Joshua 11:1-23--Conquests in Northern Canaan

Joshua 11:1-23
English Standard Version

Conquests in Northern Canaan
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; 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.

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Chapters 10 and 11 summarize the entire military campaign of the Conquest of Canaan.  Chapter 10 summarizes the Southern Campaign and Chapter 11 summarizes the Northern Campaign.  It is clear this is a summary because chapter 12 will give us a summary of all the kings and people groups defeated under Moses' leadership and all the kings and people groups defeated under Joshua's leadership.  As much as it will sound from chapters 10 and 11 like every enemy everywhere in the entire Promised Land was destroyed, we know from Chapter 13 (when we get there) that there is still land to be conquered, but at that point the inheritance starts to be divided among the people according to the allotment that the LORD made (through the drawing of lots, but He had already chosen how the lots would fall).  This summary of events falls just about at the middle of the book's 24 chapters with much of the last half dedicated to the specific allotments and boundaries that the LORD gave to the individual tribes with some particular allotments made for Caleb and Joshua.  There would also be careful allotment made for Levi by way of the Cities of Refuge that were commanded by the Law.  Today though, we will focus on the "big picture" view of the Northern Campaign.

Jabin, king of Hazor heard what happened to the kings of the South and he sent word to form an alliance with all the remaining Canaanite clans--they had not learned the lesson that no army was a match for the LORD.  So there was an alliance between clans that normally would be fighting each other, but "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" and they all had a common enemy in the LORD and the LORD's people.  So Jabin, king of Hazor united forces with "Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph, 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, 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." (v. 1-3).  They came out in numbers described as "a great horde, in number like the sand that is on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots." (v.4).  Psalm 20:7 comes to mind here, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses,    but we trust in the name of the LORD our God."  There are a couple others verses that come to mind as well.

1 Samuel 2:9
English Standard Version
9 “He will guard the feet of his faithful ones,
    but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness,
    for not by might shall a man prevail.

Zechariah 4:6
English Standard Version
​6 Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.


So, the Canaanites are putting their trust in themselves with a "united we stand, divided we fall" mentality, but they had already been defeated since the LORD was not with them.  Their coming together in this unholy alliance and camping together in one place with their eyes set on the destruction of the LORD's people makes me think of a future battle where the whole world will muster its armies against the nation of Israel and the people of the LORD (both Jews and Gentiles) that live there.  The Lord Jesus Christ Himself will return with His Bride to destroy all these enemies and He will reign forever and ever.  That is the ultimate fulfillment of what we see here in the book of Joshua.

The LORD told Joshua to not be afraid of them for the LORD would give all of them to Israel the next day.  Did you catch that?  In a single day, the LORD would win the battle for them.  The people would hamstring their warhorses so they could no longer be used in battle and would burn their chariots with fire so that they could no longer be used to attack the people of God or anyone else in the area, for these Canaanites were brutal and ruthless people, making war with everyone around them.

So Joshua and the people of Israel came upon them suddenly while the Canaanite army was encamped together at the waters of Merom.  The next part that says how the armies scattered and how far the Israelites chased them in all directions is best show by a map (https://i2.wp.com/www.jesuswalk.com/joshua/maps/joshuas-defeat-of-the-northern-kings-1200x1153x300.jpg).  The first wave of the battle went to the reaches of the three dark red arrows (the text seems to indicate that it followed from west to east that they ran west until they hit the Sea, then turned north until they could no longer go that way and finally turned east to try to seek shelter in the region of Mizpah, but they were all defeated and they did just as the LORD commanded and hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.

Now it was time to deal with the cities of all these kings that had made this unholy alliance against Israel.  Those would be the lighter colored arrows that show where all the enemy peoples gathered from.  Hazor was devoted to destruction and burned with fire because they had lead the rebellion and their king was put to death by the sword.  Joshua and the Israelites captured all the other fortified cities and killed all their inhabitants, but they did not burn any of the cities that were built on mounds there with the exception of Hazor.  They took the spoils of these cities including the livestock, but all the people of the city were put to death as the LORD had commanded of them.  The text says that Joshua left nothing undone that was commanded to Moses, yet we know that is a bit of an oversimplification, as we continue to have problems with some of these peoples throughout the times of the Judges and Kings (I'm not saying the text it lying or false, but there is a difference between having a military victory and successfully rooting out and destroying every ​rebellious enemy of God--even with their strongholds destroyed, they would not surrender and would always look to band together to continue to attach Israel and make alliances with anyone else who would do that same.

There is then a brief summary of the entire Conquest and all the land that was taken by Joshua, and that not one tribe of the Canaanites with the exception of the Hivites from Gibeon made peace with Joshua and the Israelites.  Notice that the LORD was faithful to even save a remnant out of these people that were all marked for destruction.  He turned their hearts toward Him as only He can do and He made them a part of His people.  Likewise the text tells us that none of the others turned to the LORD because the LORD hardened their hearts.  "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." (v. 20).

The final enemy that the people had to defeat were the giants that they were so scared of when the original twelves spies were sent in   The text is careful to say that some of these giants would remain in Gaza and Gath and in Ashdod--for we will see them in future.  The LORD will use David to slay Goliath of Gath and his family, and David and Joab will slay many giants that were the remaining descendants of Anak.  All of their cities were also devoted to destruction, though it seemed none of them allied themselves with either the kings of the South or the kings of the North.  The LORD knew their hearts and their hearts were also hard so that they would not be saved, even though they stood idly by and did not join the war, they chose not to repent and turn to the LORD.  So then there will be no salvation for those who in the end say that they should not be judged because they did not actually take up arms against the LORD's people.  Only those of Gibeon who sought to make peace with the LORD survived.  Is today the day of salvation for you?  Do not sit idly by by and hope that the decision to make no decision will save you, for you are already a rebel to the LORD--you were born that way.


Hebrews 3:7-19
English Standard Version​
A Rest for the People of God
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
    on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test
    and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
    they have not known my ways.’
11 As I swore in my wrath,
    ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.