1. Joshua 7:7–9 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

Was Joshua's prayer a complaint?

Joshua 7:7–9 (ESV)

7 And Joshua said, “Alas, O Lord GOD, why have you 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!

Joshua's prayer is not a complaint about the Lord. He brings his frustrations to the Lord.1 Like Moses (Exodus 32:9–14), Joshua also seeks to motivate the Lord to act on Israel’s behalf by pointing to the disrepute he will suffer if he allows them to be destroyed by the Canaanites.2