Introduction
This chapter details the sending of the spies to reconnoiter the city of Jericho. Holmes' opinion that this chapter is "from a different source"[1] and that it does not really belong in this book at all is based upon the failure to observe its vital connection with the whole narrative. In Joshua 1 and Joshua 2 are given the preparations Joshua made for the invasion of Canaan. Keil summarized these as follows:
"(1) Instructions were issued to the people to prepare.
(2) A renewal of the pledge of the trans-Jordanic group to aid the struggle was required by Joshua.
(3) Spies were sent out to reconnoiter the land."[2]
The first two of these fundamental preparations were given in Joshua 1, and here we have the third, namely, that of the sending out of the spies. One may only pity the willful BLINDNESS that is evidenced by anyone's missing such an obvious and necessary connection.
As to why Joshua sent out spies, it would appear to have been only what any competent general would have done. Joshua, at this point did not know HOW God would deliver Jericho without any kind of a military assault, and, besides that, there was a Divine precedent in Moses' sending out the spies some forty years earlier, Joshua himself having been a part of that mission (Numbers 13). In the light of all the facts, we should have been greatly surprised if Joshua had NOT sent out spies!
The whole chapter is devoted to the narration of this third preparatory step by Joshua antecedent to the invasion.
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