The Book of the Wars of Joshua

Joshua 4: 19
Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.

6: 24
But they burned the city [(1)Jericho] and all that was in it with fire. Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD.

NOTE: It would take a rather advanced civilization and knowledge of metallurgy to have a smelting industry or refining process to manufacture such metals; and where were the gold and silver mines located? Also, the LORD’S house [Temple] wasn’t built until the reign of King Solomon.

8: 28-29a
So Joshua burned (2) Ai and made it a heap forever; a desolation to this day. And the king (??) of Ai he hanged on a tree until evening.

9: 3-4, 14-15b, 17b
But when the inhabitants of (3) Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they worked craftily and went and pretended to be ambassadors. Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions, but they did not ask counsel of the LORD. So Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them to let them live. Now their cities were Gibeon, (4) Chephirah, (5) Beeroth, and (6) Kirjath Jearim.

NOTE: The people of Gibeon who sent those ambassadors in disguise to broker a covenant of peace with Israel were the Hivites (Cp. 11: 19).

10: 1a, 2-4, 8, 10
Now it came to pass when Adoni-Zedek king of (7) Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai and had utterly destroyed it, that they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a royal city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were mighty. Therefore Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem sent to Hoham king of (8) Hebron, Piram king of (9) Jarmuth, Japhia king of (10) Lachish, and Debir king of (11) Eglon, saying, “Come to me and help me, that we may attack Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.” Therefore, the 5 kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon gathered together and went up, they and all their armies, and camped before Gibeon and made war against it. So the LORD routed them before Israel, killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, chased them along the road that goes to Beth Horon, and struck them down as far as Azekah and Makkedah.

NOTE: The people of Gibeon made a covenant of peace with Israel and therefore came under the Providence of Israel’s God; a lesson that the modern world may need to take heed of. Interesting, Adoni-Zedek is translated, Lord of Justice or Righteousness.

Joshua 10: 16, 22, 26a, 27
But these 5 kings had fled and hidden themselves in a cave in Makkedah. Then Joshua said, “Open the mouth of the cave, and bring out those 5 kings to me from the cave. And afterward Joshua struck them and killed them, and hanged them on 5 trees. So it was at the time of the going down of the sun that Joshua commanded, and they took them down from the trees, cast them back into the cave where they had been hiding, and laid large stones against the cave’s mouth, which remains until this very day.

THE SOUTHERN CONQUEST
10: 28a
On that day Joshua took (12) Makkedah and struck it and its king (??) with the edge of the sword. He utterly destroyed them-all the people who were in it [who had not escaped]. He let none remain.

10: 29, 30b
Then Joshua passed from Makkedah and all Israel with him, to Libnah, and they fought against Libnah. He struck (14) Libnah and all the people who were in it [who had not escaped] with the edge of the sword. He let none remain in it.

10: 31a, 32
Then Joshua passed from Libnah, and all Israel with him to Lachish. And the LORD delivered (10a) Lachish into the hand of Israel, who took it on the second day, and struck it and all the people who were in it [who had not escaped] with the edge of the sword.

10: 33
Then Horam king of (11) Gezer came up to help Lachish; and Joshua struck him and his people, until he left none of them remaining.

10: 34, 35a
From Lachish Joshua passed to Eglon, and all Israel with him, and they encamped against it and fought against it. They took it on that day and struck (15) Eglon with the edge of the sword; all the people who were in it [who had not escaped] he utterly destroyed that day.

10: 36-37a.
So Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, to Hebron; and they fought against it. And they took (16) Hebron and struck it with the edge of the sword-its king, all its cities, and all the people who were in it [who had not escaped]; he left none remaining.

NOTE: Is this the same king who was killed earlier at Makkedah (Cp. 10: 3, 23, 26)?

10: 38-39a
Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to Debir; and they fought against it. And he took it and its king (??) and all its cities; they struck them with the edge of the sword and utterly destroyed all the people who were in (17) Debir [who had not escaped]. He left none remaining.

10: 40-41
So Joshua conquered all the land: the mountain country and the South (NEGEV) and the lowland and the wilderness slopes, and all their kings; he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel had commanded. And Joshua conquered them from Kadesh Barnea as far as Gaza, and all the country of Goshen (??), even as far as (3a) Gibeon.

NOTE: Isn't Goshen located in the country of Egypt (Cp. Genesis 47: 5-6a)?

THE NORTHERN CONQUEST
11: 1-5
And it came to pass, when Jabin king of (17) Hazor sent to Jobab king of (18) Madon, to the king (??) of (19) Shimron, to the king (??) of (20) Achshaph, and to the kings who were from the north in the mountains, in the plain south of Chinneroth, in the lowlands and in the heights of Dor, to the Canaanites in the east, and in the west, the Amorite, Hittite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite in the mountains, and the Hivite below [Mt.] Hermon in the land of Mizpah. So they went out, they and all their armies with them, as many people as the sand that is on the seashore in the multitude, with many horses and chariots.

11: 8
And the LORD delivered them into the hand of Israel, who defeated them and chased them to Greater Sidon (Sidon Rabbah), to the Brook Misrephoth (Misrephoth Maim), and to the Valley of Mizpah eastward; they attacked them until they left none of them remaining.

11: 10a, 11
Joshua turned back at that time and took (17) Hazor, and struck its king [Jabin] with the sword. And they struck all the people who were in it [who had not escaped] with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them. There was none left breathing. Then he burned Hazor with fire.

NOTE: Is this the same king Jabin mentioned in Judges 4: 2-3, 23-24?

11: 16-19
Thus Joshua took all the land: the mountain country, all the South, all the land of Goshen, the lowland, and the Jordan plain [Arabah]-the mountains of Israel and its lowlands, from Mount Halak and the ascent to Seir, even as far as Baal Gad in the Valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. He captured all their kings, and struck them down and killed them. There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. All the others they took in battle.

NOTE: See comment at 10: 41

BACKGROUND:
Genesis 15: 18-21
On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given [will give??] this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates- the Kenites (Cp. Judges 4: 11), Kenezzites, Kadmonites, Hittites [Hivites-Cp. 34: 2a??], Perizzites, Rephaim [Cp. Joshua 14: 5b; in Ashteroth Karnaim], Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

NOTE: The Kennezites and Kadmonites must not have existed in the times of Joshua because they are not mentioned or they might have been assimilated into one of the more powerful tribes like, say, the Hivites.

Exodus 23: 23
For My Angel will go before you and bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off [destroy or dispossess them].

NOTE: See Joshua 11: 3. Also, Girgashites are not mentioned.

Deuteronomy 7: 1
When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you.

Joshua 11: 23
So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD had said to Moses (Cp. Deuteronomy 17: 1; Numbers 34: 1-12); and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land rested from war.

COMMENTARY: The extermination or genocide of the nations and people that Israel fought against and the land allotment in Canaan, as far as territory is concerned, was first mentioned to the patriarch Abram [Abraham] in Genesis 15: 18-21. The LORD gave instructions to Moses about the specific boundaries in Numbers 34: 1-12. Also, the prophet Ezekiel mentions about the inheritance of the land in 47: 13, 15-19, but this was centuries later during the Babylonian captivity or thereabouts. The big questions are did Israel settle the land exactly as instructed and was the acreage the same in every narrative? If indeed, the children of Israel under Joshua's "blitzkrieg" military campaign into the land of Canaan was successful, then why is the following mentioned in Joshua 13: 1-7, which introduces the task as incomplete with substantial land and indigenous people that need to be conquered, including: territory of the Philistines, Geshurites, the northern border of Ekron [which is counted as Canaanite], the 5 lords of the Philistines, Gazites, Ashdodites, Gazites, Ashkelonites, Gittites, Akronites, and Avites; Mearah of the Sidonians and the land of the Gebalites [Gibites].

This is new information that was not mentioned previously in the revelation to Moses or even Abraham. It must be concluded that the Book [of the Wars] of Joshua must have been written in intervals by several authors over many generations and their interpretation of the divine mandate to occupy the land must have been precipitated by the contemporary circumstances in which they lived. Interestingly, these Geshurites are one of the first tribes, along with a group called 'Maachathites' whom the powerful Israelites did not drive out and according to the narrator, dwell with the Israelites until this day (Cp. Joshua 13: 13).


Robert Randle
776 Commerce St. #B-11
Tacoma, WA 98402
December 12, 2010
Robertrandle51@yahoo.com