Biblical Parallels Index – Devarim 3/1

Biblical Parallels Index – Devarim 3

Introduction

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Battles of Moshe and Yehoshua

Many of the events of Sefer Yehoshua parallel events during the period of Moshe’s leadership. Among other things, both leaders miraculously split waters, send spies, and engage in battles of conquest for the land. There are several points of contact between the battles of Sichon and Og described in our chapter and Yehoshua's initial battles in Yericho and Ai.

Tools

• Use the Tanakh Lab to compare the descriptions of the battles of Sichon and Yericho.  There are not many linguistic parallels between the two, but in both stories, Hashem promises the leder to give thenemey "into his hands", and both cities are in fact "utterly destroyed" ( וַנַּחֲרֵם אֶת כָּל עִיר / וַיַּחֲרִימוּ אֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר בָּעִיר).

Articles

• See סיפורי שבח והצלחה - השוואה בין יהושע למשה, by Dr. Yehoshua Reiss, for a comparison of the splitting of the sea to the splitting of the Jordan, and the battles of Sichon and Og to the battles of Yericho and Ai, which demonstrates the sense in which Yehoshua represents a continuation of Moshe’s leadership.
• See Moshe and Yehoshua for a more general comparison of the two leaders, which notes many of the content and linguistic parallels between the stories of the two luminaries. The article concludes that perhaps the many similarities in the way the story both unfolded and is told are meant to demonstrate that, despite the difficulty inherent in being the successor to a leader of Moshe's caliber, Yehoshua was in fact able to fill Moshe's shoes.