The Promised Land · c. 1405–1400 BC
Chapter 6
The Land Taken
So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that Yahweh spoke to Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land had rest from war.
For parents
Israel kills everyone in Hazor with the sword and burns the city. They kill everyone in the other northern cities and their kings too, leaving no one who breathed, but only Hazor is burned (Joshua 11:10–14, 17). The Anakim of the hill country are destroyed too (11:21). The chapter says this came from the Lord: he hardened the hearts of the cities that didn’t make peace, so that they would fight Israel and he could destroy them completely, and they would find no favor (11:19–20). The enemy’s horses are hamstrung (11:6, 9). It is all told plainly, without detail.
When , king of , heard what had happened, he sent word to Jobab king of Madon and to the kings of Shimron and Achshaph. He sent word to the kings of the north too: in the hill country, in the south of , in the lowland, and in the heights of Dor to the west. He sent word to the in the east and in the west, to the , the and the , to the in the hill country, and to the under , in the land of Mizpah.
They came out with all their armies, a crowd of people as many as the sand on the seashore, with a great many horses and chariots. All these kings met together. They came to the waters of and camped there together, to fight against .
The said to , “Don’t be afraid of them. By this time tomorrow every one of them will lie dead in front of Israel. I am handing them over. You must their horses and burn their chariots.”
So Joshua and all his warriors attacked them without warning at the waters of Merom.
The Lord handed them over to Israel. The Israelites struck them down and chased them all the way to and to Misrephoth Maim, and east to the valley of Mizpah. They struck them down until not one of them was left.
Joshua did to them what the Lord had told him. He hamstrung their horses, cutting the tendons at the back of their legs, and he burned their chariots.
Then Joshua turned back and took Hazor, and he killed its king with the sword, because Hazor had been the leading city of all those kingdoms.
They killed every person in it with the sword, destroying them completely. No one was left alive. Then Joshua burned Hazor.
Joshua captured all the cities of those kings, and their kings with them. He killed them with the sword and destroyed them completely, as the Lord’s servant had commanded. But Israel didn’t burn any of the other cities standing on their mounds. Hazor was the only one Joshua burned.
The Israelites kept all the plunder and the livestock of these cities for themselves. But they killed all the people with the sword until they had wiped them out. They left no one alive.
The Lord had given commands to Moses his servant, and Moses passed the same commands on to Joshua. Joshua carried them out. He didn’t leave out one thing the Lord had commanded Moses.
So Joshua captured all that land: the hill country, all , all the land of , the lowland, the Arabah, the hill country of Israel, and its lowland. It ran from Mount Halak, which goes up to , all the way to Baal Gad in the valley of , under Mount Hermon. He captured all their kings, struck them and put them to death.
Joshua was at war with all those kings for a long time.
Not one city made peace with the Israelites except , where Hivites lived. Israel took every other city in battle.
This came from the Lord. He hardened their hearts and made them stubborn, so that they would come out and fight Israel. That way he could destroy them completely, and they would find no favor, just as he had commanded Moses.
At that time Joshua came and wiped the out of the hill country: out of , and Anab, and out of all the hill country of and all the hill country of Israel. Joshua destroyed them and their cities completely.
There were none of the Anakim left in the land of the Israelites. Some of them were still left, but only in , and .
So Joshua took the whole land, just as the Lord had told Moses. He gave it to Israel to be their inheritance, divided among their . Then the land had rest from war.
These are the kings of the land whom the Israelites struck down, and whose land they took. On the east side of the , toward the sunrise, the land ran from the valley of the to Mount Hermon, and it took in all the Arabah to the east.
One was , king of the Amorites, who lived in . He ruled from Aroer at the edge of the Arnon valley, and from the middle of that valley, through half of to the , where the ’ land began. He also ruled the Arabah to the east, as far as the Sea of Chinneroth and as far as the sea of the Arabah, which is the , on the way to Beth Jeshimoth. In the south he ruled the land below the slopes of .
The other was , king of , who lived at Ashtaroth and at . He was one of the who were still left. He ruled Mount Hermon, Salecah and all Bashan, as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites. He also ruled half of Gilead, up to the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.
Moses the Lord’s servant and the Israelites had struck them down, and Moses gave their land to the and the and the half-tribe of as their own.
These are the kings of the land west of the Jordan whom Joshua and the Israelites struck down. Their land ran from Baal Gad in the valley of Lebanon as far as Mount Halak, which goes up to Seir. Joshua gave that land to the tribes of Israel to be their own, divided among them: the hill country and the lowland, the Arabah and the slopes, the wilderness and the South, the land of the Hittites, the Amorites and the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.
The list counts them one by one: the kings of , of beside , of , Hebron, Jarmuth and , and on through Hazor to Tirzah. Thirty-one kings in all.