWf iv. 332 11".). In Nu IS"- '», Dt 3'2" the form is I'y'i.i, the same as that of the king of N. Israel (2K15»eto,) and the prophet (Hos 1'- ») ; but Dt 32" is probably a textual error for vrw, so Sam., Gr., Vuli;., and Svr. (cf. Driver, in loco), and on Nn 13»- '• (!') no reliance can be placed. The LXX gira it as 'Iijtroft, and so it occora in the NT both as
.Joshua's own name (Ac 7") and that of our Lord (Mt l'-'-^). The name, Stade (Gram. 93) suggests, niaj' be a Hipliil. More probably it is a compound 'J" is salvation.' The parallel forms yir-^x and ■;:s-Hx favour this (on this and the antiquity of the name see Gray, Heb. Proper Names, 155, 259). Cf the Heb. jv'^n, still more I'ip'^k and ■;?:, the Phojn. I'S", and the Himj'arite jx'.i', which Deren- bourg transliterates Yuhashi.
Joshua the son of Nun, the successor of Mose.s in the leadership of Israel, is mentioned several times outside the Book of Joshua ; but as the traditions concerning him are mainly found in the latter, it will be more convenient to examine its contents and composiiion before treating of his life.
ii. Contents of the Book. — The Book of Joshua consists of twenty-four chapters, of which the first twelve take up the history of Israel from the point reached by the end of Deuteronomy, the death of Moses, and continue it through the con- quest of Western Palestine ; while the next nine record the diWsion of the land among the tribes (12-21). An appendix gives Joshua's speech to Reuben, Gad, and half-AIana.sseh, his dismi.s-sal of them to E. Palestine (22'"') ; the controver.sy about the altar of Ed (22'»-") : the last davs of Joshua and his death (23-24''); the burial of Joseph's body (24*^'), and the death of Eleazar son of Aaron (24^).
iii. Relation to the Pentateuch.— The Book of Joshua thus proves to be the necessary supple- ment and completion of the Pentateuch, of whose promises and obligations it records the fulfilment in the settlement of Abraham's descendants in Canaan (cf. Gn 12' etc.); in the execution (told in Deut«ronomic language) of the Deuteronomic commands to Israel to take possession of the land and extirpate the Canaanites ; and even in such details as the burial of .Joseph's bones, which the patriarch ma»le Israel swear they would carry up with them from Egypt (Gn 50=*).*
Notwithstanding this continuity of historical material and of plan, the Heb. Canon sharply separated the Book of Joshua from the Pentateuch : the Pentateuch comprises the first and earliest jiart of the Canon — the Torah ; the Book of Joshua heads the later Canon of the Prophets, more especially the series of historical works, concluding with the Books of Kings and known as the Former Prophets. Besides, the book in its present form is an independent whole, with a definite beginning and conclusion ; its orthography dill'ers in several im- portant details from that of the Pentateuch (e.g. it does not continue the epicene kit and ly; of the Pentateuch, nor the form Skh for .nSx.i, and spells Jericho 'inn; not as always in the Pentateuch im.-) ; while in consequence of its later adoption into tlie Canon its text (cf. the numerous deviations of the LXX) is in a less certain form. For some time, therefore, the book was not brought under the methods of criticism and analvsis to which the Pentateuch was subjected in tfie end of la-st and beginning of this centuiy. But in 1792 the Scotsman, I'ather Geddes, in his tran.slation of the Bible, wrote (vol. I. Preface, p. xxi) : 'To the Pentateuch I have joined the Book of Joshuah (.fi>), both because I conceive it to be compiled by the same author, and because it is a nece.ssary appendix to the history contained in the former books. 't But it was de Wette, Bleek, and Ewald who were the first to extend to Joshua the docu* mentory theory of the composition of the Penta-