Joshua 11:1

But let us attempt, as God grants, to investigate certain individual kings of the opposing army; and, through the meaning of the names of each one, let us consider also the work he performs in malice.First of all, the one who is designated the author of this war, who collects the others and summons them to a conspiracy of wickedness, is named Jabin, who was king of Hazor. For he is the one who is said to have called the others together. But Jabin means "thought" or "prudence." What, then, is this "thought" or "prudence," if not that which the prophet Isaiah calls "proud thought"? For he says, "And moreover, I shall strike out the proud thought of the prince of the Assyrians, who said, 'I shall bring it to pass by my power, and, by the wisdom of my perception, I shall remove the boundaries of the nations and plunder their power.' " Therefore, the one who is called "proud thought" in that place is this king of the Assyrians. But here, Jabin is "thought" or "prudence." For it is written that in paradise the serpent was "more prudent than all the beasts" who were upon the earth. And even that "steward of iniquity" is said to have "done prudently" that which he did. This Jabin, then, is king of Hazor. But Hazor means "court." Therefore, all the earth is the court of this king, the devil, who holds the supremacy of the whole earth as though of one court. But do you wish to verify that the court is itself the earth? In the Gospels it is written that the strong one sleeps unconcerned in his own court until a stronger one comes, who may both "bind" him and "carry away what he possesses." The king of the court, therefore, is "the prince of this world."

This one sends word to Jobab; for he himself is the one who sends word to all nations and summons them to battle. He sends word to the king of Merom. Jobab means "hostilities," but Merom means "bitternesses." Therefore, the devil sends word to another hostile power, doubtless from among the fugitive angels, and this power is the king of bitternesses. All bitternesses and difficulties in this world that are inflicted on wretched mortals issue from this author and what he does. There are diverse kinds of sin. For nothing can be more bitter than sin, even if it seems somewhat delightful at first, as Solomon writes. "But in the end," he says, "you will find what seemed sweet in the beginning to be more bitter than gall and sharper than the edge of a sword." But the nature of righteousness is the opposite: In the beginning, it seems more bitter, but in the end, when it produces fruits of virtue, it is found to be sweeter than honey. Therefore, the devil sent word to the hostile Jobab, the king of bitterness.

In prior readings, the king of Jerusalem had assembled four other kings with him against Jesus [Joshua] and against the sons of Israel. But now no longer does someone assemble four or five; on the contrary, see how great a multitude one person assembles.…You see how many swarms of opposing powers and of malicious demons may be stirred up against Jesus [Joshua] and the Israelite army. Before the coming of our Lord and Savior, all those demons, undisturbed and secure, were occupying human spirits and ruled in their minds and bodies.

And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard these things,.... The taking of Jericho and Ai, the defeat of the five kings, and the conquest of the southern part of the land of Canaan; he was alarmed by them, and sent to all the northern kings to join with him against Israel; and he the rather took this upon him, because as Adonizedek king of Jerusalem was the principal king in the southern part of the land, so was he in the northern part; see Jos 11:10; Hazor fell to the tribe of Naphtali, Jos 19:

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.