Sefer Yehoshua, the first book of Neviim (the Prophets), tells how Bnei Yisrael (the children of Israel) enter and settle the land of Kenaan (Canaan) under Yehoshua (Joshua) bin Nun, the successor of Moshe Rabbeinu. It opens after Moshe's death, in Parshat Vezot HaBeracha in Devarim, with Hashem telling Yehoshua to be strong and courageous and to keep the whole Torah, and it closes with Yehoshua's death, called, like Moshe, eved Hashem (the servant of Hashem).
The first half is the conquest. Rachav (Rahab) hides Yehoshua's two spies in Yericho (Jericho). The Yarden (the Jordan River) stops flowing when the feet of the kohanim (priests) carrying the Aron HaBrit (the Ark of the Covenant) touch its water, and the people cross on dry land. At Gilgal the men are circumcised, the korban Pesach is brought, and the man (manna) stops. The walls of Yericho fall at the sound of the shofar. Achan's theft from the cherem (the consecrated spoil) brings defeat at Ai. The people of Givon (Gibeon) trick Bnei Yisrael into a treaty, at Givon the sun stands still, and the kings of the south and the north fall, thirty-one in all.
The second half divides the land. Though much is still unconquered, Hashem tells Yehoshua to divide it all. Calev (Caleb), at eighty-five, receives Chevron (Hebron), the Ohel Moed (Tent of Meeting) is set up at Shiloh, and the tribes west of the Yarden receive their portions by lot. The arei miklat (cities of refuge for accidental killings) and the forty-eight cities of the Leviim (Levites) are set apart, and not one word fails of all the good things Hashem promised. An altar built by the eastern tribes nearly brings war, until they explain it is only a witness.
Old and near death, Yehoshua warns the people not to mix with the nations that remain, and at Shechem he makes a covenant with them: "I and my household will serve Hashem." Sefer Yehoshua has twenty-four perakim; three of its passages are haftarot: 1:1–18 on Simchat Torah, 2:1–24 for Parshat Shlach, and 5:2–6:1 on the first day of Pesach.