Joshua 10:29-43--Conquest of Southern Canaan

Joshua 10:29-43
English Standard Version

Conquest of Southern Canaan
29 Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Makkedah to Libnah and fought against Libnah. 30 And the LORD gave it also and its king into the hand of Israel. And he struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it; he left none remaining in it. And he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho.

31 Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Libnah to Lachish and laid siege to it and fought against it. 32 And the LORD gave Lachish into the hand of Israel, and he captured it on the second day and struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it, as he had done to Libnah.

33 Then Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lachish. And Joshua struck him and his people, until he left none remaining.

34 Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Lachish to Eglon. And they laid siege to it and fought against it. 35 And they captured it on that day, and struck it with the edge of the sword. And he devoted every person in it to destruction that day, as he had done to Lachish.

36 Then Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to Hebron. And they fought against it 37 and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword, and its king and its towns, and every person in it. He left none remaining, as he had done to Eglon, and devoted it to destruction and every person in it.

38 Then Joshua and all Israel with him turned back to Debir and fought against it 39 and he captured it with its king and all its towns. And they struck them with the edge of the sword and devoted to destruction every person in it; he left none remaining. Just as he had done to Hebron and to Libnah and its king, so he did to Debir and to its king.

​40 So Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as the LORD God of Israel commanded. 41 And Joshua struck them from Kadesh-barnea as far as Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, as far as Gibeon. 42 And Joshua captured all these kings and their land at one time, because the LORD God of Israel fought for Israel. 43 Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal.

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This passage is a synopsis of what I would call the Southern Campaign, where Joshua and the Israelites continued to fight the kings that were in the southern hill country (near Jerusalem and to its south).  The passage records the destruction of Libnah, Lachish, Gezer, Eglon, Hebron, Debir, and the capture of the whole hill country of the Negev/Negev (depending on translation), which means the South, but is usually thought of as "the wilderness" that is to the south of Jerusalem.

Joshua also put to death the kings of these cities and devoted them to destruction so that at first it was said that Joshua did just as he had in Jericho, but then it was just as he had done in Libnah, and then it was just as he did in Lachish, and so on until the end of the campaign where it says, "Just as he had done to Hebron and to Libnah and its king, so he did to Debir and to its king."  Notice that Joshua maintained his peace agreement with the Gibeonites who were of this southern region and none of their towns were attacked during this campaign.  Anyone left in the smaller villages near the big cities was also destroyed.

They took the land as far south as the Sinai Peninsula where the Israelites camped in the wilderness at Kadesh-barnea and they took all the land of Gaza and the country of Goshen in the northern part of Egypt where they had lived as slaves--it was fertile and good pasture land for their flocks.  So it was that the LORD gave all this land into their hands in a single military campaign and gave them complete and total victory over all their enemies and all the people groups that were native to this area.  After this southern campaign had ended, Joshua and the Israelites returned to Gilgal and regrouped for their next campaign in the North.

Even though the text records a total victory in terms of a military campaign, we know that does not mean that every member of every one of these people groups was actually destroyed as we'll continue to see skirmishes with some of them until the time of the Judges and Kings when the LORD uses less-than-perfect men (and women) to clean up the mess left by the incomplete obedience of the Israelites during the time of Joshua.  We will not see the Lord declare victory in the last days with only partial victory such as we see here in Joshua, for the goal will not be to take and hold a piece of land, but Jesus will come and by the word of His mouth, He will execute judgment on all the enemies of God and of God's people who remain and seek to make war against the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  None shall escape His justice in that day.