Joshuachapter 11
23 verses · Joshua, by tradition · 15th or 13th century BC · History
There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, there remained.
Introduction
Joshua, by tradition, History, Joshua Overview.
This chapter belongs to the book that tells how Israel took the land promised to Abraham, and tradition gives the book to Joshua. Its first hearers knew the north as a country of walled cities on hills and chariot forces on the plains. It closes the fighting that began at Jericho and gives the rest of the war at once. Listen for how often the text measures what Joshua did against what Moses had been told. Listen also for the sentence that explains why the cities fought rather than made peace. The chapter ends with the land at rest, and the next chapters turn from war to inheritance.
Context
- Who
- A people hearing how the largest city in the region fell
- What
- An account of the northern campaign at the waters of Merom and the burning of Hazor, followed by a summary of the whole conquest.
- Where
- The north of Canaan, from the waters of Merom and Hazor to Sidon and the valley of Mizpeh, with a summary that reaches from Seir to Mount Hermon.
- When
- About 1400 BC on the traditional dating of the Exodus, near the end of a war the book says lasted a long time, while many scholars date the conquest in the thirteenth century BC.
- Why
- To show that the whole land was taken as the LORD had commanded Moses, so that the division among the tribes could begin.
Historical context
The book carries no superscription naming its writer, and it reports Joshua writing at least part of it at 24:26. The Babylonian Talmud at Bava Batra 14b to 15a assigns the whole book to him, while Martin Noth read it as the second volume of an exilic Deuteronomistic History.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
Joshua is an ageing commander finishing the campaigns, and the occasion is a northern coalition mustered by Jabin of Hazor after the southern kings had fallen. Hazor was the giant of Canaan, a site of around two hundred acres, ten times the size of a typical Canaanite town, named in Egyptian and Mesopotamian records as a major power.
The text's phrase, that Hazor was formerly the head of all those kingdoms, matches what excavation shows, and the mound carries a massive destruction layer with burning. Yigael Yadin excavated there in 1955 to 1958 and in 1968, and Amnon Ben-Tor has dug there since 1990. The dossier records a burn layer over a metre deep in places with deliberately mutilated statues, which Yadin identified with the Israelite conquest and Ben-Tor dates to the thirteenth century.
The coalition brought horses and chariots, described as a force as numerous as the sand on the seashore, onto the flat open valleys of the north that suited them. Israel hamstrung the horses and burned the chariots, and cutting the tendon behind a horse's leg ends its use as a war animal permanently. A first hearer read that against the law of the king, which forbids multiplying horses, so Israel refused to become a chariot power on captured equipment.
Significance
The chapter closes the conquest phase with a summary, that Joshua took the whole land according to all the LORD had spoken to Moses, and the land had rest from war. The Anakim who terrified the scouts forty years earlier are named as cut off from the hill country.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
First hearers were also told the campaign took many days rather than a season. And they were told why no city made peace except Gibeon. Their hearts were hardened, and the judgment long delayed since Abraham's day had come.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The hardest thing the classical commentary says about Joshua himself is said in this chapter. Rashi is quoted from the Metsudah Publications Book of Joshua of 1997, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. On the words about the many days the war lasted he reads a rebuke rather than a report. "This verse was said to criticize Yehoshua, who intended to delay the conquest of the land, in order to lengthen his days" (Rashi on Joshua 11:18:1). The reasoning in the Metsudah note runs like this. Joshua knew he would die once the land was divided, so he let the war run seven years when it need not have. God answered the delay by taking ten years off his life. He died at a hundred and ten rather than at a hundred and twenty like Moses. Rashi names the source, the Midrash Tanchuma. A Christian reader used to Joshua as an unbroken model of obedience should sit with that reading, because it is the tradition holding its own hero to account.
The burning of Hazor is given a reason the written text does not carry. Every other city on its mound was left standing with its walls, and the chapter says so. Rashi contrasts them with Jericho, whose walls fell, and with Ai, made a mound forever (Rashi on Joshua 11:13:1). Hazor alone was burned, and Rashi says it was burned "because of a traditional command" (Rashi on Joshua 11:13:2). Moses had received the command and passed it on, and Rashi points to Bereshit Rabbah on the portion beginning with Jacob sending messengers. The Metsudah note states the claim plainly, that the command is absent from the written Torah and was received orally at Sinai. That is the doctrine of an oral law working inside a verse, and it is one of the places where Jewish and Christian teaching part on how a command reaches a reader.
The geography is glossed briefly. Chinneroth is placed south of Ginosar, near the lake by Tiberias, and the region of Dor is read as its districts (Rashi on Joshua 11:2:1 and 11:2:2). The place at the eighth verse Rashi explains through the Targum as sea ditches. Water was let into them from the sea and burned off by the heat of the sun, leaving salt (Rashi on Joshua 11:8:1). The bare mountain of the seventeenth verse is a mountain without trees, and Rashi carries a tradition that it was divided between Jacob and Esau, with the smooth side Jacob's. He adds that Joshua never took the whole of the northern reach of the eastern border in his lifetime (Rashi on Joshua 11:17:1).
The corpus carries seventeen further notes on this chapter without an English text. Eight stand cited and unquoted at Radak on Joshua 11:3:1, 11:8:1, 11:9:1, 11:16:1, 11:20:1, 11:21:1, 11:22:1 and 11:23:1. Seven stand at Malbim on Joshua 11:4:1, 11:5:1, 11:6:1, 11:11:1, 11:12:1, 11:15:1 and 11:19:1. Two stand at Metzudat David on Joshua 11:3:1 and 11:10:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries thirty-two rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse, the northern kings gathering, it holds Bereshit Rabbah 81:4, Jerusalem Talmud Peah 3:7:6 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 9:23. Beside them stand Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 15:16:4, Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 251:18 and the book of Deuteronomy in Sefer HaYashar.
The order to hamstring the horses and burn the chariots draws two locators. On the sixth verse the corpus holds Avodah Zarah 13a:15 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 20:1:11. On the eighth it holds Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 2:6:10, and on the twelfth Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 12:16. On the thirteenth, the cities left standing on their mounds, it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 35:5:3, Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 22:4 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 135:2. On the fourteenth it holds Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 7:13:2.
The fifteenth verse is the most heavily worked line in the chapter, and it is the verse that says Joshua left nothing undone of all that Moses was commanded. The corpus holds fifteen locators on it. From the Talmud it holds Sanhedrin 44a:17, Yevamot 96b:17, Jerusalem Talmud Peah 1:1:17 and Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 2:5:4. From the Sifra it holds two passages in Acharei Mot, section 8, at 7 and 8, and one in Shemini, in the Mekhilta DeMiluim II at 43. Beside them stand Midrash Lekach Tov, Leviticus 10:7:1, Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 22:5 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 415:3 and 528:1. The Ein Yaakov entries follow at Sanhedrin 6:6 and Yevamot 10:6, with the Glick Edition at Sanhedrin 6:7 and Yevamot 10:4. On the eighteenth verse, the verse Rashi read as a rebuke, it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 22:6 and Midrash Tanchuma at Matot 4:1 and Metzora 6:1. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Joshua 11:2:1, 11:2:2, 11:8:1, 11:13:1, 11:13:2, 11:17:1 and 11:18:1, the Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997, reported CC-BY; Midrash Tanchuma, the tradition that Joshua delayed the conquest and lost ten years of life, as Rashi names and reports it at Rashi on Joshua 11:18:1; Bereshit Rabbah, the oral command to burn Hazor, on the portion beginning with Jacob sending messengers, as Rashi names it at Rashi on Joshua 11:13:2; Targum Jonathan, the rendering of the place name at Joshua 11:8 as sea ditches, as Rashi reports it at Rashi on Joshua 11:8:1; Radak, Radak on Joshua 11:3:1, 11:8:1, 11:9:1, 11:16:1, 11:20:1, 11:21:1, 11:22:1 and 11:23:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Joshua 11:4:1, 11:5:1, 11:6:1, 11:11:1, 11:12:1, 11:15:1 and 11:19:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Joshua 11:3:1 and 11:10:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/joshua/11.json, the 32 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The northern coalition at the waters of Merom
Joshua 11:1-3
when Jabin king of Hazor: The southern alliance of chapter 10 was five kings called by Adoni-zedek, and here one man summons the whole north. Barnes and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take Jabin as a throne name, since a Jabin king of Hazor reigns again at Judges 4:2. The muster runs from Chinnereth by the lake to Dor on the coast and up to Hermon, calling in every terrain of the north.
Joshua 11:1
“Jabin ("the Intelligent"), which seems to have been a hereditary title (Jud 4:2), took the lead, from Hazor being the capital of the northern region (Jos 11:10). It was situated on the borders of lake Merom. The other cities mentioned must have been in the vicinity though their exact position is unknown.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Verse 2 calls up the north strip by strip. Albert Barnes reads the Arabah south of Chinnereth as the Jordan valley running down from the lake later called Gennesaret. He takes Naphoth-dor as the heights of Dor, the coastal city whose king is counted at Joshua 12:23 and whose district still bears the name at 1 Kings 4:11.
Joshua 11:2
“On the north of the mountains - Or the mountain, probably Hermon, or some mountain not far from the lake of Gennesareth. And of the plains - That is, the valleys of the above mountains, which had the sea of Chinneroth or Gennesareth on the south. Chinneroth - This city is supposed by St. Jerome and several others since his time, to be the same as was afterwards called Tiberias. From this city or village the sea of Chinneroth or Gennesareth probably had its name.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The Hivites at the foot of Hermon share a name with the people who deceived Israel at Gibeon, called Hivites at Joshua 9:7. John Wesley keeps the two groups apart by their mountain. Albert Barnes explains Mizpah as watchtower, a name given to many places, and separates this one from the Mizpeh of Gilead at Joshua 13:26.
Joshua 11:3
“The Canaanite - The Canaanites properly so called, lived part of them on the east near Jordan, and part on the west near the sea, and both are here united. The Hivite - That dwelt under mount Hermon in the north of Canaan, whereby they are differenced from those Hivites who lived in Gibeon. Mizpeh - That Mizpeh which was in the northern part of Gilead.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 11:3
“Hermon - See Deu 3:9 note. The land of Mizpeh - or Mizpah,” the land of the watch-tower” The locality is probably identified as a plain stretching at the foot of Hermon southwestward, from Hasbeya, toward the Bahr el Huleh. In a land abounding in striking points of view like Palestine, the name Mizpah was naturally, like “Belle Vue” among ourselves, bestowed on many places. The Mizpeh here mentioned must not be confounded with the Mizpeh of Gilead (Jos 13:26, and Jdg 11:29); nor with the Mizpeh of Judah Jos 15:38; nor yet with that of Moab 1Sa 22:3.”
Joshua 11:4-5
The sand on the seashore is the measure God gave Abraham for his descendants at Genesis 22:17 and Jacob at Genesis 32:12, and here it counts the army gathered to destroy them. This is the first place Scripture turns that figure on an enemy, as it does later of the Philistines at 1 Samuel 13:5 and at Revelation 20:8.
Joshua 11:4
“Much people, even as the sand - This form of speech, by some called a hyperbole, conveys simply the idea of a vast or unusual number - a number of which no regular estimate could be easily formed. Josephus, who seldom finds difficulties in such cases, and makes no scruple of often speaking without book, tells us that the allied armies amounted to 300,000 foot 10,000 horse, and 20,000 chariots of war. Antiq. lib. v., c.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Albert Barnes renders Merom as the upper waters and places them at the lake of the Huleh basin, between the hills of Galilee and the lower spurs of Hermon. John Gill puts the muster close to Jabin's Hazor. Adam Clarke records a second view that looks to the waters of Megiddo at Judges 5:19.
Joshua 11:5
“And when all those kings were met together,.... At some certain place, which Jabin had appointed: they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom: Josephus (a) says it was at Berotha; perhaps it should be Merotha, a city of upper Galilee, not far from Cedesa, the same he elsewhere calls (b) Meroth, These waters are the same with the lake Samachonitis, on which Hazor was situated; so that it was near Jabin where the rendezvous was. This lake is thought (c) to have its name from the Arabic word "Samacha", which signifies high, as Merom does in Hebrew.”
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 11:5
“Waters of Merom - i. e. “the upper waters,” the modern Bahr el Huleh, the lake Semechonitis, or Samochonitis of Josephus. This lake occupies the southern half of the Ard el Huleh, a depressed basin some 15 miles long and 3 or 4 miles wide lying between the hills of Galilee on the west and the lower spurs of Hermon on the east.”
Joshua 11:6-7
Deuteronomy 20:1 told Israel not to fear when it saw horses and chariots and an army larger than its own, and verse 4 has just described that sight. To hamstring a horse puts it beyond use without killing it, as David does at 2 Samuel 8:4. Destroying the captured equipment instead of fielding it runs with Deuteronomy 17:16 on a king not multiplying horses and with Psalm 20:7.
Joshua 11:6
“Be not afraid - of them - To meet such a formidable host so well equipped, in their own country, furnished with all that was necessary to supply a numerous army, required more than ordinary encouragement in Joshua’s circumstances. This communication from God was highly necessary, in order to prevent the people from desponding on the eve of a conflict, in which their all was at stake.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua strikes before the camp can move. Albert Barnes compares the surprise at Joshua 10:9 and reasons that the chariots, hemmed in between the hills and the lake, had no room to deploy. Matthew Henry ties the timing to verse 6, where God had set the hour.
Joshua 11:7
“Suddenly - As before, at Gibeon Jos 10:9, so now Joshua anticipates his enemies. Taken by surprise, and hemmed in between the mountains and the lake, the chariots and horses would have no time to deploy and no room to act effectively; and thus, in all probability, the unwieldy host of the Canaanites fell at once into hopeless confusion.”
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 11:7
“With characteristic energy he made a sudden advance, probably during the night, and fell upon them like a thunderbolt, when scattered along the rising grounds (Septuagint), before they had time to rally on the plain.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Joshua 11:8-9
The pursuit runs northwest to Greater Sidon on the Phoenician coast and east to the Valley of Mizpeh, so the rout scatters both ways from Merom. Verse 9 reads the two orders of verse 6 back as done, the hamstringing and the burning, which is how this book records obedience. The chariot force Israel has taken is left useless on the ground, unused by its own army.
Joshua 11:8
“Great Zidon - If this were the same with the Sidon of the ancients, it was illustrious long before the Trojan war; and both it and its inhabitants are frequently mentioned by Homer as excelling in works of skill and utility, and abounding in wealth: - Ενθ’ εσαν οἱ πεπλοι παμποικιλοι, εογα γυναικων Σιδονιων. Iliad, lib. vi., ver. 289. “There lay the ventures of no vulgar art, Sidonian maids embroidered every part.” Pope. Αργυρεον κρητηρα τετυγμενον· ἑξ δ’ αρα μετρα Χανδανεν, αυταρ καλλει ενικα πασαν επ’ αιαν Πολλον, επι Σιδονες πολυδαιδαλοι ευ ησκησαν.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua keeps none of the captured horses or chariots. John Gill sets this beside David, who at 2 Samuel 8:4 hamstrung the chariot horses but kept back a hundred. Adam Clarke reads the order as a guard on Israel's trust, so that its defence would rest on God.
Joshua 11:9
“Joshua did unto them as the Lord bade him--(See Jos 11:6). Houghing the horses is done by cutting the sinews and arteries of their hinder legs, so that they not only become hopelessly lame, but bleed to death.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 11:9
“He houghed their horses - The Hebrew word עקר akar, which we render to hough or hamstring, signifies to wound, cut, or lop off. It is very likely that it means here, not only an act by which they were rendered useless, but by which they were destroyed; as God had purposed that his people should not possess any cattle of this kind, that a warlike and enterprising spirit might not be cultivated among them; and that, when obliged to defend themselves and their country, they might be led to depend upon God for protection and victory.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Hazor burned, the head of those kingdoms
Joshua 11:10-11
Hazor was “the head of all these kingdoms”, and its mound, about two hundred acres, shows a Late Bronze destruction by fire in the excavations Yigael Yadin published. The date of that burn is argued among archaeologists and is not settled. At Judges 4:2 a Jabin reigns in Hazor again, and the readings offered are a city rebuilt on its ruins or a dynastic name carried by each king.
Joshua 11:10
“The king - In his royal city, to which he fled out of the battle. Head of these kingdoms - Not of all Canaan, but of all those who were confederate with him in this expedition.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
John Gill counts Hazor as the third city Joshua burned, after Jericho at Joshua 6:24 and Ai at Joshua 8:28. Adam Clarke follows the site forward. Hazor is listed for Naphtali at Joshua 19:36, and Tiglath-pileser of Assyria captures it at 2 Kings 15:29.
Joshua 11:11
“And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them,.... Men, women, and children: there was not any left to breathe; any human creature; for as for the cattle they were taken for a prey: and he burnt Hazor with fire; as he did Jericho and Ai, though no other cities he had taken; but it seems that this city, though burnt, was built again and inhabited by Canaanites, who had a king over them of the same name with this in the times of Deborah, Jdg 4:2.”
Joshua 11:12-14
Only Hazor is burned, and Keil and Delitzsch read the “cities built on their mounds” as towns left standing, so Israel receives houses it did not build, as Deuteronomy 6:10-11 promised. Plunder and livestock are kept under the allowance of Deuteronomy 20:14. Jericho went whole to God as the firstfruits at 6:18-19, and Achan died for taking from it, but the rest of the land is held more loosely.
Albert Barnes explains the mounds as the hills on which the towns of Canaan ordinarily stood, and he compares Jeremiah 30:18, where the city is rebuilt on her own ruins. John Wesley gives the reason Hazor alone was burned. It had begun the war, and as the royal city it could have renewed it.
Joshua 11:13
“Render: “But the cities standing each on its own hill” (compare Jer 30:18). The meaning is simply that, with the exception of Hazor, Joshua did not burn the cities, but left them standing, each on its former site. This site is spoken of as a hill, because such was the ordinary site chosen for cities in Canaan (compare Mat 5:14).”
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 11:13
“In their strength - Hebrew. with their fence, walls or bulwarks, that is, which were not ruined with their walls in taking them. Save Hazor - Because this city began the war, and being the chief and royal city, might renew the war.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Adam Clarke limits the plunder by Deuteronomy 7:25, which ordered the images of the nations burned and forbade keeping their silver and gold. Matthew Henry sets this plunder beside the goods Israel carried out of Egypt, recorded at Exodus 12:36. Both times the spoil equipped the people for what came next.
Joshua 11:14
“All the spoil of these cities - Israel took - With the exception of those things which had been employed for idolatrous purposes; see Deu 7:25.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
One verse writes out the chain of command, from the LORD to Moses to Joshua, and every link held, “leaving nothing undone”. Yet 13:1 opens by telling the same man that very much of the land remains to be possessed. Both sentences stand in the same book, and neither corrects the other.
Joshua 11:15
“As the Lord commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua,.... Which was to destroy the people of the land, Deu 7:1, so did Joshua, he left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses; both with respect to the destruction of the people, and of all their images, pictures, altars, groves, and high places; see Exo 34:11.”
The Anakim cut off; the land had rest from war
Joshua 11:16-18
The summary sweeps from Mount Halak toward Seir to Baal-gad below Hermon, the length of the country in one line. Verse 18 checks any reading of chapters 10 and 11 as a few weeks of fighting, since Joshua waged war “for a long period of time”. Caleb’s ages at 14:7-10, forty when sent and eighty-five at Hebron, leave about seven years of campaigning on the usual reckoning.
Joshua 11:16
“So Joshua took all that land--Here follows a general view of the conquest. The division of the country there into five parts; namely, the hills, the land of Goshen, that is, a pastoral land near Gibeon (Jos 10:41); the valley, the plains and the mountains of Israel, i. e., Carmel, rests upon a diversity of geographical positions, which is characteristic of the region.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 11:16
“The mountain of Israel, and the valley of the same - This place has given considerable trouble to commentators; and it is not easy to assign such a meaning to the place as may appear in all respects satisfactory. 1. If we consider this verse and the 21st to have been added after the times in which the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were divided, the difficulty is at once removed.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The two landmarks mark the conquest's southern and northern limits. Albert Barnes admits that Mount Halak cannot be fixed among the ridges near the southern border. He identifies Baal-gad as probably Paneas, the later Caesarea Philippi of Matthew 16:13, and as the Mount Baal-hermon of Judges 3:3.
Joshua 11:17
“Even from the mount Halak, that goeth up unto Seir,.... Or the "smooth" and "bald" mountain, which had no trees on it, as some interpret it, observed by Kimchi; it was a mount on the borders of Edom, to which the land of Canaan reached on that side: even unto Baalgad, in the valley of Lebanon, under Mount Hermon; and so describes the northern part of the land conquered by Joshua: and all their kings he took, and smote them, and slew them; both in the southern and northern parts of the land.”
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 11:17
“The mount Halak - See the margin and reference. The name serves to mark the southern limit of Joshua’s conquests. It suits equally well several of the ranges near the south border of Palestine, and it is uncertain which of them is the one here indicated. Baal-gad Jos 12:7; Jos 13:5 is probably Paneas, the Caesarea Philippi of later times. The name means “troop or city of Baal,” or a place where Baal was worshipped as the giver of “good luck.” Compare Isa 65:11. It was probably the same as Baal-Hermon (Jdg 3:3; 1Ch 5:23; and see Deu 3:9).”
John Wesley says the verse is there to stop a reader from taking a short account for a short war. Albert Barnes counts at least five years and notes others who count seven. Chapters 10 and 11, he adds, give only leading events.
Joshua 11:18
“Joshua made war a long time - The whole of these conquests were not effected in one campaign: they probably required six or seven years. There are some chronological notices in this book, and in Deuteronomy, by which the exact time may be nearly ascertained. Caleb was forty years old when he was sent from Kadesh-barnea by Moses to search out the land, about A.M.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua 11:19-20
Deuteronomy 20:10 required terms of peace before a siege, and no city took them except Gibeon, which won its treaty by deceit. Verse 20 gives the reason in the language of the plagues, “it was of the LORD to harden their hearts”, the only hardening in Joshua. Gill reads a divine determination behind it, and Clarke reads God withdrawing restraint from men whose guilt was full, as at Genesis 15:16.
to harden their hearts: Augustine reads the hardening through the Gibeon account of chapter 9, where Israel spared a people it had been ordered to destroy. On his reading the Canaanites came out to fight, so Israel would have no occasion to show them mercy. Matthew Henry adds that the other cities never asked for terms.
Joshua 11:20
"There was no city which the Lord did not deliver to the children of Israel, except perhaps those who lived in Gibeon. Israel violently overthrew all of them because the Lord hardened their hearts that they would fight Israel and be killed and not be shown mercy and die, just as the Lord had commanded Moses." If it happened by the will of the Lord that Israel not receive or accept peace, then let us say with the apostle, "Why, therefore, does he object? For who can resist the will of the Lord?"
Jerome · written before 420 · Against the Pelagians 1.33patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 11:20
“It was of the Lord to harden their hearts - They had sinned against all the light they had received, and God left them justly to the hardness, obstinacy, and pride of their own hearts; for as they chose to retain their idolatry, God was determined that they should be cut off. For as no city made peace with the Israelites but Gibeon and some others of the Hivites, Jos 11:19, it became therefore necessary to destroy them; for their refusal to make peace was the proof that they wilfully persisted in their idolatry.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua 11:21-22
The Anakim are the people the spies saw at Hebron in Numbers 13:22, whose report at 13:33 turned the nation back for thirty-eight years. Here they are cut off from Hebron, Debir and Anab, and 15:14 names the three Caleb drives out. Verse 22 leaves survivors “only in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod”, Philistine cities, and the champion of 1 Samuel 17:4 is Goliath of Gath.
The survivors in the Philistine cities matter for chapter 14. Albert Barnes, commenting on Joshua 14:12, reasons that the Anakim who fled to Philistia came back to Hebron while Israel fought in the north. That is why Caleb still has sons of Anak to drive out at Joshua 15:14.
Joshua 11:22
“In Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod - The whole race of the Anakims was extirpated in this war, except those who had taken refuge in the above cities, which belonged to the Philistines; and in which some of the descendants of Anak were found even in the days of David.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The chapter closes with “the land had rest from war”, a phrase repeated at 14:15. Judges takes up the formula of the land at rest, first at 3:11. Hebrews 4:8 reads this verse forward, that if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.
Joshua 11:23
I do not see that Jesus [Joshua] the son of Nun took possession of all the earth. For how much of the earth does one take who seizes only Judea? But our Lord Jesus truly took possession of all the earth, because a multitude of believers from all over the earth and out of all the nations flock to him. After these things, after "Jesus [Joshua] took possession of all the earth," it is also added, "And the earth rested from wars."
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 15.7patristic
3 more voices on this verse
Joshua 11:23
“Joshua took the whole land--The battle of the take of Merom was to the north what the battle of Beth-horon was to the south; more briefly told and less complete in its consequences; but still the decisive conflict by which the whole northern region of Canaan fell into the hands of Israel [STANLEY].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Joshua 11:23
“There failed not one word of the promise. Our successes and enjoyments are then doubly sweet and comfortable to us when we see them flowing to us from the promise (this is according to what the Lord said ), as our obedience is then acceptable to God when it has an eye to the precept. And, if we make conscience of our duty, we need not question the performance of the promise.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Joshua 11:23
“These words import that Joshua had overcome all overt resistance. There were, however, many districts by no means thoroughly and finally subdued Jos 13:1-6.”
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative, a campaign report closing with a summary of the whole conquest, as table classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The muster counted, and the country swept | The chapter opens with a list of kings, peoples and regions called in by one man, and it closes with a list of the zones taken. The published exposition of Joshua 11 states on verses 1 to 3 that the muster runs from Chinneroth beside the lake down to Dor on the coast and up to Hermon. Its note on verses 16 to 18 states that the closing summary sweeps from Mount Halak going up to Seir in the far south to Baal-gad under Hermon in the north. That is the length of the country in one line.The published exposition of Joshua 11, the notes on verses 1 to 3 and on verses 16 to 18, the notes cite Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible. | Joshua 11:1, Joshua 11:2, Joshua 11:3, Joshua 11:16, Joshua 11:17 |
| The order given, then the same order carried out | Verse 6 tells Joshua to hamstring the horses and burn the chariots. Verse 9 reports both things done in the same two terms. The published exposition of Joshua 11 states on verses 8 and 9 that this is how the book records obedience, with the command in God's words and then the same words again in Joshua's actions.The published exposition of Joshua 11, the note on verses 8 and 9, the note cites Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible. | Joshua 11:6, Joshua 11:9 |
| As the LORD commanded Moses | The chapter measures every stage against one standard and names Moses at each turn. The clause stands at verse 12, three times over at verse 15, again at verse 20, and once more at verse 23. The published exposition of Joshua 11 states on verse 15 that the chain of command is written out in one verse, from God to Moses to Joshua. It states that every link is said to have held.This lane's count over the Berean Standard Bible text of Joshua 11 in the store, with the published exposition of Joshua 11 on verse 15, the chapter's own verses 12, 15, 20 and 23; the note cites Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament. | Joshua 11:12, Joshua 11:15, Joshua 11:20, Joshua 11:23 |
Hazor, and what the excavations show
26 more paragraphs on the patterns
Hazor is the one city in the chapter with a substantial excavation history, and the book's published dossier carries it with its excavators named. The dossier records Tel Hazor as excavated by Yigael Yadin in 1955 to 1958 and in 1968, and by Amnon Ben-Tor from 1990 (src/components/book/dossier-content/joshua.ts, the archaeology section).
The dossier states what the site shows. It records the largest Canaanite city in the region, with a massive Late Bronze destruction and a burn layer reaching well over a metre in places. It records deliberately mutilated Egyptian and Canaanite statues in the same destruction. It sets that beside verse 13, which singles Hazor out as the one city the northern campaign burned.
The dossier then states where the holders differ. Yadin identified the destruction with the Israelite conquest. Ben-Tor's renewed excavation confirmed its scale and dates it to the thirteenth century. The dossier states that this fits the later exodus reading and leaves the earlier reading to account for the gap.
The published exposition of Joshua 11 adds the scale of the mound. It states on verses 10 and 11 that the mound is the largest in the country at roughly two hundred acres. It records a Late Bronze destruction by fire, reported in the excavations Yadin published in Hazor: The Rediscovery of a Great Citadel of the Bible. The same note states that the date of that burn is argued among archaeologists and that the argument is not settled there.
The chapter leaves one further difficulty, and the note names it. A Jabin reigns in Hazor at Judges 4:2, after this chapter has burned the city. The note gives the two readings on offer: a city rebuilt on its own ruins, and a dynastic name carried by whoever held the throne. The published exposition states on verses 1 to 3 that Barnes and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown both take Jabin as a throne title carried by the house rather than one man's given name.
The date of the conquest
The dating of the Hazor burn sits inside the wider argument, and the book's published dossier states both positions with their holders. The fifteenth century reading puts the conquest at about 1406 BC. It rests on the four hundred and eightieth year of 1 Kings 6:1, the three hundred years of Judges 11:26, and scholars including Bryant Wood and John Bimson, Redating the Exodus and Conquest, 1978.
The thirteenth century reading puts the conquest at about 1230 to 1200 BC. It is held by Kenneth Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, 2003, and the majority of current archaeologists. It reads the store cities of Exodus 1:11, the destruction layers at Hazor and Lachish, and the Merneptah Stele's mention of Israel in Canaan by 1208 BC. The dossier records that stele at about 1208 BC, discovered by Flinders Petrie in 1896, as the earliest mention of Israel outside the Bible.
Taken, or much of it left
Verse 23 is one side of the book's own hardest question, and the dossier answers it from the text rather than by positions. It sets 11:23, where Joshua took the entire land and the land had rest from war, beside 13:1, where the LORD tells him very much of the land remains to be possessed. It sets both beside 15:63, which records that the Jebusites still live among the descendants of Judah.
The dossier reads the two kinds of statement as describing two different things. The first is the decisive defeat of organized Canaanite coalitions, which Joshua's generation accomplished. The second is the tribe by tribe occupation of the territory, which it did not finish. The dossier notes that Joshua's own farewell assumes the unfinished work and warns what the remaining nations will become at 23:13.
The chapter carries the same tension in its own words. The published exposition of Joshua 11 states on verse 15 that the phrase he left nothing undone occurs once in the whole King James Bible and sits here. The same note sets Joshua 13:1 beside it, spoken to the same man about the same country, and states that both sentences stand in the same book with neither correcting the other.
The length of the fighting is the other half of the measure. The published exposition states on verses 16 to 18 that verse 18 checks any reading of chapters 10 and 11 as a few weeks of fighting. It states that Caleb supplies the arithmetic at Joshua 14:7 to 10, forty years old when Moses sent him and eighty-five when he asks for Hebron. On the usual reckoning the forty-five years he counts leave about seven years of campaigning after the crossing.
The second position on the conquest commands bears on the same sentences. The dossier holds it under K. Lawson Younger Jr., Ancient Conquest Accounts, 1990, and Kenneth Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, 2003. On that reading the totalizing language reports decisive victory in the standard idiom of the period. The dossier states that this is why the same book can say the land was taken at 11:23 and that much of it remains at 13:1. The fuller case stands behind the door at /featured/the-canaanite-conquest.
The hardening at verse 20
Verse 20 gives a reason for the war that the rest of the book does not use, and the readings of it differ. The published exposition of Joshua 11 states on verses 19 and 20 that Deuteronomy 20:10 required terms of peace to be offered to a city before it was fought. It states that verse 19 records no city taking those terms except Gibeon, which had obtained its treaty by deceit in chapter 9. It states that verse 20 then gives the reason in the vocabulary of the plagues, and that this is the only place hardening appears in the book of Joshua.
The same note names the two readings. John Gill reads a divine determination standing behind the whole action. Adam Clarke reads God withdrawing restraint from men whose guilt was already full, and points back to Genesis 15:16 on the iniquity of the Amorites. The note records that Exodus carries both kinds of statement, with Pharaoh hardening his own heart at 8:15 before the same thing is said of God at 9:12.
Jerome quotes verse 19 and verse 20 in full and answers them with a question from the apostle. He writes that if this happened by the will of the Lord, the apostle's own question stands. That question asks why the Lord objects, when no one can resist His will (Against the Pelagians 1.33, 420).
The Anakim, and where the survivors went
Verses 21 and 22 close an account opened a generation earlier. The published exposition of Joshua 11 states on those verses that the Anakim are the people the spies saw at Hebron in Numbers 13:22 and 13:28. It states that the report about them at Numbers 13:33 is what turned the nation back for thirty-eight years. It states that Joshua 15:14 names the three men Caleb drives out at eighty-five, Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai.
Verse 22 keeps an exact remainder, and the note follows it. It records that none were left in the land of the children of Israel and that survivors remained in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod. It states that those three are Philistine cities. It states that the champion who comes out of the camp at 1 Samuel 17:4 is Goliath of Gath. It states that four more men of great stature are born to the giant in Gath at 2 Samuel 21:15 to 22.
The book's published dossier reads the same line the same way. Its theology entry on the Anakim states that the line matters because of where it leads. It states that the seed war of Genesis 3:15 runs through the gap Joshua left (src/components/book/dossier-content/joshua.ts, the entry "The Anakim in the Land").
Rest, and the New Testament's use of verse 23
The last clause of the chapter is a term the book uses for what the conquest is for. The dossier's theology entry on rest states that Moses promised it before the crossing at 1:13. It states that the northern campaign ends with the land at rest from war at 11:23, and that the division of the inheritance ends with rest on every side at 21:44. It states that rest here means an end to war and a settled place, and that Hebrews reads even this fulfilment as partial.
The published exposition of Joshua 11 states on verse 23 that the phrase falls once in the King James Bible, with its near twin at Joshua 14:15. It states that Judges takes the formula up and runs it three times, at 3:11, 3:30 and 5:31, after which it stops with Deborah. It states that Hebrews 4:8 reads this verse forward, and that the King James spells the name there as Jesus for Joshua.
The dossier makes the same link in its section on Christ in the book. It states that the Greek of Hebrews 4:8 carries Joshua's own name, which comes into Greek as Iesous. The man who brought Israel into the inheritance shares the name of the one who brings a people into the rest this conquest pictured.
Keep studying
Studies5
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours and Michael Heiser, The Unseen Realm.
The form and classifications
K. Lawson Younger Jr., Ancient Conquest Accounts, 1990, as the book's published dossier states the position (src/components/book/dossier-content/joshua.ts, the ancient Near East section); This site's published book sections table, src/lib/bible/book-sections.ts, the entry "Joshua": "history", which files the book with Judges and Ruth rather than with the law and This site's published guide to Joshua, which takes the three campaigns from the book dossier's first section and the outline's second movement, src/components/book/guides/joshua/JoshuaGuide.tsx, the campaigns at lines 128 to 146.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Augustine of Hippo, Questions on Joshua 18; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.