Table of Contents
Maps viii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Joshua 1:1-18: Just One River to Cross 7
Joshua 2:1-24: Meanwhile, in the Whorehouse 10
Joshua 3:1-17: On Getting Your Feet Wet 14
Joshua 4:1-5:1: Looking Forward and Backward 18
Joshua 5:2-15: Which Side Are You On? Neither 21
Joshua 6:1-21: Come Blow Your Horn 25
Joshua 6:22-7:15: Who Are the Real Canaanites? 29
Joshua 7:16-26: Coveting Can Kill 32
Joshua 8:1-21: The Importance of a Game Plan 36
Joshua 8:22-35: It's Over Even When It's Not Over 40
Joshua 9:1-21: How to Get Taken In 44
Joshua 9:22-10:11: How to Swallow Your Pride 47
Joshua 10:12-27: No Compromise 50
Joshua 10:28-43: Welcome to the Wild Wild West 54
Joshua 11:1-15: Welcome to the Wild Wild North 57
Joshua 11:16-12:24: Why Were They So Stupid? 61
Joshua 13:1-14:15: The Country That Remains to Be Possessed Is Very Great 64
Joshua 15:1-17:11: Living as Women in a Man's World 67
Joshua 17:12-19:21: Roots; or, Home Is Where Your Share Is 71
Joshua 20:1-21:43: Everything Came True 74
Joshua 22:1-34: The Universal and the Local 78
Joshua 23:1-16: The Peril of Other People's Faiths 81
Joshua 24:1-33: "You Can't Serve Yahweh." "Yes We Can!" 85
Judges 1:1-36: Real Life Is More Complicated 88
Judges 2:1-3:4: The Power of Forgetting 92
Judges 3:5-31: Unlikely Saviors 95
Judges 4:1-24: Three Strong Women and Three Feeble Men (I) 99
Judges 5:1-31a: Three Strong Women and Three Feeble Men (II) 102
Judges 5:31b-6:24: On the Unimportance of Spiritual Insight 106
Judges 6:25-40: How to Be a Mixed-up Person 110
Judges 7:1-25: How to Increase the Odds against Yourself 113
Judges 8:1-35: I'm Not the Hero; the Hero Is God 117
Judges 9:1-57: The Man Who Would Be King 120
Judges 10:1-11:29: When God Finds It Hard to Be Tough 124
Judges 11.30-12:15: The Man Whose Promise Makes the Blood Run Cold 128
Judges 13:1-25: Entertaining Angels Unawares 131
Judges 14:1-15:20: Honey, We Solved the Riddle 134
Judges 16:1-21: Love Actually 138
Judges 16:22-31: But Samson's Hair Began to Grow Again 141
Judges 17:1-13: They All Did What Was Right in Their Own Eyes 145
Judges 18:1-31: Desperate Dan 149
Judges 19:1-30: The Story Reaches Its Lowest Point (I) 152
Judges 20:1-48: The Story Reaches Its Lowest Point (II) 156
Judges 21:1-25: How Not to Save the Situation 159
Ruth 1:1-9: How Naomi's Life Falls Apart 162
Ruth 1:10-19a: The Choice 166
Ruth 1:19b-2:9: She's A Moabite, for Goodness' Sake! 170
Ruth 2:10-23: The God of Coincidences 173
Ruth 3:1-18: How Not to Leave the Initiative to the Man 177
Ruth 4:1-10: How Not to Get Overextended in Real Estate 181
Ruth 4:11-22: How David Got His Grandfather 185
Glossary 189
