Source Text: Joshua 5:13-15
Target Text(s):
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Typology
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.