Joshua’s Prayer for Israel before His Death

Eusebius

Biblical Antiquities 21.2–5

1st Century

And Joshua said, “You above all know, Lord, what moves the heart of the sea before it rages, and you have searched out the constellations and numbered the stars and regulated the rain; you know the number of all generations before they are born. And now, Lord, give to your people a wise heart and a prudent mind (1 Kings 3:9); and when you will give…

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At the end of the book of Joshua, Joshua delivers a final charge to the people, and they renew the covenant. The author of Biblical Antiquities adds a pious prayer by Joshua asking God to bestow wisdom and prudence on the people, to sustain them with mercy, and to raise up a royal house for them in the future. Joshua also appeals to God’s self-interest, pointing out that the divine reputation would suffer were God to destroy Israel and recalling a similar prayer that he offered after an Israelite soldier named Achan stole from proscribed war spoils, provoking God’s wrath (Joshua 7:1–9).

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