Joshua 11

After the southern kings are beaten in chapter 10, the kings of the north join forces against Israel with a huge army and many chariots. God tells Joshua not to fear, and Israel wins a swift victory at the waters of Merom. The chapter then summarizes the long campaign, stresses that Joshua obeyed everything Moses had been commanded, and ends with the land at rest.

Joshua 11:1-3

Jabin, king of Hazor, hears what has happened to the south and calls the northern rulers together. His message goes out across hills, plains, coast and valleys. Fear of Israel does not lead these peoples to surrender. It leads them to unite in a single alliance.

BSA: sent word (“a message, to summon”): Jabin does more than pass on news. He summons the other kings to act together.

See also: Judges 4:2.

Joshua 11:4-5

The allied armies gather at the waters of Merom. They are too many to count, like sand on a beach, and they bring horses and chariots, the tanks of that day. Humanly speaking, Israel on foot faces a far stronger force.

BSA: sand (“round or whirling particles”): The picture is of grains too many to number, which stresses how overwhelming the enemy looked.

Hebrew: חוֹל (ḥôl, H2344) — “sand.” Scripture uses sand for countless numbers, as in God’s promise to Abraham. Here the same picture describes an enemy host, and the promise-keeping God stands against it.

See also: Genesis 22:17.

Joshua 11:6

God meets Israel’s fear with a promise: by this time tomorrow the enemy will lie slain. He also tells Joshua to cripple the horses and burn the chariots, so that Israel will not come to trust in military hardware.

BSA: hamstring (“cut the leg-muscles”): The horses are made useless for war by cutting their leg tendons, so they can never be used against Israel again. deliver (“give”): The victory is described as God’s gift, handed over before the battle begins.

See also: Deuteronomy 20:1; Psalm 20:7.

Joshua 11:7-9

Joshua strikes at once, and the LORD gives the victory. Israel chases the fleeing armies far toward the coast and eastward. Joshua then does just what he was told with the horses and chariots. Note the order: God gives the win, and Joshua carries out the instructions exactly.

BSA: suddenly (“without warning”): Israel surprises a camp that expected to attack, so the enemy loses the advantage of its numbers. hand (“strength”): To be given into Israel’s hand means being put under Israel’s power, by God’s doing.

Joshua 11:10-11

Joshua turns back to Hazor, the leading city of the northern alliance, and takes it. Its king dies, and the city is put under the ban and burned. The text gives the reason it was singled out: it had been the head of all these kingdoms.

BSA: head (“the chief”): Hazor was the leading power of the north, so its fall broke the whole coalition. devoting them (“giving them over to destruction”): The people were handed over to God’s judgment and not kept for Israel’s own gain.

Hebrew: הֶחֱרִים (heḥĕrîm, H2763) — “to put under the ban, devote to destruction.” This word means giving something over to God completely, with nothing kept back. The Bible presents it as judgment on peoples whose wickedness had grown full, not as ordinary warfare. Christians have long wrestled with these chapters and feel their weight.

See also: Genesis 15:16; Deuteronomy 7:1-2.

Joshua 11:12-15

The northern kings and cities fall as Moses had commanded. Only Hazor is burned, and Israel keeps the livestock and goods of the other cities. Verse 15 sums up Joshua’s whole career: he left nothing undone of what the LORD had commanded. Faithfulness here means doing all of it.

BSA: mounds (“tells”): Canaanite cities stood on built-up hills, which made them strong. Israel left most of them standing to live in. nothing undone (“unfinished”): Joshua did not stop partway. His obedience was complete.

See also: Deuteronomy 20:16-17.

Joshua 11:16-17

The writer surveys the land Joshua took, from the southern hills near Seir to Baal-gad beneath Mount Hermon in the far north. It was a broad sweep, covering mountains, plains and desert. The kings who stood against Israel were defeated.

BSA: Goshen (“a place of drawing near”): This is a district in southern Canaan, not the Egyptian Goshen where Israel once lived.

Joshua 11:18-19

The conquest was not a single stroke. It took a long time, many campaigns. Only Gibeon made peace with Israel, by the trick told in chapter 9. Every other city had to be taken in battle.

BSA: made peace (“have a covenant of peace”): Gibeon sought an agreement that bound both sides, and Israel honored it.

Hebrew: הִשְׁלִימָה (hishlîmāh, H7999) — “made peace.” This word comes from the same root as shalom, meaning wholeness or peace. It shows that terms of peace were open to those who sought them, as Gibeon did.

See also: Joshua 9:3-15.

Joshua 11:20

The text says it was of the LORD to harden the hearts of these peoples so they came out to fight. This is hard to read. Scripture elsewhere says these nations had long been given time to turn, and their judgment was not arbitrary. Rahab and the Gibeonites show that mercy was possible for those who sought it.

BSA: harden (“make stubborn”): God left them set in their own resistance, and they chose battle over seeking peace. mercy (“favor”): The word also means a plea for favor. These cities made no such plea, unlike Gibeon.

Hebrew: חִזֵּק (ḥizzēq, H2388) — “to make strong, firm.” The root means strengthening. It is the same word used when Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. God confirmed these kings in the stubborn course they had already taken.

See also: Genesis 15:16; Joshua 2:9-13.

Joshua 11:21-22

Joshua also clears the Anakim from the southern hills. They were the tall, feared people who had terrified the spies forty years earlier. Some remained only in Philistine cities on the coast, where Goliath of Gath later came from. The thing Israel once feared was overcome by trusting God.

BSA: Anakim (“giants, descendants of Anak”): These were the people whose size made the earlier generation say they could never take the land.

See also: Numbers 13:33; Joshua 14:12.

Joshua 11:23

The chapter closes with the land taken, given out to the tribes as their inheritance, and quiet at last. Everything happened as God had told Moses. The rest here is real but partial, since the book later shows land still to be possessed.

BSA: rest (“peace”): The land enjoyed a season of peace after the long fighting. inheritance (“a gift”): The land was received as God’s gift to His people and was not earned by their strength.

See also: Joshua 21:44-45; Hebrews 4:8-9.