Joshua and Judges

The books of Joshua and Judges take place in the Age of Taurus when the sun enters the house of Taurus on the spring equinox. The twelve constellations, or any within each house, represent a motif upon which the stories are based. If there is any thought that these two books have any historical truth to them, this report should raise some serious doubts.

I did not expect Joshua and Judges to align with the Age of Taurus. According to Bible Dates, these two books should have aligned with the Age of Aries. Moses' and Abraham's charts aligned with Aries, so it made sense that Joshua and Judges would follow chronologically. There is another reason which suggests Joshua and Judges where written before Genesis.

In Judges 18, there is a story about the Danites who captured the city of Laish and renamed it Dan.

²⁷.the Danites came to Laish, to a people quiet and unsuspecting, and smote them with the edge of the sword, and burned the city with fire.
²⁸.And they rebuilt the city, and dwelt in it.
²⁹And they named the city Dan, after the name of Dan their ancestor, who was born to Israel; but the name of the city was Laish at the first. (Judges 18: 27-29)

In Genesis, the city of Dan was said to exist in the days of Abraham.

¹⁴When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. (Gen. 14:14)

Richard E. Friedman explains biblical anachronisms in Who Wrote the Bible.

For a graphical image of the constellations, see Zodiac Map.

Aquarius

Joshua is Aquarius the Waterman. Figuratively speaking, he is carrying the water for the Israelites. Joshua 1 in entirety contains a speech by Joshua.

Pisces

In Pisces, there is a constellation called Cetus the dragon fish. The Bible calls it Rahab.

⁹Thou dost rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, thou stillest them.
¹⁰Thou didst crush Rahab like a carcass, thou didst scatter thy enemies with thy mighty arm.
¹¹The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine; the world and all that is in it, thou hast founded them.
¹²The north and the south, thou hast created them; (Psalms 89:9-12)

⁹Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not thou that didst cut Rahab in pieces, that didst pierce the dragon?
¹⁰Was it not thou that didst dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep; that didst make the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? (Isaiah 51:9-10)

The name of Rahab takes on a double meaning as a prostitute in the city of Jericho, Joshua 2.

¹And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho." And they went, and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lodged there. (Josh. 2:1)

Joshua sent two spies into Jericho to take a view of what was there. When they went into the city, they came to the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and stayed there for the night. When the king of Jericho heard the news of the spies that lodged at Rahab's house, he summoned her to know their whereabouts. She had hidden them on the roof, but she told the king they left the city and she didn't know where they went or who they were.

When the king's men left the city in search of the spies, Rahab went on the roof to see them. She told them when her people heard of their great deeds, the men lost their courage. All she asked was that when they attacked the city, they spare the lives of her and her family; the spies swore she would be spared. Because her house was built into the wall, she was able to let them escape over the wall with a rope.

Aries

The people followed the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant. When they stepped into the overflowing Jordan, the water stopped flowing and the people crossed over dry land to the other side. -The constellation Eridanus is a long river that winds through Pisces, Aries and Taurus. In Joshua it represents the Jordan River.

¹⁴So, when the people set out from their tents, to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people,
¹⁵and when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest),
¹⁶the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap far off, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off; and the people passed over opposite Jericho.
¹⁷And while all Israel were passing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan. (Josh. 3:14-17)

The man with a sword in his hand describes the constellation image of Perseus.

¹³When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood before him with his drawn sword in his hand; and Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us, or for our adversaries?"
¹⁴And he said, "No; but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and worshiped, and said to him, "What does my lord bid his servant?"
¹⁵And the commander of the LORD'S army said to Joshua, "Put off your shoes from your feet; for the place where you stand is holy." And Joshua did so. (Josh. 5:13-15)

There is a double meaning to the Ark of the Covenant. The first of course is the box that contains the Ten Commandments. The second is that it symbolizes Yahweh's presence. The ark is a pun for the arc of the sun as it moves across the horizon. The covenant represents the permanence of the sun's arc. This fits with the zodiacal sequence of events in the Book of Joshua.

Taurus

The seven priests marched around Jericho blowing trumpets made with ram's horns. -The constellation Auriga shows him with a goat in his arms, representing the priests carrying the ram's horns.

³You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days.
⁴And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark; and on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, the priests blowing the trumpets.
⁵And when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up every man straight before him." (Josh. 6:3-5)

The walls of Jericho represent the equator. When the walls of Jericho collapse, the sun has crossed the equator into Taurus. As the daylight hours exceeds the night time hours, the God of light overpowers the darkness of evil.

Gemini

Joshua sent the two spies who had earlier met Rahab to bring her and her family to safety. -The Gemini twins represent the two spies.

²²And Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, "Go into the harlot's house, and bring out from it the woman, and all who belong to her, as you swore to her."
²³So the young men who had been spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her; and they brought all her kindred, and set them outside the camp of Israel. (Josh. 6:22-23)

CAncer

The zigzag walking movements of the crab symbolize a time of hesitation and uncertainty.

In Joshua 7, Achan from the tribe of Judah stole some of the priests' booty for himself, only to be noticed by Yahweh. Shortly after when Joshua sent about 3,000 men to invade the city of Ai, the men of Ai killed them all in battle.

Joshua's time of hesitation and uncertainty can be seen in this passage.

⁶Then Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust upon their heads.
⁷And Joshua said, "Alas, O Lord GOD, why hast thou brought this people over the Jordan at all, to give us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan!
⁸O Lord, what can I say, when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies!
⁹For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth; and what wilt thou do for thy great name?" (Josh. 7:6-9)

Yahweh told him it was punishment for violating the covenant. Joshua would have to burn Achan to death to sanctify the people of Israel.

¹⁵And he who is taken with the devoted things shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he has done a shameful thing in Israel.'" (Josh. 7:15)

So Joshua did what Yahweh had commanded. Achan was stoned, burned and stoned again.

²⁵And Joshua said, "Why did you bring trouble on us? The LORD brings trouble on you today." And all Israel stoned him with stones; they burned them with fire, and stoned them with stones. (Josh. 7:25)

Leo

Leo is the symbol of kings and a time of strength. Leo starts at the summer solstice.

In Joshua 8, Joshua tricked the men of Ai into leaving the city unguarded. His men got into the city and killed and burned everything in sight. The king was captured and hanged.

In Joshua 9, rather risk certain defeat, the Gibeonites tricked Joshua into making a peace treaty by pretending to be poor and humble people from a far off country. When Joshua later found out he was tricked, he kept his oath not to harm them but he made them slaves.

In Joshua 10, Joshua defeats five more kingdoms.

⁵Then the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon, gathered their forces, and went up with all their armies and encamped against Gibeon, and made war against it. (Josh. 10:5)

The passage about Yahweh making the sun and the moon stand still was long ago perceived as a major miracle. It was nothing of the sort. The definition of solstice is "sun stand." For three days, at the height of its ascent, the sun appears to hang in the same spot. At the same time in the evening, the moon was full for those days.

¹²Then spoke Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD gave the Amorites over to the men of Israel; and he said in the sight of Israel, "Sun, stand thou still at Gibeon, and thou Moon in the valley of Aijalon."
¹³And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. (Josh. 10:12-13)

Joshua's military battles are covered in detail at Joshua the Conqueror.

Virgo

When Joshua came upon the enemy by the waters of Merom, he chased them until he killed them all. As Yahweh told him, he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.

⁷So Joshua came suddenly upon them with all his people of war, by the waters of Merom, and fell upon them.
⁸And the LORD gave them into the hand of Israel, who smote them and chased them as far as Great Sidon and Misrephothmaim, and eastward as far as the valley of Mizpeh; and they smote them, until they left none remaining.
⁹And Joshua did to them as the LORD bade him; he hamstrung their horses, and burned their chariots with fire. (Josh. 11:7-9)

The constellation Centaurus is half man half horse. It lies next to the Milky Way which is sometimes thought of as a river. Thus, the waters of Merom refer to the Milky Way which lies next to Centaurus. Though the Big Dipper stretches from Leo to Virgo, it is the candidate for the chariots on fire.

Libra

When they cross the fall equinox into Libra, the balance suggests it is a time for settling debts. The rest of Joshua from chapter 12 is about tallying the spoils of victory and dividing them among the tribes.

Judges

When the sun falls below the equator, this brings us into the darkest months of the year. A judge was a military leader and civil administrator. Unlike a king, it appears that a judge did not rule all the tribes at once. We might think of this period as a loose confederation.

Scorpio

A scorpion's sting sets the seeds of destruction.

After Joshua died, Yahweh appointed Judah and his brother Simeon to take up the sword. Single handed they killed 10,000 at Bezek (1:4). When they captured the king, they cut off his thumbs and big toes before he died (1:6-7). They conquered Jerusalem and set the city on fire (1:8). The cities of Hebron and Debir fell to the people of Judah (1:10-13, 20). Judah and Simeon defeated the people of Zephath and renamed the city Hormah (1:17). Judah took Gaza, Ashelon and Ekron (1:18). Yahweh was with Judah when he took possession of the hill country, but he could not turn back the inhabitants of the plain who had iron chariots (1:19). The last total victory was when the house of Joseph put Bethel to the sword (1:22-25).

The Benjamites did not drive out the Jebusites who dwelt with them in Jerusalem (1:21). The half tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim, the tribes of Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali and Dan did likewise (1:27-36). When Yahweh saw this he sent an angel to warn the Israelites that by making a covenant with the Canaanites they were violating their covenant.

¹Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, "I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you into the land which I swore to give to your fathers. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you,
²and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.' But you have not obeyed my command. What is this you have done?
³So now I say, I will not drive them out before you; but they shall become adversaries to you, and their gods shall be a snare to you." (Judges 2:1-3)

This warning caused a temporary regret (2:4-5), but as time went on new generations arose who forgot the traditions of their elders (2:10). Worse, they began to worship Baal and the Ashtroth (2:11-13). The pattern was to repeat many times. Yahweh would punish the Israelites for sinning by making them suffer at the hands of their enemies (2:14-15). Then Yahweh would appoint judges to save them, but they would not listen to the judges (2:16-17). When a judge saved them from their enemies, they turned back to their old ways of worshipping other gods when the judge died (2:18-19).

For violating his covenant, Yahweh decided not to support them anymore.

²⁰So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel; and he said, "Because this people have transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not obeyed my voice,
²¹I will not henceforth drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died,
²²that by them I may test Israel, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did, or not."
²³So the LORD left those nations, not driving them out at once, and he did not give them into the power of Joshua. (Judges 2:20-23)

Sagittarius

Sagittarius is a centaur, half-man, half-horse, aiming his arrow toward Scorpius. In Mesopotamian mythology he was the archer-god Nergal, who was associated with the wrathful god Irra of war and fire. In Greek myth he is Ares; in Roman myth he is Mars. Sagittarius represents the judges.

Othneil - 3:5-11

The Israelites lived in peace with their neighbors, but they intermarried and served other gods. Yahweh punished them by making them serve King Cushan-rishathaim for eight years. When the Israelites cried for a deliverer, the spirit of Yahweh came over Othneil. His reign lasted forty years after he conquered Cushan-rishathaim.

Ehud - 3:12-30

When the Israelites reverted to other gods, Yahweh made King Eglon of Moab stronger. After eighteen years, when the people cried for a new deliverer, Yahweh sent them Ehud. Ehud got himself alone with Eglon by flattering him with a present offering. At the right moment he pulled a sword from underneath his clothes and impaled the king through his belly. He managed to escape and led the Israelites to victory by slaughtering 10,000 Moabites.

Shamgar -3:31

Shamgar single handedly killed 600 Philistines with an oxgoad, and eight foot rod used to control oxen.

Deborah - 4-5

The Israelites were oppressed by Jabin, the king of Hazor who ruled for twenty years. When Deborah became judge she summoned Barak to gather men to go against Jamin's military general Sisera, but he would not go without Deborah. Deborah and Barak won the battle but Sisera got away. He hid in the tent of Jael, the wife of an ally of King Jabin. When Sisera was asleep, Jael killed him by driving tent peg into his temple. Without Sisera, Barak was able to subdue King Jabin.

Gideon - 6-8

Gideon provoked the Midianites into war against him by tearing down the altar of Baal and sacrificed a bull in its place. Gideon recruited 32,000 men but took only 300 into battle (7:6). On the day of battle his foe was "as thick as locusts; and their camels were without number, countless as the sand on the seashore" (7:12). His band of 300 launched a surprise attack by surrounding the Midianites, blowing their trumpets and waving torches, thus causing them to panic (7:16-25).

When pursuing the Midianites across the Jordan, Gideon and his band of 300 became tired and hungry. At the cities of Succoth and Penuel, he promised revenge because the inhabitants would not help. By the time Gideon caught up to the Midianites, their numbers, once 120,000, reduced to 15,000 (8:10) and Gideon didn't lose a man. Thereafter he returned to Succoth, killed the elders, and with thorns and briers his men whipped the townspeople (8:14-16). He returned to Penuel and killed the men of the city (8:17). When Gideon died, the Israelites returned to worshipping Baal (8:33).

Ambimelech - 8:33-9:56

Ambimelech was the son of Gideon. Rather than being appointed judge by Yahweh, Ambimelech was elected king by the citizens of Shechem (9.6) after killing seventy of his brothers; only Jotham escaped (9.5). Within three years internecine war broke out between Abimelech and the Schechemites (9:22-24). In one battle, Abimelech killed about a thousand men and women by burning the tower of Schechem. He met his demise in Thebez when he came near a tower to burn it. A woman threw a millstone down on his head and crushed his skull (9:53).

Jephthah - 10:6-12:7

Jephthah made a vow to Yahweh to sacrifice whoever came to greet him if he could return home after a victory. When his virgin daughter came to greet him, he had to keep his vow.

Samson - 13-16

Samson's mother could not conceive until an angel came and promised her a son. There was one condition that he was to be raised a Nazirite (13:2-7). Two of the rules (Num. 6:1-21) where that he was never to get a haircut (13:5), and never to go near a dead body. When he grew up, he gook a Philistine for a wife (14:1-3). Though it was against Hebrew law (Deut. 7:3-4), Yahweh arranged it as a pretext to act against the Philistines (14:4). Then Samson killed a lion with his bare hands. A few days he returned and ate some honey from a bee's nest that had grown in the lion.

At his wedding feast, he made up a riddle (14:14) and bet the Philistine guests thirty garments that they could not solve it. After three days, the frustrated guests asked Samson's wife to coax the answer from him (14:10-15). So she nagged him for the seven days of the feast until he gave her the answer, which she passed on to her people. Angered at losing, Samson killed thirty men and paid off the bet with their clothing (14:17). Samson's father-in-law retaliated by annulling the marriage and giving his daughter to the best man.

Samson retaliated by catching 300 foxes, putting a torch to their tails and sending them into the grain fields, burning everything up (14:19:-15:5). In return the Philistines burned his ex-wife and her father. Samson went into another rage and slaughtered Philistines wherever he went. The Philistines threatened to kill the people of Judah if they did not arrest Samson. With Samson's cooperation, the people of Judah tied his arms with rope and gave him to the Philistines. Samson broke the ropes and killed a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey (15:6-17).

Samson judged for twenty years until he met another Philistine Delilah. The Philistines offered her a generous reward if she could find the secret to his strength. Three times he told her if he was tied fresh bowstrings would sap his strength. She tested him by alarming him from sleep. Three times he broke free so nobody dared attack him (16:6-14).

By the fourth time her nagging "tired him to death." This time he revealed the secret of his hair. That evening the Philistines shaved his hair when he was asleep. When she awoke him, it was obvious he was weak. So they gouged out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and locked him in prison (16:16-21). Time had passed and the Philistines forgot to keep his hair shaved. On the day the Philistines were to celebrate his capture, they brought him out of prison and paraded him by some pillars. Samson managed to knock down the pillars, killing 3,000 Philistines and himself (6:22-31).

Capricorn

This is the most evil time of the year when the days grow the darkest at the winter solstice.

Micah's Idols - 17

Micah confessed to his mother of stealing 1100 shekels from her. The devoted mother she was, she blessed him for confessing, and he returned the money. In return she gave him 200 shekels of silver to have molded into an idol. Micah had a shrine in his house where he put the idol, and he installed one of his sons as priest. A young Levite from Bethlehem, looking for a place to stay, found Micah's house. Micah arranged with the Levite to be his priest in exchange for housing and living expenses. Micah was happy that he had a Levite for a priest.

A City Named Dan - 18

The tribe of Dan had no land inheritance from the time of Joshua. So they sent five spies to find some place suitable. When they came to the house of Micah they recognized the young Levite who explained his job as Micah's priest. After they departed they came to Laish whose people they found quiet unsuspecting and wealthy.

They came back with 600 armed soldiers. They first went to Micah's house and took his coveted idols and his priest for themselves. Micah caught up to them and demanded his idols and priest back. But when they threatened his life, he gave up. Next the Danites went to Laish, "to a people quiet and unsuspecting, and smote them with the edge of the sword, and burned the city with fire." They rebuilt the city and renamed it Dan. Then they set up the graven images they stole from Micah and made the young Levite their priest.

A Levite and his concubine - 19-21

While traveling from her father's house, a Levite and his concubine stopped to spend the night as a guest in the Benjamite town of Gibeah. That evening, the men of the city surrounded the house and pounded on the door; they wanted "sex" with the Levite (19:22). The host offered his virgin daughter and the concubine, but they refused. So the Levite pushed his concubine outside where she was "raped and abused throughout the night." The next morning when he found her dead, he took her home and cut her "limb by limb into twelve pieces." He sent one piece to each of the tribal chieftains, calling for a meeting to decide on a course of action.

At the council meeting, the group demanded the Benjamites to identify the scoundrels. Instead they mustered 26,000 to defend the people of Gibeah. The other Israelites mustered 400,000 men to take the city. On the first two days the Benjamites killed 40,000 Israelites. On the third day the Israelites killed 25,100 Benjamites before they "put the whole city to the sword" (includes women and children) and set it on fire. Only 600 Benjamite men survived.

Now the eleven tribes had a new problem; there were no surviving Benjamite women and no more Benjamite towns. They couldn't let the Benjamites go extinct and the law forbade intermarrying between tribes. The best place to find to find virgins, they decided, was Jabesh-Gilead because no one there participated in the war. So they sent 12,000 soldiers to kill everyone who was not a female virgin. They found 400 but it wasn't enough. When they heard about a festival at Shiloh, the Benjamite men went there to hide in the vineyards. When a young woman came close to them, they abducted her and made her a wife.

Related reading

Joshua the Conqueror

Tales of the Ark of the Covenant