The subject of this study is the prophetic history of Joshua and the first stages of the conquest of the Promised Land, as presented in the Masoretic text of the biblical Book of Joshua. The term prophetic history is employed to describe the subject because prophecy in biblical thought is not fatalistic and does not predict future events. What it does do is assert that the moral course that a society chooses to follow in the present can determine its probable but not inevitable future. The purpose of the biblical book is to inform the reader of the historical consequences of the failure to...