o parts.
The _first_ twelve chapters contain the history of the conquest itself,
with the movements preparatory thereto. Joshua, who had been previously
designated as the leader of the people (Numb. 27:15-23), receives a
solemn charge to pass over the Jordan and take possession of the
promised land; the people prepare themselves accordingly; two spies are
sent out to take a survey of Jericho; the Israelites pass over the
Jordan dry-shod, its waters having been miraculously divided; they
encamp at Gilgal, and are there subjected to the rite of circumcision.
Chaps. 1-5. Then follows an account of the overthrow of Jericho, the
trespass of Achan with the calamity which it brought upon the people,
the conquest of Ai, the ratification of the law at mount Ebal with the
erection of the stones on which the law was written, the artifice of the
Gibeonites by which they saved their lives, the overthrow of the
combined kings of the Canaanites at Gibeon, and the conquest, first of
the southern and afterwards of the northern kings of Canaan. Chaps.
6-12.

The _second_ part gives an account of the division of the land by lot
among the several tribes. This work was begun as is described in
chapters 13-17, and after an interruption through the dilatoriness of
the people, for which Joshua rebuked them, was continued and completed
at Shiloh. Chaps. 18, 19. Six cities of refuge were then appointed,
three on each side of the Jordan; forty-eight cities were assigned by
lot to the Levites; and the two and a half tribes that had received
their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan (Numb., chap. 32) were
sent home. Chaps. 20-22. The twenty-third chapter contains Joshua's
charge to the elders of Israel, and the twenty-fourth his final charge
at Shechem to the assembled tribes, on which occasion there was a solemn
renewal of the national covenant. The whole book is brought to a close
by a brief notice of the death of Joshua and Eleazar, and the interment
of the bones of Joseph in Shechem. This brief survey of the contents of
the book reveals at once its unity, its orderly plan, and the place
which it holds in the history of the Theocracy.

4. The _authorship_ of the book cannot be determined from the title
alone, any more than that of the two books which bear the name of
Samuel. Jewish tradition ascribes it to Joshua himself, except the last
five verses. But it records some transactions which, according to the
most obvious interpretation of