Add parallel Print Page Options

Joshua to Succeed Moses. 12 The Lord said to Moses: Go up into this mountain of the Abarim range[a] and view the land that I have given to the Israelites.(A) 13 When you have viewed it, you will be gathered to your people, as was Aaron your brother.(B) 14 For in the rebellion of the community in the wilderness of Zin you both rebelled against my order to acknowledge my holiness before them by means of the water.(C) (These were the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.)

15 Then Moses said to the Lord, 16 “May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all humanity,[b] set over the community someone 17 who will be their leader in battle and who will lead them out and bring them in, that the Lord’s community may not be like sheep without a shepherd.” 18 And the Lord replied to Moses: Take Joshua, son of Nun,(D) a man of spirit,[c] and lay your hand upon him. 19 Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole community, and commission him in their sight. 20 Invest him with some of your own power, that the whole Israelite community may obey him. 21 He shall present himself to Eleazar the priest, who will seek for him the decision of the Urim[d] in the Lord’s presence; and as it directs, Joshua, all the Israelites with him, and the whole community will go out for battle; and as it directs, they will come in.

22 Moses did as the Lord had commanded him. Taking Joshua and having him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole community, 23 he laid his hands on him and commissioned him, as the Lord had directed through Moses.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 27:12 The Abarim range: the mountains on the eastern side of the Dead Sea. The peak of this chain is Mount Nebo where Moses views the promised land before he dies (Dt 32:49).
  2. 27:16 The God of the spirits of all humanity: the sense is that God knows the character and abilities of all people and therefore knows best whom to appoint (cf. Jgs 6:34; 11:29; 1 Sm 16:13); see the same phrase in Nm 16:22, where “spirit” evidently means the life principle.
  3. 27:18 A man of spirit: lit., “a man in whom there is spirit,” that is, probably one who is endowed with a courageous spirit (Jos 2:11); compare Gn 41:38; Dt 34:9.
  4. 27:21 The Urim: certain sacred objects which Israelite priests employed to discern the divine will, probably by obtaining a positive or negative answer to a given question. The full expression was “the Urim and Thummim”; cf. Ex 28:30; Lv 8:8; Dt 33:8; Ezr 2:63; Neh 7:65. Joshua ordinarily did not receive direct revelations from God as Moses had received them.