Joshua – Chapter 11

Battle In the North, vs. 1-9

The scene of Israel’s conquest of Canaan now shifts from south to north. An interval of considerable time probably has ensued since the entry into Canaan and conquest of the south. There is no way to be certain just how long Israel has been in the land. Passages like Jos 13:1 indicate a period of several years was likely consumed in all the conquest.

Jabin, king of Hazor, formed an alliance of the northern kings similar to that of Adonizedec of Jerusalem in the south (Jos 10:1). Hazor was located northwest of the Sea of Galilee (called Chinneroth in this context, v. 2), about midway between the Jordan valley and the Mediterranean Sea.

Madon lay to the south about half way from Chinneroth to the sea; Shimron was still farther to the south, while Achsphaph was in the far north, very near the mountains of Lebanon. These four cities were almost aligned from north to south in the central mountains. They were joined by the kings from the mountains stretching away to the north, the plains south of Chinneroth, the valleys westward to Dor on the seacoast south of Mt Carmel, and the Canaanite kings of all the area.

All these kings were able to field an immense army, likened to sand on the seashore, well equipped with cavalry and war chariots. They chose the battle ground in the level plains around the waters of Merom, a small lake and marshy area of the Jordan valley between Mt Hermon and the sea of Galilee (Chinneroth).

The Lord informed Joshua he was not to fear this huge army, (Heb 13:6). He is called on to exercise faith, but is promised victory within twenty-four hours. Joshua will overcome and slay this host and capture their horses and chariots. The horses are to be houghed, or hamstrung, to render them unfit for further warfare, and the chariots are to be burned with fire.

Joshua made a surprise attack on the allies and speedily smote them and routed them. The people fled to Zidon, one of the chief cities of the Phoenicians on the Mediterranean seacoast; to Misrephoth-maim, which is likely the name of salt pits, or a smelting area, going to the valley of Mizpeh east of the Jordan The scriptures say Joshua “left them none remaining” (v. 8), and did as bidden in destroying the horses and chariots.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

1. And it came to pass when Jabin, etc In this new league also we have a bright manifestation of the more than paternal care of God, in warding off dangers from his people, and also in assisting their weakness by kindness and indulgence. Had Jabin, with the confederates of whom mention is now made, openly declared himself the ally of the neighboring kings, a much more formidable war would have broken out against the Israelites, and greater solicitude and anxiety must have seized their minds. It would, indeed, have been easy for the Lord, as well to put all their forces at once to the rout, as to dissipate all fear and dread of them. He was unwilling, however, to press beyond measure his own people, who were otherwise feeble, lest the excessive numbers of the enemy should strike them with terror, and drive them to despair. He therefore kept the many nations, whose interest it was to have rushed hastily to arms, in a state of lethargy and amazement, until the chosen people had been animated by signal victories, to carry on the wars which still remained. They pillage and devastate a large territory, and leave it destitute of inhabitants and stript of resources. None of the neighboring powers, who were afterwards to act on the offensive, makes the least movement. The Israelites revisit their wives and children in safety. When they had gathered courage, and were ready for a new war, suddenly a very large army appears, composed of different nations, who had hitherto, by remaining quiet, furnished opportunity for victory. Their coming thus forward at a later period, was the same as if they had entered into a truce. Thus God not only fought for his chosen people, but by dividing the enemy, increased their strength manifold.

How formidable must the onset have been, had not the Israelites been gradually trained to confidence in battle, and at the same time experienced the manifest assistance of God? First, their numbers are compared to the sand of the sea, and then they have horses and chariots. As the Israelites were altogether destitute of cavalry, it is strange that they were not terrified at this array. Therefore they were gradually brought forward till they were able to bear it. For, in their former battles, he had only exercised them by a kind of pleasing preludes. (110) It may be added, that the Lord had, by several victories, ever and anon borne testimony to his power, that they might not think more lightly of it than was meet. Had all their enemies been routed at once, they might, indeed, have magnificently celebrated the praises of God, but they might also have easily lost the remembrance of them. It was necessary, therefore, that repeated proofs distinct and apart from each other, should be held forth to their view, lest they might attribute one victory to a stroke of fortune.

(110) Latin, “ Judundis praeludiis.” French “ Escarmouches plaisantes;” “Pleasing skirmishes.” — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

THE FULL CONQUEST OF CANAAN

Joshua, Chapters 11 and 12.

WAR may be repellent, but it is never uninteresting ! If there is a time when the public reads the daily news with avidity, it is when war is on. This is due to a combination of circumstances. There is an interest in the personalities of war. The experiences of the great leaders, the fortunes of the war itself, and particularly the fate of individual friendsthese combine to compel sympathetic attention.

To be sure, the history of events long since passed cannot equal in gripping interest the doings of ones own day. And yet, when we remember the thousands that pore over the pages of history, and the prominent places that war occupies in those pages, we know that human interest in the destiny of individuals and states never wanes. These two chapters are additional pages from the archives of history.

THE NEW ALLIANCE

Chapter eleven opens with the record of a new alliance.

And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph,

And to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, and of the plains south of Chinneroth, and in the valley, and in the borders of Dor on the west,

And to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpeh.

And they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the seashore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many.

And when all these kings were met together, they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel (Jos 11:1-5).

This alliance represented a larger opposition. We might have imagined, when Joshua completed the campaign of the tenth chapter, that his days of battle were done. We might have thought that there remained for him nothing but the quietude of a serene old age, and the usual occupation of cultivating a garden, or mowing the lawnagreeable jobs for old men. But, when does one reach the point where Satanic forces are vanquished and opposition is at an end? Is it not rather a fact that every day increases their company, and that, though you may have had a victory yesterday, that will not at all suffice against the greater opposition of tomorrow? Jamieson, Fausset and Brown tell us that the forces assembled under Jabin, king of Hazor, according to Josephus, amounted to 300,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, and 20,000 war-chariots. This is suggested by the language of the text, And they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the sea shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many (Jos 11:4), and, in turn, it suggests the strength of satanic opposition.

The followers of Jesus, like the followers of Joshua, meet an ever-increasing host. It is not wise to do what so-called Christian Scientists do, minimize our enemy and our opposition. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, advised,

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

For we wrestle not against fleshy and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand (Eph 6:11-13).

This opposition was also well organized. The word together is made to do double service in describing that fact, And when all these kings were met together, they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel (Jos 11:5).

It is a strange fact, and yet, daily experience is constantly demonstrating it, that there is organization in the adversarys forces. Without either a written or any verbal agreement, they stand together. The saloon, the bagnio, the gambling hell, the dance-hall, the low theatrethese are confederates; they know how to cooperate. What one of them could not accomplish by itself, is rendered easy by the assistance of the others; and that assistance may be confidently depended upon. When did they ever fail one another? They are animated by one spirit, and that is the spirit of opposition to Christ.

People marvel sometimes that atheism has had the affrontery to effect organizations at the very center of professedly Christian colleges, and that infidelity in the form of modernism has been willing to pave the way for this more flagrant opposition to faith. But there is no occasion to marvel. The natural man is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can he be. He would burn the Bible; he would destroy the Church; he would blot out of existence all Christian morality. He nailed our Joshua to the cross; he sealed Him in a tomb. He does not change, and it is the natural man that backs all forms of evil, and it is in his spirit of opposition that organization inheres.

There are those who would bring us to believe that good is universal, and that it is only our mis-judgment of our fellows that imagines any opposition from them to God. But such are only agents of the world-wide organization of which Satan himself is the supreme head. Followers of Jesus, like the followers of Joshua, will find that every day brings its conflict, and that in the arena of battle there are but two possible courses to pursue. We either win or lose. We conquer or we are killed. We quit the field conquerors, or are left upon it, kicked and tumbled carcasses.

THE ENCOURAGEMENT AND COMMAND

And the Lord said unto Joshua Then the Lords interest had not lagged. When did He ever lose interest in his own? Is not His promise to the disciples His pledge to every warrior, every servant of His will, Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world?

The Lords knowledge was not limited. Tomorrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel (Jos 11:6).

A. J. Gordon said, Prophecy is the mold of history. But when prophecy drops from the lips of the Lord, it is not then the mold of history, it is history itselfpre-written, perhaps, but none the less adequate on that account. James, in his Epistle, speaks truthfully, so far as his language involves the wisdom of man, Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. But that does not apply to the wisdom of God. Tomorrow is not only as open a page as is yesterday, but to Him its pages are as plainly written. Mans fear often rests in the fact that the future is unknown to him. Gods encouragement is born of the circumstance that to Him the future is fully known. When man looks on the moral state of society, his heart sinks, and he is disposed to feel that Satan has triumphed. But God comes with His encouraging promise concerning His Son, The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple (Mal 3:1).

Four weeks before the World War ended, horror held the hearts of the allies, and the prophecy of a hundred year war, and the fear of the extinction of the race, were daily newspaper items. And yet, one October morning the world wakened to hear the voice of the Son of God. Tomorrow about this time will I deliver them up. Twenty-four hours are quite sufficient for any conceivable accomplishment, if only God employ the time.

The Lords method contained its own lesson.

Tomorrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel; thou shalt hough their horses and burn their chariots with fire (Jos 11:6).

Once more modernism starts back with horror on its face. Hough their horses! Would God ever give a command like that? Burn their chariots with fire! Would God be a party to such a procedure? Alas, for the inconsistencies of men! These phrases are soft beside the course and conduct employed by Germany in the World War. Houghing horses, and thereby disabling them from further service on a battlefield, or burning citiesthis is soft work, and morally pink beside the blood-red butchery and bestial mutilation, and infamous arson and rapine that marked the passage of the Emperors armies. And yet, strange to say, in our own America, a mighty majority of the leading modernists were, during the days of the war, and are to this moment, sympathetic friends of the very nation and people that practiced such brutality. They have taken their post-graduate work in that country; they have adopted its philosophy of life in Darwinism; they have delighted to teach that in the struggle for existence only the fittest should survive; and yet, they would come back to us and have us believe both in their defense of the brutal methods of our day, and in their offense at Scriptural records of four thousand years since. Where is the consistency?

The Lord, in this language, meant to teach an essential truth. Dont capture an enemys horses and put your trust in them; your trust should be in a higher power. You should not rest in brute flesh, but in the infinite Father.

An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength (Psa 33:17).

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the Name of the Lord our God (Psa 20:7).

THE CAPTURED KINGS

The full report of this conquest against kings is recorded in Jos 11:10 to Jos 12:24.

The victory of Joshua and Israel was complete. The language of the text is: They left them none remaining. Our hope of complete victory is in our leadership. Our JoshuaJesusmet and defeated every enemy of life, and we share with Him.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him: for we shall see Him as He is.

And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the Law; for sin is the transgression of the Law.

And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin.

* * * Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil (1Jn 3:2-5; 1Jn 3:9-10).

The cities were sacked and Hazor burned. Jab in, king of Hazor, was the most powerful of the kings. His city, therefore, was the essential capitol of the northland. Its utter destruction was a notice of complete extinction served against all who resisted.

There are some centers of opposition that must be utterly destroyed if our victory against them is to stand. There are some sins that must be put out of life, once and forever, or we will find them recovering any kind of a blow and making ready to attack and conquer us again.

Drinking is still a living iniquity, but when the government of the United States destroyed the saloon, root and branch, it struck intemperance a fatal blow. Like the serpent whose head is crushed, it may continue to live and move for quite a time, but its striking power will never be the same, and its more destructive fangs are pulled.

The roster of kings was a revelation of triumph. The eleventh chapter records the conquest; the twelfth chapter names the kingsthirty-one of them in all. For the most part, their kingdoms were petty, and the resistance of one of them would have been puny, but their combined numbers provided formidable foes, and only the help from heaven given Joshua made possible his victory against them all. When Paul spoke of our warfare against principalities and powers, he employed language with precision. The enemies of the human soul are a multitude. John Bunyan, in his allegory, Pilgrims Progress, brings this fact fully before us. They take many forms; they wear many faces; they dominate in many realms, but they unite, both against Joshua and his followers. A victory against them all is a victory indeed. If Jesus is our leader, the victory can be had.

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

THE OVERTHROW OF THE CITIES OF THE NORTH, AND GENERAL RETROSPECT

CRITICAL NOTES.

Jos. 11:1. Hazor] In Jos. 11:11, Hazor is described as the head of all the kingdoms named in Jos. 11:1-3. It was in his capacity of principal monarch of North-West Canaan that Jabin summoned the other kings. Hazor was burned by Joshua (Jos. 11:13), but was afterwards rebuilt (Jdg. 4:2; 1Sa. 12:9); it was fortified by Solomon (1Ki. 9:15), and its inhabitants, in the time of Pekah, were carried into captivity by Tiglath-Pileser (2Ki. 15:29). Jabin]= the wise, the intelligent. It is uncertain if Jdg. 4:2 shews merely a coincidence of names, or whether the recurrence of the word points to the term as a title given to the kings of Hazor. Madon] Only mentioned here and in chap. Jos. 12:19. The site is unknown. Shimron] In chap. Jos. 12:20, called Shimron-Meron; it was probably situated near the Waters of Merom. It became part of the lot of Zebulon (chap. Jos. 19:15). Achshaph] Not identified. It fell to the lot of Asher (chap. Jos. 19:25).

Jos. 11:2. On the north of the mountains] Heb. = in the north on the mountains; i.e., on the mountains of Naphtali (cf. chap. Jos. 20:7). The plains south of Chinneroth] Chinneroth may be used here for the Lake of Gennesareth itself (Num. 34:11; Jos. 12:3); the Arabah, or desert (not plains) on the south, indicates the Ghor, or Jordan valley, immediately below the lake. In the valley] Lit. in the Shephelah, or lowlands. Probably the strip bordering the sea between Akko and Sidon, to which the following Naphoth-Dor on the sea directs us (chap. Jos. 12:23). [Fay.] The lowlands, south of Cape Carmel, situated on the sea coast, may, however, be intended.

Jos. 11:3. Land of Mizpeh] Gesenius traces several places bearing this and the similar name Mizpah. Both words signify a watch-tower, a lofty place, an outlook. The land of Mizpeh (here intended) cannot be any other than the tract of country at the foot of the Jebel-esh-Sheikh between the Jebel Heisch and Nahr Hasbeya, through which a broad arm or line of hills of inconsiderable height runs southwards from the foot of the loftiest part of the Jebel-esh-Sheikh, forming the high land which shuts in Lake Huleh on the east. This tract is called Jebel Heisch according to Burckhardt (cf. Robinson iii. 344). [Keil.] Descriptive names are always liable to be duplicated; hence the Newtons and Moretons, the Sandfords and Uptons, the Fairfields and Stokes of our own country. [Groser.]

Jos. 11:4. Horses and chariots very many] The Israelites were not strangers to the use of war chariots. They had seen them in Egypt. They had been pursued by Pharaoh and his host with this rude kind of cavalry. These were not chariots with scythes. Keil has shewn that these were first introduced by Cyrus, being quite unknown at any earlier period.

Jos. 11:5. Waters of Merom] The only places in which the name Merom occurs in the Scriptures are Jos. 11:5; Jos. 11:7, of this chapter. It has been almost universally identified with the Bahr-el-Hleh of the modern Arabs, which is called by Josephus, Semechonitis and Samochonitis; but the identification is supported by no documentary evidence, and has been disputed recently by two or three careful expositors.

Jos. 11:6. Thou shalt hough their horses] The LXX. translate by . To hough means to hamstring, to sever the tendons of the hind legs. It seems by no means certain that this was done on this occasion by Joshua. The Heb. akar is used in 2Sa. 8:4, and in 1Ch. 18:4, of chariots (horses is inserted in the English version), and in Zep. 2:4 it is used (in a paronomasia it is true) of the city of Ekron. In the passage in Gen. 49:6, if we read shur instead of shor (as is done by some, and as seems to be the most probable reading), the word akar is used of a wall. The word seems to be of the same stock with achar (compare the roots kanan and chanan, and many other examples), and the primary idea seems to be to strike or to smite. Proof is wanting that the ordinary translation of hough is a correct one. It would have been a difficult and useless task to hamstring an enemys horse in battle, when a blow on the head or body would be easy and efficacious. And, moreover, there would have been a cruelty in it utterly at war with the kindly care enjoined upon the Jews in the law with respect to dumb animals (Deu. 25:4). [Crosby.]

Jos. 11:8. Great Zidon] Called the great, both here and in chap. Jos. 19:28, not to assert its superiority over any other city of the same name, but to indicate its large number of inhabitants, and that it was the chief city of Phnicia. In the time of David and Solomon, Tyre had become the superior city of the two. Misrephothmaim] Various meanings have been given to the word. The place, though evidently near to Sidon, has not been satisfactorily identified.

Jos. 11:13. Stood still in their strength] Heb.= stood upon their hill; marg.=on their heap. This does not mean that Joshua spared the cities which stood on hills, and destroyed cities which were not on hills. The historian simply points to the fact that the customary situation of the cities of the neighbourhood was upon some eminence. Freely paraphrased, the sense is: Of the cities which stood each upon its hill, Israel burned, etc. (Cf. Jer. 30:18.)

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Jos. 11:1-14

THE VICTORY AT THE WATERS OF MEROM

I. The multiplied number of Joshuas enemies. The great battle at Gibeon had been against five kings; this was against many kings. It was the largest force that the Israelites had yet encountered. Josephus (Ant. v. 1. 18), in what seems to be merely his own estimate, says: The number of the whole army was three hundred thousand armed footmen, and ten thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand chariots; so that the multitude of the enemies affrighted both Joshua himself and the Israelites. While this statement must not be taken as proved, the Scripture reference to all these kings, with an army even as the sand that is upon the sea shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many, plainly shews that the force was the largest which had yet confronted the army of Joshua.

God leads His people on to increasingly difficult conflicts:

1. For severer discipline;

2. For greater trust;

3. For higher victories. The path of the just shines more and more, through conflicts which are sterner, through dependence which is humbler, and through victories which are nobler. The number of our foes, when God fights for us, is but the visible pledge of the greatness of our victory.

II. The gracious encouragement given by Jehovah. Be not afraid, etc. (Jos. 11:6).

1. This encouragement seems to have been unsolicited. Joshua seems to have been on the march to meet his foes when God spake to him. The distance from Gilgal, a little south of Mount Ebal, was too great for the march to Merom in less than one day, the time intimated by this verse. The spirit of obedience and the spirit of prayer are one, and God reads our plea for all necessary help in the very acts in which we seek to keep His commandments.

2. The encouragement meets the new cause for fear. For the first time in their experience, the Israelites had to encounter horsemen and war chariots. So the promise runs, Thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire. The promise takes an old form (cf. chap. Jos. 10:8, etc.), but is adapted to the new emergency. God would have us give to His old encouragements such new meanings as our circumstances require.

3. The encouragement is made emphatic by being made definite. To-morrow about this time, etc. God speaks to us as a mother might speak to her timid child; He accentuates the tones of His comforting assurances, according to the measure of our necessity and the depth of our fear.

4. The encouragement points to help from God only. Will I deliver them. Keil says, There is a peculiar emphasis intended in the I which precedes the participle. Similarly Masius wrote, There is great force in the pronoun I. It is as if God had said, There is no cause for you to estimate the greatness of the present war by comparing it with your own strength. For that which I have so often manifested to you, I will now provide by My invincible power, and My nod, which shakes heaven and earth, shall perform these things. The Divine promises are generally so framed as to lead every devout man to say to his own soul, Hope thou in God.

5. There was great encouragement in the very neighbourhood in which the battle was fought. Here, it is thought, Abraham defeated Chedorlaomer and the three kings acting with him, and rescued Lot. Dr. Thompson says, in The Land and the Book: Often have I sat and gazed in dreamy delight upon the luxuriant plain of the Hleh. No wonder the spies exclaimed, We have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good; a place where there is no want of anything that is in the earth (Jdg. 18:9-10). We have spread out before us one of the great battle-fields of the Biblea vast theatre built by the Architect of the universe; and upon its splendid stage has many a bloody tragedy been played out in downright earnest. The first of these recorded battles by the waters of Merom was the victory of Abraham. Did Joshua know of and remember this as he proceeded to attack his foes? If so, the very site of the battle must have re-echoed back to him again and again during the conflict the gracious promise of this verse.

III. The complete fulfilment of the Divine assurance (Jos. 11:7-9). The prospect of our conflicts shews the need of God. The hour of our necessity reveals the promise of God. The retrospect of our victories manifests the hand of God. The Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, as He said He would. It was, beyond all doubt, a God-given triumph. Every jot and tittle of the promise was fulfilled. The army was broken up into three great divisions, and the horses were houghed, or rather, perhaps, smitten and slain. Those that have God on their side, need not be disturbed at the number and power of their enemies; more are they that are with us than they that are against us. They that have the Lord of hosts engaged for them have also the hosts of the Lord. [Henry.]

IV. The deep degradation and conspicuous ruin of those who are exalted highest in fighting against Jehovah (Jos. 11:10-14). As the King of Ai (chap. Jos. 8:29), and the five kings at Makkedah (chap. Jos. 10:26-27), were singled out for a peculiar measure of punishment and shame, so also was Jabin the king of Hazor. With many of the Lords people, the measure of their present humiliation will prove the measure of their future glory; for He that humbleth himself shall be exalted. With those who are enemies of God, the dignity of the present is but an index of the degradation of the future.

OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES

Jos. 11:1-6. TAUGHT OF THE LORD.

About seven centuries after this period in the national history, one of the prophets, portraying the blessings of the Church of the Messiah, made use of this expression: All thy children shall be taught of the Lord. Many of the more pious of the Old Testament saints had previously poured forth their praise of Jehovah in similar utterances. It was out of events like these in the conquest of Canaan that the more devout Israelites became so deeply impressed with the beauty of the Divine leading and teaching. Mark the gentleness and care of the Lord in the instruction given, up to this point, as outlined in the previous history of the war.

I. Gods care in teaching His people to rely on His unseen help. At Jericho the hand of Jehovah had been conspicuously manifest; at Ai it was less visible. The conflict at Beth-horon was altogether greater, and more calculated to fill the Israelites with fear; God therefore gave manifest help in the miraculous hail-storm, and in the wonderful extension of the day. In the presence of the mighty host of the five kings, God stilled the fear of His people by revealing His own presence. In the minor conflicts of the south, God more concealed Himself. Still victory was sure. Jehovah was teaching His people to believe that His help was as potent when unseen as when plainly manifest. Then came this second great battle. Israel had to fight this also without manifest miraculous aid. Yet, not to withdraw Himself too fully, God graciously gave the assurance recorded in the sixth verse. Before Jericho, in the first battle, God had given comforting words, an assuring vision, and a miraculous overthrow of the walls. At the smaller battle of Ai there was merely a promise. At Beth-horon, the first really great battle in the land, the sun and moon and the hail, in addition to direct words of assurance, told the people of a present God. Then followed the minor battles in which they had to walk by faith, and not by sight. In this second great battle the cheering words were given, but not the manifest works.

God would have us endure as seeing Him who is invisible. God ever leads us from the sensuous to the spiritual. It has been so in the history of the Church. The ministry of Christ had many miracles. In the days of the apostles miracles were fewer. In subsequent times miracles were entirely withdrawn. True faith believes when little can be seen. True faith works when success seems small.

II. Gods care in regulating the temptations by which His people are overtaken. This huge battle with all these kings does not come at the beginning of the war. The Lord directly claimed to be dealing with the hearts of the Canaanites (Jos. 11:20); He did not suffer Jabin to be moved to this mighty effort till he heard of those things which had happened at Beth-horon. Not till Israel had proved the help of God did God suffer them to be confronted by the mighty host of Jabin.

1. God tries His people gradually.

2. God never suffers His people to be tempted beyond that which they are able to bear.

3. God does but try His people that they may prove Him. He prays well, who cries, Lead us not into temptation. He believes well, who, when temptation comes, remembers that his Lord is counting upon him as able to endure.

III. Gods care in directly nourishing His peoples faith. (Jos. 11:6.) Faith is the gift of God. It is no less necessary that it should be maintained by God. Calvin aptly says, on this verse: Unless new nourishment is every now and then given to faith, it forthwith melts and vanishes.

1. God cultivates in us the rest of faith. Be not afraid.

2. God points us to the one object of faith. I will deliver.

3. God enables us to confirm our faith. To-morrow about this time.

4. God expects from us the obedience of faith. Thou shalt hough their horses, etc. That part of the spoil was not to be retained.

IV. Gods care in cultivating His peoples dependence. The horses and chariots were to be destroyed for wise reasons. The Israelites had long before been forbidden to accumulate horses (Deu. 17:16). They were not to make war an art, as did the idolatrous nations around them. They were to deny themselves the facilities for, and thus keep themselves from the temptations to, that offensive warfare which would be likely to result from maintaining a force of cavalry. Above all, God would teach His people to say, Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.

1. The choicest spoil from our victories by God is an increased sense of dependence upon God.

2. Some of the incidental spoils in most of our spiritual triumphs have need to be sacrificed for our own spiritual safety.

Jos. 11:1. TAKE HEED HOW YE HEAR.

I. Hearing and not hearing. The tidings of the overthrow of Sihon and Og, and of the fall of Jericho, seem to have made almost no impression on the sleepy king of Hazor.

II. Hearing, but hearing in vain. When Ai fell, there seems to have been a general movement all through Canaan west of Jordan, to combine against Joshua (chap. Jos. 9:1). Before Jabin had gathered the northern legions, southern Canaan had been destroyed.

III. Hearing, and hearing to ruin. When Jabin did exert himself, it was but to arise and proceed straight to destruction. Thus do the wicked delay heedlessly, awaken slowly, and finally bestir themselves to anticipate judgment.

Jos. 11:4-8. THE MULTITUDE OF EVIL-DOERS.

I. Unity is not always strength. (Jos. 11:4.) To bind them together in might that is invincible, numbers need truth.

II. The visible does not always correspond to the actual. The world ever loves to lean upon the host which is manifestly as the sand that is upon the sea shore in multitude, and yet, all unwittingly, even upon its own ground of safety, the world ever miscalculates. (Cf. 2Ki. 6:16-17; 2Ch. 32:7-8; Psa. 55:18.)

III. To walk in the light of the eyes is sometimes to lose the consolation that is of the ears. (Jos. 11:6.) The deaf and the dumb have marvellous intuitive perception. The blind are wonderfully quick in feeling. The loss of power in one physical sense compensated by an increased power in other senses. This emphatically the case in the spiritual world. Constant perception by sight the dulness of faith. Men who are ever depending on what they can see, hear few of the whispers of the Lord. Jabin and his host caught not a word of this heavenly consolation that fell so sweetly upon the open ears of Joshua.

IV. To be strong in evil means presently to be tremendous in ruin. (Jos. 11:7-8.) The height of evil-doers is but the distance of their fall. To be very strong, and yet surely destined to break, is only to break violently. The mighty hosts of Jabin only represented so much additional horror in the moments of his overthrow. Directly the great multitude fled, numbers did but accelerate and aggravate the end. The fear of a single man may be sore; the panic of the multitude, in which the fears of the host are multiplied into and focused upon the soul of the individual, is simply terrible. What will be the horror of that great day in which the infinitely larger host of all the wicked of all time flee away before the presence of the Lord, crying to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

The Defeat of Jabin Jos. 11:1-9

And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph,
2 And to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, and of the plains south of Chinneroth, and in the valley, and in the borders of Dor on the west,
3 And to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpeh.
4 And they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the sea-shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many.
5 And when all these kings were met together, they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel.
6 And the Lord said unto Joshua, Be not afraid because of them: for tomorrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel: thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire.
7 So Joshua came, and all the people of war with him, against them by the waters of Merom suddenly; and they fell upon them.
8 And the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them unto great Zidon, and unto Misrephoth-maim, and unto the valley of Miz-peh eastward; and they smote them, until they left them none remaining.
9 And Joshua did unto them as the Lord bade him: he houghed their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire.

1.

Who originated the alliance in the North? Jos. 11:1

Jabin, king of Hazor, formed an alliance with the kings of Madon, Shimron, and Achshaph, as well as other kings of the North, to make a common attack upon the Israelites. Hazor was formerly the head of all the kingdoms of northern Canaan (see Jos. 11:10). Although Hazor was burned to the ground, it was afterwards restored and became a capital again. It was fortified by Solomon (1Ki. 9:15) and was taken by Tiglath-Pileser (2Ki. 15:29). It belonged to tribe of Naphtali. According to Josephus (Antiquities V, v., 1), it was above Lake Huleh. Recent archaeological excavations in the area are some of the most interesting of all Palestine.

2.

Where was Cbinnerotb? Jos. 11:2

Chinneroth was another name for the Sea of Galilee. In New Testament times this Sea was also called the Sea of Tiberias after it was renamed by Tiberius Caesar. The same body of water was also known as Lake Genesseret. The alliance which Jabin formed reached out to include kings as far south as the central part of Canaan.

3.

Where was Dor? Jos. 11:2 b

The town of Dor was built by Phoenicians who settled there on account of an abundance of purple mussels. It was allotted to the Manassites but was in the territory of Asher (Jos. 17:11, cf. Jos. 19:26), and taken possession by the children of Joseph (1Ch. 7:29). The city itself was situated on the Mediterranean Sea, below the promontory of Carmel, and was nine miles north of Caesarea.

4.

Where was Mount Hermon? Jos. 11:3

Mount Hermon is the dominating feature of the landscape of northern Palestine. The mountain lies north and east of the waters of Merom. From its heights one can see without the aid of field glasses all the way to Damascus farther north and to Mount Tabor to the south. Snow lies on the peaks of Mount Hermon during most of the year, and the melting snow provides enough moisture to nourish vegetation. The village which lies at the foot of the mountain is some 2000 feet above sea level and the peak lies some 7000 feet higher. It is not a rocky mountain although there are some bold and majestic masses of naked rock to be seen at various points. Most of the surface is covered with soil and shepherds through the years drove their flocks almost to its summit in search of good pasture, The territory where it was located was called the land of Mizpeh, a name given to it by Jacob as he parted from Laban (Gen. 31:49).

5.

Where did Jabin get chariots? Jos. 11:4

The fact that the northern Canaanites came to fight with horses and chariots is an indication of the advanced civilization which was found in the North. This was the land of the Hittites, a branch of the Canaanites who were very highly developed in artistic skills. No record is made of the Israelites having such equipment for war. They seemed to fight with bows and arrows, spears, swords, and javelins. It is possible that the northern Canaanites had received their chariots from Egypt (1Ki. 10:28-29).

6.

Where was Merom? Jos. 11:5

These peoples who came out to war were as numerous as the sand by the seashore; and they had very many horses and chariots. All these kings agreed together concerning the war and the place of battle, and they encamped at Merom to fight against Israel, The name Merom is like Meirom, a village whose name is also found as Meirum. It is a celebrated place of pilgrimage among the Jews, because Hillel, Shammai, Simeon ben Jochai, and other noted Rabbis are said to be buried there. About two hours journey northwest of Safed, upon a rocky mountain, there is a spring which forms a small brook and flows away through the valley below Safed. This stream, which is said to reach the Lake of Tiberias in the neighborhood of Beth-saida, is in all probability to be regarded as the waters of Merom, according to Josephus (Antiquities V, i, 18). These kings encamped at Beeroth, a city of Upper Galilee, not far from Kedesh.

7.

Why did God tell Joshua to hough ther horses? Jos. 11:6

God told Joshua to make the horses incapable of running fast and pulling the chariots. To hough a horse was to break the tendons in its lower legs so that it could not run fast. It would still be capable of pulling plows and doing all kinds of domestic work. In this way the horses were spared but were made unfit for military action. The fact that the chariots could be burned indicates that they were made mostly from wood, but they were doubtlessly covered with metal to shield them from spears and javelins.

8. Why is Sidon called Sidon the Great? Jos. 11:8

Sidon is called the great (see Jos. 19:28), because at that time it was the metropolis of Phoenicia. By the time of David it had lost its ancient splendor and was outstripped by its daughter city of Tyre. It is still to be seen in the town of Saida, a town of five or six thousand inhabitants with many large and well-built houses. The fact that Joshua chased the Canaanites to the far distant point on the Mediterranean Seacoast and to Misrephoth-maim on the east indicates that the campaign was completely successful for the Israelites. Misrephoth-maim was a place with a name which indicated there were slime pits and salt pits in the area. The entire region was flat and marshy. Flat land enabled the northern Canaanites to use their chariots well in their campaigns, but even this advantage in armament did not overcome the men who were doing the will of God.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

XI.

JOSHUAS NORTHERN CAMPAIGN.

(1) Jabin king of Hazor seems to have been in northern Palestine what Adonizedec, king of Jerusalem, was in the south. For the strength of this monarchy see the story in Judges 4, 5. From its formidable character when it recovered strength in the days of the judges, we may gather some notion of what it was at first.

Hazor is identified as Jebel Hadrah, near Kedes, in Upper Galilee.

Madon, perhaps Madn, west of the Sea of Galilee.

Shimron is identified as Simnieh, west of Nazareth.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

THE GREAT BATTLE OF MEROM, Jos 11:1-15.

[“The battle of Beth-boron is represented as the most important battle of the Conquest, because, being the first, it struck the decisive blow. But in all such struggles there is usually one last effort made for the defeated cause. This, in the subjugation of Canaan, was the battle of Merom. Round Jabin were assembled the heads of all the tribes who had not yet fallen under Joshua’s sword. As the British chiefs were driven to the Land’s End before the advance of the Saxon, so at this Land’s End of Palestine were gathered for the last struggle, not only the kings of the north, in the immediate neighbourhood, but from the desert valley of the Jordan south of the Sea of Galilee, from the maritime plain of Philistia, from the heights above Sharon, and from the still unconquered Jebus, to the Hivite who dwelt in the valley of Baal-gad under Hermon.” Stanley. ]

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

1. Jabin (signifying he shall know, or he is wise) was probably the royal title of the kings of Hazor.

Hazor was a Phenician fortified city in the north of Palestine. It was the principal city of the whole of the North, “the head of all those kingdoms.” Jos 11:10. [After its destruction by Joshua it was rebuilt and occupied by another Jabin, who attained vast power, and for twenty years greatly oppressed Israel, (Jdg 4:2-3,) but was in turn defeated by Barak. It was subsequently fortified by Solomon, (1Ki 9:15,) but was afterward captured by Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria. 2Ki 15:29. Travellers are not agreed as to its site. Dr. Thomson thinks it is at the modern Hazere, about twelve miles west of the Lake Merom. Stanley locates it on an eminence just above Cesarea Philippi; Robinson at Tell Khureibeh, a rocky peak three miles west of Lake Merom; and Porter inclines to locate it a few miles south of this, on a bank of the Wady Hendaj.]

Madon was a leading city in the same vicinity, but its locality is now unknown.

Shimron, called also Shimron-Merom, (Jos 12:20,) was the chief place in a small district afterward belonging to Zebulun, eleven miles northeast of Nazareth. Schwarz thinks that it is the same as the modern Semuniyeh, a few miles west of Nazareth.

Achshaph was in the territory of Asher. Jos 19:25. Robinson identifies it with the ruined town now called Kasaf, ten or twelve miles northwest of Lake Merom.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Chapter 11. The Northern Confederacy – the Invasion of the North.

This chapter tells how the kings of the northern parts of Canaan now combined together against Joshua, and how YHWH encouraged him to fight them, delivering them into his hands, so that all their people were smitten by him. It describes how he captured their cities, destroyed their inhabitants, and took their spoil. The chapter concludes with an account of his destroying the Anakim and declares that he had now ‘conquered’ the whole land, so that there was a a lull from fighting enabling the Israelites to establish themselves without being resisted.

Jos 11:1-3

‘ And it happened that when Jabin king of Hazor heard of it that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph, and to the kings who were to the north, in the hill country and in the Arabah south of Chinneroth, and in the lowland, and in the heights of Dor to the west, to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the hill country, and the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpah.’

When the king of Hazor heard of this triumphant army that had swept through Southern Canaan he decided that it was time for serious action. The name Jabin was probably a throne name. Another Jabin would face Barak and Deborah later (Jdg 4:2). But Hazor was ‘a royal city’ and its king was called in inscriptions a ‘Great King’ (sarrum), permanent overlord over a number of cities. He thus had great influence. This would be the most powerful force that Joshua had yet faced.

Hazor (Tell el-Qedah) was an important city state in northern Canaan which had great authority over its neighbours. It was ‘ head of all those kingdoms’, (Jos 11:10). Archaeology tells us that it had been there since the third millennium BC and in the second millennium was extended by the building of a lower city. At this stage it would have had about forty thousand inhabitants, a large city indeed, almost as large as Megiddo. The lower city contained a Canaanite temple and a small shrine. It was referred to regularly throughout the centuries, by Egypt, Mari and Babylon, as an important political centre, and as mentioned above its ruler was given the title ‘Great King’ (sarrum), a status above that usually conferred on rulers of city states.

But the alliance he put together reached farther than that. Jobab, king of Madon (Jos 12:19) was important enough for his name to be remembered, although Madon is unidentified. Possibly he was Jabin’s general in the same way as Sisera would be after him. Along with the kings of Shimron (Jos 12:20 has Shimron- meron, compare Jos 19:15) and Achshaph he was probably a vassal of Jabin. Any identification for Shimron is tenuous (Tell es-Semuniyeh has been suggested but disputed) but Achshaph was near Acco and is mentioned in Egyptian lists and in Papyrus Anastasi I.

“The kings who were to the north, in the hill country and in the Arabah south of Chinneroth, and in the lowland, and in the heights of Dor to the west, to the Canaanite on the east and on the west.” A wide ranging alliance. Northern cities, cities in the Galilean hill country, cities in the Jordan rift valley (the Arabah) south of Lake Chinnereth (Num 34:11; Deu 3:17) or of the city of that name (Jos 19:35 – probably Khirbet el-Oreimah), and the heights of Dor which probably came under the jurisdiction of, and may have included, Dor, the important seaport on the coast south of Carmel mentioned by Raamses II and later conquered by the Sea Peoples (the Tjeker). It is noteworthy that the large cities of the plain of Esdraelon further South, Megiddo and Taanach are not mentioned, as they assuredly would have been had they been involved.

“The Canaanite on the east and on the west, and the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the hill country, and the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpah.” The list of the nations involved is then given in order to expand the picture. All six of the nations regularly mentioned are deliberately included. Canaanites are seen as spread from east to west of northern Canaan, the remainder are connected with the hill country.

Jebusites were usually mentioned as the inhabitants of Jerusalem but these were clearly resident elsewhere (Num 13:29), unless some came from Jerusalem, one of the few cities not to be taken by Joshua, in order to support him against Israel after their own ignominious earlier defeat. But if the writer had seen Jerusalem as being involved he would surely have mentioned it. Hivites are seen in the centre of the country (Jos 9:7) but there were clearly some in the vicinity of Hermon, compare Jdg 3:3. For the land of Mizpah compare Jos 11:8. For the site of this Mizpah (there were a number of Mizpahs – the name means ‘watchtower’) Qual‘at es-Subeibeh, near the Lake of Huleh, has much support.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Northern Campaign – Jos 11:1-15 describes the northern campaign of Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land. We have read of their campaign into the central region of this land with the battles of Jericho and Ai (Joshua 6-8). Joshua then led Israel into the southern region where he fought five kings in response to Gibeon’s plea for help (Joshua 10). This battle contains the famous story of Joshua commanding the sun to stand still. Yet, the greatest test of Israel’s faith in God lay ahead as the city-states of northern Canaan gathered together into a huge army. This time Israel’s adversaries numbered “as the sand on the seashore in multitude.” (Jos 11:4)

Jos 11:13  But as for the cities that stood still in their strength, Israel burned none of them, save Hazor only; that did Joshua burn.

Jos 11:13 “save Hazor only; that did Joshua burn” – Comments – Archaeologists now testifies that this city experienced a great fire during the time of the conquest led by Joshua. [27]

[27] Amnon Ben-Tor and Maria Teresa Rubiato , “Excavating Hazor, Part Two: Did the Israelites Destroy the Canaanite City?,” in Biblical Archaeology Review, May/Jun 1999. [on-line]; accessed 17 March 2009; available http://www.bib-arch.org/bar/article.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=25&Issue=3&ArticleID=1&ParentArticleID=12; Internet.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Second Alliance of Heathen Kings and their Defeat

v. 1. And it came to pass, when Jabin, king of Hazor, a city in the extreme northern part of Canaan, southeast of Tyre, had heard those things, the conquest of the entire southern part of Canaan, that he sent to Jobab, king of Madon, a city near the brook Kishon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph,

v. 2. and to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, what was later the mountainous region of Naphtali, and of the plains south of Chinneroth, the wide part of the valley of Jordan, south of the Sea of Galilee, and in the valley, the strip bordering the Mediterranean Sea between Akko and Sidon, and in the borders of Dor on the west, a Phenician city south of Tyre, overlooking the sea, later occupied by Manassites,

v. 3. and to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, for their tribes occupied the lowlands, and to the Amorite, mainly in the mountain districts, and the Hittite, northwest of the Sea of Galileo, and the Perizzite, in the foothill country farther south, and the Jebusite in the mountains, the highlands of Judah, and to the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpeh, in the far north, in the spurs of the Lebanon range. So the alliance included all the tribes from Mount Hermon to Mount Carmel, some of the mightiest being those of the Plain of Eadraelon.

v. 4. And they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, a mighty army, even as the sand that is upon the seashore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many.

v. 5. And when all these kings were met together, had joined their forces by definite appointment, they came and pitched together at the Waters of Merom, a small lake about three miles in diameter, north of the Sea of Galileo, hardly more than a swamp in the dry season, to fight against Israel. It was a strategically strong position, for the army shielded the important cities to the north and west, while it was ready to meet the army of Joshua with every prospect of victory.

v. 6. and the Lord said unto Joshua, Be not afraid because of them; for tomorrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel; thou shall hough, hamstring, their horses, and burn their chariots with fire. Evidently Joshua was already on his way to Northern Canaan when his scouts brought him the news of the enemy’s strength, and the words of the Lord were intended to reassure him.

v. 7. So Joshua came, after one of his characteristic rapid marches, and all the people of war with him, against them, the heathen armies, by the Waters of Merom suddenly, in a surprise attack; and they fell upon them.

v. 8. And the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them unto great Zidon, the ancient capital of Phenicia, and unto Misrephoth-maim, a place of springs at the foot of a steep precipice, over which a part of the enemy’s army was forced, and, having dispersed the main body of their opponents, unto the Valley of Mizpeh eastward, into the foothills of the Lebanon toward the northeast; and they smote them until they left them none remaining.

v. 9. And Joshua did unto them as the Lord bade him: he houghed their horses, by severing the tendons of their hind legs, and burned their chariots with fire, whose bodies therefore were certainly of wood.

v. 10. And Joshua at that time turned back and took Hazor, whose king was the leader in the alliance, and smote the king thereof with the sword; for Hazor beforetime was the head of all these kingdoms, the chief city of the northern confederacy.

v. 11. And they, the Israelites, smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them, as being under the ban of Jehovah; there was not any left to breathe. And he burned Hazor with fire, purposely dealing more harshly with this city than with the rest.

v. 12. And all the cities of those kings, who had been in the confederacy, and all the kings of them did Joshua take, and smote them with the edge of the sword; and he utterly destroyed them, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded, Num 33:52; Deu 7:2.

v. 13. But as for the cities that stood still in their strength, every one on its height or hill, as the inland cities were usually built, Israel burned none of them, although it overthrew or destroyed them, save Hazor only; that did Joshua burn. These cities remained in their old locations, many of them rising out of their ruins to new splendor.

v. 14. And all the spoil of these cities and the cattle the children of Israel took for a prey unto themselves; but every man, all the human inhabitants, both young and old, they smote with the edge of the sword until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe, Deu 20:16.

v. 15. As the Lord commanded Moses, His servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses. If the children of God trust in Him with full obedience, the Lord gives them the victory over all their enemies.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

THE PROSECUTION OF THE WAR.

Jos 11:1

And it came to pass. The political constitution of Palestine was, humanly speaking, the cause of its overthrow. The division of the country into a host of petty states, and the consequent want of cohesion and concert, made its conquest a comparatively easy task. Had the kings of the north rallied round the standard set up in Central Palestine by Adoni-zedek, a far more formidable opposition would have been offered to Joshua at Gibeon. Calvin takes us, however, at once to the fountain head, and remarks how God fitted the burden to those who had to bear it. In spite of the great things God had done to them, they might have been driven to despair (and every one knows how weak their faith was) by the overwhelming numbers of the enemy. But by reason of the slackness of their opponents they were able to meet and overcome them in detail, without any opposition but what their weak faith enabled them courageously to confront. Jabin king of Hazer. Jabin (the Hebrew meaning of this word is intelligent) was, like Pharaoh in Egypt, the usual name for the king that reigned in Hazor (see Jdg 4:2, Jdg 4:23, Jdg 4:24). He was a powerful monarch, and if not before, at least after, the Israelitish invasion became the acknowledged head of the league formed among the Canaanites against the Israelites. The first mention we have of Hazor in history is before the Exodus. The temple at Karnak, in Egypt, contains an account of an expedition into Palestine by Thotmes III; in which Kedeshu, Magedi, Damesku, Khatzor or Hazara, and other places are mentioned. We may no doubt identify these with Kedesh-Naphtali, Megiddo, Damascus, and Hazor. Hazor, like fort in French and German, caer in Welsh, and the termination cester in English (so also chester), signifies a castle or fortified town. Like the names above mentioned, it was by no means an uncommon name. Beside the present Hazer, which was in northern Palestine, two cities of that name are mentioned in the south (Jos 15:23, Jos 15:25). It rose from its ashes during the period of inaction which followed the death of Joshua, and though (Jos 19:36) it was assigned to the tribe of Naphtali, became once more the centre of a strong Canaanitish organisation. It was, perhaps, the city Solomon is stated to have fortified (1Ki 9:15), though this is not expressly stated. This becomes more probable when we find this Hazer among the cities of northern Israel captured by Tiglath-Pileser (2Ki 15:29). “Yet still, in spite of the destruction by the Assyrians, the name lived on till the time of the Maccabees, and the great contest between King Demetrius and Jonathan the Maccabean took place upon the plain of Hazer” (Ritter, 2:225). Josephus also mentions the in this connection. Robinson identifies it with Tel Khuraibeh, on the lake of Huleh, the ancient Merom. Conder regards it as represented by Jebel and Merj Hadireh, on the borders of this lake. Dean Stanley places it above the lake, while Vandevelde finds a place called Hazur, with extensive ruins, some distance westward. The names, however, Hazur and Haziri, are very common. Of Madon and Shimron nothing is known. Knobel would identify Achshaph with Aeco or Ptolemais. Robinson supposes it to be the modern Kesai. But this is not certain, for Aehshaph (Jos 19:25) formed the border of Asher, while Kesaf is in the extreme north. According to Conder, it is the present el Yasif.

Jos 11:2

On the north of the mountains. Rather, to the northward, in the mountain district. Not necessarily the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon range, but the mountains of Galilee, which lay within the boundaries of Naphtali. The LXX. reads for and therefore renders adding from Jos 11:8. The plains south of Chinneroth. Rather, the Arabah south of Chinneroth (see note on Jos 3:16). The word Arabah is given untranslated in Jos 18:18. This was, no doubt, the great Ghor, or depression of the Jordan, or at least the northern part of it, extending for some distance south of the town of Chinneroth (Jos 19:35; Deu 3:17). This town gave its name to the lake or inland sea now better known to the student of Scriptures as the sea of Tiberias, or lake of Gennesareth (see Num 34:11). “As we enter upon the geological character of the basin which contains the sea of Galilee, we see at once that it is simply one element of the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea, which extends due north and south for a distance of sixty hours. This is the Ghor, or Sunken Valley of the Arabah” (see note on Jos 3:16),” extending from Hasbeya to the AElanitic gulf as a continuous cleftthe deepest one known to us” (Ritter, 2.241). He goes on to enumerate the various signs of volcanic agency in this region; the frequent earthquakes, the form of the basin of Gennesareth (though he denies it to be a crater), the hot springs, the frequent eaves, the naphtha deposits and springs, the hot water springs to be found even in the Dead Sea, the lofty crystalline masses of the Sinaitic peninsula, and the porphyritic dykes found at the southern end Of the Ghor, as well as the general conformation of the country east of Jordan. The sea of Chinneroth, or Tiberias, is stated by Conder to be 682.5 feet below the level of the Mediterranean. And in the valley. The Shephelah, or lowland district (see above Jos 9:1). The borders of Dot. Rather, the heights, or highlands ( Vulg. regionibus) of Dor. This elevated position was a remarkable feature of the neighbourhood, though the various translations of the word (as “coast,” Jos 12:23; “region,” 1Ki 4:11) rather obscure the prominence given to this physical characteristic in the Scripture narrative. Rosenmuller would translate it the “promontory” of Dor, for Dot (now Tantura, Tortura, or Dandora) was upon the sea coast south of Carmel, and nine Roman miles north of Caesarea. Thus situated, its position on a hill, though the hill is not a lofty one, would strike the observer, and it accounts for the peculiar form of speech noticed above, which is so common that in the LXX. it is usually given as part of the proper name, (cf. , Jos 12:23; , 1Ki 4:11). And behind it are still higher rocky ridges, to which the name also applies. Dor, with its excellent harbour, was a noted place of commerce in ancient times, especially in the murex coccineus, from which the far famed Tyrian dye was obtained. These are a species of mussel, and Seetzen mentions two varieties, the murex trunculus of Linnaeus, and the Helix ianthina. The latter is of a whitish green, but when taken out of the water it passes from red to purple, and after death to violet. Its use has been superseded by that of the cochineal insect, but the Tyrian purple was in great demand in early times. Its costliness may be inferred from the fact that in each insect a little pouch behind the head, not the size of a pea, contains the dye. See Ritter, 4.280, 281; Pliny, ‘ Nat. Hist.’ 9, 36 (60 in some editions); and’ Epist.’ 50, 10, 26. The allusions to it by Horace, Virgil, Juvenal, and other classical authors are too numerous for quotation. We may take as instances Virgil, Georg. 3.17: “Illi victor ego, et Tyrio conspectus in ostro” (cf. AEn. 4.262): and Juvenal, Sat. 7.134; “Spondet enim Tyrio stlataria purpura filo.” The ruins of the ancient city still crown the steeps of its site (see Vandevelde’s Memoir, and Conder’s Handbook. Also Keil in loc). On the west. The LXX. renders, “And to the Amorites on the sea coast” (see last note), leaving out all mention of the Canaanites.

Jos 11:3

To the Canaanite (see note on Jos 3:10). This confederacy was yet more formidable than the other (Jos 11:5), but was as signally defeated by Joshua’s promptitude (see verse 7). We are reminded of the swift march of our own Harold, and its results at Stamford Bridge; with this difference, however, that the enemy, instead of being engaged in triumphant festivity, was preparing for an expedition against a much dreaded enemy, who was believed to be far off. Napoleon had nearly achieved a similar surprise at Quatre Bras and Ligny. The Jebusite in the mountains. Jerusalem was not yet taken. From the neighbourhood of that as yet unconquered city, and probably from itself, Jabin drew his auxiliaries, while Joshua was as yet fully occupied in the south. Hermon in the land of Mizpeh. Mizpeh, or Ham-mizpah, as it is usually called (save in verse 8; Jdg 11:29; 1Sa 22:3; Hos 5:1), i.e; the watch-tower, was a common name among the Israelites. There was one in Judah (Jos 15:38), in Benjamin (Jos 18:26), in Gilead (Jdg 11:29; of. Gen 31:49; Jos 13:26), and in Moab (1Sa 22:3). Ritter mentions the large number of watch towers, of which the ruins may still he traced, along the line of the great watershed of Judea. This one was probably far to the north, on the northwestern side of Hermon, commading a view of the plain of Coele Syria, which extended from southwest to northeast between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. This vast plain is still known as the Bukei’a (see note on Jos 5:8), though Robinson denies that this Bukei’a is meant, because the Bukei’a properly so called was not under Hermon. This makes it possible that Mizpeh might have been on the south. eastern side of Hermon, where also an extensive view might be had. Ritter, however, says it can be no other than “the great plain which extends north of Lake Huleh, from its narrow western margin to Banias, that is, the plain south and southwest of Hermon. Some have supposed the meaning of Mizpeh to be equivalent to Belle Vue in modern days. But the meaning “watchtower” suggests ideas more in keeping with those rude times, in which our modern appreciation of scenery was a rare quality. It was not the beauty of the view which was valued, but its extent, as giving timely notice of the approach of an enemy. Mount Hermon has already been mentioned in the note on Jos 1:4. Some further particulars may here be added. We find in Deu 3:9 that the Amorites call the mountain Shenir, and the Sidonians Sirion. It is very remarkable, and bears on the authorship of the Song of Solomon, that the Amorite name Shenir is given to Hermon in So Son 4:8. Was the song addressed to a Hittite wife, or had Solomon an Amorite one? In Deu 4:48 Hermon is called Sion. With the former of these passages we may compare Psa 29:6. But we must not confound (as even a writer so well informed as Bitter does) the Zion, or Tzion (sunny mount), of Psa 133:1-3; where Hermon is mentioned, with the Sion, or “lofty mountain” (spelt with Sin, not Tzade), in Deu 4:48. Vandevelde asks why the mountain is called by so many names, and replies that it is because “it is a cluster of mountains many days’ journey in circumference.” A much better reason is suggested by the fact mentioned in our former notethat, as the .highest ground in Palestine, it was visible from every part of it. The name Sirion, or the coat of mail, was no doubt given from its glittering, surface. It is to be feared that the reason given above for the Sidonian name diminishes the probability of the remarkable argument in Blunt’s ‘Coincidences,’ part 2.2, derived from the Sidonian settlement (Jdg 18:1-31) at the foot of Hermon.

Jos 11:4

And they went out. Dean Stanley (Lectures, 1:259) compares this “last struggle” of the Canaanites with the conflict between the Saxons and the British chiefs “driven to the Land’s End.” The comparison is more picturesque than accurate. In the first place, it was by no means a “last struggle” (see Jos 11:21; Jos 18:3; Jos 19:47; Jdg 4:1-24. throughout). In the next, the Britons were never driven to the Land’s End, but Dorsetshire, which retained its independence for 200 years, was treated by Ina as Gezer (Jos 16:10), was treated by the Ephraimites, while Devonshire and Cornwall came very gradually and almost peacefully under the hands of the conquerors. And thirdly, even had it been otherwise, there is a vast difference between a handful of desperate men driven to bay on a tongue of land surrounded nearly on every side by the sea, and a powerful, though defeated, nation with a vast continent in its rear. Yet there are many features common to the history of the Israelites in Canaan, and of the Teutonic tribes in Britain (see Introduction). As the sand that is upon the sea shore. This poetic phrase is common in the Hebrew writings (see Gen 22:17; Gen 32:12; Jdg 7:12; 1Sa 13:5; 1Ki 4:20, etc). Solomon’s capacious intellect is compared to the sand on the sea shore, in 1Ki 4:29. The word translated “shore” is “lip” in the original, a word which adds to the poetry of the passage. And horses and chariots very many. Literally, many exceedingly. The Israelites appear to have held cavalry and chariots in great awe (see Exo 14:18, and the song of triumph in Exo 15:1-27.; cf. also Jos 17:16, Jos 17:18; Jdg 1:19; Jdg 4:3). In later times they appear to have become more used to them. See, for instance, 1Sa 13:5, where the historian gives their number, large as it was, instead of regarding it as past all computation. This battle must have taken place on level ground, or the chariots would have been useless. Accordingly the historian fixes its scene on the banks of “the waters of Merom,” where such ground is to be foundanother instance of his historical accuracy (see Vandevelde, Journey 2.413, who places the battle on the great plain southwest of the latter). The use of chariots in battle dates from an early period. Homer’s heroes are described as driven to battle in them. But perhaps the scythe chariots are here meant, which are not found on early Egyptian monuments, but which Xenophon in his Cyropaedia says were introduced By Cyrus. We find them, however, in use in Britain, in the days of Julius Caesar, and they could hardly have obtained the idea from the Persians. Potter (Antiquities, bk. 3. 1Sa 1:1-28) says that they were gradually abandoned when they were found more dangerous to those who used them than to the enemy. That this kind of chariot is here meant seems pretty certain from the alarm they caused. No such alarm would have been caused by chariots simply used to convey the chieftains to the fight (see Gesenius, s.v. Xenophon, Cyr. 6.4; and 2 Macc 13:2). All their hosts. The LXX. reads their kings, for .

Jos 11:5

The waters of Merom. Robinson and the later travellers generally identify this with the Samochonitis (Joseph, Ant. 5.1; Bell. Jud. 3.9. 7; 4. 1.1), now Huleh. Keil and Delitzseh deny this, but it may be regarded as established, on the authority of Ritter, Vandevelde, Tristram, in short of all who have visited Palestine during the last thirty years. But its name, “the waters of height,” would seem to answer to this, the highest of the inland lakes of Palestine. The Jordan runs through it, and it is also the reservoir for numerous other streams. “In the centre of this plain, half morass, half tarn, lies the uppermost lake of the Jordan”the little lake Phiala excepted”about seven miles long, and at its greatest width six miles broad, the mountains slightly compressing it at either extremity, surrounded by an almost impenetrable jungle of reeds, abounding in wild fowl, the sloping hills near it scoured by herds of gazelles”.

Jos 11:6

And the Lord said unto Joshua. The encouragement was not unnecessary. The task before Joshua was harder than any that had yet befallen him. The enemy was far more numerous and better equipped. And it is a well known fact that men of tried courage are often daunted by unaccustomed dangers. Therefore all Joshua’s strength of mind was required to inspirit even men who had experienced God’s wonderful support at the passing of the Jordan, at the siege of Jericho, at the battle before Gibeon, now that they were face to face with the unwonted spectacle of a vast host, furnished with all the best munitions of war known to that age. The Israelites had nothing to depend upon but their own tried valour, and the reliance they felt upon God’s support. “Unequal in arms and tactics,” says Ewald (‘Hist. Israel.,’ 2.2. C), “they could oppose to the Canaanites only courage and confidence.” Tomorrow about this time. The promise was made on the eve of the encounter, but not, of course, as some have supposed, while Joshua was still at Gilgal. We are not told how long Joshua was on the march. Probably (as in Jos 2:1-24) he had sent scouts forward, who brought him intelligence on the day before the battle of the vastness of the host, and the formidable nature of its equipment. The martial spirit Joshua had infused into the host, and the spirit of faith in God begotten of His recent acts of favour, contrast remarkably with the conduct of the Israelites described in Num 14:1-45. To each servant of God His own special gift is vouchsafed. Moses was the man to inspire the Israelites with a reverence for law. Joshua had the special aptitudes for the leader in a campaign. It is a confirmation of this view that, in the one successful engagement recorded during the forty years’ wandering in the desert, Joshua, not Moses, was the leader of the troops, while the aged law giver remained at a distance, encouraging them by his prayers (see Exo 17:8-13). But while we thus regard the secondary influences of individual character, we must not forget that the Israelites were also sustained at this moment by the assurances of Divine protection given at Jericho, at Ai, at Beth-horon, which had not been vouchsafed to them while under Moses’s leadership in the wilderness. Will I deliver up. The “I” in the original is emphatic. And the use of the present participle in the Hebrew adds vividness to the promise. Slain. LXX. and Vulg; wounded.. Thou shalt hough their horses. To hough (or hoxe, Wiclif) is to hamstring, , LXX; to cut the sinews behind the hoofs, the hocks, as they are called. This rendered the horse useless, for the sinew could not reunite. The effects of the horses and chariots upon the mind of Joshua and his host, who had neither, is here traceable. “Those very horses and chariots, which seem to you so formidable, will I, the Lord of hosts, be tomorrow at this time delivering into your hand. The horses shall be forever useless to your enemies, and the dreaded chariots shall cease to be.” Why should Joshua have destroyed the horses? Perhaps (as Keil, following Calvin, suggests) in order that the Israelites should not put their trust in chariots or in horses (Psa 20:7; Psa 147:10), but in God alone (cf. Deu 17:16). But more obvious considerations of policy may have dictated the measure. God never (see Mat 4:1-7) makes use of supernatural means when natural ones are sufficient. Now the Israelites were unacquainted with the use of horses in warfare, while their enemies were not. To retain the horses while the country was as yet unsubdued would have been a double burden to them, for they would have had not only to keep them themselves, but to prevent the enemy from regaining them. On the same principle in modern warfare do we spike guns we cannot carry off, and destroy provisions we cannot convert to our own use.

Jos 11:7

Suddenly (see remarks in Introduction on Joshua’s characteristics as a general. Also Jos 10:9). And they fell upon them. This phrase denotes the rapidity of the onset. While they deemed him to be leagues away, he suddenly appeared at the head of his army, no doubt debouching from one of the mountain passes of Upper Galilee; and before they could set themselves in battle array, his troops, without giving the enemy time to rally, or themselves a moment’s breathing-time, commenced the attack. The LXX. adds “in the hill country” here, an obvious blunder. The translator must have carelessly read for .

Jos 11:8

And the Lord delivered them (see Jos 10:42). The issue of every battle is in God’s hands. The natural man attributes it to human skill. The spiritual man, whether under the law or under the gospel, acknowledges the truth that “there is no restraint to the Lord, to save by many or by few” (1Sa 14:6). But if victory should ever side with numbers, if God appears not to “defend the right,” it is that anxiety and sorrow may chasten the hearts of its upholders, lead them to “crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts,” and so conduct them to a final victory when they are fitted to resist the intoxication of prosperity. Many a lesson in history has taught us that immediate success is by no means a blessing, even to those who are in the main fighting for a good cause. Great Zidon. So called, not to distinguish it from any other city, but to mark (so also Jos 19:28) its importance as the capital of Phoenicia. This expression, “great Zidon,” marks the early date of the Book of Joshua. In Homer’s Iliad, Sidon is represented as the great home of the arts, though the historian Justin tells us that, even when Homer wrote, her superiority had passed to Tyre. In later years, Tyre, known only to the Book of Joshua as “the strong (literally, ‘fortified’) city.” Tyre (Jos 19:29) outstripped her rival, and from the time of David till that of Alexander the Great, in spite of her destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, retained her pre-eminence (see the vivid description of Tyre in Eze 26:1-21; Eze 27:1-36). Sidon, now called Saida, is still a commercial city of some importance, whereas Tyre is, or was, a few years ago, little better than a collection of huts. This is not difficult to explain. The pre-eminence of Tyre was due to her military strength in a time of warlike enterprise, that of Sidon to natural, position. “This ancient city of Phoenicia, ‘the eldest born of Canaan'” (see Gen 10:15), “stood on the northwest slope of a small promontory which runs into the sea, and its original harbour was formed by three low ridges of rocks, with narrow openings between them parallel to the shore in front of the city. On these islands there are remains of massive substructions, the work of the ancient Phoenicians. There is a spacious but unprotected bay on the south of the promontory No traces of the ancient city can be seen on the mainland, but at a short distance to the north are sepulchral grottoes, which probably mark the necropolis.” The plain of Sidon is prolonged as far as Sarepta, the Zarephath of the Old Testament, eight miles to the south, which stands on a rising ground near the sea, and shows the remains of ancient walls. Misrephoth Maim. Literally, burnings of waters. Kimchi conjectures that these were hot springs, whereas Jarchi more reasonably supposes them to have been salt pits, in which the water was evaporated and the salt left. Masius, whom most modern commentators follow, thinks that glass houses, of which there were several near Sidon (“constat enim eas apud Sidonem fuisse plurimas“), are meant. But it is difficult to translate the Hebrew with him and Gesenins, “burning near waters,” and the idea of some that water stands here for glass is absurd. Knobel regards it as equivalent to water-heights, i.e; cliffs rising from the sea, and derives the word from an Arabic root, saraph, to be high. The LXX. renders it by a proper name. Symmachus, “from the sea,” reading for . The Chaldee has “fossas aquarum.” Misrephoth Maim (see Jos 13:6) was not far from Sidon. Valley. The word here, Bik’a, signifies an open, wide valley between mountains (see verse 17). Sometimes, as in Gen 11:2, it is equivalent to plain.

Jos 11:10

Turned back. From his march toward Sidon. For Hazor beforetime was the head of all those kingdoms (see note on Jos 11:1).

Jos 11:11

Utterly destroying them (see note on Jos 6:17; so below, Jos 6:12). There was not any left to breathe (see note on Jos 10:40). And he burnt Hazor with fire. Comparing this verse with Jos 11:13 and Jos 11:21, there can be little doubt that Joshua had heard that the Anakim had succeeded in re-occupying the cities he had captured in the south. He resolved to prevent this in the case of Hazor, which had been the capital of the neighbourhood, though he did not think the same step necessary in the case of the inferior cities. Hazor was afterwards rebuilt and reoccupied by the Canaanites (Jdg 4:2), though not in the time of Joshua. For the present, this destruction of the stronghold of Phoenician power in the north was a decisive measure, and would have been so permanently had the Israelites followed up the policy of Joshua.

Jos 11:13

The cities that stood still in their strength. This is the rendering of the Chaldee version. The LXX. has , heaped up, i.e; defended with mounds. Rather, on their hill (“in collibus et in tumulis sitae,” Vulg). As many of the towns in Italy, and the castles in Germany in the middle ages, so these Phoenician cities were placed upon hills, that they might be more easily defended. The various tribes of Palestine were no doubt continually at war, and, as regards these northern tribes at least, were not accustomed to subsist by commerce. Therefore each of these cities stood (the Hebrew surely implies situation here) on its own hill, a detail possibly obtained from an eyewitness, who was probably struck by this feature of the district, a feature he had not observed before. The expression is used, however, as Masius observes, by Jeremiah (Jos Jer 30:18). Knobel observes that all the early versions have no suffix here. What he calls the “free translation,” however, of the LXX. (which has ) requires the suffix, though the Vulgate requires none. We must not adopt the very plausible explanation of Knobel and others that Joshua burnt the cities in the valleys, but spared the cities on the hills, because they could be more easily defended (see Jos 17:16; Jdg 1:19, Jdg 1:34), since we read that Hazor alone was burnt. The word here translated hill (Tell, Arabic) is one with which we are familiar in the modern name of places in Palestine (see note on Jos 8:28).

Jos 11:14

Took for a prey unto themselves (see Jos 8:2, Jos 8:27, and notes).

Jos 11:15

As the Lord Commanded Moses (see note on Jos 10:40). So did Joshua. The implicit obedience of Joshua to all the commands he had received of God, whether directly or indirectly through Moses, is a striking feature of his character. Like most great soldiers, he possessed remarkable simplicity of disposition. He reminds us, in his rapidity of conception and execution, of Napoleon, but in his single minded eye to duty he is much more like our own Wellington. Only one instance in which he erred, that of the league with Gibeon, is recorded, and this was but an illlustration of the unsuspicious straightforwardness of his character (see notes on Jos 19:49-51; Jos 23:2; Jos 24:15).

Jos 11:16

All that land. Rather, “all this land ;” the land, that is, which has been spoken of in all the previous narrative. It must not be pressed to mean the utter destruction of all the Canaanites, and the undisturbed possession of the country. The hills. The mountain country of Judah, in the south. The same word is translated “mountain” immediately afterwards, to the confusion of the sense, which contrasts the mountains of Israel with the mountains of Judah (see Jos 11:21). This would seem at first sight to lead to the conclusion that the Book of Joshua was composed after the jealousy between Judah and the rest of Israel had sprung up in the time of David (see 2Sa 19:41 -48). But Dr. Edersheim has suggested another explanation. Judah, he says (see Jos 14:6; Jos 15:1), entered upon their inheritance, while the other tribes were still in Gilgal. In the same way Mount Ephraim is so called because it was given to that tribe, and occupied by them shortly after. While as the remaining seven tribes remained without their inheritance (Reuben and Gad as well as Manasseh and Ephraim being now provided for), the rest of the mountains were known as the mountains of Israel. This explanation is ingenious, but hardly satisfactory. Ephraim (see Jdg 8:1, Jdg 8:2; Jdg 12:1) early acquired a preponderance over the other tribes. We should therefore expect a threefold division of the mountain district, the mountains of Judah, of Joseph, and of Israel, especially as Ephraim was the next after Judah to enter upon its inheritance. The internal evidence seems to prove that the Book of Joshua was written by one of the tribe of Judah, or by a Levite residing within the borders of that tribe. Perhaps this affords the best explanation, but is quite possible that the whole mountain district of Palestine is here meant. The south. The Negeb, or dry country (see Jos 10:40). The valley. The Shephelah, or lowlands (see note on Jos 9:1). This must have extended from Gaza northward to Joppa, while the Shephelah of Israel mentioned immediately below must be the lowland tract from Joppa to Mount Carmel. The plain. The Arabah (see note on Jos 3:16). And the valley of the same. Rather, his (i.e; Israel’s) lowland.

Jos 11:17

The Mount Halak. The smooth mountain. Literally,” monte glabro,” Vulg.; , Symmachus. This may either be interpreted “the mountain bare of foliage,” as opposed to Seir, the hairy or wooded mountain, as Masius and Rosenmuller suppose, or, as the latter also suggests, it may mean the mountain which has a smooth outline, as opposed to a precipitous cliff. This falls in with the character of the hills on the south of Palestine (see note on Jos 10:40). The LXX. renders by a proper name. But this the article forbids. The Syriac interpreter renders “the dividing mountain.” But rather signifies in this sense to assign by lot. Keil would identify it with “the row of white cliffs which cuts the Arabah obliquely at about eight English miles to the south of the Dead Sea,” and divides the great valley into two parts, the Ghor and the Arabah. He gives up the other “smooth” or “bald” mountains, because they do not “go up to Self.” Later explorers have failed to settle its situation. Seir. This mountainous region was well known as the territory of Esau (see Gen 32:2). Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon. For valley () see note on Jos 11:8. Baal-gad has been by some identified with Baalbek, or Heliopolis, a Syrian city, whose vast ruins strike the beholder with astonishment even now. But Baalbek lay considerably to the north of Palestine. It has therefore with greater probability been identified by Robinson, Von Raumer, and others, with Paneas or Caesarea Philippi. Baal-gad signifies “the lord of fortune,” an aspect under which the Babylonian Baal or Bel was frequently worshipped. The word Gad, erroneously translated “troop” in our version (Gen 30:11; Isa 65:11), is properly “fortune,” and hence the god Fortune. The worship of Pan in later times supplanted that of Baal, but traces of both cults, in inscriptions and niches, may be found in the neighbourhood to the present day (see Tristram, ‘Land of Israel’). All travellers speak with enthusiasm of the situation of Banias. Josephus says that it affords a profusion of natural gifts. Seetzen corroborates him. Dean Stanley compares it to Tivoli, and Canon Tristram thinks that in its rocks, caverns, and cascades there is much to remind the visitor of what is perhaps the loveliest place in all Italy. He continues, “The situation of Banias is indeed magnificent. With tall limestone cliffs to the north and east, a rugged torrent of basalt to the south, and a gentle slope for its western front, Banias is almost hidden till the traveller is among the ruins.” Banias stands at the end of a gorge of the Hermon range with the wide range of the Huleh plain opening out before it, as the Campagna and Rome in the distance are seen from the mouth of the gorge at Tivoli. Vandevelds, however, identifies Banias with Beth-rehob, on the insufficient ground that Baal-gad is said to be in, not at, the mouth of the valley or Bik’ath of Lebanon. He prefers the castles either of Bostra or of Aisafa, the one an hour and a half, the other three hours north of Banias. It should be added that an arm of the Jordan rises and rushes through the gorge here, “praeceps,” like the Anio at Tivoli. The valley of Lebanon is supposed by some not to be the valley between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, but the country on the southern declivity of Mount Hermon. But the term here unquestionably means the well-known Bukei’a or Coele Syria, i.e; the tract between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon (see Knobel).

Jos 11:18

A long time. Hebrew, many days. The campaign in southern Israel lasted for weeks, perhaps even months. But the campaign in northern Palestine must have lasted longer. The vast host which gathered at the waters of Merom was destroyed, but the task of capturing the innumerable cities which dotted that region must have been a protracted one. We may, with Josephus, infer from Jos 14:10 that it occupied five years, or perhaps, with other of the ancient Rabbis, seven years, since the wanderings in the wilderness after the rebellion of the Israelites lasted thirty-eight years.

Jos 11:20

To harden their hearts (cf. Exo 4:21; Exo 7:23). Muller, ‘Christian Doctrine of Sin,’ 2.412, says that “Scripture never speaks of God’s hardening men’s hearts, save in connection with His revelations through Moses or Christ.” This passage evidently had not occurred to him when writing. His explanation of the difficulty is hardly satisfactory. We are not to suppose that the free will of the Canaanites was in any way interfered with. God no doubt left them to themselves as the due punishment of their iniquities. Sin in general, by God’s own appointment, and especially the sensual sins in which the Canaanites were steeped, has a tendency to produce insensibility to moral or even prudential considerations, and to beget a recklessness which urges on the sinner to his ruin. Some have argued that had they all come, like the Gibeonites, as suppliants, they must all have been massacred in cold blood. But this is not likely. Rather we must imagine that God foresaw that they would not believe the signs He would give in favour of the Israelites, and that by meeting them in battle they brought a swift and speedy destruction on themselves.

Jos 11:21

And at that time (see Jos 11:18). What is meant is, during the continuance of the war in which the country above described was conquered. The destruction of the Anakim was the conclusion of the work, and was rendered necessary by their having reoccupied the places Joshua had taken (see notes on Jos 10:36-39). The Anakims. Literally, the long-necked men. Called the “children of Anak” (Num 13:28, Num 13:33; also Jos 15:13, Jos 15:14). Gesenius would derive the German nacken and the English neck from this root. The word is used of the chains on the necks of camels (Jdg 8:26. So also So Jdg 4:9, of a necklace). They were men of gigantic stature (Num 13:32), and were no doubt a hill tribe of the Amorites. It is worthy of remark that to the two fearless men whose faith did not fail them at the sight of the walled cities, and of the giant forms of their inhabitants, was entrusted the task of overcoming these antagonists, and thus of proving the truth of their own words. Thus it ever is in the counsels of God. “To him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away.” To Joshua, who had confidence in God, the whole land of Canaan was given into subjection. From the Israelites, who had not that confidence, the inheritance of their fathers was taken away (cf. also Mat 25:21, Mat 25:28). Many writers suppose that these Anakim (like the Rephaim of Jos 12:4) were the aboriginal inhabitants, and of Turanian descent (see note on next verse). Anab. A town about ten miles southwest of Hebron (cf. Jos 15:50). It was apparently one of the daughter cities of Debir, and there is still a place of that name in the immediate vicinity of Dhaharijeh. Mountains of Judah. For this and the “mountains of Israel” see note on verse 16.

Jos 11:22

Only in Gaza. This statement is confirmed by what we afterwards read. In Gath especially (1Sa 17:4; 2Sa 21:18-22; 1Ch 20:4-8, the last passage preserving the true text, which has become hopelessly corrupt in the second Book of Samuel) we find the race of giants remaining till David’s time. But it had almost died out. Goliath and his brethren seem to have been regarded by the Philistines, as much as by the Hebrews, in the light of prodigies. It may be that the race deteriorated in size and strength, when driven from the mountain district. Gaza (Hebrew Azzah, as in Deu 2:23; 1Ki 4:24; Jer 25:20) was a stronghold of the Philistines. We first find it mentioned as the border of Canaan in Gen 10:19. It was the scene of the exploits of Samson, related in Jdg 16:1-31. It, with Gath, Ekron, Ashdod, and Ashkelon, formed the five Philistine lordships mentioned in Jos 13:5. Gaza does not appear in the list of cities captured by David, although Gath does. Perhaps the strength of its position (Azzah signifies strength) may have enabled it to resist David and Solomon, whose dominions are said to have extended to, but not to have included, Azzah. We read little more of it in the Old Testament. Jeremiah says that Pharaoh smote it; Amos and Zephaniah threatened it with punishment. It is mentioned in Act 8:26 as a place of some importance. And it still exists, at about an hour’s journey from the sea, and is now called Ghazzeh. (see also note on verse 41). Gath. Also one of the five Philistine lordships. In David’s time it had a king, with whom David took refuge (1Sa 21:10; 1Sa 27:2). It was afterwards conquered by David (2Sa 21:20; 1Ch 18:1; 1Ch 20:6). We find it in Solomon’s jurisdiction, though under the government of one of its own royal family (1Ki 2:39). Rehoboam fortified it (2Ch 11:8). Hazael, the powerful king of Syria, wrested it from Jehoash, and was only bought air from assailing Jerusalem. Uzziah retook it once more (2Ch 26:6). Hezekiah seems to have retained it (2Ki 18:8). After this we hear no more of it. Modern travellers and commentators have identified it with Beit-Jibrin (the house of the mightyperhaps a reminiscence of Goliath and his kindred), now Eleutheropolis (so Knobel). Others suppose it to be the Blanche Garde of the Crusaders, or Tell-es-Safieh, an opinion supported, among others, by Mr. J. L. Porter and Lieut. Conder. See, however, the note on Libnah, Jos 10:29. Ashdod. Later Azotus, now Esdud. Here the ark was carried after the disastrous defeat related in 1Sa 4:1-22. It was conquered by Uzziah (no doubt it had formerly been reduced by David), who built forts to overawe it (2Ch 26:6), but it fell into the hands of Sargon, king of Assyria, a little later (Isa 20:1). It is frequently mentioned by the prophets, and we find that Jonathan, the brother of Judas Maceabaeus, burnt the temple of Dagon there (1 Macc. 10:83, 84). It is mentioned as Azotus in Act 8:40.

Jos 11:23

Joshua took the whole land. The word must not be pressed to mean that every Canaanitish stronghold was razed or appropriated. The word , as has been before remarked, has a very loose signification in Hebrew. What is meant is simply this. Joshua had established an unquestioned military preponderance in Palestine. He had broken down all resistance; but before he completed his conquests to their full extent, he had to provide for the peaceable settlement of the tribes in the territory he had seized. The complete extermination of the Canaanites formed no part of his commission or his plan (Deu 7:22; cf. Exo 23:29, Exo 23:30). To have effected it would have been to throw the land out of cultivation, and to expose its possessors to the usual inconveniences of depopulated districts. Therefore it was Joshua’s policy to leave the Canaanites to be extirpated by degrees, and to encourage the Israelites to cultivate the arts both of war and of peace; to nourish a martial spirit by remembering that numerous and active enemies still dwelt in their midst, while yet they were not neglectful of the importance of a settled and civilised, an agricultural and pastoral life. See also Jdg 3:1, Jdg 3:2. This purpose was defeated, not only by the usual effects of civilisation upon hardy or savage tribes, but also by the Israelites becoming addicted to the pleasant but enfeebling vices of the races they had supplanted. We see in the Israelitish history the best exemplification of St. Paul’s theory that the “law worketh wrath,” although it is “holy, just, and good.” The excellence of the moral precepts delivered by Moses did but serve to manifest more clearly the inherent depravity of our nature (Rom 3:20; Rom 5:20; Rom 7:7, Rom 7:8), and its need of a Saviour, who should render obedience possible by the gift of regeneration, and the infusion of His own Spirit. According to their divisions. Literally, their divisions by lot, the word being derived from the same root as the word Halak in Jdg 3:7, because a smooth stone was usually employed in casting lots. Hence it came to mean any authoritative division or distribution, as the courses of the Levites (1Ch 23:6), the classification for purposes of enlistment (1Ch 27:1) and the like. And the land rested from war. That is to say, the Canaanites were so thoroughly cowed and dispirited that they dared offer no further resistance to the Israelites in their task of portioning out the land. They were quite contented to be allowed to live in peace in such of their cities which remained, and had no disposition to court an overthrow such as took place at the battles of Gibeon and Merom, with its inevitable results of the absolute extermination, not only of every one who took up arms, but of every human being in the city to which they belonged. Thus the Israelites were able to give their whole attention to the survey and apportionment of the territory according to the relative size and importance of the tribes.

HOMILETICS

Jos 11:1-23

The continuation of the struggle.

The same class of thoughts is suggested by this chapter as by the former. We have, as before

(1) the confederacy of evil against good,

(2) the conflict,

(3) the victory,

(4) the utter destruction of the enemy.

But the course of the narrative gives a somewhat different form to our reflections.

I. JOSHUA NEEDED SPECIAL ENCOURAGEMENT ONCE MORE, in spite of his previous signal victory. This was because he had a new class of enemies to contend against. These kings, with the king Hazor at their head, seem to have possessed a higher civilisation than the southern tribes. We read (Jos 11:4, Jos 11:6) of their chariots, and these, as we have seen (see Exposition), seem to have been regarded with peculiar terror by the Israelites. So it is ever with the Christian Church. It was so at the beginning. At first she had only to contend with the obstinate jealousy and prejudice of the Jews, but as her sphere of operations enlarged she had to contend with the whole force of the civilised Roman empire. It is so still. The Church has confronted the barbarism of the middle ages, the superstition and formalism that followed it. But now she has to contend with modern civilisation, with its horses and chariots of ironthat is to say, its modern developments of physical force, as well as knowledge. These have to be attacked and brought under Christ’s yoke.

II. THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY INVITES COMBINATION AMONG HER ENEMIES. This, too, was the case at the outset of Christianity. As soon as our religion was seen to be a power in the world, capable of surviving the execution of its leader, and the punishment of His followers, and of spreading nevertheless from city to city, from country to country, a widespread combination, formed of elements the most opposite, arose against it. Jew joined with Gentile to put it down. The emperor waged war against it, because it had formed a secret society, dangerous, he thought, to the stability of his throne. The lawyer and statesman opposed it, because it had taken upon itself to exist without the permission of the law. The priest opposed it, because it set up an altar against his. The philosopher opposed it, because it struck a blow at his proud exclusiveness, and combated some of his favourite dogmas. The tradesman opposed it (Act 19:27), because it struck at his gains. The mob opposed it, because it robbed them of their spectacles and brutalising amusements. The man of vicious life opposed it, because it put a curb upon his habits of sinful indulgence. Yet our heavenly Joshua led his forces against these enemies, and the unholy combination was utterly defeated. Nor is it altogether different now. To Christianity as a creed no such opposition is offered. But let us strive to put the practical precepts of Christianity in operation, and we still meet on many points with the combined opposition of various sections of society. The statesman is indifferent to measures which will array an interested opposition against him, or diminish his sources of revenue. The philosopher derides the movement, because success, from a human point of view, is improbable, or because it offends against the canons of his school of philosophy. The man of rank, perhaps, opposes it because it strikes a blow at his privileges; the man of fashion because he is incapable of earnest thought, and hates everything that gives him trouble. The vicious does his utmost against it for the same reason as of old; while it is still not impossible to array against it the clamours of an unthinking mob. Yet here, as elsewhere, perseverance is success.

III. JOSHUA NOW WAS AT WAR WITH CIVILISATION. This is one of the enemies which must be brought under the yoke of Christ.

(a) Civilisation increases luxury. and luxury is a foe to Christian self denial. Luxury leads to ease and self pleasing, and ease and self pleasing are the very opposite of the Christian spirit. One great work of the Christian Church will be to teach men thankfully to accept the good gifts of their heavenly Father, and yet to consecrate those gifts to His service, and not to the formation of selfish habits.

(b) Civilisation augments enormously the power of man for evil as well as for good. Who can predict the tremendous results for evil which may result from modern discovery, unless, under our Joshua, we manfully confront its advance, destroy its power for evil, and convert what it might misuse into instruments of good? Again

(c) Modern discovery exalts the pride of man. And the first requirement of Christianity is that he shall lay that pride aside. Therefore it is our duty to show modern knowledge its limits, to remind him who is puffed up by it that there is a gulf which his highest efforts cannot pass. tie can but tell us what is; he cannot tell us how it is. He may consider himself entitled to overleap the barrier which separates us from the unknown, but the attempt involves as great an assumption as it ever did. The barrier is as wide as ever, though the ground on this side of it is undoubtedly better surveyed. Concerning God, we shall be always in need of a revelation, however much He may reveal Himself in His works. So that it is still as true as it ever was, in reference to our spiritual condition, that truth is hidden from the “wise and prudent” in their own sight, and is “revealed unto babes.”

IV. JOSHUA HAD STILL TO COMBAT NATURAL STRENGTH. To the men against Jabin succeeded the campaign against the uncivilised but powerful Anakim. So civilisation does not destroy our natural passions. It may

(a) give them another direction, but it rather augments them than otherwise. The refinements of civilised life are unfavourable to brutal violence, but brutal indifference is not less common, and not less cruel. Against vulgar license the civilised man sets his face, but is refined licentiousness less destructive to the soul? History has proved that civilisation, unchecked by Christianity, does but increase the natural appetite for sinful pleasure. And it is Christianity alone that keeps the temptations incidental to a life of luxury within bounds. Remove that obstacle, and Nature will assert her power, and the animal in man will once more dominate civilisation to its own cruel appetites, as in past times. But

(b) it is a noteworthy fact that civilised life has everywhere a fringe of aggravated naturalism. In the element that we call “rough,” which is ever found where society is most highly organised, we find the most shocking perversion of natural appetites, combined with their utmost strength. Is there any place upon earth where brutality, ferocity, recklessness, animal indulgence, rages more uncontrolled by any moral considerations, than in the “slums,” as we have named them, of our greatest cities? This is the direct product of the thoughtlessness, the selfishness, the recklessness of civilisation, which thrusts out of sight all that is foul and hideous of its own creation, and leaves it to fester alone. Civilisation may be won to Christianity; but there remains a long and terrible conflict with the Anakim, those giant perverted natural forces which hang on the outskirts of civilisation.

V. JOSHUA DID NOT BURN ALL THE CITIES. That is to say, there are uses to which the discoveries of civilisation and the force of natural temperament may be put. Hazor, the centre of the combination against Joshua, was burnt. So civilisation and natural disposition, so far as they are employed for self, instead of for God and mankind, must be rooted out. But where discovery is used, not to exalt men’s pride, but to increase his knowledge of God’s ways; not to manufacture luxuries and enjoyments to be the exclusive privilege of the few, but to augment the happiness of all, then need we not destroy but welcome them. So natural disposition need not be destroyed, but converted to a good purpose. Thus the ardent temperament of a St. Paul, diverted from its misuse in fierce persecution, became the parent of burning zeal for the diffusion of Christianity. A cold, critical spirit may become useful in ridding the true cause of false allies. A calm, unimpassioned judgment may make its possessor an useful guide to the passionate and impulsive. The quiet, contemplative soul may furnish abundant stores of thought for those who have no leisure to think for themselves, and a busy, active disposition may find scope for its energies in the multiplicity of good works which our complicated state of society has brought into being. And even those passions which, wrongly directed, will cause widespread misery through sensual indulgence, may burn with a restrained and steady and harmless flame in the charities of family life.

VI. THE WAR LASTED MANY DAYS. So does the struggle

(1) of the Christian Church against evil, and

(2) that of the Christian soul against temptation.

It is not

(1) until the final consummation of all things, and

(2) till the close of life, that “the land” can “rest from war.”

VII. GOD IS SAID TO HARDEN MEN‘S HEARTS, but only in the sense in which this is done by the operation of His laws. He has so ordained, that if a man’s heart is not softened by His loving kindness, it is hardened. The man who resists the pleadings of His Spirit becomes insensible to their influence. The man who succumbs to temptation becomes incapable of resistance, indifferent to the beauty of holiness. The man who apologises for vice sees no excellence in virtue. The man who is puffed up by a sense of his own sufficiency is unable to perceive the evidence for God’s truth. And this is in a sense God’s doing, because He has willed that it shall be so. It is not an arbitrary law. It exists by a moral necessity. We can see that it is but an effect following a cause. “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good.” And if that which is good works evil to any, we may not blame God, but man, who has turned his meat into poison, and extracted death from God’s most righteous law.

HOMILIES BY R. GLOVER

Jos 11:1-5

Many adversaries.

Another league is here. One in the south destroyed; another in the north is formed. A formidable one scattered; one more so gathers. Four kings are mentioned, and probably a dozen others of those mentioned in the following chapter are associated with them. They marshal all the fighting power of the northern half of Palestine. As the land was then (as repeatedly afterwards) very populous; as war was the most familiar of all employments; as numbers of the citiesalmost impregnable by naturewere fortified as well; as the army gathered was strong in chariots and horses, and had taken up a position on the great plain of Jezreel, where cavalry could operate with easeit seemed as if the outlook for Israel were very dark indeed. A nation of fugitive slaves assailing a Phoenician people of vast wealth, enterprise, civilisation, and numbers! What chance of success was there? But they unite only for their easier destruction. Cheered by God, falling thereon suddenly, the terrific shock of Israel’s charge was irresistible, and this “battle of the league” at once leads to Israel’s easy conquest of the whole of this half of the kingdom. Take this story as an example of the way in which God’s warriors have always “many adversaries.” And observe

I. THE NATURAL CHANCES ARE ALWAYS AGAINST GOD‘S PEOPLE. The sacred history is little more than a list of conflicts of one sort and another, fought invariably against great odds, but followed invariably by victory. The chances were many against Israel getting away from Egypt, taking Jericho, winning at Beth-boron, gaming a victory here. It was not otherwise in the case of Jephthah, of Deborah, of Gideon. Who would have ventured to describe David as having a single chance in his conflict with Goliath? How pathetic is Elijah’s estimate of the odds against him in his fight for truth. Baal’s prophets and Astarte’s prophets are numbered by hundreds, backed by the whole power of the court and the perversity of the people. But “I am left alone, and they seek my life.” The odds were heavily against Daniel and his three friendssay 10,000,000 to 1. Neither Ezra nor Nehemiah felt they had anything approaching a level chance. The Babe of Bethlehem had all superstitions, vices, prejudices of the world against His cause. The Apostle of the Gentiles had all the philosophies, religions, and weaknesses of men against him and his simple gospel. The great theologian of the early centuries lamented that he stood “Athanasius against the world.” Luther had Church and State throughout all Europe against him. Every missionary to a heathen land, every philanthropist seeking to remove abuses, have had the same experience. The Church today sometimes deems herself “hardly bested” by science, secularism, the preoccupation of men with their necessary cares, the sluggishness of the human heart to adopt a higher principle of life. Each Christian man finds such weaknesses and perversities within him and such obstacles without that it seems often as if it would be impossible to hold his ground, much less to make advance. Be not astonished if, in the part of the field assigned to you, the odds are altogether and absolutely against you. They always are against God’s people and God’s children. But observe secondly, though the chances are against them

II. THE WINNING FORCES ARE ON THEIR SIDE. Inward forces are on their side. The heart makes the hero. Nelson’s Methodists were his best sailors. God infuses such energy of purpose, confidence, self sacrifice, that these intensify natural force a hundredfold. [See Shakespeare’s ‘Cymbeline,’ for illustration of effect of moral energy in war.] Good is the strongest and sturdiest thing under heaven; evil, cowardly and self ashamed in its presence. Duty, peace, hope, gracious memories, self respect, God’s smilethese are forces which the world can never match, and which all operate in the direction of victory. Outward forces are also on their side. Divine guidance is imparted, Providence aids them, concurrently with their efforts the efforts of God are put forth. When God fights His battles of mercy there is no lukewarmness in His conflict. He uses us. The weapons of our warfare are heavenly, while the weapons of His warfare are often earthly. And so, while the world has the appearance, the Church has the reality, of a preponderant weight on her side. Is it a case of a battle of the northern league with you? Fight on, for they that are with you are far more than they flint are with them.G.

HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY

Jos 11:15

God’s commandment and man’s faithfulness.

I. GOD‘S COMMANDMENT IS ENDURING. The commandment to Moses is transmitted to Joshua. God’s will is changeless. What is right is right eternally. We must not regard God’s laws as obsolete when they are ancient. The precepts of the Bible are not the less binding upon us because they are old (Psa 119:160; Isa 40:8). Nevertheless

(a) what God commands relative to certain circumstances will be modified if those circumstances are changed;

(b) a larger commandment coming later exonerates from the observance of the details of a smaller commandment when these are by their nature preparatory to the larger. Thus the larger Christian law of love frees us from the narrower preparatory law of ordinances (Rom 13:10).

II. FAITHFULNESS TO GOD CONSISTS IN SERVING GOD IN OBEDIENCE TO ALL HE COMMANDS US.

(1) Faithfulness is shown in devotion to God. Moses and Joshua regarded themselves as God’s servants. The Christian is not to live for self, but for Christ (Rom 14:8).

(2) This devotion must be exercised in active service. Belief, religious feeling, and acts of worship will not satisfy God. We are called to do His will (Mat 7:24-27).

(3) Faithful service is obedient service. We must not simply work for God, but work for God in His way, doing His will, and fulfilling His commandments. Self will is fatal to the merit of the most zealous service. Much of our most devoted service is spent in serving God according to our own will instead of simply doing His will (Psa 40:8; Joh 6:38).

(4) Perfect fidelity requires obedience in all things. We are tempted to choose our favourite commandments for obedience, and to neglect others. Some are not obvious; we should search for them. Some are difficult; we should seek special strength to do them. Some are dangerous; we should be brave and firm before them. Some are distasteful; we should sacrifice our feelings to God’s will.

(5) Perfect fidelity will make us endeavour to secure the fulfilment of God’s commandments by others when we cannot accomplish all ourselves. Moses transmitted the commandment to Joshua. We should think more of the execution of the work than of the honour of the agent. Jealousy sometimes leads us to refuse sympathy for a good work if we cannot do it ourselves.

(6) The justifying grace of God in Christ does not free us from the obligation of perfect fidelity. No man is perfectly faithful. As Christians, we are accepted by God, not on account of our fidelity, but for the sake of Christ and through the mercy of God. But the receipt of God’s forgiving grace brings upon us the greater obligation to be faithful to Him in the future (Rom 6:1).

(7) The liberty of the gospel does not exonerate us from the duty of fidelity. We are freed from the bondage of the letter of the law that we may obey the spirit of it. We are delivered from the legal servitude of fear that we may serve the better in the “sweet lawlessness of love” (Rom 8:3, Rom 8:4).W.F.A.

Jos 11:20

Hearts hardened by God.

I. WHEN GOD HARDENS A MAN‘S HEART IT IS BECAUSE HIS CHARACTER IS SUCH AS TO TURN GOD‘S RIGHTEOUS ACTION TO THIS RESULT. The same act of Providence which hardens one heart softens another. Prosperity will harden one in selfish, worldly satisfaction, and soften another to grateful devotion and active benevolence. Adversity will harden one in discontent and unbelief, while it softens another to penitence and trust. The experience of life will deaden the spiritual insights of one, and quicken that of another. The effects of God’s work with us is thus largely determined by the condition of our own minds. God never hardens a man’s heart except through his own abuse of providential actions and spiritual influences which are kindly and wholesome in themselves, and prove themselves so to these who receive them aright (Mat 13:11-15).

II. GOD HARDENS I MAN‘S HEART NOT BEFORE, BUT AFTER, HE HAS SINNED. The Canaanites had hardened their hearts in sin before God hardened them for judgment. God never predisposes a man to sin, nor does He harden a man in sin against any desire for amendment. The Divine hardening of the heart is not a cause of sin but a fruit of it.

III. GOD DOES NOT HARDEN A MAN‘S HEART SO MUCH BY MAKING THE WILL STUBBORN AS BY BLINDING THE EYES TO PRESENT DANGER AND FUTURE CALAMITY. The Canaanites were not made more wicked, they were only rendered blind to their danger and doom, so that they resisted where resistance was hopeless, and attempted to make no terms with the invader. When a man will not repent in obedience to conscience, it may be best that lie should not find a means of escaping punishment through the exercise of prudence. So long as conscience is blind it is better for all moral purposes that prudence also should be blind. Note, however, as a warning, while sin tends to blind us to its approaching punishment, we are not the less in danger because we feel a sense of security.

IV. WHEN THE CONSCIENCE IS DEAD TO GOD‘S LAW IT MAY BE WELL THAT THE INTELLECT SHOULD BE BLIND TO HIS TRUTH. It is better not to receive the truth into the intellect than to hold it with a disobedient heart. Otherwise

(1) we shall misunderstand, abuse, and misapply it;

(2) we shall deceive ourselves by supposing we are the better for knowing what is good although we do not practise it; and

(3) we shall be less susceptible to the influence of truth when it comes at the right moment to reveal our guilt and direct the way to redemption. Christ expressly said that He spoke in parables that they who were in a wrong condition of heart to benefit by His teaching might not receive it to their hurt and its dishonour (Mat 13:13).W.F.A.

HOMILIES BY J. WAITE

Jos 11:20

Doomed to destruction.

The evil men do often appears to be attributed in Scripture to the Divine will and agency (Exo 4:21; Jud Exo 1:14 :4; 1Ki 12:15; Rom 9:17, Rom 9:18). Reason and conscience, indeed, confirm the view St. James gives of the history of all transgression (Jas 1:13-15). Every man’s sin is emphatically his ownborn of his own inward impulse, nourished by influences to which he freely and wilfully yields himself, and its deadly issue is his just and natural recompense. God has nothing to do with it but to condemn and punish. How, then, can it be said of any form of evil that it is “of the Lord,” or that a man does it because the Lord “has hardened his heart”? Is it so that the wrongdoer is after all but the passive instrument of a Divine purpose, and his life the working out of a Divine decree? The perfect solution of this difficult problem may be beyond us; but there are considerations that will shed much interpreting light upon it, and under the guidance of which we may

“assert eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to man.”

I. THE HARDENING OF MEN‘S HEARTS IN EVIL COURSES IS THE RESULT OF CERTAIN LAWS OF WHICH GOD IS THE AUTHOR. A suggestive analogy is found in the realm of material things. Nature has its stern impartial laws, its latent dangers, destructive powers, deadly poisons, etc. If a man deals wantonly and recklessly with these, he arms them all against himself; but the blame of the mischief thus done cannot be laid on Him who made or ordained them. What is man’s business in this world but just to utilise for good endsto “use and not abuse”the laws and resources of the sphere in which the Creator has placed him? So, morally, the circumstances of our existence upon earth work out good or evil results according as we are voluntarily disposed to use them. The very influences that in one case tend to nourish the principles of a true and noble life, in another case harden the heart in sin. God’s part in this is simply to determine the conditions under which the process shall go on. The evil men do is their own; the powers they prostitute to their base purposes, the place they occupy among their fellow men, the advantages that favour the working out of their designs, the laws that govern the development of their sin to its fatal issues, are “of the Lord.”

II. WHEN MEN SHOW THAT THEY ARE RESOLUTELY BENT ON EVIL COURSES, GOD MAY SEE FIT TO LEAVE THEM TO THEMSELVES. There is in morals, as in mechanics, a law of inertia by virtue of which we remain in a chosen state, or continue to move in a chosen direction, unless some stronger force is brought to bear upon us. Will and habit rivet the chain of iniquity. When a man’s heart is thoroughly “set in him to do evil,” God sometimes abandons him to his own choice, leaves him to become the prey of his own wayward and wicked infatuation (Pro 1:31). In such a case the law of sin is simply left to take its course. The Divine act is negative rather than positive. It lies in the withholding of restraining or delivering grace. And there is no injustice in thisnothing unrighteous in God thus allowing the heart to harden itself. Moreover, it is by the operation of a law of our nature that he who will net turn from his evil way shall at length come to a point at which he cannot (Jer 13:23).

“Sins lead to greater sins, and link so straight,
What first was accident, at last is fate.”

And God, who established that law, is often said in Scripture to do that which takes place by virtue of it, or which results from it. He has framed the whole constitution of things under which it comes to pass that the impenitent sinner gradually becomes obdurate and closes against himself the door of hope. In this sense only can it be true that “it is of the Lord to harden men’s hearts.”

III. GOD OFTEN WORKS OUT, THROUGH THE WORST FORMS OF HUMAN EVIL, HIS GRANDEST ISSUES OF GOOD. In tracing the course of earthly affairs, we have to draw a very distinct line of separation in our minds between the wicked will and purpose of man, and the overmastering will and purpose of God. The sovereignty of the latter is most triumphantly asserted when the former has been suffered to reach its utmost limits, and work its deadliest work. The utter destruction of these Canaanites, aggravated by their own mad resistance, was essential to a full display of the majesty of the God of Israel, and the vindication of eternal righteousness. How important a part it has played in the general progress of humanity, who shall say? The triumph of redeeming mercy was brought about through the most heinous of all human crimes. “Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,” etc. (Act 2:23). The “hands” were none the less “wicked” because through them God accomplished His holy and loving will. The Son of man was born into the world to be betrayed and crucified and slain; but that does not lighten the curse that falls on the betrayer and the murderer. Across the dark thunder cloud of man’s evil, God casts the bright and beautiful rainbow of hope. The darkness is man’sthe hope is from Him “who is light, and in whom is no darkness at all.”W.

HOMILIES BY E. DE PRESSENSE

Jos 11:20

The extermination of the Canaanites.

The terrible extermination of the Canaanitish nations remains a mystery too hard for us to understand. “It was of the Lord,” we read (Jos 11:20). The history of Israel is designed to bring out in an impressive manner, by outward and visible facts, the constant intervention of God in human destinies. The history of our race is a fearful drama of blood and tears, in which ruin and devastation meet us on every hand. The Old Testament teaches us that in this history the purposes of Divine justice are carried out. It shows us the great Justiciary perpetually working. We might almost say that the veil which usually conceals His operation is lifted, so that we see that “our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29). If we look into the causes of this extermination of the Canaanites, we see that it was brought about by the excessive corruptness of the life of these people, under the influence of their impure idolatries. The same conditions are found today at the root of all the woes that afflict humanity. The sin is always greater than the suffering. The just God is also the God of love. His justice paves the way for His mercy. The triumph of Israel is to be turned to the account of the human race, since the establishment of the sons of Abraham in the land of promise is a necessary condition and antecedent of the universal salvation. We do net for a moment deny that an awful mystery rests upon these dark records of the Old Testament. It is impossible to think without shuddering of these myriads of human beings, swept away in a deluge of blood. But surely we may believe that even in this there was some hidden secret of love Divine, and may cling with the early Church to the “larger hope,” that redemption may have come to them in that mysterious abode of spirits in prison to which Jesus Christ went to preach (1Pe 3:17). We do not see why the victims of the first deluge should have been the only ones thus privileged. Alike in public and private misfortunes, let us ever recognise the justice of the Holy God. Let us bow beneath His mighty hand, remembering that it is at the same time the hand of our Father, and that “all things work together for good to them that love Him.”E.DE P.

HOMILIES BY R. GLOVER

Jos 11:21, Jos 11:22

The destruction of the giants.

These giants had been the terror of Israel. In the evil report of the unfaithful spies they are mentioned last in the ascending scale of difficulties which seemed to make the conquest of the land an impossibility. The dread of their prowess had provoked the mutiny in the wilderness which led to the forty years of homeless journeying. But here we have the account of their destruction; the brevity of the account itself suggesting what everything subsequently stated confirms, that the most dreaded was not the most arduous part of their task, but somehow a part which was done like all the rest, without hitch or strain. There is much here that is very suggestive.

I. THERE ARE GIANTS THAT WE HAVE TO RIGHT. The spies had made a true report. Their report erred not in the measurement of the difficulty, but in the estimate of the nation’s power with God’s help to overcome it. It was true enough that scattered over the land were these tribes or families of great statureAnakim, Emim, Zamzummims, Rephaim, as they are variously called. The Israelites being probably a people of less than ordinary stature found themselves thus face to face with a most stalwart and lordly race, with a people whose strength is still evinced in those marvellous remains of “the giant cities of Bashan,” which impress all who behold them. And the land cannot be theirs until these giant tribes in their mountain fastnesses are destroyed. It is with them as it is with all menall have to fight some giants in their fight of life. Our outlook should be made hopeful by faith, not by illusion. There are giants before us whom we shall have to fight if we are faithful. Difficulties, temptations, huge griefs, loneliness of spirit, impulses of wrong, cares and anxieties, still make a great tribe of the children of Anak. We shall find them scattered all over the landin Bashan and in Hebron, and throughout all the hill country. Wherever the conquest would be hard enough without them, there are they found to make it harder still. It is well to abjure self deception. The way of righteousness is hard, and many a battle will try all our nerve and all our endurance. Life itself is stern and fun of conflict. Be not surprised if the strain on you be terrific, if the number and force of the enemy alike distress you; there has nothing new happened to you. All have had giants to fight with in their course through life. Israel could not possess the land until the giants were conquered, and your apprehensions of the future are so far accurate that you will have to encounter them without doubt. Secondly observe

II. WE CANNOT HELP BEING. AFRAID OF THEM, BUT WE MUST KEEP THE FEAR WITHIN PROPER LIMITS. It is useless to forbid fear, and perhaps unwise. Useless, because so long as our nervous system is what it is, and the possibilities of life are so solemn and various, it is inevitable that solicitude should be awakened. It would be unwise, for the fear, kept within proper limits, is one of the most valuable of all our instinctive emotions. The eye, by a sort of fear instinctively operative in it, brings down its lid over it whenever anything approaches it. And by the physical apprehensiveness of the organ itself its delicate arrangements are protected. And what is done for that organ by its nerves of peculiar sensibility is done for our lives in all their complexity by an instinctive apprehensiveness which “scents the danger from afar.” While there are giants it is desirable that there should be some fear of them. For fear, within bounds, makes men brace up their energiestake all precautions against surprise, sends them to God for guidance and for help, sets them to repair their weak point, whatever it may be. It is only in excess that fear is mischievousthat is, when it occupies the entire thought, paralyses all the energies of the life, and itself directly aids the overthrow it was meant to avert. It may perhaps be expressed accurately thus: Fear is a good servant but a bad master. So long as it does not rule us, but only suggests precautions and helps to make our protection complete, so long it is a blessing. Whenever it becomes master, and commands instead of merely advising us, then our manhood is destroyed, and the ills we fear overtake us all the faster for our alarm. Israel did not do wrong in fearing the Anakim, but only in letting their fear exceed its proper limits, and fill their souls to the exclusion of all faith in God and hope of His help. Do not needlessly blame yourself for the agitation and apprehension produced by the possibilities of the future, only limit these things by faith and prayer and watchfulness, so that, thus kept in its place, your fear may serve you well. Thirdly observe

III. ISRAEL HAS NOT TO FIGHT THE GIANTS TILL IT IS STRONG ENOUGH TO CONQUER THEM. Somehowwe hardly know howthe fight with the Anakim comes last. Perhaps because they occupied the fortresses formed by Naturethe mountain fastnesses; and naturally the first attention was given to the more regular and more numerous combatants inhabiting the cities. Whatever the reason, they were five years in the land before Caleb led the first attack on them (see Jos 14:10). And only when they were flushed with victory, every man a conquerorwhen the prestige of their miraculous forces conquered men’s hearts before a sword was drawnonly then are they exposed to the strain of what seemed such an unequal conflict. And meeting them when they were thus grown in courage and prowess, their defeat requires no more effort than many of the lesser struggles which taxed their less developed powers. There seems something here characteristic of a universal experience. God’s Israel are never unequal for a conflict, when the time has come for it. There is always such growth of force, or such heavenly aid, that when the fight comes it is found that fitness for it has come before it. You perhaps look forward with extreme solicitude to the giants that will dispute your passage. Remember, there is some distance between you and them, and much may happen before you reach them. You are gathering strength every step you take on the right road. And every lesser victory is giving you force and nerve to win a greater one. And should the giants not die before you get to them, you will find that, like Israel, you have grown fit to fight them before you are called to fight them. You will be strong enough for victory over them before you are required to enter into conflict with them. Lastly observe

IV. THEY FOUND OUT THAT THE WORST PART OF THE GIANTS WAS THE TERROR THEY COULD INSPIRE. The great power of the giants was over the imaginations of their foes. And they had no real force at all equal to the terror they excited. Israel saw in imagination the size of the men, heard with alarm of the length of their spears and the weight of their armour. They did not remember that in any match between a great soul and a big body, the big body has but little chance. And so they were overpowered by the mere imagination of their enemy’s force. But when they actually face them, they find that valour avails more than muscle, energy than height, faith than armour, soul than body. By beating them they found that the chief power of the giant was his power of affecting the imagination of his opponent. So is it still. “The worst ills are those that never happen,” as the French proverb says. They threaten us, alarm us, agitate us, and after all turn off in some other direction, and do not come to us. And so is it with our giants. Their worst part is something which exists only in our imagination. They kill us by frightening us, and they frighten us by the powers they borrow from our imagination. Let us be of good courage and not afraid. And if giants many and strong threaten us let us keep fear in the bounds of faith, let us remember on warfare is ordained for us except where victory is possible, and let us put a check on the too easily affected imagination which needlessly dreads a foe, whose outward bigness is no accurate measure of the dimensions of his real force.G.

HOMILIES BY J. WAITE

Jos 11:23

Rest from war.

These words bring us a grateful sense of relief. We are weary of reading the long catalogue of bloody victorieshow of one city after another it is said, “They smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them; there was not anything left to breathe.” We are ready to say with the Prophet, “O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet?” (Jer 47:6). If it were not for our conviction that an all wise and righteous Divine purpose determined all this (Carlyle’s distinction between the “surgery” of God’s judgments and “atrocious murder”), we should turn with loathing from the sickening tale of slaughter. Certain thoughts about war are suggested.

I. THE CAUSES OF WAR. The baser passions of human nature are the sources from which it always more or less directly springs. These are the root of all its practical wickednesses. “Whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?” (Jas 4:1). Vain ambition, the desire for territorial aggrandizement, the thirst for power, jealousy, revenge, etc.these are the demons that kindle its destructive fires. Other and more plausible motives are but the false veil that hides their hatefulness. There is no real exception. Self defence is no doubt an imperious instinct of nature, and there are interests (liberties, sanctities of social life, principles of eternal righteousness) which it may often be a noble thing for a nation, even by utmost force of arms to guard. But there would be no need to defend if there were no lawless lust or cruel wrong to endanger them. These “wars of the Lord” are no exception to the rule. They were waged by the Divine command, but their cause lay in the moral evil that cursed the landthose foul iniquities which, to the view of Infinite Wisdom, could be wiped out only by such a baptism of blood.

II. THE MISERIES OF WAR. It is the very symbol of almost all the woes of which human nature is capable, and that can darken with their shadow the field of human life.

(1) The frenzy of malignant passions,

(2) physical suffering,

(3) the cruel rending of natural ties,

(4) the arrest of beneficent industries,

(5) the imposition of oppressive burdens,

(6) the increase of the means and instruments of tyranny.

These are some of the calamities that follow in the track of wax. Their sadness and bitterness cannot be exaggerated.

III. THE POSSIBLE BENEDICTIONS OF WAR. It is a marvellous proof of the Divine beneficence that reigns supreme over all human affairs that even this deadly evil has something like a fair side to it, and is not unmixed with good.

(1) It developes certain noble qualities of characterself reliance, self control, resolution, fortitude, mastery of adverse circumstances, etc.; so much so that men have been led to look upon the experience of great wars as essential to the vigorous life of nation, necessary to save it from the lethargy of moral indifference and the enervating influence of self indulgence. We may give due weight to those heroic qualities that war calls forth, and yet feel that they in no way counterbalance the crimes and horrors that attend it.

(2) It prepares the way for new and better conditions. As storms clear the air, as a great conflagration in the city destroys its dens of shameful vice and loathsome disease, so wars which dislocate the whole frame of society, and let loose lawless passions, and inflict unspeakable miseries, do, nevertheless, often bring about healthier conditions of national life, and clear the ground for the spread of truth and righteousness. God” makes the wrath of man to praise him,” though in itself it “worketh not his righteousness.” And when the land rests from war there often arises a benign power of restoration that soon changes the face of things

“softening and concealing,
And busy with its hand in healing,”

the rents and ravages the sweep of the destroyer may have made.

IV. THE CURE FOR WAR. There is no cure but that which is supplied by the redeeming influence of the Prince of Peace.

(1) It will uproot and destroy those hidden evils in the heart of man from which all war arises, substituting for them that “love which worketh no ill to his neighbour.”

(2) It will turn those energies of our nature to which war gives a false and fatal impetus into worthier directions, enlisting them in a purely moral conflict with the abounding evils of the world (2Co 10:4, 2Co 10:5; Eph 6:12-18).W.

HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY

Jos 11:23

Victory and rest.

I. THE TRUE CHRISTIAN WARFARE IS DESTINED TO END IN VICTORY.

(1) Victory is promised in God’s Word. From the first promise that “the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent” (Gen 3:15), to the latest assurance of a “crown of life” to those who are “faithful unto death” (Rev 2:10), success is assured to the faithful soldier of God. So the land was taken “according to all that the Lord said unto Moses.”

(2) Victory is secured by God’s help. In the passage of the Jordan, the fall of the walls of Jericho, and the success of the battlefield, it is everywhere indicated that God was aiding His people. In our spiritual warfare we are victorious because God is fighting for us (Psa 118:6), and gives us strength to fight (Psa 117:1-2 :14), and because Christ has first conquered our enemies (Joh 16:33; 1Co 15:57).

(3) Victory is attained through our fighting. “Joshua took the land” after hard fighting. The Christian must fight to win (Eph 6:10, Eph 6:11; 1Jn 5:4).

II. WHEN VICTORY IS ATTAINED IT WILL BE AS AMPLE COMPENSATION FOR THE HARDSHIPS OF THE CHRISTIAN WARFARE.

(1) The fact of victory will in itself be a great reward. To have conquered sin and mastered self and to be independent of the world will be attainments full of blessing.

(2) Victory will introduce us to a great inheritance. We have our Canaan to possess after the baffle of life is over. Heaven will be a great inheritance to us, as

(a) the home of our souls and the abode of our Father,

(b) the “land flowing with milk and honey,” wherein our souls will receive all needful nourishment and inspiration;

(c) the place for peaceful, honourable service. After fighting the Israelites had leisure to till the soil and tend their flocks; after our fighting will come the happy service of heaven.

(3) Victory will secure to us rest from further warfare. “The land rested from war.” War is always an evil, though sometimes a necessary evil. Happy the land that has “rest from war”! The Christian is not to live forever in the toils and dangers of spiritual warfare. In heaven he will be free from the assaults of evil. Note: True rest is not rest from serviceidleness, but rest from warpeace.W.F.A.

HOMILIES BY R. GLOVER

Jos 11:23

The promise fulfilled.

It is well to note the absolute fulfilment of God’s promises. That which He has done for others He will do for us, if we trust Him. All who commit the keeping of their souls and the guidance of their life to Him have a promised landthe enjoyment of which seems often so distant as to move them to despair. Here we see a great promise grandly redeemed. God promised safe deliverance from Egypt, safe conduct to the promised land, and the possession of the whole of Canaan. And now we find Joshua took (verse 18) “all that land, the hills and all the south country, and all the land of Goshen, and the valley, and the plain, and the mountain of Israel, and the valley of the same, even from Mount Halak that goeth up by Seir, down to Baal Gad in the valley of Lebanon under Mount Hermon.” It took him several yearsseven at leastto make the conquest. Even when made, and the enemies subdued, they were still in various localities in sufficient force to dispute the possession and enjoyment of certain points of the country. But the land of Canaan had become the possession of Israel, and was to continue to be theirs for more than a thousand years to come. It is a bright and conspicuous instance of God’s faithfulness. Consider this fulfilment of promise. Observe

I. IT DID NOT COME AS THE YOUNG MAN HOPED. When Joshua first came from Egypt he had doubtless his roseate dreams. To him the projected conquest would seem the easiest of all things. A journey of a few weeks, a bold entrance, a vigorous blow, the strenuous efforts of a united nation, helped by the enthusiasm of grace and the assistance of Providencesuch would seem to him all that was requisite for complete and grand success. Even when he had traversed the land he still believed in the perfect possibility of its conquest, and had all a hero’s difficulty in believing in anything tending to prevent it. But God’s promise came, not as the young man hoped or expected. Youth sails too fast, underrates the difficulties to be surmounted, does not realise its own weakness, and the weakness of coadjutors, so that five-and-forty years elapse before the promise receives its ripe fulfilment. God’s promises to us will all find realisation, but not quite so swiftly, perhaps, as in our youth we dream. Perfect victory over sin within ourselves will not be achieved in one conflict, and abuses will not be destroyed by one assault. The might of God’s help is greater than ever we deem it, but our own weakness and faultiness are inadequately known. Our scheme of philanthropy will meet stouter opposition and a feebler backing than we anticipate. Be not discouraged. God’s promises will all be fulfilled, though not so fast as the young expect them. Observe secondly

II. GOD‘S PROMISE WAS FULFILLED EARLIER THAN THE MIDDLE–AGED MAN DARED TO HOPE FOR. I expect Joshua felt the years of pilgrimage longer than any one else felt them. “When would the nation be fit to strike for its earthly home?” Some centuries of bondage had been required to give them unity; would a similar stretch of wandering be required to produce courage and faith? To his eye, doubtless, virtues grew far too slowly. And when he witnessed their murmurings, their readiness to decline to lower paths and viler practices, there could hardly fail to rise within him the feeling that the conquest of the land was daffy becoming a more distant thing. And when he saw three of the hardiest tribes settle on the east of Jordan, and saw a great reluctance on the part of the rest to cross that river, doubtless he began to think the promise of God tarried, and to wonder whether he would ever see his people settled. But faith sufficient to cross the Jordan and courage sufficient to take the land did not require centuries to grow. God’s purposes ripened faster than the faith of even His most believing servants, and accordingly, in all probability, long before Caleb and Joshua would have dreamed the people ready for the task, Canaan is won. God sees more than we see. He hastes not, but He tarries not. Our despairing thoughts are not our wise ones. More forces are working on our side than we imagine. God sleeps not. The desire of your heart will come sooner than, in your despondency, you deem either likely or possible. And when, perhaps, hope deferred has made the heart sick, then, like a morning without clouds, it comes in all its fulness. Lastly observe

III. WHEN GOD FULFILS HIS PROMISES, HE DOES SO GRANDLY. It is not half done, or three-quarters. All the land is given them. Nay, good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over. On the south their territory extends to Seir; on the east it passes over Jordan and embraces almost all within the edge of the desert. It is given easily. They have war, but no defeat; difficulties, but none insuperable; much left to be done (as in a new house there always is!, but still the conquest is complete. Won far more easily than any could have imagined, the land is theirs. So in God’s own timei.e; the really fittest timeevery promise will be fulfilled. The promise of answers to our prayers, of the heart’s desire, of a blessing on our work, of growth in grace, of the abundant entrance into the inheritance of the saints in lightall will be given to us at last, more richly, more fully, more easily than we have ever dared to hope.G.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Ver. 1. Andwhen Jabin king of Hazor had heard, &c. No sooner was this king of Hazor informed of the conquests of Joshua, than he took a resolution to stop, if possible, the progress of his victorious arms, by covering the north part of the country of Canaan, of which Hazor, afterwards given to the tribe of Naphtali, was the principal city. Jabin, in all probability, was the common name of all the kings of Hazor. What inclines to this belief is, that the prince, who was subject to the Israelites for twenty years in the time of the Judges, and who was defeated by Deborah, went by this name of Jabin.

He sent to Jobab, king of Madon, &c. This is the only place where mention is made of a king of Madon, excepting ch. Jos 12:19. This city is entirely unknown. It was formerly held by the king of Hazor, see ver. 10. Calmet observes, that if, with the Roman edition of the LXX, we read Maron, we might find the city of Maronia or Marath, north of mount Lebanon. The name Maron is preserved ch. Jos 12:19. I know not, says he, whether the land of Meroz, mentioned Jdg 5:23 might not be the country of Maron. Shimron is the same as that called Shimron-Meron, ch. Jos 12:20. This city afterwards belonged to the tribe of Zebulun, south of that of Naphtali. Calmet takes Shimron to be the Symira of Pliny, which lay in Caelo-Syria. It cannot be Samaria, for this city was not then in being; and its name was given it by Omri, king of Israel, 1Ki 16:24. Achshaph afterwards belonged to the tribe of Asher, and lay north-west, towards the extremity of that tribe, ch. Jos 19:25. Calmet is of opinion, that Achshaph was the Eedippe of Pliny, Ptolemy, Josephus, and Eusebius.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

5. The Victory over the Northern Canaanites. Capture of their Land. General Retrospect of the Conquest of the Country West of the Jordan

Joshua 11

a. The Second League of Canaanite Kings

Jos 11:1-6

1And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had [omit: had] heard those things, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph, 2And to the kings that were on [in] the north of [on] the mountains, and of the plains [and in the Jordan valley] south of Cinneroth, and 3in the valley [the low-land], and in the borders [heights] of Dor on the west, And to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpeh. 4And they went out, they and all their hosts [camps] with them, much people, even [omit: even] as the sand that is upon the sea-shore in multitude, with [and] horses and chariots very many. 5And when all these kings were met together, they came and pitched [encamped] together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel. 6And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto Joshua, Be not afraid because of them: for to-morrow about this time will I deliver them all up [give them all] slain before Israel: thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire.

b. The great Victory at the Waters of Merom

Jos 11:7-9

7So [And] Joshua came, and all the people of war with him, against them by the waters of Merom suddenly, and they fell upon them. 8And the Lord [Jehovah] delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them unto great Zidon, and unto Misrephoth-maim, and unto the valley of Mizpeh eastward; and they smote them, until they left them none remaining. 9And Joshua did unto them as the Lord [Jehovah] bade [had said unto] him: he houghed their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire.

c. The Capture of the remaining Portions of Northern Palestine

Jos 11:10-23

10And Joshua at that time turned back, and took Hazor, and smote the king thereof with the sword: for Hazor beforetime was the head of all those kingdoms. 11And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying [devoting] them: there was not any left to breathe: and he burnt Hazor with fire. 12And all the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did Joshua take, and smote them with the edge of the sword, and [omit: and] he utterly destroyed [devoted] them, as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded 13But as for1 the cities that stood still in their strength [on their hill], Israel burned none of them, save Hazor only; that did Joshua burn. 14And all the spoil of these cities, and the cattle, the children of Israel took for a prey unto themselves: but every man they smote with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe. 15As the Lord [Jehovah] commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua: he left nothing undone of all that the Lord [Jehovah] commanded Moses.

d. General Retrospect of the Conquest of West Palestine

Jos 11:16-23

16So [And] Joshua took all that land, the hills [mountain], and all the south country, and all the land of Goshen, and the valley [the low-land], and the plain [the Arabah or Jordan-valley], and the mountain of Israel, and the valley [low-land] 17of the same; Even from the mount Halak [the bald mountain], that goeth up to Seir, even unto Baal-gad, in the valley of Lebanon, under mount Hermon: and all their kings he took, and smote them, and slew them. 18Joshua made war a long time [Fay, exactly: many days] with all those kings. 19There was not a city which made peace with [Fay, De Wette: peacefully submitted to] the children [sons] of Israel, save the Hivites the inhabitants of Gibeon: all other [omit: other] they took in battle. 20For it was of the Lord [Jehovah] to harden [prop. strengthen, LXX.: ] their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle [LXX.: ], that he might destroy them utterly [devote them], and that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as the Lord [Jehovah] commanded Moses.

21And at that time came Joshua and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel: Joshua destroyed them utterly [devoted them] with their cities. 22There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children [sons] of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, there remained. 23So [And] Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord [Jehovah] said unto Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance [possession] unto Israel, according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

With this chapter we enter upon a new theatre of the conquests of Joshua, the northern part of West Palestine. Just as before Adoni-Zedek, the king of Jerusalem (Jos 10:1 ff.), had summoned the five kings of the south to resist Joshua, so now Jabin, the king of Hazor, who occupied a prominent position, since his city is designated as the chief city of all the northern kingdoms (Jos 11:10), collects the military forces of this portion of the country against the conqueror at Gibeon. But the Lord encourages his servant, and now again, as before, exhorts him not to fear them, although they had encamped by the water of Merom, like the sand of the sea for multitude (Jos 11:1-6), Joshua falls upon them suddenly, before they had fully got together, smites them utterly, pursues them to the seacoast, in the region of Sidon, lames their horses, and burns their chariots with fire. The account which we have in Jos 11:7-9 is brief but all the more vividly impressive. Next follows a history of the capture of the remaining parts of western Palestine, in the style of the chronicler, as in Jos 10:28-43. To all this is appended, finally, a general review of the conquest of all Palestine, with a special notice of the extirpation of the Anakim.

a. The Second League of Canaanite Kings, Jos 11:1-6.Jabin king of Hazor. Hazor (Jos 12:19; Jos 19:36) was an important royal seat of the Canaanites, which Joshua destroyed, according to the statement in this chapter (Jos 11:13), but which was afterwards rebuilt, and became again a kingly capital (Jdg 4:2; Jdg 4:17; 1Sa 12:9). Here dwelt, in the time of the Judges, another Jabin whose general was Sisera. Solomon fortified the place (1Ki 9:15), the population of which was carried away by the Assyrians under Tiglath-pileser (2Ki 15:29). According to Josephus (Antiq. v. 5, 1), ), Hazor lay on the range of hills which stretches itself on the west of the sea of Merom, now the Jebel Safed. Porter (i. 304) found here a place Hafur; Robinson, on the same ridge an hour south of Kedesh, with which Hazor is mentioned both in our Book Jos 19:36, and in 2Ki 15:29, found a hill Tel Khureibeh, which he would identify with Hazor. Knobel seeks for it on a hill north of Ramah, south-west of Safed, where a collection of ruins, Huzzur or Hazireh, occurs. This suits his view of the water of Merom; see below. But as we cannot share in this, for reasons to be given, we accept the statement of Josephus, which seems to us sufficiently supported by the researches of Porter and Robinson. Such a point was well adapted to the residence of a prominent monarch.

Madon, Jos 12:19. A city not yet discovered, perhaps to be sought in southern Galilee, more probably, however, like the other cities west of the sea of Merom (Knob.).

Shimron is called, Jos 12:20, Shimron-Meron, therefore Shimron in the vicinity of Meron = Maron, southwest of Kedesh.

Achshaph (Jos 12:20) a border city of Asher (Jos 19:25). According to Robinson (Later Bibl. Res. p. 55), perhaps the present Kesf, about midway between Tyre and Banias; almost certainly not Akko, as Knobel on Jos 19:25 conjectures.

Jos 11:2. On the mountain. The mountain of Naphthali (Jos 19:32) is meant.

In the plain, south of Cinneroth, i.e., the Ghor of the Jordan, south of the sea of Gennesaret.

In the lowland; here probably the strip bordering the sea between Akko and Sidon, to which the following, Naphoth-Dor on the sea, directs us (Jos 12:23). This Dor (Jos 17:11, Joseph. Ant. v. 1, 22) belonged later to Manasseh (Jos 17:11), by which tribe its Canaanite inhabitants were not driven out (Jdg 1:27). From 1Ch 8:29, we learn that children of Joseph dwelt in it. The population was accordingly a mixed one. Under Solomon it was the chief place of a revenue district (1Ki 4:11); now called Tortura, also Tantura, with forty or fifty dwellings, five hundred Mohammedan inhabitants, and ruins of a Frank castle (von Raumer). or (Jos 12:23; 1Ki 4:11) = heights of Dor. The place was so called because it lay on an elevation, where Van de Velde found the ruins (Mem. p. 307), nine miles north of Csarea towards Tyre.

Jos 11:3. Jabin sent, accordingly, to the Canaanites in the east and west, and to the other tribes, e.g. to the Hivites dwelling in the land of Mizpeh. This region lay, according to the present passage, under Hermon, and was, from Jos 11:8, a plain, perhaps the level strip south of Hasbeiya, and to the west of Tel el-Kadi. There, on a hill, from which one has a glorious view of the great basin of Hule, lies the place Mutelleh or Metelleh (Robinson, iii. 347, and Later Bibl. Res. 372 f., Van de Velde, Narrative, ii. p. 428). The name signifies outlook, and corresponds to the Heb. (Knobel). The name Mizpeh occurs in two other places, in Judah (von Raumer, p. 213), and probably twice also in Gilead (von Raumer, p. 265), as a designation of localities; very naturally, since the country abounded in positions affording beautiful and extensive prospects. Compare the similar names to be met with in our mountain regions: Lookout, Fairview, etc.

Jos 11:4. The Canaanite princes and their tribes obey and march out, much people even as the sand that is on the sea-shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many. The comparison with the sand by the sea is very often met with in the Book of Gen 32:13; Gen 32:31; Gen 41:49, as an emblem of multitude; as an emblem of weight again, Job 6:3 : Pro 27:3. The horses were particularly formidable to the Israelites, who had none. The chariots likewise, of which it is said, Jos 17:18, that they were iron chariots, i.e. had wheels with iron tires. Comp. Bertheau [and Cassel] on Jdg 1:19 : The scythe-chariots were first introduced by Cyrus, (Xen. Cyrop. iv. 1, 27, 30), Keil.

Jos 11:5. And when all these kings were met together they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel.This water of Merom, = highest, upper, water is, according to the traditional explanation, the of Josephus (Ant. v. 5, 1; Bell. Jud. iii. 9, 7; iv. 1, 1); now called by the Arabs Bahr el-Huleh, or el-Khait. The sea is two and a half hours long, one hour wide [about three miles in each direction, Grove, Dict. of Bibl. p. 1898], muddy, abounding in fish, its surface forty feet [Van de Velde: 140] above the level of the sea; in summer mostly dried up, full of reeds, in which wild boars and serpents dwell, only its eastern shore is inhabited (von Raumer). It is mentioned nowhere else in the Bible. The allied kings, judging from Jos 11:7, had, probably, pitched their camp in a strong position, covered by Hazor and other cities as, e.g. Kedesh, on the Jebel Safed. From thence they might launch forth with their horses and chariots against Joshua, who would be likely to come up through the Jordan valley. But if this were their plan it was frustrated by the truly strategic promptness of the Hebrew commander. Knobel, followed lately by Keil (Bibl. Com. ii. 1, in h. l.) seeks this water of Merom in a little brook flowing in the valley below Safed, and which has its source in the mountain lying two hours northwest of Safed. There lies a place called Meirum or Merun (Rob. iii. 333 f.). A glance at the map shows that this valley was ill suited to be the camp of the multitudinous Canaanites. And when Knobel, to support his peculiar opinion, brings up the circumstance, that there is no proof that the Bahr el-Huleh was ever called by the ancients the water of Merom, we reply, that the Bahr el-Huleh is mentioned at all only in this single passage, so that the only question is, How did the ancients understand this passage? What did they think of the ? Answer: According to Josephus they thought it to be the Sea Semechonitis, or Samochonitis, the present Bahr el-Huleh, near which the battle was fought. To this traditional view, Hitzig also holds. He briefly remarks (Hist. of People of Isr. i. p. 103): He (Joshua) conquered, it is said, at the water of Merom (i.e. El Huleh) King Jabin.

Jos 11:6. Encouraging appeal of God to Joshua, as Jos 10:8 and often. We have to conceive of Joshua as already on the march, when this word was addressed to him, since the distance from Gilgal to the sea of Merom was too great for him to reach the latter between one day and the next (tomorrow about this time).

Thou shalt hough their horses and burn their chariots with fire. So David does with the horses of Hadad-ezer, king of Zoba (2Sa 8:4; 1Ch 18:4. = ). The tendons of the hind legs were severed (they were hamstrung), and thus they were rendered completely useless.The burning of the chariots is mentioned also, Psa 46:10; they were therefore certainly of wood.

b. The great Victory at the Sea of Merom, Jos 11:7-9.

Jos 11:7. Suddenly, from with the adverbial ending , as in , and metathesis of and . They said also , 2Ch 29:36, or , Num 6:9, or , Isa 29:5, or , Isa 30:13. Joshua proves himself by his rapidity a true general, as Jos 10:9.

Jos 11:8. Pursued them unto great Zidon and unto Misrephoth-maim, and unto the valley of Mizpeh eastward. Joshua followed the enemy partly in a northwestern direction (toward Sidon), and westward (Misrephoth-m.), partly towards the northeast (valley of Mizpeh). Sidon is here as Jos 19:28, the great (), i.e. the populous ( not ), and thus is designated as the capital of the land of the Sidonians (Phnicians). It was older than Tyre, and allotted to the tribe of Asher (Jos 19:28), but not conquered by it (Jdg 1:31). Sidon is repeatedly mentioned by Homer (Il. vi. 289; xxiii. 743; Od. xv. 425). The city, once so powerful, has now not more than 5,000 inhabitants (Rob. iii. 417 ff.). In his prophecy against Tyrus, Isaiah remembers Sidon also (Isa 23:2; Isa 23:4; Isa 23:12). Jeremiah comprehends Sidon with Tyre (Jer 47:4, compared with Joshua 27:3), which is very often done in the N. T. (Mat 11:21-22; Mar 7:24-31; Mat 15:21; Luk 10:13; Mar 3:8). A charming description of Sidon is given by Furrer, Wanderungen d. Palest. p. 351.

Misrephoth-maim. Luther: warm water; Gesen.: perhaps lime-kilns or smelting-furnaces (from ) situated near water; Knobel, from the Arab.: water-heights, among which should be understood the promontories Ras en-Nakura and Ras el-Aibab (Scala Tyriorum). Not both promontories, however, but only one, and not the sea but a spring, is meant, we believe, namely, the southern Ras en-Nakura, which, from a spring lying at the southern foot of the mountain, and a place called Muschairifeh (plainly, as even Knobel admits, the same name as Misrephoth), is called also Ras el-Muschairifeh (Ritter, xvi. 807). Here once stood perhaps furnaces (glass furnaces?) in the vicinity of the spring, and from these it received its name. This view suits excellently with Jos 13:6, where Misrephoth-maim is mentioned as a known boundary point. Joshua, therefore, cast the Canaanites over the mountain, here precipitously steep, down into the plain by the sea, by which, certainly, thousands were destroyed. But while two divisions of the army thus followed the enemy toward the southwest [N. W.?] and west, another moves at the same time toward the northeast, and chases them into the valley of Mizpeh, called above in Jos 11:3, Mizpah.

Jos 11:9. Finally, Joshua does as Jehovah had bidden, houghs the horses, and burns the chariots.

c. The Capture of what remained of Northern Palestine (Jos 11:10-15). Jos 11:10-11. First, Hazor, the chief city of these petty northern kingdoms, is taken, and, because of its prominence, more hardly dealt with than the rest. For Joshua purned Hazor with fire (Jos 11:11; Jos 11:13).On the inf. , comp. Deu 3:6, and Jos 3:17.

Jos 11:12-13. Fate of the other cities. The sense of the two verses is that the cities in the plain were totally burned and devoted, while those, on the contrary, which stood on their hill, i.e. the fortified mountain cities, with the sole exception of Hazor, were not burned. The Israelites were content to sack them (Jos 11:12).

Jos 11:14. The spoils were not devoted but divided, as at Ai, Jos 8:2; Jos 8:27. The men, all that had breath (comp. Jos 11:11), were destroyed.

Jos 11:15. This command of God to Moses is found before in Exo 34:11-16; and again Num 33:51-56, strengthened by threatenings; finally, also, Deu 20:16, where it is said, Thou shalt save alive nothing that breathes, as Joshua here actually does. For the transfer of this command to Joshua, compare in general the often-cited passage, Num 27:18-23, and particularly Deu 3:21. The author states emphatically, to show the conscientiousness of Joshua: he left nothing undone of all that Jehovah had commanded Moses, comp. Jos 11:12, as well as Jos 1:7-8.

d. General Retrospect of the Conquest of Western Palestine (Jos 11:16-23).Joshua captured the whole land of Canaan, namely, in the south, the portions mentioned Jos 10:40 ff., together with the Arabah (Jos 11:2), the mountain of Israel, i.e. Ephraim (Jos 17:15), and its lowland on the west (Jos 16:1), and so the land from the Bald Mountain in the south to Baal-gad in the north; the kings he took captive, smote and slew (Knobel).

Jos 11:17. From the Mount Halak (smooth, or bald mountain), that goes up to Seir (Jos 12:7). This smooth mountain can hardly be Mount Madurah, as Knobel thinks (he writes Madara), and hence translates by smooth mountain (mentioned by Robinson, ii. 589); because this mountain does not go up to Mount Seir, but rather lies on the west side of the Wady el-Fikreh. It is more probably identical with the ascent of Akrabbim, mentioned Jos 15:3, and Num 34:4, which Robinson believes he has discovered in the remarkable line of cliffs that run across the entire Ghor, a few miles south of the Dead Sea (ii. 489, 490). This divides the great valley into two parts, both physically and in respect to its names down even to the present day, the northern portion from hence to the sea of Tiberias being called el-Ghor [formerly, the Arabah], the southern, even to Akabah, being called el-Araba (Rob. l.c.) This ridge, consisting of whitish cliffs (Rob. l.c.) goes up in fact to Seir, i.e. towards the mountains of Edom which constitute the eastern boundary of the Arabah, now Jebl (Gebalene), and lies exactly opposite to Baal-gad which is named as the northern limit. So Keil in l. accepts it. On the map accompanying the last edition of von Raumers Palstina, from Stielers Hand Atlas (No. 42 b), the points in question are very clearly marked.

Even unto Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon under Mount Hermon. Not Baalbec (Knobel), which lies much too far north, but the later Csarea-Philippi, earlier Panias, now Baneas, comp. Jos 12:7; Jos 13:5; Jdg 3:3; von Raumer, Palst. p. 245, Gesen. Lexicon. The city was called Baal-gad, because Baal, according to Isa 65:11, was worshipped as Baal-Gad (, fortune) = the God of fortune In Jdg 3:3 it is called Baal-hermon. According to Jerome (Onom. s. v. Aermon), a temple of Baal must have stood on Mount Hermon.

Jos 11:18. Joshua made war with those kings a long time. From Jos 14:7; Jos 14:10, at least five years. For Caleb was forty years old when Moses sent him out of Kadesh-barnea as a spy; eighty-five years old was he when, immediately after the conquest of the land, he received his possession from Joshua. Since the former date, accordingly, forty-five years have past, as Caleb also himself says, forty of which belong to the pilgrimage in the Arabah, leaving five for the subjugation of the land; not too long certainly, and yet long enough to be called a long time. Heb.: many days. So also Joseph. Ant. v. 1, 19. Comp. Introd. 4.

Jos 11:19. Gibeons peaceful surrender is mentioned again, Jos 9:7; Jos 9:15; Jos 10:1; Jos 10:6. The others had all to be taken in battle.

Jos 11:20. For it was of Jehovah, to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might devote them, and that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them, as Jehovah had commanded Moses. God dealt with them as He had done with Pharaoh, Exo 4:21; Exo 7:3; Exo 14:4; Rom 9:17; Calvin: In hunc finem illos Deus obdurat, ut a se misericordiam avertant; unde et durities ista vocatur ejus opus, quia effectum consilii ejus stabilit. See Doctrinal and Ethical below.

Verses 2123 contain in part a supplementary notice of the extirpation of the Anakim, in the cities of Hebron and Debir, the destruction of which has already (Jos 10:36 ff.) been reported, and in part a general conclusion substantially as given before in Jos 11:16. We may observe, however, that here, (1) the division of the land is expressly mentioned, and (2) it is added that the land had rest from war.

Jos 11:21. Cut off the Anakim. See the Introd. p. 30. Hebron and Debir were mentioned in Jos 10:36 ff. but not Anab which, and also Eshtemo, is joined with Debir in Jos 15:50. Robinson found both as neighboring places south of Hebron (ii. 94, 195). Anab wears its ancient name even to the present day; Eshtemo is now called Semua.

Jos 11:22. Gaza, Jos 10:41; Jos 13:3; Jos 15:47, the well-known city of the Philistines, first mentioned Gen 10:19, familiar from the history of Samson, Judges 16, the utterances of the prophets (Jer 25:20; Jer 47:5; Amo 1:6-7; Zep 2:4; Zec 9:5), the eunuch from Ethiopia (Act 8:26). It stands in a fertile region, and is even now an important town with fifteen thousand inhabitants. These derive great profit from the caravans.

Gath, now lost without a trace discoverable, another city of the Philistines, the home of Goliath and other giants (1Sa 17:4; 1Ch 21:5-8; 2Sa 21:19-22) who were not exterminated here; familiar from the history of David (1Sa 21:10; 1Sa 27:2-4; Psalms 56; 2Sa 1:20, and often). Already in the time of the prophet Amos, the greatness of Gath had shrunk (Amo 6:2). Robinson (ii. 420 ff.) sought in vain for its site.

Ashdod, now Esdud, between two and three hours from Ashkelon, with 100 or 150 miserable hovels, mentioned in our book Jos 13:3; Jos 15:46-47; the city of Dagon, 1Sa 5:1-7, against which, as against Gaza, the prophets often direct their denunciations (Jer 25:20; Amo 1:8; Amo 3:9; Zep 2:4; Zec 9:6). To this place was Philip the Evangelist snatched away, Act 8:40. The city is said to have been very strong (Herod. ii. 157).

Jos 11:23. According to their divisions,, elsewhere used principally of the divisions of the priests and Levites into twenty-four classes (, ) 1Ch 27:1 ff.; 2Ch 13:14; 2Ch 31:2; 2Ch 35:4; here, as in Jos 12:7; Jos 18:10, of the division of the people into tribes.

And the land had rest from war,i.e. there were no more warlike disturbances in it (Jos 14:15; Jdg 3:11; Jdg 3:30; Jdg 5:31; Jdg 8:28), Knobel.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Conscientiousness in carrying out the divine commands and in fulfilling Gods will, is a prominent characteristic of the holy men in both the old and the new Testaments. Thus Moses is praised because he in all his house was faithful to him that made him (Heb 3:2; Heb 3:5). Faithfulness, however, exists only where conscientiousness exists, for the faithless man is always void of conscience also. And so Joshua was faithful, as is intimated in Jos 11:15 of the chapter before us, since he left nothing undone of all which God had commanded Moses. The highest conscientiousness, which is at the same time perfect fidelity, is found in Jesus Christ, whose meat and drink it is to do the will of Him that sent him, and to finish his work (Joh 4:34); who seeks to do not his own will but the Fathers will (Joh 5:30); who therefore loses nothing of all which the father has given him (Joh 6:38-39); and who could, on the cross, exclaim with satisfaction, It is finished (Joh 19:30).

2. When the hostility of the Canaanites is ascribed to the hardening of their hearts by God (Jos 11:20), here, as everywhere in Scripture, when such hardening is spoken of, it is carefully to be borne in mind, that this is always inflicted as a judgment on those who have previously, somehow, acted contrary to his will. This is true of Pharaoh (Exo 4:21; Exo 7:13; Exo 10:20; Exo 11:10; Exo 14:4; Rom 9:17), of the people of Israel (Isa 6:10; Mat 13:12-14), and here of the Canaanites. They have all transgressed grievously in some way against God: Pharaoh through the oppression of Israel; Israel through impiety; the Canaanites through idolatry; and are therefore now hardened by God, i.e. their understanding is infatuated, their will audacious, so that they blindly run into destruction. That this ruin on their part, again, serves to glorify Gods power (Rom 9:17), is self-evident; only the matter should not be so under stood as it is by Calvin, who, while not denying indeed the guilt of the Canaanites, still leaves in the background the judicial providence of God revealing itself in their hardness of heart, and speaks only of Gods having made a way for his decree by hardening the ungodly (ubi reprobos obduravit). The absolute divine decree stands here also, with Calvin, high above all else. He does not indeed, here or ever, deny the guilt of men, but this guilt itself is not a free act of men, but is rather jointly included in the decree of God, as follows from the close of his explanation of Jos 11:19-20 : Nunc si rem adeo dilucidam suis nebulis obscurare conentur, qui Deum e clo speculari fingunt, quid hominibus libeat, nec hominum corda arcano ejus instinctu frenari sustinent: quid aliud quam suam impudentiam prodent? Deo tantum concedunt ut permittat: hoc autem modo suspendunt ejus consilium ab hominum placito. Quid autem Spiritus? a Deo esse obdurationem ut prcipitet quos vult perdere. The final words in particular are intelligible enough, and remind of the verses of an anonymous Greek Tragic Poet, quoted in a scholium on Sophocles Antigone Jos 11:6; Jos 11:20 :

, ;

or of the Latin maxim, probably originating in what has just been quoted, Quos Deus perdere vultdementat prius (comp. Bchmann, p. 117, Geflgelte Wrte).

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Although the Lords enemies may be like sand by the sea, yet we need not be disheartened, for He gives us confidence, courage, and victory, as He did once to Joshua. As Joshua always followed up his victory, so must we follow up every success on the field of our inner life, to its full results, that we be not cheated of the fruits.The extirpation of the Canaanites, (1) due to their idolatry and immorality; (2) executed through a divine command; (3) set as a warning example for all times.They left nothing remaining which had breath! So when a whole people have sinned, the less guilty and the guilty fall together.Joshuas conscientiousness.Moses and Joshua, Gods faithful servants.Men of God act not according to their own pleasure, but to the command of God.A glance at Canaan.A long time fought Joshua with the kings of the Canaanites, ever must we fight with sin, the flesh, the world.The obduracy of the Canaanites regarded as a divine judgment upon them.All obduracy is Gods judgment on men, who are sunk in sin and have forfeited their freedom.Ah, if grace no more prevented men, how terrible!The land ceased from war (sermon on the celebration of peace).

Starke: When it goes against the children of God, the ungodly blow the horn, join forces, and use all their might, Psa 2:2; Psa 3:1.Whom God deserts with his grace that man runs into his own misfortune and destruction, Rom 2:5; Exo 14:27; Isa 6:11.

Cramer: The perverseness of the ungodly! when they hear of Gods wonderful deeds, and should justly be led to repentance thereby, they take the course of crabs, and become only the more obdurate and wicked, until they bring upon themselves utter ruin, Psa 78:31-32.If not today, it may be better to-morrow, only wait the little while (Jos 11:6).When enemies study and contrive how they may destroy the people of God, then God studies and contrives how they may be retrained and even entirely rooted out.Gods word and promise cannot delay, and they remain unbound.Gods hand has a twofold operation, by one He strikes his foes, and by the other He gives his people victory, power, and strength; and this hand is not yet shortened, Isa 59:1.When men become hardened through the instigation of the devil, God draws back his hand and smites them with the most serious penalty of obduracy, appoints this as a punishment of sin and a warning to his elect, and yet becomes not a cause of sin, Psa 5:5.Against God no giant even has any strength; Psa 33:16; Isa 49:25.

Bibl. Tub.: In war all depends not on the strength and multitude of the people, but on God, who gives the victory, Psa 46:10.

Osiander: Those who continue ever in their ungodly life, and think not at all with earnestness of true heart-conversion, those become finally so blinded by God, and are so entirely given up to a perverse heart that, like madmen, they run to meet their own destruction, until they are plunged at length into everlasting hell-fire.God gives sometimes even to his Church on earth temporal peace, but they must not abuse this to temporal security.

Gerlach: Obduracy of the heart happens here also as a punishment, after grace has been previously offered, Exo 4:21. This offer of grace lay in the Lords great miracles in Egypt, which these people had heard of with astonishment before the coming of the Israelites.

[Matt. Henry: Several nations joined in this confederacy . of different constitutions, and divided interests among themselves, and yet they here unite against Israel as against a common enemy. Thus are the children of this world more unanimous, and therein wiser than the children of light. The oneness of the Churchs enemies should shame the Churchs friends out of their discords and divisions, and engage them to be one.Never let the sons of Anak be a terror to the Israel of God, for even their day will come, to fall.Note: God sometimes reserves the sharpest trials of his people by affliction and temptation for the latter end of their days. Therefore let not him that girds on the harness boast as he that puts it off. Death, that tremendous son of Anak, is the last enemy that is to be encountered, but it is to be destroyed, 1Co 15:28. Thanks be to God who will give us the victory.Tr.]

Footnotes:

[1][Jos 11:13. Literally: Only all the cities which stood on their hill () Israel did not burn them. In English phrase: Only [or, yet] Israel burned none of the cities which stood on their hill; except that Hazor alone Joshua burned. seems quite as truly to stand for except that here as in the one instance mentioned by Gesenius s. v., in 1Ki 3:18.Tr.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

The account of the holy war is continued in this Chapter; and in this is concluded the conquest of Canaan. In the former is related to us, the carrying on of the war in the Southern provinces of Canaan: in this, of the Northern. The kings of the North, like those of the South, join in confederacy against Joshua. The Lord encourages Joshua. He conquers them all, and destroys the Anakims.

Jos 11:1

It is astonishing what fear possessed the minds of the nations, at the victories of Joshua. And doth not equal fear take possession of the minds of God’s enemies now, when they behold the distinguishing victories of Jesus, by his grace on the hearts of sinners? What Moses sung concerning temporal mercies, surely the man of God meant yet more pointedly in the prospect of eternal mercies! See Exo 15:14 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Types of Christian Warfare

Jos 11

AGAIN there seems to be nothing for us in these historical records. Yet, properly understood, these records were only written yesterday, as if with ink of our own making, and by hands that are writing the story today. Surely we find here types of Christian warfare; and surely we find here lessons by which we may direct our energy, as well as our thought, in the great conflict which is going on as between light and darkness, right and wrong, Christ and Belial. Change the words only, and the spirit or thought may remain without modification. Nothing has gone out of this chapter but the mere terms, the proper names of men and of places. The law of warfare remains, because the fact of warfare abides; and the method of warfare is just the same today, substituting spiritual purposes for military thoughts and the usual armour of the battlefield. This might be substantiated incidentally by referring to the great forces which are set in array against the Christ of God. In the first five verses of the chapter we have a statement of the numbers that came out against Joshua:

“And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph, and to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, and of the plains south of Chinneroth, and in the valley, and in the borders of Dor on the west, and to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpeh. And they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the sea shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many. And when all these kings were met together, they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel.” ( Jos 11:1-5 )

That is a modern speech. The same kings, being spiritually understood, are meeting today in order to fight the Son of God. The kings have almost always been against him, not the nominal kings only, as the kings of nations and of empires, but the kings of influence, the kings of society, the leaders of public sentiment, influential men scribes, Pharisees, rulers, and the should-be guides of the people. The enemies of Christ are very many in number. We sometimes attempt to create Christian statistics. It is easier work upon that side than upon the other. Arithmetic is less distressed when called upon to state what good there is in the world, as represented by communities and activities, than when asked to give some dim hint of the evil that prevails. Who can give the statistics of the enemy? We have made some approach towards an enumeration of the persons and activities identified with the cause and kingdom of Jesus Christ, but where are the black books, the tables of figures that would represent the sin, the sorrow, the heartbreak, the baleful purpose, the selfish design, the cruel disposition, and all manner of evil known amongst men? We are told that there are ten thousand little girls upon the streets of London alone whose name is associated with sin. I do not blame them altogether. Judgment must not fall upon them solely. What do they represent? They must be taken in their symbolical character, as well as judged by their real conduct; and so taken, what is the meaning of it all? Who can trace the lines backward? Who can fix those lines in the proper centres and personalities, and identify those who are socially invisible with this infinite degradation? We are told that if all the drunkeries of Britain were set together, they would make a street six hundred miles long, and that street would be a double street, having a return line equal to the first, so that, if stretched out in one continuity, there would be twelve hundred miles representing the traffic which is doing more to destroy the earth than any other traffic which man can originate or invent. But what does this represent? The matter does not begin and end in thronged buildings, in flaming windows, in flowing poison; there is something behind, round about, and until we can get into the atmosphere of the case we shall not be able to state statistically how evil stands. As many as the sand upon the seashore in multitude are they who are busily engaged in propagating evil. The worst of all evil is the respectable evil, the well-dressed wickedness, the haughty, disdainful blasphemy against all good and truth and love. The worst of all evil is in our own hearts. We are prone to go out in quest of statistics that we may represent how other people are breaking the ten commandments and offending the sanctity of Heaven: “first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” Is there any irony more pitiable, is there any irony less excusable, than our figuring down upon paper, which we shock by the very violence of the figures, how other people are transgressing the law, and saying nothing about our own selfishness, vanity, jealousy, cruelty, and designs to which we dare not give audible expression? “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.” The Lord looked down from heaven to see if there were any that did righteously, and he said, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” Nor do we add to our supposed morality by publishing statistics against other people. It is quite true that we ought not therefore to spare other vices which are more public and in a social sense more calamitous than the vices which characterise conventional respectability: it is perfectly true that there ought to be exposure and denunciation and judgment and penalty, and that hell is too good for those who work evil; but the two statements are perfectly compatible: whilst we are indignant, and justly and rightly so, with things that we see, we ought to be equally indignant with the things that are hidden in our own hearts. Purify the fountain, and the stream will be clean; make the tree good, and the fruit will be good. Thus there are two aspects, both of which may be zealously maintained, but no one of which ought to be maintained at the expense of the other. Blessed be every man who, having found evil, tears the mask from its face, and blessed be that man who is busy casting the beam out of his own eye whilst he is mourning the frailties, the follies, the wickedness and ineffable iniquity of others.

Not only are the enemies of Christ very numerous, but they are perfectly united. There is a common consent amongst them. They hate the good. They are unanimous, and their unanimity is power. Though they sin in different ways, so that the details seemingly have no relation to one another, yet there is an understood unanimity amongst bad men, there is a password of evil, there is a touch which is known throughout the infamous fraternity. Bad men support one another. Herein they set Christians an example. Christians are not united. There is no body of men so disunited as the Christian body. What are they doing? Setting one opinion against another, battling for isms, contradicting one another publicly and bluntly, assailing one another, creating indictments which involve petty heterodoxies or erratic thinkings amongst honest men; whereas Christians ought to begin with this fact, namely: we are one brotherhood; we are one in our worship of Christ, in our trust of the Cross, in our expectation from Calvary; we are one in prayer. The moment we begin to pray, all hearts throb in one grand energy; the moment we begin to speak to one another, contradiction sets in. Then let us leave everything of the nature of dispute contradiction, and variety of opinion, and show a common front to the common enemy. There is no occasion to say that we are undervaluing opinions, differences, and varieties of conviction and expression; we are now speaking relatively, and I cannot but repeat that, in view of enemies many as the sand upon the seashore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many, the one grand question amongst Christians should be, How far are we one? and not, How far can we divide and subdivide ourselves, and separate one from another as if in vital hostility? All the world over the bad man supports the bad man. He may not do so openly, but there is an understanding between them: the one bad man knows that if his house falls, the other man’s house is in danger; or when the other man’s house falls, his own dwelling is in peril. Whatever the differences in name and detail and circumstance, evil is one, and evil gathers itself together in tremendous concentration to fight against the Son of God.

The forces of evil are many, united, and desperate. They have made up their minds to work rack and ruin. We have covered over a great deal of enmity, but it is still there, as rank and virulent as ever. There are men within sound of the church-going bells who would tear down the bells, or use them to announce some other act and some other day than Christian service and resurrection morning. Within the sweep of our own observation there are men who would burn the Bible, dig up the very foundations of the sanctuary, destroy the memory of the Cross of Christ We need not go to heathen lands or foreign countries, and talk about the opposition which is offered to the gospel of Christ. There is no such opposition in many of these places, for the simple reason that the name of Christ is not known. The rancorous and awful opposition to the Cross of Christ is in our own hearts, in our own life, and may be within the circuit of our own influence. Wicked men let us repeat again and again are desperate. Never undervalue the force that is against you. Nothing is to be gained by pouring contempt upon the numbers that are arrayed against the kingdom of Christ. There are those who would say, The enemy can be but few in number why heed a dozen men? Why make any account of a hundred souls? What are they in relation to the great numbers which constitute the army of Christ? Pour contempt upon no one man. The kingdom of heaven itself is like a grain of mustard seed: it had a small beginning, and it has gone forward under the contempt and opposition of the world to its present position, whatever that may be, in beneficence and nobleness. One desperate man is an army. One really earnest man is a host, either on the one side or the other. There are so many ciphers; the number is very great, but the value is nothing; the value would be increased if even one unit could be set at their head: that one unit would shoot a value through every empty cipher and make it stand up the symbol of number and force and goodness. Woe betide the Church when, shutting her doors and closing her windows, she simply looks round upon her own congregation and supposes that congregation to be the world! At any given moment in Christian history the majority of men, taken by numbers, has been dead against the Messiah-ship of Christ.

What, then, is to be done? A dreary picture has been drawn; a very discouraging outlook has been taken in some respects and in some directions: what is to be done? The answer is in the sixth verse:

“And the Lord said unto Joshua, Be not afraid because of them: for to morrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel; thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire.” ( Jos 11:6 )

Joshua did his work thoroughly. In the twelfth verse we read, “he utterly destroyed them.” We want thorough work. We have partially cut down many vices: we have shaved off the top of them, but the root is still there, and, as we have seen before, the vine is the root, not the flower, not the blossom. What would be said of the husbandman who simply took the top off the poisonous tree which was destroying the fertility of his land? We should describe him as thoughtless, foolish, unwise altogether, and exhort him to dig up the root and burn it with unquenchable fire. What would be said of the man who painted himself a healthy colour, who, without taking note of the internal disease, simply concealed its symptoms under a coating of fine tint that should express to the casual observer real health? We should call him “fool;” we should describe him in the severest terms; we should designate him a madman. But what is that to what we ourselves may be doing, washing the outside of the cup and platter, while the inside is full of rottenness and dead men’s bones? The eyes of judgment will look upon the inside, and many an outside flaw or stain will be forgiven or excused because of the friction of life and the multitudinousness of our relations; but the inside, the interior, that will be judged, and that will be approved or condemned.

Sweet is the last word: “the land rested from war” ( Jos 11:23 ). The tocsin sounded no more; the trumpet was not again heard. The whole earth is to be at peace with God, and therefore at peace with itself. The sword and the spear are to be turned into ploughshare and pruning-hook, and the shiel is to be hung up in the hall a piece of ancient history, only preserved that it may stimulate to holier thanksgiving and profounder prayer. The land had rest from war. The fiend went abroad no more. Man came to man as brother to brother. Feuds and differences and separations were things of the past. Every man knew the Lord; every man prayed with his brother-man in happy consent. This is a great outlook from the Christian’s specular tower: he sees the morning of peace, the day of light, the Sabbath of humanity; and he preaches in that tone the great, glad, triumphant voice, like the voice of many waters; he says, Peace is coming; the battle-flag is furled; and the world is at last at peace! Towards that end we are moving. We are not ashamed of the issue; we are hoping for it, praying for it, working for it. Ask what the Christian Church is doing, and if in earnest, she is doing this one thing only fighting for peace, praying against evil; and all she does tends in the direction of “the federation of the world.”

Selected Notes

Jabin, king of Hazor. (1) One of the most powerful of all the princes who reigned in Canaan when it was invaded by the Israelites. His dominion seems to have extended over all the north part of the country; and after the ruin of the league formed against the Hebrews in the south by Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, he assembled his tributaries near the waters of Merom (the lake Huleh), and called all the people to arms. This coalition was destroyed, as the one in the south had been, and Jabin himself perished in the sack of Hazor, his capital, b.c. 1450. This prince was the last powerful enemy with whom Joshua combated, and his overthrow seems to have been regarded as the crowning act in the conquest of the Promised Land ( Jos 11:1-14 ).

(2) A king of Hazor, and probably descended from the preceding. It appears that during one of the servitudes of the Israelites, probably when they lay under the yoke of Cushan or Eglon, the kingdom of Hazor was reconstructed. The narrative gives to this second Jabin even the title of “king of Canaan;” and this, with the possession of nine hundred iron-armed war-chariots, implies unusual power and extent of dominion. The iniquities of the Israelites having lost them the divine protection, Jabin gained the mastery over them; and stimulated by the remembrance of ancient wrongs, oppressed them heavily for twenty years. From this thraldom they were relieved by the great victory won by Barak in the plain of Esdraelon, over the hosts of Jabin, commanded by Sisera, one of the most renowned generals of those times, b.c. 1285. The well-compacted power of the king of Hazor was not yet, however, entirely broken. The war was still prolonged for a time, but ended in the entire ruin of Jabin, and the subjugation of his territories by the Israelites (Judg. iv.). This is the Jabin whose name occurs in Psa 83:10 .

The question has been raised whether these two Jabins were not one and the same; and the affirmative has by some been assumed as an argument against the authenticity of the narrative in Joshua; while others think that the two narratives may be of events so nearly contemporaneous that they may have happened in the lifetime of the same person. This latter hypothesis, however, cannot possibly be retained; for even supposing that the ordinary chronology, which places the defeat of Sisera one hundred and fifty years after the time of Joshua, requires correction, no correction that can be legitimately made will render it possible to synchronise the two narratives, nor can we suppose that within the lifetime of one man Hazor could have been rebuilt, the shattered kingdom of its ruler restored, and that ruler enabled to tyrannise over his former conquerors for twenty years.

Prayer

Almighty God, we know that thou art love, but what love is, who can tell? Yet we feel after thee because of our need of One greater and better than ourselves. Our souls have often cried in the darkness, O that I knew where I might find him: I would come unto him, and order my speech before him. We know where thou art; unto us who live in these latter days is the sanctuary of the Almighty well known. Thou art in Christ Jesus thy Son. Thou art in the Cross of redemption; thou art always to be found there; to that Cross, therefore, we now come, and our eyes are unto it with the eagerness of love and expectation. Thou wilt not disappoint the look of trust; thou hast never denied the prayer of simple faith. Thou wilt not deny our prayer when we ask for pardon, saying, God be merciful unto us, sinners, and forgive us our iniquities, and cleanse us from all our sins. To this prayer thou hast but one reply. Whilst we are yet speaking, may we hear the answer, and stand up like men who have heard music from heaven. We rejoice in a pardoning God. We need pardon. We have done wrong; but thou art merciful as well as righteous, and there are tears in the eyes of judgment. We come to thy compassion, not to thy righteousness; we hasten to thy Cross, O Christ, and not to. the throne of the judge. Who can stand when God inquireth for life? What man may abide the look of justice? But we come to Christ; we stand at the Cross; we hope in the mysterious blood, the wondrous sacrifice, not to be explained, but to be felt: an influence that touches the heart, a ministry that awakens the love. Send none unblessed from thy word; let a portion of meat be given to each in due season; and may we feel that in perusing thy Book we have been enjoying a spiritual feast, eating and drinking in the King’s presence, and that we have been refreshed and satisfied and stimulated by the bounty of thy house. Amen.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XXII

CONQUEST OF THE NORTHERN TRIBES; ALLOTMENT OF TERRITORY; ESTABLISHMENT OF A CENTRAL PLACE OF WORSHIP.

Joshua 11-21

This section commences with Joshua II and closes with Jos 21 . That is to say, we must cover in this discussion eleven chapters,, and the matter is of such a nature that one cannot make an oration on it, nor can one give a very interesting discussion on it. It would be perfect folly for me to take up the chapters verse by verse, when all you have to do is to look on your map in the Biblical Atlas and glance at any commentary and get the meaning and locality of each town mentioned. All of the matters that require comment will be commented on in these eleven chapters.

The first theme is the conquest of the tribes in the northern part of the Holy Land, just as the preceding chapter considered the central and southern part of the land. You know I told you that Joshua, by entering the country at Jericho and then capturing Ai, occupied a strategical position, the mountains on the right hand and the left hand and they forced a passway by which he could go in any direction. We found that all the southern part of the country, after the capture at Jericho and Ai, was practically brought about by one decisive battle, the battle of Beth-horon, where the Almighty thundered and sent his hailstones and where the sun stood still. Now, the northern conquest was brought about by one decisive battle, all of the details that it is necessary for me to give are these: When the northern tribes learned of the subjugation of the southern tribes they saw that it was a life and death matter.

From this viewpoint they would be conquered in detail. As Benjamin Franklin said in a speech at the Continental Congress, “Gentlemen, we cannot evade this issue; we must either hang together or hang separately, every one of us if we don’t unite will be hanged.” Now, that was in the minds of those northern kings. We have had the account of Adonizedek, the king of Jebus. Hazor was a well-known place in the history of the countries. We will have it up again in the book of Judges. It was not very far from Caesarea Philippi, where Peter made his great confession in the time of our Lord.

I will not enumerate the tribes and the names of the several kings that were brought into this second league It not only included the central and northern tribes, but they sent an invitation to the remnant of the tribes that had been conquered. The place of rendezvous, or assemblage, for all of these armies of these several kings was Lake Merom. You will recall that in describing the Jordan, rising in the mountains, after running a while, it spreads out into Lake Merom, and lower down it spreads into the Sea of Galilee. Well, now around that Merom Lake the ground is level, very favorable for calvary and war chariots. For the first time the war chariot was introduced. The war chariot was more, in general, the shape of a dray than anything else two wheels, steps behind that one could go down, and one chieftain and two or three captains stood up and drove two or three horses, and they always drove the horses abreast, no matter how many. The men who drove were very skillful but unless they were very lucky they would fall to the ground. In the time of Cyrus the Great, he built one with blades that went out from the sides, so that it not only crippled those he ran over but the scythes on each side would mow them down.

Joshua learned of this combination of tribes and, under the direction of the Almighty, he smote them before they could organize. He was a Stonewall Jackson kind of a man and struck quick and hard. He pressed and pursued them and led his army up the valley of the Jordan by swift marches and instantly attacked the enemy when he got upon the ground and before they were prepared. Their defeat was the most overwhelming in history. All of the leaders were captured and slain; they dispersed in three directions specified in the text, and he pursued them in all three directions. He gave them no time to rally, and when they had been thoroughly discomfited, he took the towns. That battle was practically the end of the war of conquest. We may say the whole thing was decided in this battle; there were some details of conquest later, but this is Joshua’s part of it. I must call attention specifically to this fact, overlooked by many commentaries, that the general statement of the conquest is given in the book of Joshua and the details of some of these general statements are given more elaborately, indeed the last great item, the migration of Dan, in the book of Judges. All that happened before Joshua died. Therefore the book of Judges and the book of Joshua overlap as to time. And for this reason, that as soon as Joshua got through with his conquest, and the distribution of territory, he retired from leadership, living years afterward. The instant the war was over, Joshua surrendered the general leadership.

Just here I wish to answer another question. While the record notes that Joshua conquered all the land that Jehovah had originally promised to those people, yet the book of Joshua also states that there remained certain portions of the land that had not been conquered. The backbone of the opposition was broken by these two battles and by the cities that he captured after these battles, but the enemy would come back and occupy their old position and some of the walled towns were not taken.

I once heard the question asked a Sunday school, Why did God permit the remnants that you will find described later on in this section, the parts not subjugated, to remain? Nobody in the Sunday school could answer. Now, you will find the answer to the question in Num 33:55 ; Jos 23:13 ; Jdg 2:3 . Moses says, “If you do not utterly destroy these people leaving none, then God will permit those remnants that you spare to become thorns in your side, and whenever you are weak they will rise against you; whenever you are disobedient to God they will triumph over you.” It is stated here that the number of the kings of the separate tribes overcome by Joshua was thirty-one Part of this section says that Joshua waged war a long time with these kings. While this battle was fought and became decisive of the general results, the going out and capturing the different towns, completing the different details, required a long time.

Now we come to the next theme of our lesson, viz.: The distribution of the land, or allotment of specific parts of the territory to the tribes. We have already found in the books of Moses just how the eastern side of the Jordan was conquered and the allotment made to Reuben just above Moab, and to Gad just above Reuben and to the half-tribe of Manasseh way up in Gilead. This is on the east side of the Jordan, and the Biblical Atlas will show you at the first glance where they are. So that is the first distribution: Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

The next distribution takes place under the commandment of God. Joshua is old, well stricken in years and wants the land divided while he lives because he knows it will be divided right, and this, too, is the land allotted to Judah and the land allotted to Joseph, or Ephraim, and the half tribe of Manasseh. So we have two and one-half tribes receiving their portion on the west side of the Jordan. That leaves seven tribes who have not yet received their land. In giving Judah his part three interesting events occurred, all of which were in connection with Caleb. Caleb is one of the original twelve men sent out by Moses to spy out the land, and because of his fidelity God promised that he should have Hebron, Abraham’s old home, which is not far from the Dead Sea. It has always been a noted place and is yet. Before this division took place, Caleb presented himself and asked for the fulfilment of the promise by Moses, that his particular part should be Hebron and when that was done, Caleb’s daughter, Achsah, steps forward and asks of her father springs of water, and he gave her the upper and nether springs.

The third fact is related at length in Judges, but it occurs at this time. Caleb having the certain portion, Kiriathsepher, the enemy of Hebron, he said that whoever should go over into that city first and capture it, he should have his daughter for a wife, and a very brave fellow, a nephew of Caleb, determined to try it and he took that city and got the girl. Now, that was a deed of daring, and like it was in the Middle Ages where a knight went forth and sought adventures that would entitle him to be his lady’s husband. All young fellows feel that they would surmount any difficulty to win a girl. I have felt that way. I felt that way when I was seven years old and about a certain young lady. There isn’t anything too dangerous or too great a sacrifice for a man to make in a case of that kind.

I told you when Judah received his part that Joseph’s tribe received theirs. Now we come to an interesting episode; the tribe of Joseph, and particularly the tribe of Ephraim, was always a tough proposition. You will find that all the way through the Old Testament and even when you come to the New Testament. Ephraim came up and when the allotment was made he said, “We are not satisfied.” Did you ever hear of people who were not satisfied about a division of land? Joshua said, “What is the trouble?” “Well, they said, “we are a big tribe, many men of war, and we are cooped up too much. We cannot go far west for there are the mountains, and then all around are woods.” Now, what did Joshua say to them? He said, “Well, you are indeed a big tribe and you have many men of war; now go up and cut down those woods and expand'” He determined to rest some responsibility upon the tribes after the allotment had been made. It is a fine piece of sarcasm. So Ephraim had to take to the woods.

Now before any other division takes place a very notable event occurred affecting the future history of the nation, and that was the establishment of a central place of worship, finding a home for the tabernacle. The tabernacle was established at Shiloh, and this brings us to another general question. How long did that tabernacle stay at Shiloh? How long did the ark stay, and when it left there, where did it go, and where was the ark finally brought? Trace the history of the ark from Shiloh to where it was set up in the tent, and then I want you to tell what became of the tent and tell how long it stayed there and what became of it. What became of the tabernacle? Some of the most interesting things in history and song are found in the answer to those questions.

I here propound another question. Which tribe had no inheritance, no section of the country allotted to it, and why? This tribe that had no particular section allotted to it was scattered over the whole nation and that leads to the next question that you are to answer. Where do you find the prophecy in the Pentateuch, in which book, and where, that this tribe and another one, Simeon, should be scattered over Israel? Where does Moses prophesy just what comes to pass? If not Moses, then somebody else, and you are to find out who did and when and where. The next general remark that I have to make is that this section tells us that Dan was shut up in a pretty tight place. Three strong tribes, Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim held them on one side and the Philistines on the other side, but Dan didn’t come to Joshua. Perhaps he thought it but took the question into his own hands. I suppose that he was afraid that as Joshua told Ephraim to go to the woods, he would tell Dan to capture those Philistine cities, and so Dan sent out some spies and found a good place to settle, and the story of the emigration of Dan is told at great length in the book of Judges. Some of it is told in the book of Joshua; that he took Laish and called it Dan and that became its name. So we say, “from Dan to Beersheba.” We will see all about how Dan improved it when we get to the book of Judges. I am showing you that it occurred, but when you get to the book of Judges you will have a detailed account of it.

The next thought in these eleven chapters is that Joshua, having ended his wars, obeyed God with singular fidelity. (I don’t believe I explained that after they came to Shiloh where he set the ark, the other tribes received their portion by lots. Now your map will show you where Shiloh was and Ephraim and Dan and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and all the others. All you have to do is to look on your map and see their location.) He, having finished the wars, asked a small inheritance for himself, a little bit of a place. How that does shine in comparison with the other great conquerors! When they come to the division, they take the lion’s share. Joshua took a very modest little place in his own tribe. His retiring from public life devolved the work upon the tribes themselves, and to their own judgment. He remained in seclusion until he comes out to be considered in the next section.

This leaves for consideration only two other thoughts in the distribution of the territory, and I shall embody these thoughts in questions for you to answer. Look at the six cities of refuge established, three east of the Jordan and three west of the Jordan. You can find them on a good map, and as you look at them on the map, you are struck with the wisdom of their locality when you consider the purpose of these cities of refuge. And now what was the intent of these cities of refuge? A thousand preachers have preached sermons on the cities of refuge Spurgeon has one remarkable sermon. The allusions to them are very frequent, so that every one of you ought to have in your heart and on your brain a clear conception of what is meant by the cities of refuge. I am going to give you a brief answer, but you can work this answer out and make it bigger.

Under the Mosaic law there was no sheriff in cases of homicide, the killing of a man. In our cities the police go after the murderer, and the sheriff in the country, but under the Mosaic law the next of kin was made the “avenger of blood.” If I, living at that day, had been slain, without raising a question as to how it was done, my brother, J. M. Carroll, or my son, B. H. Carroll, Jr., under the law would be the sheriff, and his injunction would be to start as soon as he heard of the killing and to kill the killer on sight. Well, for us in that kind of a sheriff-law this difficulty would arise: Suppose in the assumed case Just now that, while I had been killed, it had been accidental; that we were all out hunting and a man with me accidentally discharged his gun and it killed me. Or suppose that, as Moses described it, two men were chopping and one went to make a big lick with an axe and the axe flew off and hit the other one and killed him, yet that law says that life was a sacred thing. Now, as there are several cases of manslaughter, of innocent men with no purpose to kill them, so there must be a distinction made between accidental homicide and willful murder.

The object of the cities of refuge, distributed as you see over the country, was to provide a place where one who had killed another, not intending to commit murder, might find a place of shelter until the matter could be investigated, and so, just as soon as a man killed another, he turned and commenced running. The avenger of blood, as soon as he heard of it, went after him and it was a race for life and death, to see which could get there first. Therefore the roads were kept in splendid condition, no rocks were left that the man fleeing for his life should stumble and be slain. The rabbis say they would not allow a straw to be left on the road lest they should stumble and fall.

Now, I close with just this question. I told you that one tribe had no inheritance, no lot of land all together and they had to go somewhere. So for that tribe certain cities with their suburbs were set apart. Now, on your map look for the cities of this tribe that had no inheritance.

QUESTIONS

1. Describe the strategical position of Jericho and Ai.

2. By what battle was the south country practically conquered?

3. What decisive battle brought about the northern conquest? Describe it. With whom is Joshua as a general compared?

4. What the connection between the book of Joshua and the book of Judges?

5. How do you harmonize the statements that Joshua conquered all the land that Jehovah had promised them and that there remained certain portions of the land that had not been conquered?

6. Why did God permit the remnants not subjugated to remain in the land? Where in the Pentateuch do you find the answer?

7. Explain the expression, “Joshua waged war a long time with these kings.”

8. Locate the tribes on the east of the Jordan.

9. What the second distribution, and to whom?

10. What 3 interesting events in connection with giving Judah his portion?

11. What complaint was made by Ephraim, and Joshua’s reply?

12. Where was the central place of worship located? How long did the ark stay there? When it left where did it go? Where finally brought? How long did the tent, or tabernacle, stay there? What finally became of it?

13. What tribe had no inheritance & why? Where do you find the prophecy in the Pentateuch that this tribe & Simeon should be scattered over Israel?

14. How does Joshua’s spirit compare with the spirit of the other great conquerors?

15. How did Dan get out of his straits?

16. Name and locate the cities of refuge. What the intent of these cities?

17. Locate the cities of the tribe that had no inheritance.

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Jos 11:1 And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard [those things], that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph,

Ver. 1. When Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things. ] In policy he should have done this sooner, before the five southern kings had been destroyed. But Jabin was an Epimetheus, a postmaster, wise after the fact; and sped accordingly. God’s holy hand was in it also, that his people might not be over matched or disheartened. Our temptations are in like sort disposed of by Christ, the great A .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

NASB (UPDATED TEXT): Jos 11:1-5

1Then it came about, when Jabin king of Hazor heard of it, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon and to the king of Shimron and to the king of Achshaph, 2and to the kings who were of the north in the hill country, and in the Arabahsouth of Chinneroth and in the lowland and on the heights of Dor on the west 3to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Jebusite in the hill country, and the Hivite at the foot of Hermon in the land of Mizpeh. 4They came out, they and all their armies with them, as many people as the sand that is on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots. 5So all of these kings having agreed to meet, came and encamped together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel.

Jos 11:1-15 This is the description of Joshua’s northern campaign.

Jos 11:1 Jabin This name means one who is intelligent (BDB 108). It may have been the royal title of the kings of Hazor, because another king by the same name is in control of Hazor in Jdg 4:2 (like Abimelech of Palestine, Hadad of Syria).

Hazor This was the largest walled city of Canaan. It covered over 200 acres. Apparently the Israelis did not occupy this site because in Judges 4 it is a powerful Canaanite stronghold again. See the good article in NIDOTTE, vol. 4, pp. 696-698.

Achshaph This term (BDB 38) means a place of sorcery (cf. Jos 12:20). The VERB root (BDB 506) means to cut, possibly the cutting of herbs for spells or trances.

The exact location of Achshaph, and for that matter Shimron, are uncertain.

Jos 11:2 Arabah This refers to the Jordan Rift Valley from south of the Sea of Galilee (here called Chinneroth) through the Dead Sea and down to the Gulf of Aqabah (BDB 787 I). It is referred to in the Septuagint as wasteland. See the good article in NIDOTTE, vol. 4, pp. 406-408.

Chinneroth This OT term could refer to (1) the Sea of Galilee, (2) the area around it, or (3) a city in that area (cf. Jos 19:35). It is also spelled Chinnereth (cf. Deu 3:17; Jos 13:27; Jos 19:35). The NT term Gennesaret (cf. Mat 14:34; Mar 6:53; Luk 5:1) is taken from the Hebrew name. The name means harp (BDB 409), which refers to (1) the shape of the lake or (2) the presence of many shepherds who played the harp.

the lowlands This term (BDB 1050) refers to the low, rolling hills (Shephelah) along the Palestinian coast. In this text it refers to the northern region of this topography (i.e., north of Mt. Carmel).

NASBthe heights of Dor

NRSVin Naphoth-dor

TEVthe coast near Dor

NJBon the slopes of Dor

JPSOAin the district of Dor

This refers to the coastal mountain ridge of which Mt. Carmel is the last rise before the Great or Upper Sea (Mediterranean). The MT has Naphoth-dor (CONSTRUCT of BDB 632 and 190). The first term is uncertain.

Jos 11:3 Several Canaanite tribes are listed.

1. Canaanite

2. Amorite

3. Hittite

4. Perizzite

5. Hivite

See Special Topic: PRE-ISRAELITE INHABITANTS OF PALESTINE .

Mizpeh This place name means watch tower (BDB 859). This was a very common name and its location is uncertain, possibly related to Jos 11:8.

Jos 11:4 as the sand that is on the sea shore This is a Semitic idiom for a large military force (cf. Jdg 7:12; 1Sa 13:5; 2Sa 17:11). It was used in Genesis (cf. Gen 22:17; Gen 32:12) to describe God’s promises of many descendants to the Patriarchs.

with very many horses and chariots This was the author’s way of describing the superior military forces of Canaan’s coastal region. See Special Topic below.

SPECIAL TOPIC: CHARIOTS

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

when Jabin. heard. Note the stages. (1) Jericho, unresisting; (2) Ai, a sortie; (3) Gibeon, confederacy; (4) Jabin, aggressive.

Hazor. Celebrated in Jdg 4:2, Jdg 4:17.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 11

So in chapter eleven, the other kings when they had heard what happened to these kings that had come out against them, they also went out with their host. These are now the kings that are in the area of the Galilee, and upper Galilee region in the first three verses, clear up to Mount Hermon.

And they went out, they and all their hosts with them, many people, even as the sand is on the sea shore in multitude, with very many horses and chariots. And these kings met together and they came to the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel. And the Lord said to Joshua, Be not afraid because of them: for tomorrow at about this time I will deliver them all slain before Israel: and thou shalt hock their horses, and burn their chariots with fire. So again Joshua came with all of his men suddenly upon these people. And the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them even unto Zidon… [Clear on over to the upper part, or the lower part of Lebanon there, the upper part of Israel.] And Joshua took Hazor, [Which of course is up in the upper Galilee and one of the major cities at that time in that area.] and he smote all of those with the edge of the sword: [and utterly wiped out the cattle, and the horses and the chariots, burned the chariots, and did all that the Lord had commanded Moses to do when they took the land. So verse twenty-three,] Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord said unto Moses; Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war ( Jos 11:4-11 , Jos 11:23 ).

Now he took the whole land, and yet there were pockets of resistance that they did not take. There was a failure on their part to inhabit the whole territory that God had given to them. Now God has said, “Every place you put your foot, I have given it to you.” One of the tragedies was the complete conquest of the land. For instance, the Jebusite city of Jerusalem was not taken by Joshua. In fact, it was not taken until the time of David. David took the city of Jerusalem, and hence it was called after that “The city of David.” But we will read of other areas Gaza and Ashdod, so forth, that they did not take at that time. Yet they conquered not all the land. “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

A new confederacy had now to be faced and fought. Conscious of their peril, the northern kings now joined in an attempt to break the power of those conquering hosts. Turning north, Joshua led an attack upon these kings and utterly routed them. He then turned back to Hazor with like results.

All this did not happen immediately. Indeed, we are told in the text that it had occupied “a long time.” In all probability five years had elapsed from the death of Moses to this period.

Thus ended the unity of the action of the hosts of God. “The land had rest from war.” Of course, there was still much to be done in the wav of conquest, but the power of the enemy was broken and the moment had arrived for the settlement of the land by the tribes of Israel. Afterward there was to be much fighting as occasion demanded, but the great preliminary war of conquest was practically over.

Great capital has often been made of this war of destruction and extermination, but it is manifestly unfair to criticize the action of the Hebrews without remembering what the Scriptures distinctly affirm its reason. Israel was the scourge of God on a corrupt people whose hearts God had hardened, that is, had made strong in order that they might be exterminated (verse Jos 11:20 ) . The reason and method of this hardening process we saw in the case of Pharaoh in the study of Exodus. The hardening of the heart, as then, resulted from long-continued rebellion and was the natural outcome thereof Punishment fell only when in the highest interests of posterity the destruction of a people was necessary.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

Joshuas Obedience to the Lords Commands

Jos 11:1-15

The scene is removed to the waters of Merom, near the sources of the Jordan. Hazor was the capital of the region; Jabin, like Pharaoh, was an hereditary title, Jdg 4:2. All the northern nations combined. Joshuas heart might well have failed, had it not been for the divine promise on the night before the battle, Jos 11:6.

His attack under cover of night was like the falling of a thunderbolt. The effect was immediate. The huge host dissolved. The hocking of the horses disabled them, so that Israel was not tempted to trust in chariots and horses, Deu 17:16; Isa 31:1. Gods will was literally carried out. But what a noble record is given of this simple-minded soldier! He left nothing undone, Jos 11:15. It is only as we literally obey that we can count on such success as his. See 2Ti 4:7.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Admittedly these chapters and most of those to follow do not lend themselves readily to expository preaching. Yet we would not forget that All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable; so we may be sure that these portions were written for our admonition and have in them precious lessons we cannot afford to pass over lightly.

In the opening verses of chapter 11 we read of the second, and, as it turned out, the last great coalition of Canaanite nations that Joshua and the Lords host had to face before they could take possession of their promised inheritance. This time it was a confederation headed by Jabin, king of Hazor, and with him were associated Jobab, king of Madon, and the kings or sheiks who held authority over the tribes on the north of the mountains of Palestine and in the great plains south of Chinneroth, that is, the sea of Galilee. The Canaanites who dwelt in the east and on the west, and the remnants of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Hivites also sent their quotas. It was a formidable host indeed, but Joshua went out to meet them strong in the Lord and in the power of His might; and the result is given us in verses 6 to 9:

And the Lord said unto Joshua, Be not afraid because of them: for tomorrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel: thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire. So Joshua came, and all the people of war with him, against them by the waters of Merom suddenly; and they fell upon them. And the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them unto great Zidon, and unto Misrephoth-maim, and unto the valley of Mizpeh eastward; and they smote them, until they left them none remaining. And Joshua did unto them as the Lord bade him: he houghed their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire.

Hazor was the metropolis of that entire section, it would seem, and having defeated its king and his allies, we read that:

Joshua at that time turned back, and took Hazor, and smote the king thereof with the sword: for Hazor beforetime was the head of all those kingdoms. And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe: and he burnt Hazor with fire.

As intimated before, it is only as we realize something of the unspeakably vile character of these wretched people that we can understand why God ordered their utter extermination. He had borne with them until the cup of their iniquity was full to overflowing; then, in His righteousness as the Moral Governor of the universe, He decreed their destruction. Joshua was His instrument in carrying out this judgment and he did his work faithfully, as we are told in verses 15 to 20. Gods love had given the Canaanites many years in which to repent, had there been on their part any desire to be delivered from their manifold iniquities. Instead of that they had sunk deeper and deeper into the pit of corruption and vile-ness until there was no remedy. The very mercy of God had but hardened them in their sins; so judgment had to be meted out according to their works.

Some of the ancient inhabitants of the land, the Anakim, a race of men of giant stature who had been driven back into the mountains by those who came in later, were also destroyed, except for a small remnant who dwelt in the Philistine cities, some of whom were slain by David and his associates in after years.

We read in verse 23:

So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war.

Thus Gods Word had been tested and proven. He had kept every promise He made when He first commissioned Joshua to go over the Jordan and take possession of the land; He had assured him that He would destroy the enemies before Israel and that if they kept His law and acted in accordance with His commands they would never know defeat! And so it had come to pass.

The twelfth chapter gives us a list of the many kings who had fallen before Israels triumphant march, from the day that they met the Amorites and the king of Bashan on the eastern side of the Jordan and of the lake of Chinneroth until the last of the cities of Canaan had submitted to them. The lands of Sihon and of Og had been allotted already to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh. The territories of the kings on the west of the Jordan were now to be divided among the other nine and a half tribes. Of this the following chapters treat in detail.

Joshuas victories illustrate the Christians triumph over the unseen hosts of evil who, acting under the leadership of Satan, the god and prince of this world, would seek to hinder believers from possessing practically that which God has given them in Christ Jesus.

Many of us are defeated, when we ought to be victors, because of unjudged sin in our lives, or because of sloth and lethargy which hinder our laying hold of that for which God has laid hold of us. Blessed it is, if, like the Apostle Paul, we recognize the importance of pressing on toward the mark for the prize of the calling of God on high in Christ Jesus (Php 3:14, literal rendering). When God has promised to lead us on from victory to victory if we but cleave to Him with purpose of heart, it is the greatest folly to hold back and to fear lest we may not be able to overcome in the day of adversity. We may well take to heart the admonition of Php 3:15-16: Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Let us hold fast what God has revealed to us already and go forward in dependence upon His Holy Spirit to appropriate the precious things into which we have not yet entered. We often sing contentedly:

There are depths of love that I cannot know,

Till I cross the narrow sea;

There are heights of joy that I may not reach

Till I rest in peace with Thee.

While this is true, and there will ever be more to enter into and enjoy than we can possibly know on earth, yet we should not settle down contented to make no further progress because God has led us on into the enjoyment of some measure of His truth.

A dear brother used often to suggest that this verse be changed so that we should sing:

There are depths of love that I yet may know

Ere I cross the narrow sea;

There are heights of joy that I yet may reach

Ere I rest in peace with Thee.

This is surely true. We should ever be moving on from one victory to another, proving anew from day to day the faithfulness of our gracious God and the trustworthiness of His promises!

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Jos 11:23

This text is said to be directly at issue with other statements in the Book of Joshua. Thus the fifteenth chapter ends with these words: “As for the Jebusites, the children of Jerusalem could not drive them out,” and in Joshua’s dying exhortation he foretells that “a remnant of these nations shall remain among them.” From this the conclusion is drawn that the Book of Joshua was not cast at a single jet; that it is a thing of shreds and fragments; that it is made up of two pieces, one Jehovistic, the other Elohistic, patched together by a stupid, not to say dishonest, chronicler. To this we answer: (1) It is only right to notice the qualification in the text. “Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had said unto Moses.” But the promise to Moses was that it should be taken “by little and little.” (2) Viewed geographically and statistically, there were exceptions to be made to the statement contained in the text, and these are fully and fairly related in the sequel. But there was another point of view from which the map of Joshua’s conquests might be studied. The Canaanites might still lurk in the mountain fastnesses, in the depth of the primeval forest. But there were haunting voices that hung about the national heart. There were strange, mysterious lights that seemed to stream down from a deep sunset heaven, which touched the old stem of their history, and opened long lanes into the dark vistas of the future. Strengthened by the promises of God, cheered by the declarations of prophecy, animated by the miracles which had led the Israelites across the Jordan and caused the walls of Jericho to fall before the trumpet blast, Joshua, or whoever was the author of this book, wrote down-it was a venture of faith-“So Joshua took the whole land.”

Bishop Alexander, Sermon Preached in St. Paul’s Cathedral, July 2nd, 1873.

References: 11-Parker, vol. v., pp. 211, 279. 12, 13-Ibid., p. 220. Jos 13:1.-T. Guthrie, The Way to Life, p. 297; Parker, vol. v., p. 279. Jos 13:22.-Expositor, 2nd series, vol. v., p. 413. Jos 13:33.-Parker, vol. V., p. 280. 14-Ibid., p. 228. Jos 15:15.-W. Lindsay Alexander, Sunday Magazine, 1865, p. 594; Parker, vol. v., p. 281. 15-19.-Ibid., pp. 237, 244. Jos 17:14.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii., No. 1882. Jos 19:47.-Expositor, 3rd series, vol. v., p. 59. Jos 19:49.-Parker, vol. v., p. 282. Jos 20:2.-Ibid. Jos 20:3.-Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 35. Jos 20:5.-Parker, vol. v., p. 283. Jos 20:7.-Ibid., p. 284. 20-24.-Ibid., p. 254. Jos 21:2.-Ibid., p. 285. Jos 21:43, Jos 21:45.-Ibid. Jos 21:45.-Ibid., p. 286. Jos 22:16.-Ibid., p. 287. Jos 22:20. -G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 412.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

Further Conquests

CHAPTER 11

1. Jabin and his confederacy (Jos 11:1-5)

2. The divine encouragement (Jos 11:6)

3. The victory (Jos 11:7-14)

4. The obedience of Joshua (Jos 11:15)

5. The continued conflict with the kings (Jos 11:16-23)

The Kings of the north formed the second confederacy, headed by Jabin, King of Hazor. Jabin means understanding and Hazor, an enclosure. He with other kings, and with them much people even as the sand that is upon the seashore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many, came to fight against Israel. These different confederacies opposing the rightful owners of the land may be taken as types of the opposition from confederate nations which Israel will have to face during the great tribulation.

Did Joshua fear in the presence of such a powerful enemy? If he feared, his fear must have vanished completely when Jehovah said, Be not afraid of them, for tomorrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel; thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire. The Lord assured Joshua, and with such an assurance he rushed at once against the enemy by the waters of Merom. It does not matter how strong the enemy is, how cunningly his plans are laid, how he may come upon us with an host to terrify; if we are right with the Lord and on the Lords side, we shall be more than conquerors. The victory is complete; their chariots are burned and the horses were disabled by cutting the sinews of their legs. The latter no doubt had for its purpose to make it impossible for His people to trust in human resources. If they had used these horses, they might have put their confidence in them. Some trust in chariots and some in horses; but we will remember the LORD our God (Psa 20:7).

At Hazor, as in other cities and places, the divine command of utter extermination of all human beings was literally carried out. There was not any left to breathe. An awful picture indeed it is! Infidels have made the best of it by denouncing these records and blaspheming the righteous and holy God. Others again have tried to excuse the Israelites by saying that it was the customary thing 1,500 years before Christ to treat conquered nations in this way. But it was God Himself who commanded their extermination. Joshua and Israel had no choice whatever in the matter. They acted in obedience to the divine will. Gods time for the execution of His righteous judgments had come and He used Israel as His instrument. To Abraham the word was spoken concerning his seed, in the fourth generation they will come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. The iniquity of these nations had reached such a degree, that Gods wrath and holy vengeance had to fall upon them. They were given to the most awful abominations and practised unspeakable immoralities. The hour of judgment had come. The whole race was to be swept away. And who dares to question Gods sovereign right to do so. Should not the judge of all the earth do right?

Nor must we forget that the judgment of Canaan, as well as the judgment of Egypt, is prophetic. Judgment and wrath are in store for this earth. The divine sword will some day be unsheathed again. The conditions of the earth are such that God must judge. Thousands are hardening their hearts; ere long, as it was with the Canaanites (Jos 11:20), the Lord will harden their hearts. These judgments are written in language which cannot be misunderstood.

Notice Joshuas obedience. He left nothing undone. He obeyed the Word; he followed closely the divine instructions. That led to success and blessing.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

Jabin: Jos 11:10, Jos 12:19, Jos 19:36, Jdg 4:2, Jdg 4:17

he sent: Jos 10:3, Jos 10:4, Psa 2:1-4, Psa 83:1-3, Isa 26:11, Isa 43:2, Isa 43:5-7

Madon: The LXX read , which, if legitimate, Calmet thinks may be the same as Maronia or Marath, in Phoenicia, to the north of mount Lebanon, Jos 12:19, Jos 12:20, Jos 19:15, Jos 19:25.

Shimron: Supposed to be the same with Symira, in Coele-Syria, joined to Maron or Marath by Pliny and Pomponius Mela.

Achshaph: Supposed by some to be the same as Achzib or Ecdippa; from which, however, it is distinguished in Jos 19:25, Jos 19:29. It was in the northern part of the tribe of Asher.

Reciprocal: Jos 9:1 – all the kings Jdg 1:19 – chariots Jdg 5:19 – kings 1Ki 9:15 – Hazor 2Ki 15:29 – Hazor

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

The Wages of Sin is Death

Jos 11:1-23

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

We have heard of old that “to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” This is true. The outstanding feature in the conquests of Joshua was his absolute obedience to the Captain General of his armies. He fought when and where he was told to fight.

1. Obedience in the midst of dangers. Joshua was not given light things to do. He faced great and fully armed hosts, determined to ruin him. However, whatsoever the call, Joshua was always ready with the response. He never hesitated, never argued, never asked “why?”

Would that we were as ready to obey, no matter what may portend. Suppose our obedience may lead us into dark vales, where lurks every foe to our success. Suppose friends and family may oppose. Suppose men may decry our way, and foes may beset them. When God says “go!” we must obey.

The Word of God gives the records of many a saint who pressed on through every kind of obstacle, and in each case they pressed on, even though it was through death, unto perfect victory. Read Heb 11:1-40. It tells the story of God’s heroes of the faith who were obedient unto death. What a galaxy they are; what a star-cluster of mighty men and women!

2. Obedient without delay. When God ordered Joshua to fight, he fought. His obedience was prompt He brooked no tarrying for a better or a more strategic moment. All of that was left to God; his part was to carry out orders.

In the great battles of earth, soldiers must obey, and must obey at once. We asked a colonel during the World War, “What is the greatest trait to be desired in a soldier?” Quickly he replied, “Obedience.” We queried, “Is not ‘courage’ as needed as ‘obedience?'” The reply we remember well. The colonel said, “A brave soldier can do no more than create havoc, if he is not obedient; an obedient soldier may lead to victory, even though he obey orders in fear and trembling.”

It is vital to obey. To obey is good, to obey quickly is better.

3. Obedience in detail. Joshua did not a part, but the whole of what he was told to do. He ceased not until all was accomplished. To obey in the main, but to neglect obedience in the minor details, may lead to serious results. “Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth.”

God told Joshua when He called him to succeed Moses, “That thou mayest observe to do according to all the Law. * * Have not I commanded thee?”

Shall we obey only where we like our orders? Shall we follow on, only in those matters that appeal to our flesh or mind?

4. Obedience in its rewards. Chapter after chapter, verse after verse in the Book of Joshua, relates how Joshua and Israel obeyed the Lord, and how the Lord crowned their battles with conquest. Think you that success could have come to them, had they gone against the Lord? The oppositions were altogether too great, the powers of the enemy were altogether too large for Joshua and his hosts to have conquered, apart from God’s aid. To obtain God’s aid, they were tied up to God’s commands.

God gives the Holy Ghost to them who obey Him. The Holy Ghost is absolutely indispensable to every phase of the successful Christian life. Disobedience therefore brings defeat.

I. IN UNION THERE IS STRENGTH (Jos 11:1-3)

1. “These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.”

It is interesting to observe in our Scripture how one king collected so many other kings unto one purpose, and that was to the overwhelming of the chosen people. We read in Jos 11:10, “For Hazor beforetime was the head of all those kingdoms.”

It seems to me that we have before us, at this moment, a similar condition to that which Joshua had to face. Notice, there was in that day Jobab, the king of Madon; there was the king of Shimron and the king of Achshaph; there were the kings of the north, and the kings of the south, and the kings in the borders of Dor.

In the end time we read of ten kings who shall be gathered together under one king, even under the antichrist and they shall come together to fight against Israel and Israel’s God.

The word in all of this that strikes us is: “They were of one mind.”

2. A review of present world conditions. Dictators are arising on every hand.

The dictators of the ten kingdoms which are yet to arise, and, we may say, are now in the process of rising, will have no difficulty in turning their authority over to one king, inasmuch as all of the ten are of one mind.

These ten kings will give their power and authority unto the one king and the result will be that a united, despotic front against the Son of God will be achieved. In the Psalms we read: “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed (Christ).” The spirit of nationalization, and of world autocracy is in the air. The Scripture says: “These shall make war with the Lamb.”

II. THE PREPONDERANCE OF NUMBERS (Jos 11:4)

1. They who are with us are more than they who are with them. It is necessary in these days which are heading up in a world state, to consider our own forces and strength lest we become despondent and give up the fight.

We grant that a comparison between the armies of the antichrist, and the armies of the Lord from every human viewpoint bespeaks certain victory to the antichrist. The powers will indeed fray Israel. However, God will permit the enemy to go only so far when, He, Himself, will go forth and fight as He fought in the day of battle.

Let us compare the two hosts. We read of the wicked, “Many there be which go in thereat.” We read of the righteous, “Few there be that find it.” There has always been a vast majority of earth’s peoples on the side of sin and of Satan.

Our key verse says: “They and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the sea shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many.”

2. The chariots and the horsemen of Israel. In Second Kings, chapter 6, Elisha was besieged in Dothan by horses and chariots and a great host. Gehazi the servant of the Prophet greatly feared, saying, “Alas, my master! how shall we do?” Then it was that Elisha said: “Fear not: for they that be with us, are more than they that be with them.” Then in answer to Elisha’s prayer, the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, “And, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about.”

In the next chapter we read that the innumerable hordes of the Syrians heard “a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host.”

When Armageddon has reached its height, then once more there will be the sound of a moving in the heavens, and the Lord will come forth riding upon a white horse, and with Him the armies which are in Heaven.

III. DIVINE CERTAINTIES (Jos 11:6)

1. With whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Our key verse says: “Be not afraid because of them: for to morrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel.” God speaks with authority and with assurance. If God be with us, who can be against us? As we think of the end time we are assured that God will give the victory.

(1) God’s Word is settled in Heaven. There is not a jot or a tittle, a promise or a prophecy, that will not be fulfilled, even as God hath said. As we write, we are not slow to utter the statement: “I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.”

(2) As Joshua faced Hazor and the confederate kings he faced, them with certainty of victory. As we face present-hour conditions we face them with a like assurance. We know just how everything is coming out We understand the general strategies of the enemy; the casting down of Satan; the alignment of Satan with the antichrist and the false prophet; the ten amalgamated kingdoms, under one king; the final great battle; Christ’s Coming down to Olivet-all of these things are revealed, and all are certain. This leads us to our second statement:

2. “God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.” Nebuchadnezzar faced no more of a certainty than did Joshua, nor than do we.

Here is a rock-ribbed sureness. We speak that we do know. We have no fables to proclaim, and no probabilities to exploit. We speak the Word of God, the more sure Word of Prophecy.

The literalness of the fulfillment of past pledges made by the Spirit through the Prophets, adds certainty to the literalness of the fulfillment of coming prophecies. Let us, therefore, speak with all authority and assurance.

IV. THE CONQUESTS OF THE CONQUERED (Jos 11:8)

1. “And they overcame Him by the Blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.” Jos 11:8 expresses the fulfillment of what God had promised to Joshua. The verse says: “The Lord delivered them (Hazor and the confederate kings) into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them unto great Zidon, * * until they left them none remaining.”

(1) Let us not imagine that victory belongs to the arm of the flesh. If we think that we, of ourselves, can overcome we are only the more certain to be overcome. There is nothing in us with which we may cope with Satan and with Satan’s hordes. Our enemy is strong-stronger than man, yea, stronger than redeemed man.

Our inability, however, does not spell our defeat. There is a place of victory.

(2) Victory belongs to a true testimony. In the Book of Revelation, chapter 11, God is speaking to His two witnesses who shall arise against the powers of darkness. These witnesses shall prophesy during the latter forty and two months of tribulation. Of them it is said: “And I will give power unto My two witnesses.”

In the 12th chapter of Revelation we read of Satan being cast down to the earth. Immediately there follows a marvelous vision of how the devil had been overwhelmed by saints throughout the ages: “And they overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.”

So God has given power to us to witness, even as He will give power to the two witnesses.

2. In Christ, Joshua overcame, and in Christ we must overcome. We can conquer only as we have been conquered by the Christ of God. When grace has conquered us, and we become His witnesses, then we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

V. ETERNAL BURNINGS (Jos 11:11)

And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and forever. There is something that makes us pause as we read in Jos 11:11 : “They smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe: and he burnt Hazor with fire.”

1. The utter destruction at the Coming of the Lord. We read in Second Thessalonians of the Lord Jesus being revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels. We also read how those who obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ “shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.”

In the next chapter of Thessalonians we read of the Coming of Christ and of how the Wicked One shall be consumed with the breath of His mouth, and shall be destroyed with the brightness of His Coming. When Satan, after the thousand years, is cast into the lake of fire, he is cast where the beast and the false prophet are, and not where they were.

2. The flaming fire at the Coming of the Lord. It is “in flaming fire” that the Lord takes vengeance on those who are to be punished with everlasting destruction. Another verse says: “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever.” The final abode of the wicked is spoken of in the word of God as, “the Lake of fire.”

If to any, the utter destruction of the Canaanites, who were ripened in their sin and rebellion against God seems harsh; if the burning of their city with fire seems severe; let them remember that the destruction of the wicked and the fires of hell in the coming days, are a thousand times more terrible. It is written: “Our God is a consuming fire.” It is written again. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.”

VI. LEAVING NOTHING UNDONE (Jos 11:15)

He wholly followed the Lord God of Israel. This is the call of God to every believer. When we think that out of the ten spies only two followed the Lord fully, we begin to wonder how many there are in our day who go all the way with God,

1. We are reminded of the man who said: “I will follow Thee withersoever Thou goest.” The Lord, however, saw deep into his heart and knew that he wanted to follow Him for the glory that he could get out of it. Christ said, therefore, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.” We hear no more of this man.

2. We are reminded of another who said: “Suffer me first to go and bury my father.” To him the Lord replied: “Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the Kingdom of God.” Let us beware lest any of us should endeavor to put anything before our Lord Jesus Christ,

3. We are reminded of a third person who said: “Lord, I will follow Thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.” Unto him the Lord said: “No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God.”

Thank God for two men, Caleb and Joshua, who followed the Lord fully. They did not reason among themselves, nor did they argue their inability to overcome the inhabitants of Canaan, They simply believed God, and were ready to go where He bade them.

The rich young ruler wanted to follow Christ, but he drew back because he was commanded to sell his goods, and all that he possessed. To the contrary, Matthew, the publican, hearing the call of Christ to follow Him, immediately arose, left the money changers, and followed Him in the way.

VII. A COMPLETE OBEDIENCE (Jos 11:16; Jos 11:23)

It is so interesting to read the twice-stated words: “So Joshua took all that land,” “the whole land.” He did this according to all that the Lord said unto Moses.

1. Let us go all the way with God. It is not enough to do some things, we must do all things. The two verses before us are a complement to the words of God spoken unto Joshua at the beginning. These words are recorded in Jos 1:7 and Jos 1:8. Once more a double statement, emphasized by repetition. Jos 1:7 says: “That thou mayest observe to do according to all the Law, which Moses My servant commanded thee.” Jos 1:8 says: “That thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein.” Thus it was that Joshua left nothing undone.

Let us examine our hearts and ask ourselves if our obedience to Christ is partial or complete. Have we done some things, and left others undone? Paul wrote to the Galatians: “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth?” However, they did start to obey the truth, because Paul told them, “Ye did run well; who did hinder you?” Evidently, something arose to discourage them, and they left following the will of God.

Epaphras prayed that the saints might stand “Perfect and complete in all the will of God;” Let us do everything we are told to do.

2. There was a great blessing which came to Joshua and also to Caleb. Full obedience always brings a full reward God was with Joshua even as He had promised.

Wherever Joshua went, he went in victory. We read, “From the mount Halak, * * even unto Baal-gad * * and all their kings he took, and smote them, and slew them.”

In Jos 11:19 and Jos 11:20 we read of how there was not a city that he did not take that he might destroy them as the Lord commanded Moses. In Jos 11:21 we read: “Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities.” In Jos 11:22 we read, “There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the Children of Israel.”

Praise God for such an obedience. Let us arise and do likewise.

AN ILLUSTRATION

One of the great features of this study is the place of victory in overthrowing the wicked one.

We are saved by the Blood, and being saved, we overcome by the Blood.

When you begin to look for the origin of the Cross, is when your soul is left in wonderment and surprise. When you begin to search for the secret springs of the Cross, then it is your amazement begins. For the Cross was in the heart of God long before it was on the hill of Calvary. The Cross is not an instrument of time but had its initiative in eternity.

Said a young man to Dr. R. F. Horton of London-“I do not believe that a Man who died nineteen hundred years ago can save me from my sins.”

Dr. Horton replied; “Nor do I, but Christ the Lamb of God who died before the foundation of the world can save you from your sins.”

Here is indeed the origin of the Cross. It springs from the eternal purpose of God. Hallelujah for the Cross! It standeth fasti It cannot be moved, it is anchored in God’s heart. Hallelujah for the Cross!-From an Exchange.

Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water

CONQUEST OF THE NORTH

Owing to the length of the last lesson no comment was made on the latter half of the previous chapter. But it will be seen that verses 16-27 gave an account of the final destruction of the five kings in the confederacy against Gibeon.

The map will show Makkedah (Jos 10:16) to the west of Gibeon, near the sea and in what we know as the Philistine country. In a cave the kings hid and were imprisoned by Joshua until the rout of the warriors was complete (Jos 10:17-21), when they were slain (Jos 10:22-27).

Then in a rapid survey (Jos 10:28-42) we get the record of the campaign through the South as far as Goshen, including victories over Libnah, Lachish, Gezer, Eglon, Hebron, Debir, Kadish-Barnea and Gaza. All these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time, because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel (Jos 10:42). It was the conquest of the whole Southern Canaan, leaving Israel free to turn attention to the North, the later Galilee region, whose conquest begins in chapter 11.

THE BATTLE AT LAKE MEROM (Joshua 11)

As the decisive battle in the south seems to have been at Beth-horon, that in the North seems to have been at Merom (Jos 11:5). Let the student trace the localities on the map if he wishes to have his interest kindled, and the facts fastened on his mind.

Notice that horses and chariots appear for the first time and it was for this reason the battle was attempted to be fought on the shores of Lake Merom, where there could be free play for such a force.

The text emphasizes the great numbers of the enemy in this encounter (Jos 11:4). Josephus in his Wars of the Jews gives 300,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry and 20,000 war chariots. If true, this was a formidable host in every way, and Israel may well have been dispirited at the knowledge of it, but God comes with timely encouragement (Jos 11:6), which He makes good (Jos 11:7-8).

Inquiry may be raised as to why they should destroy the horses and chariots (Jos 11:9), and not keep them for subsequent use, but Psa 20:7-9 is a sufficient answer. What a flood of meaning is thrown on such expressions by an event like this! Then, too, not only was Israel to trust in the Lord independent of such means, but to be neither a traveling nor trading, but rather an agricultural people, which would not require accessions like these.

The following verses in this chapter give a survey of the completed conquest of the North as in the former case of the South (Jos 11:10-14), and after recapitulating the Southern campaign, the story reaches a conclusion at Jos 11:23.

RECAPITULATION (Joshua 12)

We give but little space to this chapter. In Jos 12:1-6 we have an account of the kings overcome and the cities taken by Moses on the east of Jordan, and the distribution of their land to the two and a half tribes (see. Num 21:31; Deu 2:36; Deu 3:3-16).

Following this we have a record of the thirty-one kings overcome by Joshua on the west of Jordan in the two campaigns, already dwelt upon.

QUESTIONS

1. What was the decisive battle in the conquest of Southern Canaan?

2. Reply to a similar question about Northern Canaan.

3. Have you located Makkedah and the waters of Merom on the map?

4. Can you quote Psa 20:7?

5. How many kings were overcome by Joshua in his campaign west of the Jordan?

SPIRITUAL TEACHINGS AND TYPES

Having come to a natural division of this book, we pause to consider some of its spiritual teachings and types.

For example, take Joshua himself, who is a type of Christ as the Captain of our salvation (Heb 2:10-11). It is interesting that Joshua is a combination of Jehoshua, which means Jehovah-Savior. The more important points in the typical relation of Joshua to Christ are indicated in the Scofield Reference Bible: (1) He comes after Moses. (Compare Joh 1:17; Rom 8:3-4; Rom 10:4-5; Heb 7:18-19; Gal 3:23-25.) (2) He leads to victory. (Compare Rom 8:37; 2Co 1:10; 2Co 2:14.) (3) He is our advocate when we have suffered defeat. (Compare Jos 7:5-9; 1Jn 2:1.) (4) He allots our portions. (Compare Eph 1:11; Eph 1:14; Eph 4:8-11.) Though we have already spoken of Rahab as illustrating the history of redemption, we add the following:

She lived in a condemned city, and we live in a condemned world. Her character was bad, and we all are sinners.

She believed in the power of God for her deliverance, and we are justified by faith.

She received a promise for her faith to rest upon, and God has said that whosoever shall call upon His name shall be saved.

She displayed a token and seal of her faith in the scarlet cord, and we believe with the heart unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Her deliverance was sure and complete, and there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.

All these can be wrought out into a helpful discourse by a selection of the New Testament passages called for by the different divisions.

The crossing of the Jordan has always seemed an impressive type of the intercessory work of Christ on behalf of His people. The priests standing in the riverbed until every member of the host passed over, brings to mind Heb 7:25.

To other teachers the passage of the Jordan is an impressive type of our death with Christ. (Compare Rom 6:1-11; Eph 2:5-6; Col 3:1-3.) The twelve stones taken out of Jordan and erected by Joshua in Gilgal, and the other twelve left in Jordan to be overwhelmed by its waters, are memorials marking the distinction between Christs death under judgment in the believers place, and the believers perfect deliverance from judgment.

For the first named consider Psa 42:7; Psa 88:7; and Joh 12:31-33. For the second, a large variety of New Testament passages will readily come to mind.

The Rev. F. B. Meyer speaks of the significance of the vision of the Captain of the Lords hosts:

We sometimes feel lonely and discouraged. The hosts with which we are accustomed to cooperate are resting quietly in their tents. No one seems able to enter into our anxieties and plans. Our Jerichos are so formidable – the neglected parish; the empty church; the hardened congregation; the godless household. How can we ever capture these and hand them over to the Lord?

We summon all our wit and energy to solve the problem. We study the methods of others, put forth herculean exertions and questionable methods, borrowed from the world. But still we are disappointed, and have gone forth alone, confessing our helplessness, and then it is that we have seen the Captain of the Lords host. He will undertake our cause, and marshal His troops and win the day.

But we must be holy. Put off thy shoes from off they feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. We must put off the old man, with his affections and lusts, and cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Cleanness rather than cleverness is the prime condition of successful service. It is only out of such a heart that the faith can spring which is able to wield the forces of the unseen and spiritual and divine.

The author mentioned above uses the story of the Valley of Achor for a chapter on sin, from which the following is taken, which might be easily filed away for future reference as the basis of a Gospel address on the foulness of sin:

We should grieve more for sin than its results. Joshua smarted from the disgrace inflicted upon his people and the consequences which would ensue when the tidings were noised abroad. He was dreading the discovery more than the misdoing. But with God it was not so, and never is so. It is our sin in itself that presses Him down, as a cart groans beneath its load.

We should submit ourselves to the judgment of God. Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? It were as if God said, Instead of grieving for the effect, grieve for the cause. In searching the cause of our failures we must be willing to know the worst. And that we may know the worst God traces our sin back through its genealogy, just as He did in this case.

We should hold no parley with discovered sin. God never reveals an evil which He does not require us to remove. When this is done the Valley of Achor becomes the door of hope (Hos 2:15).

And the land rested from war (Jos 11:23). In the use of this text Mr. Meyer compares the rest experienced by Israel in Canaan with the rest the believer may share in Christ:

There is the rest of reconciliation. The soul no longer works up towards the cross to obtain justification, but is assured that all needed to be done has been done by Jesus Christ on our behalf.

There is the rest of assured victory. When we realize all that Jesus has done, we see that Satan is a conquered foe, and that his weapon cannot reach a life hidden in God.

There is the rest of a surrendered will. When our wills move off the pivot of self on the pivot of God, our lives become concentric with the life of God, and our feet keep step to the music of His divine purpose.

There is the rest of unbroken fellowship. As Jesus is one with the Father, so we become one with Him, and through Him one with the blessed trinity. Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

There is the rest of perfect love. When we enter into the life of the ascended Jesus, we find that our hearts become pervaded with the love of God, and there is no longer the yearning and bitterness of unsatisfied desire. We hunger no more, neither thirst any more.

There is the rest of the holy heart. It is not occupied with inbred lust nor tossed to and fro on seething passion. The flesh is crucified, the self-principle quelled, and the empire of the Holy Saviour is supreme.

QUESTIONS

1. Have you compared the New Testament Scriptures with reference to the typical character of Joshua.

2. Can you give from memory the points in which the story of Rahab illustrates that of our redemption?

3. In what two ways may the crossing of the Jordan be used symbolically?

4. What symbolical distinction is there between the two mounds of memorial stones?

5. To what spiritual use might you put the reference to Israels rest in the land?

Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary

Jos 11:1-23 concludes the brief summary of the conquest of the land of Canaan. Jabin, king of Hazor, called for a number of the kings of the north to align with him and attack Israel. God again reassured Joshua of victory. Israel swiftly attacked the allied kings and destroyed them along with all the people in their cities.

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Jos 11:1. King of Hazor This was the principal city of the northern part of Canaan, Jos 11:10; and fell to the share of the tribe of Naphtali in the division of the land, Jos 19:36. Jabin was the name of the king of the Canaanites in this part of the country, in future times, as well as now. Had heard This was a remarkable instance of the wisdom and goodness of Divine Providence, which so governed the minds of the Canaanites, that they were not all united under one king but divided among many petty kings; and next, that these did not all unanimously join their counsels and forces together to oppose the Israelites at their first entrance, but quietly suffered the destruction of their brethren, thereby preparing the way for their own.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Jos 11:1. Hazor, then the metropolis of a powerful kingdom, Jer 49:28, is situate on Lake Merom, forty miles north of the sea of Galilee. Jabin with all the allies, 300,000 infantry, and 20,000 horse, according to Josephus, came southward to meet the Israelites, and Joshua hasted to meet him. This second general battle as good as completed the conquest of Canaan. The ill directed hosts were soon thrown into disorder, and probably destroyed one another. The Israelites fought under the assurance of victory, and the allies in utter despair.

Jos 11:6. Burn their chariots with fire. Evander, in Virgil, is made to say that under the very walls of Prnste, I mowed down the ranks, and set fire to heaps of shields.

Cm primam aciem Prneste sub ips Stravi, scutorumque incendi victor acervos. N. 8:561.

Jos 11:9. He houghed their horses; cut the hamstrings that they might not escape.

Jos 11:21. Joshua cut off the Anakims; men from eight to more than nine feet in stature. See Gen 6:4.

REFLECTIONS.

The first object which strikes us here is, that God sent on all the hardened kings a spirit of infatuation, for instead of seeking means, like Gibeon, to save their lives, or to humble themselves by fasting and prayer, they leagued for their own destruction. It is even now the same with men who have long resisted grace, and completely hardened their own hearts by a vast course of crimes. Their whole conversation and deportment afford sad indications of their being abandoned by grace.

God, before the general battle, encouraged and instructed Joshua how to fight with the iron chariots of the Canaanites, viz. by cutting the hamstrings of their horses on coming to close contact. So in the hard conflicts we have to sustain with the world, Christ has instructed us to be wise as serpents, and bold as lions: and by bidding us, as Joshua, not to be afraid, he gives us the pledge of victory.Encouraged by these promises, the true Hercules proceeded to conquer the whole country from Halak in the south, to the passes of mount Lebanon in the north.

Nor did he stop here; he proceeded, being guided by Caleb, chap. Jos 15:14, to exterminate the lurking giants, who had occasioned the fears and the unbelief of the Israelites at Kadesh, when the Lord sentenced them to fall in the wilderness. Into all their caves and strongholds he pursued them; and with the arm of Gods avenging power, cut them off. Christian, here, in the valiant Joshua, and the faithful Caleb, is a pattern for you to follow. Oh this unbelief, this fear of man, this distrust of the Lords faithfulness and power! You can have no inward rest, no giving to God your whole heart, while these lurking giants are suffered to survive.

How encouraging is the remark, that Calebs faith at Kadesh, when he said, Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it, was realized in actual victories. The tall sons of Anakim, who in the eve of unbelief, annihilated the ten spies to grasshoppers, fell beneath the swords of the valiant ones. Oh that we had faith (and we want not fine examples) simply to believe the promises of full salvation; for the Lord will surely take away the heart of stone, and give us a heart of flesh. Then we should quietly enjoy the promised rest. Our will would be lost in the will of God, and we should live in the glorious light of his countenance.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Joshua 11. Defeat of Jabin and his Coalition.Jabin, king of Hazor, gathers a vast army of Canaanites at the Waters of Merom (locality uncertain, p. 32). The coalition was utterly defeated, the king was slain, and his city burnt. In Judges 4, a king of the same name and the same city appears, who for twenty years mightily oppressed the children of Israel. Joshuas victory here seems to be inconsistent with the account given of Jabin in Judges 4. The original story of Baraks campaign (Judges 5) has no reference to Jabin, but only to Sisera. The prose narrative (Judges 4) combines the war against Sisera with that against Jabin, and makes the former the general of the latter. It is noticeable that the terms of the short narrative in which the battle is here described are very vague and general, and 8, with its statement that the Israelites pursued their enemies as far as Zidon in the N. and Mizpah in the E. is simply the result of the writers ignorance of the distances of these places from the battle-field. That there may have been some severe conflict in the N. is quite possible, but that such a sweeping victory took place, which had so little effect that it had to be repeated some time afterwards, is against all probability. Jos 11:1-9 is, in the main, from Jeremiah , Jos 11:10-23 from the Deuteronomist.

Jos 11:13. cities that stood upon their mounds: this may be illustrated by a quotation from Drivers Schweich Lectures (p. 87). He says, At Gezer we have first the rough earth rampart, with stone facings, of the aboriginal Neolithic population, followed by the more massive stone walls built by subsequent occupiers. The rough earth rampart would constitute the Tell or mound, and would doubtless be known to the writer.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

CONQUEST OF NORTHERN ENEMIES

(vs.1-15)

Israel’s returning for the time being to Gilgal gave time for the nations in the north to mobilize. In this God’s wisdom is evident, for He brought these nations together so that Israel could defeat them enmasse, and not have to spend weeks or months in going from one city to another to wage war. In defeating their armies first, the taking of their cities would be simple.

In the tremendous gathering of this northern confederacy only two kings are mentioned by name, Jabin king of Hazor and Jobab king of Madon. Jabin means “discerning” and Hazor means “inclosed.” Jabin therefore represents “the wisdom of this world” (1Co 1:20) which has its own inclosed stronghold, keeping out anything that does not conform to its proud claims. But God knows how to render the wisdom of this world “foolish.” This attack by “philosophy and empty deceit” (Col 2:8) can appear most formidable so that many are deceived by it, but the energy of faith in the living God can fully overcome it.

Jobab, meaning “shouter” was king of Madon which means, “contention.” Philosophy needs its advertising agent who, with a loud voice and confident tone can contend against every effort to expose and refute its claims. Tercullus the orator was such a man (Act 24:1-8), a man of contention. Also, Paul tells Titus, “There are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped” (Tit 1:10-11).

Such leaders are well able to influence large numbers to unite together in resisting the work of God. Indeed, they will point to their superior numbers as being proof that God is really on their side. This is one of Satan’s most effective arguments. The numbers gathered from all that northern area were “as the sand that is on the seashore in multitude” (v.4), with large numbers of horses and chariots. God allowed them to be well prepared, so that from a military point of view they had the advantage, but in this way they would learn the lesson that God is greater than all the wisdom and organization and power of all His enemies put together, and Israel would learn too that God’s power alone was to be the deciding factor

The Lord told Joshua, “Do not be afraid because of them, for tomorrow about-this –, time I will deliver all of them stain before Israel” (v 6). Their horses were to be hamstrung and their chariots burned. Why were these not taken as spoil? Psa 20:7 gives a most satisfactory answer, “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.”

Joshua and his armies therefore, without any maneuvering of any kind, directly attacked this great company (v.7). The Lord gave them the victory immediately, so that the enemy fled in total disarray, in contrast to their previous united front. Israel pursued them, killing them with such slaughter as to leave none remaining. Would Israel then not be thankful they had returned to Gilgal to be in the presence of God before rushing to engage in battle?

After defeating the northern armies, Joshua returned and attacked the city of Hazor, which was the head of all the other kingdoms that had mustered themselves against Israel. The king Jabin was killed and all the inhabitants of the city, and also the city was burned (vs.10-11). The city was not simply captured by Israel, for it means “enclosure,” implying independent sectarianism in the land, and Israel was not to have any of this.

The other cities and their kings Joshua took, killing the kings and the people of the cities, but did not burn those cities. Hazor alone was burned, the other cities possessed by Israel, for their spiritual significance was no doubt valuable when no longer perverted by the enemies of God (vs.12-13). Therefore, Israel took the livestock and other spoil for themselves (v.14).

Thus we are told that Joshua fulfilled the commandments of the Lord given to him by Moses (v.15). He was a leader of remarkable faith and God-given ability. These two great victories over the south and the north of the land gave Israel undisputed domination over all the land, though they had not as yet destroyed all their enemies, as chapter 13:1-6 shows. Does this not tell us also that, though we may have in general taken possession of our heavenly inheritance, yet there are many details of that inheritance that we have failed to apprehend or enjoy?

SUMMARY OF JOSHUA’S CONQUESTS

(vs.16-23)

All the land from south to north, whether mountainous or plain, Joshua conquered, from Mount Halak in the south to the Valley of Lebanon in the north, below Mount Hermon (vs.16-17). To accomplish this, it was necessary to continue warfare for a long time (v.1,8). No other city besides Gibeon made peace with Israel: all were taken in battle (v.19).

The Lord had hardened the hearts of their enemies so that they should fight against Israel. This is judicial hardening which is the result Of their having for a long time hardened themselves against God. They had come to the point of no return, stubbornly refusing their only avenue of hope, a genuine straightforward repentance. Thus they were devoted to total destruction (v.20).

In verse 21 the Anakim are specifically mentioned. These were giants (Num 13:33), and were found in the area of Hebron and Debir. We have before seen that Hebron (meaning “communion”) and Debir (“the speaker”) were taken by Joshua (ch.10:36-39), but there were Anakim still in the area, determined to have some possession at least of Hebron and Debir, for Satan wants to encroach on these things – that are rightly the possession of believers. The enemy would like to claim a place of communion with God in order to “speak” his evil doctrine as though it was God’s message. King Ahab employed such deceivers to prophecy to him and Jehoshaphat insisted on hearing a prophet of the Lord (1Ki 22:3-7).

At this time in Joshua’s history, however, the Anakim were cut off from the land of the children of Israel and left only in the Philistine cities, Gaza, Gath and Ashdod (vs.21-22). Philistines are “wallowers,” typical of mere formal religion, which really wallows. as in mud, not free of the fleshly entanglements that keep people from knowing the liberty of the Spirit of God in Christ. The Philistines remained in their area, but a constant source of trouble for Israel. Their successors today, the Palestinians, continue in the same role.

Joshua, having subdued the whole land, gave it as an inheritance to Israel, dividing it according to the needs of each tribe. Then finally the land rested from war. This rest was in general complete, though it did not mean that Israel would have no more conflict in possessing all that actually belonged to them.

Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible

11:1 And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard [those things], that he {a} sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph,

(a) The more God’s power appears, the more the wicked rage against it.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

8. Conquests in northern Canaan 11:1-15

The leaders of the northern Canaanite cities also decided to unite to withstand the threat of Israelite expansion.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Hazor (lit. enclosure) was the leading city in northern Canaan with an area of 175 acres and a population of 30,000 to 40,000 people. [Note: Davis and Whitcomb, p. 74. See also The New Bible Dictionary, 1962 ed., s.v. "Hazor," by T. C. Mitchell.] Archaeologists calculate the population of walled cities in Canaan as about 200 people per acre. Hazor was at one time the head of an alliance of all the northern cities (Jos 11:10). [Note: See Mary Rattigan, "Hazor and Its Significance," The Bible Today 23:1 (January 1985):44-50; Waltke, "Palestinian Artifactual . . .," pp. 42-46; and Merrill, Kingdom of . . ., p. 120.] Jabin (Jos 11:1) may have been a title rather than a proper name (cf. Jdg 4:2), or it may have been a personal name. [Note: Hess, p. 208.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

CHAPTER XX.

THE BATTLE OF MEROM.

Joshua Chs. 11, 12.

THERE is some appearance of confusion in the terms in which the great confederacy of native princes against Israel is brought in. In the beginning of the ninth chapter, a combination that embraced the whole country, north and south, east and west, is described as gathered together to fight with Joshua and with Israel. Nothing more is said till after the treaty with the Gibeonites, when five of these confederate kings residing in the south not far from Gibeon muster their forces to besiege that city. Of the utter rout and ruin of these five kings and of some of their neighbours we have just been reading. And now we read that, after these things, Jabin, King of Hazor, sent to his neighbours, and to all the princes in the northern part of the country, and organized a combined movement against Israel, for which the appointed rendezvous was at the waters of Merom, in the extreme north of the country. The statement at the beginning of the ninth chapter that the confederates gathered themselves together,” seems to be made proleptically; the actual gathering together not having taken place till the occasions specified in the tenth and eleventh chapters respectively. The plan of the confederacy was no doubt formed soon after the fall of Jericho and Ai, and the arrangements for a vast united movement began to be made then. But it would necessarily consume a considerable time to bring so vast a host together. Meanwhile, another event had taken place. The Gibeonites had refused to join the confederacy and had made peace with Joshua. Their neighbours were intensely provoked, especially Adonizedec of Jerusalem, and without waiting for the general movement proceeded at once to chastise their treachery. As we have said already, they doubtless thought it would be an easy task. To the surprise of them all, Joshua, with an activity which they could not have looked for, hastened to the relief of Gibeon, and inflicted a defeat on the confederates which amounted to absolute ruin.

It has not been generally noticed how remarkably the Gibeonite fraud, and the honourable action of Joshua in connection with it, tended in the end to the good of Israel. Had Joshua, after the discovery of the fraud, repudiated his treaty and attacked and exterminated the Gibeonites, or had he disregarded their appeal to him for help and suffered them to be crushed by Adonizedec, there would have been nothing to hinder the southern kings from uniting with the northern, and thus presenting to Joshua the most formidable opposition that was ever mustered in defence of a country. The magnificent exploit of Joshua in the plain of Gibeon, down the pass of Bethhoron, and in the valley of Ajalon entirely frustrated any such arrangement. The armies of the southern kings were destroyed or demoralized. And though the united forces in the north, with their vast resources of war, still formed a most formidable opponent, the case would have been very different if the two had combined, or if one of them had hung on Joshua’s rear while he was engaged in front with the other. Nothing could have fallen out more for the advantage of Israel than the procedure of the Gibeonites, which drew off so large and powerful a section of the confederates, and exposed them thus separate to the sword of Joshua.

Joshua was not allowed a long rest at Gilgal after his dealings with Adonizedec and his brethren. No doubt the news of that tremendous disaster would quicken the energies of the northern kings. The head of the new conspiracy was Jabin, King of Hazor. Jabin was evidently an official name borne by the chief ruler of Hazor, like Pharaoh in Egypt, for when, at a subsequent period, the place has recovered somewhat of its importance, and comes again into view as a Canaanite capital, Jabin is again the name of its chief ruler (Jdg 4:2).

The situation of Hazor has been disputed by geographers, and Robinson, who is usually so accurate, differs from other authorities. He assigns it to a ruinous city on a hill called Tell Khuraibeh, overhanging the Lake Merom, for little other reason than that it seems to answer the conditions of the various narratives where Hazor is introduced. On the other hand, the author of “The Land and the Book ” assigns it to a place still called Hazere, a little west of Merom, the remains of which lie in a large natural basin, and spread far up the hill, toward the south. “Heaps of hewn stone, old and rotten; open pits, deep wells, and vast cisterns cut in the solid rock – these are the unequivocal indications of an important city. I inquired of an old sheikh what saint was honoured there. In a voice loud and bold, as if to make a doubtful point certain, he replied, “Neby Hazur, who fought with Yeshua Ibn Nun.” The matter is of no great moment; all that it is important to know is that Hazor was situated near Lake Merom, and was the capital of a powerful kingdom.

The cities of some of the other confederates are named, but it is not easy to identify them all. The sites of Madon, Shimron, and Achshaph, are unknown, but they were apparently not far from Hazor. ”The Arabah south of Chinneroth” (Jos 11:2, R.V.) denotes the plain of Jordan south of the lake of Galilee; the valley, or “Mowland ” (R.V.), denotes the maritime plain from the Philistines northward; “the heights of Dor on the west” (R.V.), or Highlands of Dor (”Speaker’s Commentary”), the hills about a city on the sea coast, near the foot of Carmel, prominent in after history, but now reduced to a village with a few poor houses. The sacred historian, however, does not attempt to enumerate all the places from which the confederacy was drawn, and falls back on the old comprehensive formula – “Canaanites on the east and on the west, Amorites, Hittites, the Jebusites in the hill country, and the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpeh.” “The Canaanites on the west” embraced the people of Zidon, for Joshua is expressly stated to have followed a band of the fugitives to that city (Jos 11:8). The muster must have been an extraordinary one, as numerous “as the sand that is upon the sea shore in multitude.” Josephus gives the numbers as 300,000 footmen, 10,000 horsemen, and 20,000 chariots; but we can hardly attach much value to his figures. “Horses and chariots” was an arm unknown to the Israelites, with which hitherto they had never contended. This vast host came together and pitched at the waters of Merom. Merom, now called Huleh, is the little lake where, as already stated, the three streamlets that form the Jordan unite. It varies in size in summer and winter. To the north, a large plain spreads itself out, sufficient for the encampment of a great army. It was at or near this plain that Abraham overtook the five kings of Mesopotamia and defeated them, rescuing Lot, and all that had been taken from Sodom (Gen 14:14-15). Now again it is crowded with a mighty host: far as the eye can reach, the plain is darkened by the countless squadrons of the enemy. Probably, after mustering here, their intention was to bear down the Jordan valley, till they came on Joshua at Gilgal, or such other place as he might choose to meet them. But if this was their intention they were outwitted by the activity and intrepidity of Joshua, who resolved, in spite of their overwhelming numbers, to take the aggressive; and, marching, as before, with extraordinary rapidity, to fall on them by surprise and throw them at once into confusion so that they should be unable to bring their chariots and horses into the action.

It was a very serious undertaking for Joshua, and before attempting it he stood much in need of the encouragement of Jehovah – “Be not afraid because of them: for to-morrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel: thou shalt hough their horses, and burn all their chariots with fire.” Not on the number nor on the bravery of his own people, though they had stood by him most nobly, was he to place his reliance, but on the power of God. ”Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies” was his mot dordre, as it was afterwards of that other Joshua, whose battles were not with confused noise nor with garments rolled in blood, but were triumphs of truth and love. Where else should the true warrior be found but in the midst of his enemies? Joshua knew it, and with the promised help of God, did not flinch from the position, though his opponents were like the sand of the seaside, with a corresponding multitude of chariots and horses. Jesus, too, knew it, and resting on the same promise did not shrink from the conflict in His own person; nor did He hesitate to send His apostles into all the world to preach the gospel to every creature, and look forward to a victory not less complete than that of Joshua, when the hordes of the Canaanites were scattered before him.

“To-morrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel.” When he got that assurance, Joshua must already have left Gilgal some days before, and was now within a moderate distance of Merom. There was to be no delay in the completing of the enterprise. ”To-morrow about this time.” Though, as a rule, the mills of God grind slowly, there are times when their velocity is wonderfully accelerated. He has sometimes wonderful to-morrows. When Hezekiah was gazing appalled on the hosts of Sennacherib as they lay coiled round Jerusalem, God had a “to-morrow about this time” when the terror would be exchanged for a glorious relief. When the apostles met in the upper chamber, and were wondering how they were ever to conquer the world for their Master, there was a “to-morrow ” at hand, when the Spirit was to “come down like rain on the mown grass, and like showers that water the earth.” When, at the end of the world, iniquity abounds and faith is low, and scoffers are asking, “Where is the promise of His coming?” there will come a ”tomorrow about this time ” when the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and all that is therein shall be destroyed. Hold on, brave Joshua, for a little longer; hold on too, ye soldiers of the Lord Jesus, though all the powers of darkness are leagued against you; hold on, ye suffering saints, whose days of pain and nights of waking are such a weariness to your flesh; the glorious ”to-morrow ” may be at hand which is to end your troubles and bring you the victory!

“We expect a bright to-morrow, All will be well.”

And all was well with Joshua. Arriving suddenly at the waters of Merom, he fell on the mighty host of the enemy, who, taken by surprise, seem not to have struck one blow, but to have been seized at once with that panic which so thoroughly demoralizes Eastern hordes, and to have fled in consternation. In three great streams the fugitives sought their homes. One portion made for Misrephothmaim in the south-west, now, it is thought, represented by Musheirifeh on the north border of the plain of Acre; another struck in a north-easterly direction through the valley of the upper Jordan, or east of Hermon to the valley of Mizpeh; a third, passing through the gorge of the Litany, made for great Zidon, in the distant north. Joshua himself would seem to have pursued this column of fugitives, and, passing over a rough path of more than forty miles, not to have abandoned them till they took refuge within the walls of Zidon. If he had attacked and destroyed that stronghold, it might have changed for the better much of the future history of his country; for the Jezebels and Athaliahs of after days were among the worst enemies of Israel. But he did not deem himself called to that duty It seemed more urgent that he should demolish Hazor, the capital of the confederacy that he had just scattered. So ”he turned back and took Hazor, and smote the king thereof with the sword; for Hazor before time was the head of all those kingdoms.” For this reason Hazor was treated like Jericho, utterly destroyed, as were also the other cities of the confederate kings. One class of cities was spared, called in our version ”the cities that stood still in their strength,” but better in the Revised- “the cities that stood on their mounds.” The custom referred to is that of building cities on mounds or hills for the sake of protection. With the exception of Hazor, none of these were destroyed. The reason probably was, that it would have cost too much time. But it was in such places that the old inhabitants rallied and entrenched themselves, and from them they were able in after years to inflict much loss and give great trouble to Israel. Joshua, however, had not received instructions to destroy them; they were left to serve a purpose in God’s plan of discipline (Jdg 2:3), and while Israel was often humbled under them their attacks proved occasions of rallying, bringing them back to God, whose worship they were so ready to neglect.

The conquest of Western Palestine was thus virtually completed. First, by taking Jericho, Joshua had possessed himself of the Jordan valley, and established a clear communication with Bashan and Gilead, which the two and a half tribes had received for their inheritance. By the conquest of Ai and Bethel, he had made a way to the great plateau of Western Palestine, and by his treaty with the Gibeonites he had extended his hold a considerable way farther to the south and the west. Then, by the great victory of Bethhoron, he had crushed the southern chiefs and possessed himself, for the time at least, of all that quarter. As to the inhabitants of the central part, we know not (as we have already said) how they were dealt with, but most probably they were too frightened to resist him. (See p. 202 {eS module note: try looking at the opening paragraphs of Chapter 17….}).

The northern section had been subdued at Merom, and much crippled through the pursuit of Joshua after the battle there. The only important parts of the country of which he did not gain possession were the land of the Philistines, the strip of sea coast held by Tyre and Zidon, and some small kingdoms on the north-east. It would seem that in the instructions received by him from Moses, these were not included, for it is expressly said of him that “he left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses.” Emphasis is laid on the fact that his conquests were not confined to one section or denomination of territory, but embraced the whole. ”Joshua took all that land, the hill country, and all the South, and all the land of Goshen, and the lowland, and the Arabah, and the hill country of Israel, and the lowland of the same; from Mount Halak (or, the bare mountain) [on the south], that goeth up to Seir [the land of Edom], even unto Baalgad in the valley of Lebanon under Mount Hermon [in the north]: and all their kings he took, and smote them, and put them to death” (R.V.). The “Goshen” here spoken of cannot, of course, be the Egyptian Goshen, for this city was in the neighbourhood of Gibeon (Jos 10:41); but its site has not been identified.

We are told that the wars of Joshua occupied a long time. Probably from five to seven years were consumed by them, for though the pitched battles of Bethhoron and Merom virtually decided the mastership of the country, there must have been a large amount of guerilla warfare, and the sieges of the various cities may have required much time. The list of kings subdued, as given in Chap 12, is a remarkable document. Granting that though called kings they were mostly but little chieftains, still they were formidable enough to a pastoral people unused to the pursuits of war; and it was very striking that not one of them by himself, nor all of them combined, were equal to Joshua. If Joshua was not divinely aided, the conquest of all these chieftains and the capture of their cities is the most inexplicable event in history.

Two additional statements are made towards the close of the eleventh chapter. One is, that with the single exception of Gibeon, no attempt was made by any of the chiefs or cities to make peace with Joshua. “For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as the Lord commanded Moses.” It would have been very embarrassing to Joshua if they had submitted spontaneously, and cast themselves on his generosity, for his orders were to destroy them. But this difficulty did not arise. None of the cities seem to have shared the conviction of the Gibeonites that opposition was needless, that Israel was sure to prevail, and get possession of the country. When men’s backs are up, to use a common phrase, they will do wonders in the way of facing danger and enduring suffering. Even the resistance of the martyrs cannot be wholly ascribed to holy faith and loyalty to God; in many cases, no doubt, something was due to that dogged spirit that won’t submit, that won’t be beat, that will endure incredible privation rather than give in. The effect of this resistance by the Canaanites was, that while Joshua’s task was increased in one way, it was simplified in another. Ages before, God had given the country to the fathers of the Hebrew nation. That people now came and demanded in God’s name possession of the land which He had given them. Had the nations submitted voluntarily they must have left the country to seek new settlements elsewhere. By resisting, they compelled Joshua to meet them with the sword; and having resisted Israel with all their might, nothing remained but that they should encounter the doom which they had so fiercely provoked.

That some of the Canaanites did leave the country seems very probable, although little importance is to be attached to the statement of Procopius that after trying Egypt they settled in Libya, and overspread Africa as far as the Pillars of Hercules. At a fortress in Numidia called Tigisis or Tingis he says that so late as the sixth century after Christ there were discovered near a great wall two pillars of white stone bearing, in Phoenician, the inscription, “We are those who fled before the robber Jeshus, son of Nane.” Ewald and others by whom this tradition is noticed are not disposed, owing to its late date, to attach to it any weight.

The other statement relates to the Anakim. Sometime, not precisely defined, while engaged in his conflicts Joshua ”cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel,” leaving none of them except in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod (Jos 11:21). Afterwards it is said (Jos 15:14) that it was Caleb that drove from Hebron the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai; but this cannot be counted a contradiction inasmuch as ”Joshua,” being the leader of the army, must be held to represent and include all who fought in connection with his enterprise. These Anakim were the men that had so terrified the ten spies. “And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight ” (Num 13:33). To men of little faith, giants, whether physical or moral, are always formidable. Kings, with the resources of an empire at their back; generals at the head of mighty battalions; intellectual chiefs, with all their talent and brilliancy, their wit, their irony, their power to make the worse appear the better reason, are more than a match for the obscure handfuls to whom the battles of the faith are often left. But if the obscure handfuls are allied with the Lord of hosts, their victory is sure; the triumphant experience of the forty-sixth psalm awaits them: “God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, and that right early.”

We are weary of the din of arms, and come at last to the refreshing statement: ”And the land rested from war.” The annals of peace are always more brief than the records of war; and when we reach this short but welcome clause we might wish that it were so expanded as to fill our eyes and our hearts with the blessings which peace scatters with her kindly hand. For that impression we need only to turn to another page of our Bible, and read of the campaigns of another Joshua. ”And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among the people.” The contrast is very glorious. In His Galilee journeys, Jesus traversed the very region where Joshua had drawn his sword against the confederate kings. Joshua had pursued them as far as Zidon, leaving marks of bloodshed along the whole way; Jesus, when “He departed to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon” went to reward faith, to dispossess devils, and to kindle in a desolate heart thanksgiving and joy. Everywhere, throughout all Galilee and the regions beyond, His advent was accompanied with benedictions, and blessings were scattered by Him in His path.

But let us not indulge in too complete a contrast between the two conquerors. Joshua’s rough plough-share prepared the way for Jesus’ words of mercy and deeds of love. God’s message to man is not all in honeyed words. Even Jesus, as He went through Galilee, proclaimed, ”Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And it was those only who gave heed to the call to repent that became possessors of the kingdom.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary