Next to Moses himself, the outstanding leader of the Israelites during the long years of trial and wandering in the wilderness was Joshua, alternatively described as Oshea and as Jehoshua (see Num. 13: 8, 16). Like Moses, Joshua, "the son of Nun," was doubtless born in Egypt before the commencement of the Exodus, and he nobly upheld the tradition of the tribe of Ephraim—named for Joseph's second son—a tribe especially blessed by Jacob in preference to that headed by the elder son, Manasseh (see Gen. 48:1, 11-14).
We are first introduced to the military prowess of Joshua in Exodus (17:9-14), when Israel was faced by an attack headed by the Amalekites, and Joshua was called upon to rally the Hebrew forces and lead a counterattack against their foes. His enterprise proved to be markedly successful. Encouraged by Moses, who viewed the conflict from a nearby hill, "Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword," a victory recorded to his credit "for a memorial in a book."
Still more significant was Joshua's role as Moses' "minister," his servant, his righthand man, who worked with him on various occasions. Thus it is clearly implied that it was Joshua who accompanied the great Lawgiver when he "went up into the mount of God" to spend there the familiar period of "forty days and forty nights" (Ex. 24:13-18). Following this extended absence, the two men descended the mount together; and as they progressed, a strange sound from the camp of the Israelites far below became clearer and clearer. Joshua, the military leader, not unnaturally interpreted it as "a noise of war" (Ex. 32:17), but Moses, whose songs are repeatedly recorded in the Bible (see Deut. 31: 22, 30) and whose ear may well have been attuned to the tones of music, reported that "the noise of them that sing do I hear." It was indeed the songs and merriment associated with the worship of the golden calf which they encountered on their arrival. This led to Moses' wrathful shattering of the tablets of the law and his denunciation of such pagan practices.
