and punishment of the Gibeonites, ix. l7-2l--an account which may
well have been fuller in the original form of the document.

The most valuable part of Joshua for historical purposes is
naturally that which comes from the prophetic document, which is the
oldest. It is here that the interesting and concrete detail lies,
notably in chs. i.-xii., but also scattered throughout the rest of
the book in some extremely important fragments, which indicate how
severe and occasionally unsuccessful was the struggle of Israel to
gain a secure footing upon certain parts of the country.[1] Many of
the difficulties revealed by a minute study of i.-xii. make it
absolutely certain that the prophetic document is really composite
(JE), but owing to the thorough blending of the sources the analysis
is peculiarly difficult and uncertain. That there are various
sources, however, admits of no doubt. The story of the crossing of
the Jordan in chs. iii., iv., if we follow it carefully step by
step, is seen to be unintelligible on the assumption that it is a
unity. In iii. 17 all the people are already over the Jordan, but in
iv. 4, 5, the implication is that they are only about to cross. Ch.
iv. 2 repeats iii. 12 almost word for word. In iv. 9 the memorial
stones are to be placed in the Jordan, in iv. 20 at Gilgal. In vii.
25_b_, 26_a_, Achan alone appears to be stoned, in
_v_. 25_c_ the family is stoned too. A similar confusion
prevails in the story of the fall of Jericho (vi.). In one version,
Israel marches six days silently round the city, and on the seventh
they shout at the word of Joshua; on the other, they march round
seven times in one day, and the seventh time they shout at the blast
of the trumpet.
[Footnote 1: Cf. xv. 14-19, 63; xvi. 10; xvii. 11-18; xix. 47.]