Joshua12chapter 12

Joshua 12:1-3

Now these are the kings: The register opens east of Jordan and under Moses, so the count runs back to Numbers 21 rather than starting at Jericho. Sihon's territory had been Moab's before he took it, which Numbers 21:26 states outright, and that is how Israel could hold Heshbon without touching the land Deuteronomy 2:9 reserved to the children of Lot. The eastern limit is the Jabbok, named here as the border of the children of Ammon, and Deuteronomy 2:19 had forbidden Israel any possession beyond it.

Joshua 12:4-6

Og is identified by what he was left over from, the remnant of the giants, and one of his two seats is Ashtaroth, where Genesis 14:5 puts the Rephaims that Chedorlaomer struck generations before Abraham entered the land. Deuteronomy 3:11 is the only place that gives a measure of him, an iron bedstead nine cubits long kept at Rabbath of the children of Ammon. Verse 6 calls Moses the servant of the Lord twice in one sentence and records the grant of Numbers 32:33 to Reuben, Gad and half Manasseh as settled, before a single western king is named.

Joshua 12:7-8

these are the kings of: The western frame repeats Joshua 11:17 with its two landmarks reversed, from Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon to the mount Halak that goeth up to Seir, so the chapter measures the conquest by the same posts the narrative used. Verse 8 names six nations where Deuteronomy 7:1 names seven, the Girgashites missing, and the text gives no reason; Wesley passes on the Jewish tradition that they left the country ahead of Israel, and says plainly that it is tradition. The six terrains listed beside them, mountains and valleys and plains and springs and wilderness and south country, are the same divisions the allotment chapters use to sort their city lists.

Joshua 12:9-18

The king of Jericho: The kings are counted in the order Joshua met them, Jericho and Ai first from chapters 6 and 8, then the southern league. Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon at verses 10 to 12 are the five kings of Joshua 10:3 who hid in the cave, and Makkedah, where the cave was, is counted at verse 16. Jerusalem stands in the tally although Joshua 15:63 says the children of Judah could not drive out the Jebusites who lived there, so a king struck down and a city held are two different things in this book.

Joshua 12:19-24

The king of Madon: Hazor at verse 19 is the one the narrative singled out, since Joshua 11:10 says Hazor beforetime was the head of all those kingdoms, and a king of Hazor named Jabin is oppressing Israel again by Judges 4:2. Taanach, Megiddo and Dor are counted at verses 21 to 23, and they are three of the five towns Judges 1:27 says Manasseh never drove out. The chapter ends on a number instead of a sentence, all the kings thirty and one, which is the conquest reduced to a total a reader can check.