The Death of Joshua

The event

Joshua died at the age of 110 and was buried at Timnath-serah, in the hill country of Ephraim that had been given to him as his personal inheritance — a fitting resting place for the man who had led Israel into the land he himself had once scouted as a young spy under Moses. His death marks the formal close of the conquest generation, the last of the leaders who had personally witnessed the plagues in Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, and the fall of Jericho.

Judges 2:7 notes that Israel served the LORD faithfully throughout Joshua's lifetime and through the days of the elders who outlived him — men who had also seen firsthand everything the LORD had done for Israel. That faithfulness, however, did not automatically transfer to their children.

What follows is one of the most sobering verses in the Old Testament: a new generation arose "who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel" (Judges 2:10). The rest of the book of Judges traces the consequences of that spiritual amnesia — a repeating cycle of apostasy, oppression by surrounding nations, Israel crying out to God, and a raised-up deliverer bringing temporary rest, only for the cycle to begin again.

Dating

Scripture records Joshua's age at death (110) but not a fixed calendar year, so this date is an approximation within standard conquest chronologies. Judges 2:7 also notes Israel remained faithful through the days of "the elders who outlived Joshua" — an undefined buffer generation that adds further uncertainty to exactly when the judges era's cycle of decline actually begins.

Scripture references

• Joshua 24:29-33
• Judges 2:6-10