Completed on August 19, 1747, in the short space of exactly a month, Joshua was one of the most successful of Handel's later oratorios. It is the last of a consecutive run of four oratorios with military themes (the others are The Occasional Oratorio, Judas Maccabaeus, and Alexander Balus). They no doubt struck a chord with a public in a triumphalist mood following the defeat of the Jacobite uprising in 1746, and the struggles of Jewish heroes such as Joshua were likewise widely viewed as a metaphor for the constant threat posed to England by Jacobites and other "papists" such as the French. The libretto by Thomas Morell, fresh from his collaboration with Handel on Alexander Balus, is taken from the Old Testament book of Joshua, and conflates a number of episodes that relate to the hero's campaigns against Jericho, Ai, and the five Kings. To avoid what would otherwise have been an almost continuous succession of warlike episodes, Morell expands the biblical roles of the young warrior Othniel and his betrothed Achsah, the daughter of the elderly patriarchal warrior Caleb. This allowed Handel to provide the kind of contrast at which he excelled; the tender arias and duets for the pair add a dimension absent in the almost wholly warlike Judas Maccabaeus. Joshua is divided into three acts, the first of which immediately establishes the grand scale of the work in the opening scenes celebrating the Jews' miraculous passage across the Jordan, the conclusion of 40 years in the wilderness. An angel now gives Joshua the message that Jericho must be destroyed, an injunction greeted by the commander with a splendidly heroic aria, "Haste, Israel, haste." At the start of Act II, Joshua is in the process of laying siege to Jericho, and orders the famous final trumpet call. The walls fall, but Achsah counsels the victorious Jews that "vanity and earthly pride" will bring them to earth, a warning all too soon justified when the Jewish forces are repulsed by the defenses of Ai. Joshua rouses the troops in another superb aria, "With redoubl'd rage return." Act III is richly stocked with some of Handel's most famous arias, including Caleb's hymn-like and valedictory "Shall I in Mamre's fertile plain," the great showstopper "See the conq'ring hero comes," later to be transferred to Judas Maccabaeus, and Achsah's happy and ever-fresh "Oh! had I Jubel's lyre." With its ceremonial scenes and magnificent choral numbers, Joshua also calls for sumptuous orchestral forces that include timpani and pairs of flutes, trumpets, and horns, in addition to the expected oboes, bassoons, and strings. Joshua was first performed during Handel's Lenten oratorio season at Covent Garden on March 9, 1748, subsequently receiving three more performances during the same season.

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