• “Be Courageous and Very Strong”
    The Watchtower—1986 | December 15

    • 9. How did Joshua live up to his new name?

      9 The Bible list of 12 spies names Joshua as Hoshea, meaning “Salvation.” But at this point the record says: “Moses continued to call Hoshea the son of Nun Jehoshua [meaning, ‘Jehovah Is Salvation’].” Why did Moses thus emphasize Jehovah’s name? It was because Joshua served primarily for the vindication of that name. Joshua became a living example of obedience to the command that Moses would later emphasize to Israel: “You must love Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your vital force.” In so doing, he was privileged to demonstrate that ‘Jehovah is salvation.’​—Numbers 13:8, 16; Deuteronomy 6:5.

  • “Be Courageous and Very Strong”
    The Watchtower—1986 | December 15

    • a Asher Goldenberg writes in Metre and Its Significance in the Bible (Hebrew) that in the First Temple period, proper names were commonly given a longer form, incorporating part of the Tetragrammaton, to indicate loyalty to Jehovah. He comments that “in the Pentateuch, Moses changes the name of Hoshe ben-Nun into ‘Jehoshua’ when he sends him to go spying; thus he foresaw that [Joshua] would not betray [Jehovah].”