Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in His hand. Joshua approached Him and asked, “Are You for us or for our enemies?” “Neither,” He replied. “I have now come as Commander of the LORD’s army.” Then Joshua fell facedown in reverence and asked Him, “What does my Lord have to say to His servant?” The Commander of the LORD’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
"Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."
Significance
The command to Joshua from the Commander of the LORD's army -- "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy" (Josh 5:15) -- quotes Exodus 3:5 almost verbatim, where God speaks the identical words to Moses at the burning bush: שַׁל נְעָלֶיךָ מֵעַל רַגְלֶיךָ כִּי הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה עוֹמֵד עָלָיו אַדְמַת קֹדֶשׁ הוּא (shal ne'alekha me'al raglekha ki hamaqom asher attah omed alav admat qodesh hu). This deliberate verbal echo establishes Joshua as Moses' successor by placing him in an identical theophanic encounter: both leaders receive a divine commission at the threshold of their great task (exodus/conquest), both fall before a divine figure, and both are told they stand on holy ground (אַדְמַת קֹדֶשׁ, admat qodesh). The parallel signals that the same divine presence that commissioned Moses at Sinai now commissions Joshua at Jericho, transferring the mantle of leadership through an unmistakable literary and theological correspondence.
