Joshua 11:1–23
11 When Jabin, king of Hazor, heard of this, he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph, 2 and to the kings who were in the northern hill country, and in the Arabah south of Chinneroth, and in the lowland, and in Naphoth-dor on the west, 3 to the Canaanites in the east and the west, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, and the Jebusites in the hill country, and the Hivites under Hermon in the land of Mizpah. 4 And they came out with all their troops, a great horde, in number like the sand that is on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots. 5 And all these kings joined their forces and came and encamped together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel.
6 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, for tomorrow at this time I will give over all of them, slain, to Israel. You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire.” 7 So Joshua and all his warriors came suddenly against them by the waters of Merom and fell upon them. 8 And the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel, who struck them and chased them as far as Great Sidon and Misrephoth-maim, and eastward as far as the Valley of Mizpeh. And they struck them until he left none remaining. 9 And Joshua did to them just as the Lord said to him: he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.
10 And Joshua turned back at that time and captured Hazor and struck its king with the sword, for Hazor formerly was the head of all those kingdoms. 11 And they struck with the sword all who were in it, devoting them to destruction;1 there was none left that breathed. And he burned Hazor with fire. 12 And all the cities of those kings, and all their kings, Joshua captured, and struck them with the edge of the sword, devoting them to destruction, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded. 13 But none of the cities that stood on mounds did Israel burn, except Hazor alone; that Joshua burned. 14 And all the spoil of these cities and the livestock, the people of Israel took for their plunder. But every person they struck with the edge of the sword until they had destroyed them, and they did not leave any who breathed. 15 Just as the Lord had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses.
16 So Joshua took all that land, the hill country and all the Negeb and all the land of Goshen and the lowland and the Arabah and the hill country of Israel and its lowland 17 from Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir, as far as Baal-gad in the Valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. And he captured all their kings and struck them and put them to death. 18 Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. 19 There was not a city that made peace with the people of Israel except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. They took them all in battle. 20 For it was the Lord’s doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the Lord commanded Moses.
21 And Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua devoted them to destruction with their cities. 22 There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain. 23 So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses. And Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. And the land had rest from war.
1 That is, setting apart (devoting) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction); also verses 12, 20, 21
Section Overview
The broad resonances of the account of the northern campaign with the southern are readily apparent. A coalition is formed at the behest of the king of the leading city in the region, whose armies march out as aggressors against Israel (11:1–5). Battle is joined in the field, and with divine reassurance and assistance Joshua and the army of Israel rout the enemy (vv. 6–9). With the defeat of the armies, the cities of the coalition themselves are defeated by Israel (vv. 10–15). All of this in broad outline echoes what has taken place in the south, recounted in chapter 10. Here the account includes some narrative features that give this episode the feeling of a climax; even so, it is much more compact than chapter 10. The exact makeup of the coalition is vaguer than the one formed by the king of Jerusalem. The various battles are still situated in the landscape, as in the account of the southern campaign, but with less detail and precision. Both accounts make theological observation, but this takes on greater prominence in the northern campaign.
The work of the narrator is cumulative, as the summary now attached to the northern campaign (11:16–20) looks back also to the southern and central regions in giving an overview of all the territory taken since the first encounter with Jericho. The practice of combining geographical and theological overview seen in earlier summaries is found again here. This is itself a further signal of the deep interconnection between God, place, and people in biblical theology.
The brief notice of the encounter with and destruction of the Anakim is somewhat enigmatic (vv. 21–22). Outside the territorial operations of Israel, yet integrated by the narrator as a last gasp of this opening phase of the book, the Anakim represent a foe of a different kind than the cities of Canaan who have come together to fight Israel.
Section Outline
I.N. The Northern Campaign (11:1–15)
1. Northern Coalition Formed (11:1–5)
2. Battle of the Waters of Merom (11:6–9)
3. Hazor and Its Allies Defeated (11:10–15)
I.O. Conquest Summary (11:16–23)
1. Geographical Summary Updated (11:16–17)
2. Theological Summary Updated (11:18–20)
3. Destruction of the Anakim (11:21–22)
4. The Land Had Rest from War (11:23)
Response
The success of Israel against the southern cities might well seem to be a notable achievement and an opportunity for rest. It is not to be so. For all its resonances with the southern campaign, the northern campaign represents an appreciable crescendo of force marshaled against Israel. The foe is greater, their weapons stronger. If confusion, hail, and a prolonged day helped Israel’s engagement of the Jerusalem coalition, against the much more impressive Hazor coalition there is only the renewed word of the Lord to Joshua not to be afraid (11:6)—although by now the Lord’s word is more than enough. It is not an inevitable pattern, but it is familiar enough in Scripture and in life: winning one victory leads not to the end of struggle but to another battle with a stronger enemy.
With the victory over the royal cities of the northern coalition (vv. 11, 12; 21 [summary]) and the ancient Anakim (v. 22), kherem ends, at least as a feature of the Israelite settlement of the land in Joshua. As noted above, its future application will be rare and exceptional, as too its application here should be. It is notable that, as this phase of Israel’s warfare draws to a close, explicit connection is made back to the Lord’s command through Moses. For Israel this has been a matter of obedience to the divine command, limited for the most part to those royal powers that gathered military force against them; the kings of Canaan sought to annihilate Israel but were themselves “devoted to destruction” (11:20). Perhaps there is yet another way of understanding the conjunction between verse 18, which speaks of how “Joshua made war a long time with all those kings,” and verse 19, which points out that only the Hivite inhabitants of Gibeon “made peace with the people of Israel.” Just as there was space in Achan’s story for repentance and turning to God, so here we can see implied the possibility for the kings of Canaan to have come to a different conclusion and to have understood, as Rahab did, that everything they knew of Israel’s God meant that he alone had the right and the power to dispose of the land as he would and that any future lay not in opposing but in worshiping him. But it was not to be.
The closing observation, that the “land had rest from war” (v. 23), provides not only a glimpse of peace but a sign of hope. The Hebrew verb used here, a form of shaqat, has more to do with quiet repose and peace than does another Hebrew verb typically translated as “rest,” (nuakh) which typically refers instead to that time of relaxation after work (1:13, 15; 22:4 [in connection with the Transjordan tribes]). This rest, even if temporary, is nonetheless real. The reflection of the psalmist on God’s establishment of his reign in Judah clearly signals victory over Egypt in Psalm 76:6, but the observation that the “earth feared and was still” (Ps. 76:8) echoes this language from Joshua. The psalmist’s association of the coming of the just rule of God with the rejoicing of the “humble” (Ps. 76:9)—that is, the afflicted poor—at God’s cutting off the “kings of the earth” (Ps. 76:12) joins with Psalm 2 in giving another perspective on the defeat of the hostile kings of Canaan. Although Joshua does not feature as prominently in the book of Hebrews as does either Moses or Aaron, he is included there as one who provided a kind of rest, even if it was to prove in some sense incomplete, even inadequate (Heb. 4:8). But this is an eschatological note, pointing to a future, fuller, final rest for the people of God.
That is, setting apart (devoting) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction); also verses 12, 20, 21
11:1–5 Israel’s victories over the kings of the southern region now provoke northern aggression. Another “Jabin, king of Hazor” is later encountered in the war of Deborah and Barak in Judges 4:2, much as Adoni-zedek of Jerusalem in Joshua 10:1 finds an echo in Adoni-bezek of Judges 1:6–7. A cuneiform tablet containing a letter to an “Ibni-[Adad?]” found at Hazor in 1991–1992 excavations at that site adds credence to the notion that “Jabin” was a royal dynastic name at Hazor.
Hazor itself remains an impressive site, its large extent and massive fortifications bearing witness to its power and status during the Bronze Age. Excavations in the 2010s yielded further cuneiform texts that demonstrated how Hazor even operated its own legal system—a sign of its elite status. Hazor’s role in forming a northern coalition is in keeping with this regional prominence and status.
The precise locations of the first three cities summoned are all disputed, although some identifications have a greater degree of likelihood than others; the names of Madon and Shimron also have textual variants. The trajectory described by these place names lies to the southwest of Hazor: Madon about 16 miles (26 km) to the south, just west of modern Tiberias; Shimron about 30 miles (48 km) away on the northern edge of the valley of Jezreel; and Achshaph roughly 26 miles (42 km) west-southwest in the plain of Acco, just over 4 miles (7 km) from the Mediterranean coast. The cascading regional designations and gentilics in Joshua 11:2–3 map out a broad territory stretching every direction from Hazor. The intention is clearly not to provide a complete inventory of participants, as was the case for the more limited Jerusalem coalition in the southern region. Rather, the impression builds of a vast territory and an overwhelming force—precisely the scene conveyed by the narrator in verse 4, in fact. However imposing the southern coalition might have appeared, it is now dwarfed by the force assembled at the instigation of the king of Hazor.
The definitive modern location of the battle site, the “waters of Merom” (v. 5), has also eluded modern scholars. The account suggests, however, that it is not far north of Hazor, and the course of the Nahal Dishon is one good possibility—in which case it would only be just over 2 miles (3.2 km) north-northeast of Hazor.
11:6–9 As in the case of the battle against the southern coalition (10:8), so here Joshua is given an oracle of divine reassurance. This goes beyond the previous word spoken by the Lord to Joshua in both providing timing (“tomorrow at this time”) and conveying military instruction. The destruction of chariots has been previously encountered in the flight from Egypt, as the Egyptian chariots were first immobilized and then destroyed by the Lord (Ex. 14:25; 15:4). Here chariotry adds to the imposing and superior nature of this army, in contrast to the earlier southern campaign. Destroying these weapons of the aggressor and would-be oppressor is, then, not only divinely mandated by historical precedent and this word (cf. Ps. 46:9) but also clearly prudent as well. The hamstringing of the horses may seem to contemporary readers to pose another kind of ethical question. In social and historical context, however, this is not so barbaric as may be imagined. It involves
The note that Joshua and his warriors come on their enemies “suddenly” provides another link to the preceding chapter (Josh. 10:9) in this terse battle account. Again Israel pursues an army fleeing before them. The trajectory of flight is remarkable. Rather than fleeing toward their cities to the south and west, the opponents flee to the north. Identification of two of the place names remains uncertain, but together these names appear to sketch the northern boundary of later tribal allotments from the coastal plain north of Acco on the west as far north as Sidon and toward the east in the direction of Mount Hermon. And again victory is complete: the vast northern coalition and its territories fall to Israel in one swift action. Israel on her part complies fully with the demands of the Lord.
11:10–13 Unlike in his account of the southern campaign, which gave a detailed list of sites engaged by Israel, here the narrator is content with a broad summary statement implying the conquest of the whole region and its cities, whether fortified or not. This summary shares with the previous account an emphasis on the application of kherem, here specified in verses 11–12. As in the case of Ai, this is a qualified kherem, with some goods available to Israel as plunder. The distinctive element in this case is the attention given to Hazor. The destruction of Hazor has received attention similar to that of the debates surrounding the archaeology of Jericho in scholarly literature, but for something like the opposite reason. In the case of Jericho, a purported absence of archaeological evidence in combination with the supernatural circumstances recounted in Joshua 6 have fueled the debate. In the case of Hazor, abundant archaeological evidence of destruction by fierce fire in the thirteenth century BC, in combination with a clear statement in Joshua 11:11, 13 that Joshua’s forces were responsible for just such a conflagration, has made joining these dots all too easy. Such a connection was forthrightly drawn by Yigael Yadin but has been resisted by those of a more skeptical bent and those who require a higher standard of proof. One can say that, at the least, in the Bronze Age incineration of Hazor is a remarkable intersection between biblical memory and contemporary archaeology.
11:14 As noted above, the application of kherem in this campaign allows Israel to take “spoil . . . and the livestock” as plunder. The mention of livestock provides a further contrast to the treatment of the coalition’s war horses. The application of the kherem, then, is “unambiguous against horses and chariots (representing city-states and dominance), but ambiguous against cattle (who represent an alternative future).”
11:15 The narrator’s notice in summary of this campaign—that the chain of command has Yahweh as the source and Moses as the first recipient, who transmitted orders to Joshua—is on first sight somewhat jarring at this point. Joshua has been in direct receipt of the Lord’s commands and, since the crossing of the Jordan, affirmed as being on the same level as Moses himself (3:7; 4:14). And yet 11:12, with its mention of “Moses the servant of the Lord” (cf. 1:1), has subtly prepared for this perception of Joshua’s performance here. The only other moment displaying this kind of command structure is at the crossing of the Jordan in 4:10, where the priests’ bearing the ark of the Lord’s presence is connected to Moses’ “command” to Joshua—the only two places in the Hebrew Bible where this collocation is found. There seems to be, then, a deliberate recognition that, having come to this point, the campaign has reached a threshold. The moment of entry into the Land of Promise finds a counterpart in the final regional campaign, in which the gifted land has been taken by Israel. Work yet remains, but the boundaries of the land have been secured.
11:16–20 The sense that the narrator is approaching an ending of sorts is signaled in another way in the geographical summary that follows the victory over the northern coalition. This summary describes not only the territories just defeated but the entire extent of the conquered land since the crossing of the Jordan—and then some. The topography described in verse 16 maps out the central, eastern, and western regions, while the two mountain ranges of verse 17 stretch from the southernmost to northernmost points that define the extent of the land. The summary is remarkably inclusive, yet it culminates in a statement of a more political kind, that “all their kings” had been captured and killed. As the book has demonstrated previously, the key antagonism is not between peoples but between the kings of the earth and the King of kings.
This provides a natural segue from the geographical summary to the theological. The claim of verse 18 that Joshua “made war a long time with all those kings” may come as a surprise, given the way that the accounts of the southern and northern campaigns both assert the suddenness of the Israelite response (10:9; 11:7), while the rapid narration conveys the impression of the swift action of Joshua and the army of Israel. A comment attributed to the medieval Jewish commentator Rashi takes the verse as a rebuke to Joshua for prolonging the subjugation of the land in order to lengthen his own life: once the conquest was completed, his life’s purpose would be fulfilled and his days at an end. Modern commentators see this verse rather as attesting to the compressed narration of this phase of conquest, from which many details have been omitted.
Yet the “theology of history” contained in these verses is “especially arresting.” Enemy intransigence is turned to the purpose of fulfilling a divine plan carried out through Israelite obedience. We find a resonance here with the purpose of God fulfilled in the choices of the king of Egypt in Exodus; here the kings of Canaan likewise choose to oppose Israel’s God. “Thus the gracious action of Yahweh, hidden behind human choices, and the fidelity of Israel worked together to bring the divine will to fruition.” In this case the initiative of the Gibeonites, here identified as Hivites, proves an exception, and this recognition appears again to imply that it was possible to make peace with Israel and her God. A note of grace is also strongly implied, as these verses also suggest that the hearts of the Gibeonites were not “hardened.”
11:21–22 It seems like it is all over—only for another enemy to appear. The synchronism “at that time” remains vague; it seems the narrator is preserving this brief report of the destruction of the mysterious Anakim by placing it here. Once again the term kherem is used, the last time it will be applied in the book. (The one further usage, 22:20, is a reference to the account of Achan.) These descendants of Anak (Deut. 1:28), dispersed throughout the land, were the “giants” (Num. 13:33 KJV) who so filled with fear ten of the Israelite spies that the exodus generation as a whole was prevented from proceeding into the land (Num. 13:28–33). This decisive moment lived on in memory, as Moses reminded the conquest generation of the intimidating presence of the Anakim and of the reality that “he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you” (Deut. 9:1–3). The Anakim are, then, both the first and the last enemy in the land. Another link is thus forged between the wilderness and conquest experiences, the parents’ failure to confront this enemy now being rectified under Joshua.
11:23 Only now can the “whole land” be said to have been taken, so that the “land had rest from war.” This will prove to be only a pause, however, and the phrase will be heard again in the book in different forms (but in exactly this form once more; 14:15) before the conquest and settlement is finally complete.