JOSHUA - CHAPTER 11
v1 Jabin, king of Hazor, heard what had happened. So, he sent messengers to Jobab, king of Madon. He also sent messengers to the kings of Shimron and Acshaph. v2 And he sent messengers to other kings. Some lived in the northern mountains and some lived in the Arabah. The Arabah was south of Kinnereth. Other kings lived in the west. They lived in the little hills and in Naphoth Dor. v3 Messengers also went to the Canaanites who lived in both the east and the west. They went to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites and Jebusites in the hills. And Jabin sent messengers to the Hivites. The Hivites lived near Hermon near Mizpah. v4 All these kings came with their soldiers and many horses and chariots. It was a huge army. There were so many soldiers that nobody could count them. v5 The kings all joined together. Their army camped by the river Merom. They wanted to fight against Israel.
Commentary
Verses 1-5
Again, some kings in Canaan became afraid of the Israelites. These kings lived in the north of the country.
The Lord Speaks
v6 ‘Do not be afraid of them’, the Lord said to Joshua. ‘I will give all of them to you. You will kill them all by this time tomorrow. You must make their horses lame, and you must burn the chariots.’ v7 So Joshua and all his army went to fight the kings by the river Merom. The Israelites attacked their enemies suddenly. v8 The Lord helped the Israelites to win the fight. The Israelites ran after the kings as far as Sidon, Misrephoth Maim and Mizpah valley. They went east until they had killed all their enemies. v9 Joshua did to them as the Lord had said. Joshua made the horses lame and he burned the chariots.
v10 Then Joshua went back and he took Hazor. He killed its king. (Hazor had been the most important kingdom over all the kingdoms who were against Israel.) v11 The Israelites killed everyone who lived there. They killed everything that was alive in the city. They burned the city and they destroyed it.
v12 Joshua took all these cities and he killed all their kings. He destroyed them all, as God’s servant Moses had told him to do. v13 But Israel did not burn all the cities that their enemies had built on small hills, except Hazor. Joshua did burn this one. v14 The Israelites took all the animals and good things from the cities, but they killed all the people. They did not allow anyone to live. v15 The Lord had told Moses what to do. Then Moses had told Joshua what the Lord had said. Joshua did what Moses told him to do. Joshua did not forget anything. He did everything that the Lord had told Moses to do.
Commentary
Verse 6
The Lord made a promise to Joshua. The Lord would defeat all those people.
Verses 7-11
Joshua did as God told him to do. God helped Joshua again to defeat his enemies.
Verses 12-15
Joshua took all these cities and he killed all their kings. He destroyed them all, as God’s servant Moses had told him to do. But Israel did not burn all the cities that their enemies had built on small hills, except Hazor. Joshua did burn this one. The Israelites took all the animals and good things. Joshua did what Moses told him to do which were the same things that the Lord had told Moses to do.
What Joshua Did
v16 So Joshua took all these places. He took the hills, the dry country in the south, all Goshen and the little hills in the west. He took the Arabah and the mountains and hills in Israel. v17 These places were between Halak mountain (which was near Seir) and Baal Gad. Baal Gad was in the valley of Lebanon, below Hermon mountain. He took all their kings and killed them all. v18 Joshua was fighting these kings for a long time. v19 No cities made a peace agreement with the Israelites, except for the Hivites from Gibeon. So, Joshua took all the other cities in battle. v20 The Lord himself made the people angry, so that they would fight Israel. This was so that the Lord could kill them all. He did not let them live. He did not show kindness to them. So, the Israelites did those things that the Lord had told Moses to do.
v21 Joshua went at that time to fight the Anakites from the hills. They came from Hebron, Debir and Anab and all the hills in Judah and Israel. Joshua killed them all. And he destroyed all their towns. v22 He killed all the Anakites in Israel, except for a few in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod. v23 So Joshua took the whole country, as the Lord had told Moses to do. The Lord gave the country to Israel to live in. And Joshua gave the land to the tribes of Israel. Each tribe received the land that the Lord had chosen. And the families in each tribe would always continue to own this land. Then the country was at peace.
Commentary
Verses 16-23
This is an account of all that God had done for Joshua.
Verse 18
‘A long time’ was about 7 years.
Verse 20
‘The Lord himself made the people angry.’ God did this because he wanted to punish the Canaanites. The Canaanites were very evil. God used the Israelites to punish the Canaanites. See Exodus 11:10 and Exodus 14:8. In these passages in Exodus, God made the king of Egypt angry. God did this because he wanted to punish the people in Egypt.
Verse 23
God promised to give this land to the family of Abraham (Genesis 17:8). The Israelites belonged to the family of Abraham. God always keeps his promises. God gave each Israelite family its own land.
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