Shortly before Moses turned over his responsibilities as leader of the children of Israel to Joshua, he was instructed of the Lord to send the Israelites into battle against the Midianites. By this time there were a number of other kings that were involved in the battle, some five kings of Midian were slain in this battle. At the end of the verse it is simply stated: "Balaam also the son of Beor ["Bosor" in Greek] they slew with the sword."

And it was after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, "Moses my servant has died now arise and cross the River Jordan. You and all this nation go to the land which I give the Children of Israel. Every place on which the soles of your feet will tread I have given to you, as I have spoken to Moses. No man shall stand up before you al the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so shall I be with you. I will not weaken my grasp on you nor will I abandon you. Just be strong and very courageous to observe and do in accordance with all the Torah that Moses my servant has commanded you. Therefore, do not stray right or left in order that you will succeed in wherever you go."

At this time the Promised Land is bounded by the Egyptian empire to the south and Mesopotamia to the north. But it is not ruled by either of them. In fact, there is no one power ruling this section of land, rather it is settled by seven Canaanite tribes who inhabit 31 fortified city-states scattered all over the map, each ruled by its own "king."

(Jericho is one of these city-states, so is Ai, so is Jerusalem, where Canaanite tribesmen called Jebusites dwell.) ... Before they enter the land, the Jewish people send an envoy to the Canaanites with the message, "God, the Creator of the Universe has promised this land to our forefathers. We are now here to claim our inheritance, and we ask you to leave peacefully."

Needless to say most of the Canaanites don't. (Only one tribe takes the offer and leaves.) Meanwhile, Joshua has clear instructions from God that if the Canaanites don't get out, the Jews must wipe them out, because if they remain in the land they are going to corrupt the Jews. It is clear that the Canaanites are extremely immoral and idolatrous people and the Jews cannot live with them as neighbors.

. It's such an obvious point in the moral history of the world that as soon as you tolerate something, it becomes bearable, and before long it will become common. Therefore, here God is driving home an important point to the Jews: You're on a very high spiritual level. If you tolerate even small indiscretions by a few, eventually these few are going to pollute the nation.

This is like saying today that living in a bad neighborhood messes up your kids. You have to always be careful about outside influences.

 

Joshua and the Battle of Jericho - 1422 B.C.

Joshua is preparing an attack on Jericho in the mountains to the north-east of the Dead Sea. From the mountains, Joshua looks west across the river Jordan toward his destination. The territory God once pledged to Abraham and his descendants. At Joshua's command are some 40,000 Israelite men, descendants of the Hebrew slaves who fled Egypt. There is one problem: the country is already inhabited by Canaanites. Like any good military commander, Joshua's first requirement is to gather military intelligence. He sends out two spies across the Jordan River ahead of time. They go immediately to an inn that's run by a prostitute. In the ancient world, brothels and taverns were places to gather information. The spies meet a prostitute called Rahab. But things soon go wrong. No sooner have they come to her house than the King of Jericho sends his men, because he knows that the spies have arrived. Rahab takes charge of the whole situation. She hides the spies in the stocks of grain on her roof..When the King's guards come, Rahab said to them: "Some men came, you're right, but they left a long time ago when the city gate closed. If you rush ahead and go down to the Jordan, I think you'll find them there." So she sends the pursuers of the spies away and goes up to the roof and tells the spies that she knows that Israel will conquer the land. She knows that God has promised the land to them.

Joshua's army walked around the walled city of Jericho once a day for six days. Each time they walked priests blew trumpets. On the seventh day they circled seven times and the walls of the city came crashing down. Joshua and his army conquered the city, massacring every person they found. Only Rahab and her family were saved. Joshua and his people then continued to destroy other towns and cities and Joshua succeeded in conquering Canaan. .... source BBC

The Book of Joshua describes the seven years of conquest and seven years of settlement of the Land of Israel. After the land is conquered is divided into separate tribal portions via a divinely guided lottery. The Book of Joshua also describes the Biblical boundaries of the Land Of Israel.

The Jews move on to the next city-state, a place called Ai. But here things don't go so smoothly. In fact, they meet with a terrible defeat with many of their number killed. Traumatized by the experience, they plead to know why God had abandoned them and quickly learn the terrible truth -- that one person, Achan, had stolen some items back in Jericho.

One person out of 3 million didn't listen to God and everyone suffers!

Despite many difficulties on the way, the Israelites do finally lay claim to the Promised Land but their life there is far from calm, particularly after Joshua dies. The Bible relates that they had only themselves to blame. ... And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord ... and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers ... and he gave them over into the hands of their enemies." (Judges 2:8-14)