HarperCollins Study Bible
Page 99
10.28 Destroyed, i.e., “devoted to destruction” (Hebrew cherem); see note on 6.17. The populations of Libnah (probably Tell Bornat) and Lachish are also wiped out, although there is no explicit mention of cherem (vv. 29–32).
10.33 King Horam of Gezer only now joins the action and is the only king mentioned by name in this final southern campaign. This text stands in tension with 16.10; Judg 1.29, which fault the tribe of Ephraim for failure to oust the Canaanites from Gezer (Tell Jezer), a city that only became Israelite in Solomon’s reign (1 Kings 9.16–17).
10.36–39 In 14.6–15 Caleb is credited with victory at Hebron (see also 15.13–14), but the whole tribe of Judah gets the credit in Judg 1.10. The specification its towns (satellite villages) is made only for Hebron and Debir. Debir is probably Khirbet Rabud.
10.40–43 This editorial summary, along with 9.1–2, frames the southern campaign. It covers both more and less than what is reported in the enclosed narrative.
10.40 The Negeb is the southern desert stretching from the foot of the Judean hill country into the northern Sinai Peninsula. That he utterly destroyed all that breathed (cf. 11.11, 14) shows obedience to Deut 20.16, from which this phrase is taken. The phrase means that the human population was exterminated.
10.41 The southern limit of the land conquered so far runs from Kadesh-barnea to Gaza and its northernmost extent is as far as Gibeon. The country of Goshen (11.16; 15.51) cannot be identified. It should not be confused with Goshen in Egypt (Gen 45.10).
JOSHUA 11
The United Kings of Northern Canaan Defeated
1When King Jabin of Hazor heard of this, he sent to King Jobab of Madon, to the king of Shimron, to the king of Achshaph, 2and to the kings who were in the northern hill country, and in the Arabah south of Chinneroth, and in the lowland, and in Naphoth-dor on the west, 3to the Canaanites in the east and the west, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, and the Jebusites in the hill country, and the Hivites under Hermon in the land of Mizpah. 4They came out, with all their troops, a great army, in number like the sand on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots. 5All these kings joined their forces, and came and camped together at the waters of Merom, to fight with Israel.
6And the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, for tomorrow at this time I will hand over all of them, slain, to Israel; you shall hamstring their horses, and burn their chariots with fire.” 7So Joshua came suddenly upon them with all his fighting force, by the waters of Merom, and fell upon them. 8And the LORD handed them over to Israel, who attacked them and chased them as far as Great Sidon and Misrephoth-maim, and eastward as far as the valley of Mizpeh. They struck them down, until they had left no one remaining. 9And Joshua did to them as the LORD commanded him; he hamstrung their horses, and burned their chariots with fire.
10Joshua turned back at that time, and took Hazor, and struck its king down with the sword. Before that time Hazor was the head of all those kingdoms. 11And they put to the sword all who were in it, utterly destroying them; there was no one left who breathed, and he burned Hazor with fire. 12And all the towns of those kings, and all their kings, Joshua took, and struck them with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded. 13But Israel burned none of the towns that stood on mounds except Hazor, which Joshua did burn. 14All the spoil of these towns, and the livestock, the Israelites took for their booty; but all the people they struck down with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, and they did not leave any who breathed. 15As the LORD had commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD had commanded Moses.
Summary of Joshua’s Conquests
16So Joshua took all that land: the hill country and all the Negeb and all the land of Goshen and the lowland and the Arabah and the hill country of Israel and its lowland, 17from Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir, as far as Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. He took all their kings, struck them down, and put them to death. 18Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. 19There was not a town that made peace with the Israelites, except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon; all were taken in battle. 20For it was the LORD’s doing to harden their hearts so that they would come against Israel in battle, in order that they might be utterly destroyed, and might receive no mercy, but be exterminated, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
21At that time Joshua came and wiped out the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel; Joshua utterly destroyed them with their towns. 22None of the Anakim was left in the land of the Israelites; some remained only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod. 23So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD had spoken to Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. And the land had rest from war.
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11.1–15 Victory in the far north. Defeat of the Galilean coalition headed by Hazor. Hazor (Tell el-Qedah) was the dominant city in Upper Galilee in the period prior to Israel’s emergence (v. 10).
11.1 In Judg 4.2, 23–24 Deborah and Barak also encounter a King Jabin of Hazor. Perhaps this was a dynastic name, but more likely separate folk traditions about Hazor used the same well-known name. The king of Hazor heard of Israel’s victories in the southern hill country, repeating the theme of 2.10–11; 5.1; 9.1; 10.1. Shimron is Khirbet Sammuniyeh, and Achshaph probably Tell Kisan.
11.3 Mizpah, Hebrew “Watchtower” or “Lookout.” Land of Mizpah may be a general term for the area overlooked by Mount Hermon.
11.6 Do not be afraid of them, standard Deuteronomic sacral-war encouragement (8.1; 10.8, 25). As at Jericho (6.3–5) and the second battle for Ai (8.18), the Lord takes direct command. The order to hamstring their horses (beginning of the action) and burn their chariots (conclusion of the action) signifies that Israel is not yet sophisticated enough to use such weaponry; this would have to wait until the monarchy (2 Sam 8.4; 1 Chr 18.4; 2 Sam 15.1; 1 Kings 1.5; 9.19–22). Hamstring means to cut a horse’s rear leg tendons to make it unfit for war (v. 9; 2 Sam 8.4).
11.8 The panicked rout typical of a victory by the Divine Warrior. The enemy forces seem to have split, some fleeing northwest toward the coastal cities Sidon and Misrephoth-maim.
11.13 The treatment of Hazor was remembered as an exception to the general rule. Israel did not destroy most captured cities, but took them over in line with Deut 6.10–11.
11.15 As the LORD…Moses. This verse echoes v. 12 and takes readers back to the rhetoric of the Lord’s initial command to Joshua (1.7). The intervening stories serve as examples of how Moses’ teaching was followed.
11.16–23 Summary of Israel’s victories. This is the second such summary. The first one covers the south (10.40–42). The result is a two-phase presentation of the conquest, which will be followed by a two-phase portrayal of the process of settlement, described in 13.1–17.18 and 18.1–19.53, respectively.
11.16 A reiteration of 10.40.
11.17 Israel’s territory is envisioned as reaching from Mount Halak (“Mount Baldy”) far to the southeast on the border with Edom up to Mount Baal-gad near Mount Hermon on Israel’s far north (12.7; 13.5–6). Seir refers to the mountains of Edom.
11.19 That all were taken in battle presents a picture of total conquest, consistent with the exhortations of Deuteronomy.
11.20 The LORD ’s doing…be exterminated. The enemy’s obstinacy and attacks are interpreted as a divine plan to obliterate them.
11.21 Israel’s folklore thought of the Anakim as a primordial race of giants (Num 13.28; Deut 2.21; 9.2), descended from a union of divine and human beings (Gen 6.4; Num 13.33). Opponents from the days of Moses, they are found in company with Gaza and Ashkelon in Jer 47.5. This report overlaps with the conquest of Hebron and Debir in 10.36–39, indicating that the actual process of conquest was more complex
than previously indicated.
11.22 Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod are Philistine cities. The continuing presence of Anakim undermines the sweeping claim that Israel conquered the whole land (v. 16, 20).
11.23 The summary concludes by emphasizing the obedient chain of command—Joshua obeys what the LORD commanded through Moses. Joshua gave…tribal allotments anticipates chs. 14–19. A land at rest from war means that the conquest has come to a close.
JOSHUA 12
The Kings Conquered by Moses
1Now these are the kings of the land, whom the Israelites defeated, whose land they occupied beyond the Jordan toward the east, from the Wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon, with all the Arabah eastward: 2King Sihon of the Amorites who lived at Heshbon, and ruled from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Wadi Arnon, and from the middle of the valley as far as the river Jabbok, the boundary of the Ammonites, that is, half of Gilead, 3and the Arabah to the Sea of Chinneroth eastward, and in the direction of Beth-jeshimoth, to the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea,a southward to the foot of the slopes of Pisgah; 4and King Ogb of Bashan, one of the last of the Rephaim, who lived at Ashtaroth and at Edrei 5and ruled over Mount Hermon and Salecah and all Bashan to the boundary of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and over half of Gilead to the boundary of King Sihon of Heshbon. 6Moses, the servant of the LORD, and the Israelites defeated them; and Moses the servant of the LORD gave their land for a possession to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
The Kings Conquered by Joshua
7The following are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the Israelites defeated on the west side of the Jordan, from Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon to Mount Halak, that rises toward Seir (and Joshua gave their land to the tribes of Israel as a possession according to their allotments, 8in the hill country, in the lowland, in the Arabah, in the slopes, in the wilderness, and in the Negeb, the land of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites):
9the king of Jericho one
the king of Ai, which is next to Bethel one
10the king of Jerusalem one
the king of Hebron one
11the king of Jarmuth one
the king of Lachish one
12the king of Eglon one
the king of Gezer one
13the king of Debir one
the king of Geder one
14the king of Hormah one
the king of Arad one
15the king of Libnah one
the king of Adullam one
16the king of Makkedah one
the king of Bethel one
17the king of Tappuah one
the king of Hepher one
18the king of Aphek one
the king of Lasharon one
19the king of Madon one
the king of Hazor one
20the king of Shimron-meron one
the king of Achshaph one
21the king of Taanach one
the king of Megiddo one
22the king of Kedesh one
the king of Jokneam in Carmel one
23the king of Dor in Naphath-dor one
the king of Goiim in Galilee,c one
24the king of Tirzah one
thirty-one kings in all.
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a Heb Salt Sea
b Gk: Heb the boundary of King Og
c Gk: Heb Gilgal
12.1–24 A summary of the former kingdoms includes towns and kings not otherwise mentioned in the book.
12.1–6 Summary of Transjordanian victories under Moses’ leadership, describing land seized from Sihon in vv. 2–3 and that taken from Og in vv. 4–5.
12.1 Wadi Arnon, the immense canyon forming a natural and acknowledged northern border of the kingdom of Moab and the southern limit of Israel’s territorial claim in Transjordan prior to the reign of King David.
12.2 The story of King Sihon is told in Num 21.21–31. Gilead, the wooded hill country of Transjordan, was divided by the deep and winding gorge of the Jabbok, the northern limit of Sihon’s realm. Thus Israel’s claim to the southern half of Gilead is based on its defeat of Sihon.
12.4 Og ruled Bashan, productive land centering on the Golan Heights. Rephaim referred originally to an aristocracy of professional chariot warriors, from whose ranks came many of the Canaanite kings. It acquired a secondary sense of “giants” (cf. Og’s huge bedstead, Deut 3.11) and yet another sense referring to “shades of the dead.”
12.5 Geshurites and Maacathites, two Aramean (Syrian) groups who were sources of continuing resistance to Israel (13.13) until the time of David, one of whose wives was a Geshurite princess (2 Sam 3.3). Israel’s claim to the northern half of Gilead (12.2) is based on its defeat of Og.
12.7–24 A list of kings dethroned in the era of Joshua making no specific claim to occupation or destruction of towns.
12.7–8 A parallel to 11.16–17.
12.9–13a These verses are closely related to the sequence of stories in 6.1–10.43; every one of these kings has been previously mentioned in those chapters. Jericho and Ai naturally come first (v. 9). The five cities of 10.3 are listed in vv. 10–12a.
12.13b–16a A passage related in part to ch. 10, but supplying several names in the south not previously mentioned—Geder, Hormah, Arad.
12.16b–24 Kings from the central and northern regions.
12.16b A tradition about the conquest of Bethel is related in Judg 1.22–26.
12.17 Tappuah (probably Sheikh Abu Zarad) was an important town on the border between Ephraim and Manasseh. Hepher, a clan of Manasseh situated north of Shechem.
12.18 Aphek (Ras el-‘Ain) was never included in any of the tribal claims. Lasharon, lit. “to (or for) the Sharon(-plain),” perhaps is intended to cover the entire region, which was sparsely settled due to swampy and malarial conditions.
12.19–20 Catalogue of the four cities of 11.1.
12.21 Megiddo controlled the southern flank of the Esdraelon plain and the most heavily traveled route through the Mount Carmel range to the Sharon plain.
12.22 Kedesh, probably not the great sanctuary town in the far north (19.37) but a smaller site between Megiddo and Taanach. Jokneam (Tell Qeimun), at the tip of Zebulun’s southwestern wedge, may have become Israelite at a very early period since there is no mention of it among the unconquered towns in 17.11; Judg 1.27.
12.23 Goiim in Galilee suggests the name of Sisera’s hometown, “Harosheth-ha-goyim” (Judg 4.2).
12.24 Tirzah, probably Tell el-Far‘ah (ca. six miles [ten kilometers] northeast of Shechem), was first favored as capital of the Northern throne (1 Kings 14–16) when it moved the seat of government away from Shechem.
JOSHUA 13
The Parts of Canaan Still Unconquered
1Now Joshua was old and advanced in years; and the LORD said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and very much of the land still remains to be possessed. 2This is the land that still remains: all the regions of the Philistines, and all those of the Geshurites 3(from the Shihor, which is east of Egypt, northward to the boundary of Ekron, it is reckoned as Canaanite; there are five rulers of the Philistines, those of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron), and those of the Avvim 4in the south; all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that belongs to the Sidonians, to Aphek, to the boundary of the Amorites, 5and the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, toward the east, from Baal-gad below Mount Hermon to Lebo-hamath, 6all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth-maim, even all the Sidonians. I will myself drive them out from before the Israelites; only allot the land to Israel for an inheritance, as I have commanded you. 7Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh.”
The Territory East of the Jordan
8With the other half-tribe of Manasseha the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond the Jordan eastward, as Moses the servant of the LORD gave them: 9from Aroer, which is on
the edge of the Wadi Arnon, and the town that is in the middle of the valley, and all the table-land fromb Medeba as far as Dibon; 10and all the cities of King Sihon of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, as far as the boundary of the Ammonites; 11and Gilead, and the region of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan to Salecah; 12all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei (he alone was left of the survivors of the Rephaim); these Moses had defeated and driven out. 13Yet the Israelites did not drive out the Geshurites or the Maacathites; but Geshur and Maacath live within Israel to this day.
14To the tribe of Levi alone Moses gave no inheritance; the offerings by fire to the LORD God of Israel are their inheritance, as he said to them.
The Territory of Reuben
15Moses gave an inheritance to the tribe of the Reubenites according to their clans. 16Their territory was from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Wadi Arnon, and the town that is in the middle of the valley, and all the table-land by Medeba; 17with Heshbon, and all its towns that are in the tableland; Dibon, and Bamoth-baal, and Beth-baal-meon, 18and Jahaz, and Kedemoth, and Mephaath, 19and Kiriathaim, and Sibmah, and Zereth-shahar on the hill of the valley, 20and Beth-peor, and the slopes of Pisgah, and Beth-jeshimoth, 21that is, all the towns of the tableland, and all the kingdom of King Sihon of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses defeated with the leaders of Midian, Evi and Rekem and Zur and Hur and Reba, as princes of Sihon, who lived in the land. 22Along with the rest of those they put to death, the Israelites also put to the sword Balaam son of Beor, who practiced divination. 23And the border of the Reubenites was the Jordan and its banks. This was the inheritance of the Reubenites according to their families with their towns and villages.
The Territory of Gad
24Moses gave an inheritance also to the tribe of the Gadites, according to their families. 25Their territory was Jazer, and all the towns of Gilead, and half the land of the Ammonites, to Aroer, which is east of Rabbah, 26and from Heshbon to Ramath-mizpeh and Betonim, and from Mahanaim to the territory of Debir,c 27and in the valley Beth-haram, Bethnimrah, Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of King Sihon of Heshbon, the Jordan and its banks, as far as the lower end of the Sea of Chinnereth, eastward beyond the Jordan. 28This is the inheritance of the Gadites according to their clans, with their towns and villages.