¹ After YHWH's servant Moses died, YHWH spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' assistant, ² "My servant Moses is dead. Get up now and cross over the Jordan, you and all this people, into the land I am giving to them, the Israelites. ³ I have granted every place on which the soles of all your feet tread, just as I told Moses I would do. ⁴ These will be your boundaries: from the wilderness and the Lebanon as far as the great river, the Euphrates--the land of the Hittites all the way to the Great Sea in the west. ⁵ No one will be able to resist you as long as you are alive. Just as I was with Moses, I will be with you. I will not fail you. I will not abandon you. ⁶ Be strong and courageous, for you will enable this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers I would give them. ⁷ Just be very strong and courageous. Make sure you do all the Torah which my servant Moses commanded you. Do not veer from it right or left. In that way you will succeed wherever you go. ⁸ Do not let this book of the Torah be missing from your mouth. Recite it day and night, so you are sure to do what is written in it. Then your way will prosper and you will succeed. ⁹ Have I not commanded you?--Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified or frightened. YHWH your Elohim will be with you wherever you go." (1:1-9)

    This passage contains Yahweh's speech commissioning Joshua as the new leader of his people. Yahweh does three things here: he encourages Joshua, he defines his responsibilities, and he assures him of God's continued presence. The vocabulary and sermonic style of this passage clearly mark it as Deuteronomistic. Many of the same phrases are found, for example, in Deuteronomy 31:1-8, where Joshua received his first commissioning--phrases such as "Be strong and courageous" and "Do not be terrified or frightened." Note also the following features of this passage.
    Moses is repeatedly called "YHWH's servant." This is a title of honor and reflects that Moses was dedicated to God's service. The title "Servant of YHWH" is a favorite Deuteronomistic description of holy men, and was applied primarily to kings and prophets in Deuteronomistic literature.
    The death of Moses signaled the start of the occupation of Canaan. Moses was not allowed to enter the land himself because he disobeyed God at Kadesh (see Numbers 20:1-13 and Deuteronomy 32:48-52). Moses' death marks a major transition in Israel's history.
    Notice the geographical markers in the text. The Jordan River is the eastern boundary of Canaan. The land lying to the east of the Jordan was called Transjordan by the Israelites. Such a term obviously presupposes a position within Canaan in order for that land to be called the "across the Jordan" land. Still, certain Israelite tribes did claim territory in Transjordan at various times, including Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. The reference to "the wilderness" is ambiguous. It could mean the eastern Arabian desert or the Sinai/Negev to the south.

Promised Land. The boundaries of the land here laid out define the northern and western borders in an expansive way. The territory promised to the Israelites extended as far north as the Euphrates River. The Abrahamic Covenant (see Genesis 15:18) and the Mosaic Covenant (see Deuteronomy 1:7) also extended the Promised Land to the Euphrates River. Not coincidentally, the boundaries specified here in Joshua appear to align with the territorial extension of the Davidic kingdom; see 2 Samuel 8:3, which extends David's reach far into Syria, if not all the way to the Euphrates River. The point is that the eventual Davidic kingdom was viewed as a fulfillment of God's design going back to Joshua, Moses, and Abraham.