Joshua 8:35 tells us that Joshua read every word of the law that Moses had given, leaving nothing out, and that everyone in Israel heard it, including women, children, and the foreigners living among them. The verse answers a simple question about faithfulness: the people were not given a partial or selective version of God’s instructions, but the complete law, read aloud in the hearing of the whole community. It is spoken by the narrator of the book of Joshua, describing what happened after Israel’s victory at Ai and before the nation moved on to its next campaigns.
There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua didn’t read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the foreigners who were among them.
Joshua 8:35 (WEB)
What Joshua 8:35 Means
The phrase “there was not a word of all that Moses commanded” stresses completeness. Nothing was trimmed, softened, or skipped. The verse is not making a claim about how each person felt about the law, only that the reading itself covered the whole of what Moses had given.
The phrase “which Joshua didn’t read before all the assembly of Israel” describes the audience. The reading happened in public, in the sight and hearing of the entire community, not in a private room for leaders alone. The list that follows, “the women, the little ones, and the foreigners,” makes clear that the reading was meant for everyone, including people who might otherwise have been overlooked in the nation’s gatherings.
What the verse does not promise is that everyone understood every word, or that everyone obeyed it afterward. It records an act of reading and hearing, and the rest of the book of Joshua shows how the people did and did not live up to what they heard.
The Context of Joshua 8:35
The book of Joshua is traditionally attributed to Joshua himself, with later editing likely, and it tells the story of Israel’s entry into the land of Canaan under his leadership. The verse sits in a short passage, verses 30 through 35, where Joshua builds an altar on Mount Ebal, writes a copy of the law on stones, and then reads the blessings and curses in a ceremony between two mountains, Gerizim and Ebal. The people are arranged on both sides of the ark, with half in front of each mountain, as Moses had instructed.
Read in that setting, verse 35 is the closing note of the ceremony. The reading is not an abstract lecture but part of a covenant act, in which the people agree to be bound by God’s words. That is why the completeness matters so much: a covenant is only as clear as the terms that were actually spoken to the people who agreed to them.
Key Phrases in Joshua 8:35
Deuteronomy 31:12
Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and the foreigners who are within your gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law…
(WEB)
This verse commands that the people gather, including men, women, children, and the foreigner within the gates, so they may hear the law and learn to fear the Lord. It shows the same inclusive pattern of public reading that Joshua 8:35 describes, and it reveals the purpose behind the reading.
Nehemiah 8:8
They read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly; and they gave the sense, so that they understood the reading.
(WEB)
Here the law is read aloud to the assembled people and explained so they understand it. Joshua 8:35 shows the reading itself, while Nehemiah shows that hearing God’s word also includes making sense of it for those who listen.
A Short Prayer From Joshua 8:35
Lord, you gave your people your whole word and did not hold back any part of it. Help me to receive your instructions in full, not only the parts that feel easy or familiar. Open my heart to hear what you have said, and give me the patience to read Scripture from beginning to end. Include me, and those I care about, in the company of those who hear your voice together. Teach us to honor every word you have spoken. Amen.
