So far Joshua had defeated all the kings in the southern part of the country and returned to his base at Gilgal. What should he do next? Actually he really didn’t have time to consider:
Joshua 11:1-23
First, Joshua 11:1-5
1 When Jabin king of Hazor heard of this, he sent word to Jobab king of Madon, to the kings of Shimron and Akshaph, 2 and to the northern kings who were in the mountains, in the Arabah south of Kinnereth, in the western foothills and in Naphoth Dor on the west; 3 to the Canaanites in the east and west; to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites and Jebusites in the hill country; and to the Hivites below Hermon in the region of Mizpah. 4 They came out with all their troops and a large number of horses and chariots – a huge army, as numerous as the sand on the seashore. 5 All these kings joined forces and made camp together at the Waters of Merom to fight against Israel.
This wasn’t a minor skirmish. Horses, chariots and innumerable soldiers who were all prepared to fight to the death. They knew exactly what would happen to them and their families if they were to lose this battle.
Where were the ‘Waters of Merom’?
Twelve miles northeast of the Sea of Galilee, and deep into enemy territory. An area unknown to the Israelites.
They may have been saying ‘if you want us you’ll have to come and get us’, but it’s more likely that they were simply amassing all the troops before launching their attack.
Again we are not told if Joshua asked the Lord what he should do, but he certainly listened to his answer!
Read Joshua 11:6
6 The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Do not be afraid of them, because by this time tomorrow I will hand all of them, slain, over to Israel. You are to hamstring their horses and burn their chariots.’
Why hamstring horses and burn chariots? (Surely they would have been additional resources for Israel’s army?)
Israel’s army had all the resources it would ever need – the Lord. If they had horses and chariots they would begin to imagine it was by their own strength that they had won their battles.
So the chariots had to be burnt, but why cripple the horses?
I have not found a satisfactory answer to this. Some have suggested they could be used for food, but Jewish dietary laws prevent this (Leviticus 11:3-4). Some have suggested that the original Hebrew word meant ‘geld’ rather than ‘hamstring’ but there seems little evidence to support that either.
In warfare, overrun enemies' weapons are often simply disabled rather than destroyed as that is the quickest and simplest thing to do. Maybe that is an answer.
Read Joshua 11:7-9
7 So Joshua and his whole army came against them suddenly at the Waters of Merom and attacked them, 8 and the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel. They defeated them and pursued them all the way to Greater Sidon, to Misrephoth Maim, and to the Valley of Mizpah on the east, until no survivors were left. 9 Joshua did to them as the Lord had directed: he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots.
The assembled forces were not expecting an attack and they were routed.
Read Joshua 11:10-15
10 At that time Joshua turned back and captured Hazor and put its king to the sword. (Hazor had been the head of all these kingdoms.) 11 Everyone in it they put to the sword. They totally destroyed them, not sparing anyone that breathed, and he burned Hazor itself.
12 Joshua took all these royal cities and their kings and put them to the sword. He totally destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded. 13 Yet Israel did not burn any of the cities built on their mounds – except Hazor, which Joshua burned. 14 The Israelites carried off for themselves all the plunder and livestock of these cities, but all the people they put to the sword until they completely destroyed them, not sparing anyone that breathed. 15 As the Lord commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses.
The people of the land had to be destroyed, but the towns would be of great use to the Israelites who were to come in and take them over. Destroying Hazor, the chief city of the area, would have been a symbolic act demonstrating the total superiority of the Lord over any who would try to stand against him.
Read Joshua 11:16-17
16 So Joshua took this entire land: the hill country, all the Negev, the whole region of Goshen, the western foothills, the Arabah and the mountains of Israel with their foothills, 17 from Mount Halak, which rises towards Seir, to Baal Gad in the Valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. He captured all their kings and put them to death.
As we read these passages the action is condensed so much, that we are inclined to think that driving out the inhabitants of the land happened very quickly. Not so:
Read Joshua 11:18
18 Joshua waged war against all these kings for a long time.
Read Joshua 11:19-23
19 Except for the Hivites living in Gibeon, not one city made a treaty of peace with the Israelites, who took them all in battle. 20 For it was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
21 At that time Joshua went and destroyed the Anakites from the hill country: from Hebron, Debir and Anab, from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua totally destroyed them and their towns. 22 No Anakites were left in Israelite territory; only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod did any survive.
23 So Joshua took the entire land, just as the Lord had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions. Then the land had rest from war.
Joshua had done well, but there was still a ‘but’. Verse 22 tells us that there were still pockets of territory that they had failed to capture: Gaza, Ashdod and Gath. Where were they? These would be the Philistines, occupying the Mediterranean coastal strip parallel with the Dead Sea.
They would always be trouble. And as we will read in Joshua 13:1-6 many outlying districts were still not subdued, and many villagers were still living throughout the land.
Read Joshua 12:1-2, 4, 6 (you can read the other verses as well but we won’t be commenting specifically on them.)
1 These are the kings of the land whom the Israelites had defeated and whose territory they took over east of the Jordan, from the Arnon Gorge to Mount Hermon, including all the eastern side of the Arabah:
2 Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon.
He ruled from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Gorge – from the middle of the gorge – to the River Jabbok, which is the border of the Ammonites. This included half of Gilead.
4 And the territory of Og king of Bashan, one of the last of the Rephaites, who reigned in Ashtaroth and Edrei.
6 Moses, the servant of the Lord, and the Israelites conquered them. And Moses the servant of the Lord gave their land to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh to be their possession.
Before the Israelites, under Moses, could temporarily settle on the eastern bank of the Jordan, the peoples living there had to be conquered. These lands were then allocated to ‘the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh to be their possession.’ See Numbers chapter 32
Now that the rest of Canaan had been conquered by Joshua, it too could be allocated for the other tribes to occupy.
Before we move on, what was the ‘half-tribe of Manasseh’?
It seems that only Reuben and Gad asked for land to the East of the Jordan (Numbers 32:1-2); but in Numbers 32:39-42 we read ‘The descendants of Makir son of Manasseh went to Gilead, captured it and drove out the Amorites who were there. 40 So Moses gave Gilead to the Makirites, the descendants of Manasseh, and they settled there. 41 Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, captured their settlements and called them Havvoth Jair. 42 And Nobah captured Kenath and its surrounding settlements and called it Nobah after himself.’
Because these clans within the Tribe of Manasseh (Makir and Jair) had captured the land themselves it was given to them, the rest of the tribe of Manasseh would receive their inheritance later. (Manasseh and Ephraim were Joseph’s sons and these two tribes replaced Joseph as a tribe – see Genesis 48 – thus increasing the number to 13. But Levi was not given lands as an inheritance, only cities, so there are only 12 tribal areas.)
We are now going to be even more selective as we read the rest of Joshua, as it begins to list in detail the areas allocated to the different tribes. But before we read on we must note
Joshua 13:1
‘When Joshua had grown old, the Lord said to him, ‘You are now very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over.’
Joshua was between 90 and 100 years old and it was no longer reasonable for him to continue to lead the army into Battle. Now it would be up to each tribe to fight the remaining pockets of resistance as they settled in their allotted areas.
Although: Joshua 13:6a
As for all the inhabitants of the mountain regions from Lebanon to Misrephoth Maim, that is, all the Sidonians, I myself will drive them out before the Israelites.
Joshua 13:6b
Be sure to allocate this land to Israel for an inheritance, as I have instructed you, 7 and divide it as an inheritance among the nine tribes and half of the tribe of Manasseh.
In Joshua 14 we read that Caleb was rewarded for his faithfulness, and given the town of Hebron (the area was also known as Kiriath Arba, or Mamre. This was where Abraham had settled when he arrived in Canaan and it subsequently became a Levitical city, and a City of Refuge. He was buried nearby in the cave of Machpelah; Genesis 23:17-20.)
Hebron had been called Kiriath Arba after Arba, who was the greatest man among the Anakites (Joshua 14:15). Arba was the forefather of Anak (Joshua 15:13) and the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim (Numbers 13:33) who were referred to as giants; so when men were sent to spy out the land we read ‘We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.’
Only Caleb and Joshua were confident that the Lord would give them the land; now at 85 years old, Caleb specifically asked for Hebron (Joshua 14:6-15) and in Joshua 15:14 we read ‘From Hebron Caleb drove out the three Anakites – Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai, the sons of Anak.’
This map is from Wikipedia, other maps are slightly different!
Caleb was from the tribe of Judah and Joshua 15 describes its allocation. This land had to be fought for (Joshua 15:14-17) but we read in Joshua 15:63: Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the people of Judah.
The land to the north of Judah was allocated to Ephraim, and north of them to the other half of the tribe of Manasseh.
But remember the kings who lied? (Joshua 9)
Joshua 16:10 –
They did not dislodge the Canaanites living in Gezer; to this day the Canaanites live among the people of Ephraim but are required to do forced labour.
Also in Joshua 17:12 we read: Yet the Manassites were not able to occupy these towns, for the Canaanites were determined to live in that region.
13 However, when the Israelites grew stronger, they subjected the Canaanites to forced labour but did not drive them out completely.
Then in Joshua 18:1-7 we read that the camp moved from Gilgal to Shiloh
1 The whole assembly of the Israelites gathered at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there. The country was brought under their control, 2 but there were still seven Israelite tribes who had not yet received their inheritance.
3 So Joshua said to the Israelites: ‘How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you? 4 Appoint three men from each tribe. I will send them out to make a survey of the land and to write a description of it, according to the inheritance of each. Then they will return to me. 5 You are to divide the land into seven parts. Judah is to remain in its territory on the south and the tribes of Joseph in their territory on the north. 6 After you have written descriptions of the seven parts of the land, bring them here to me and I will cast lots for you in the presence of the Lord our God. 7 The Levites, however, do not get a portion among you, because the priestly service of the Lord is their inheritance. And Gad, Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh have already received their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan. Moses the servant of the Lord gave it to them.’
When they had returned, Joshua cast lots and allocated the land accordingly. The first was for Benjamin. Next (chapter19) was Simeon but their lot was contained within the territory of Judah. Why was that?
Firstly, they had insufficient men to take over and keep their inheritance, so for their own safety they would be surrounded by much stronger Judah.
So how was it that their tribe was so small?
Moses counted the men who would serve in the army Numbers 1:23
The number from the tribe of Simeon was 59,300.
But then there was the episode in Numbers 25
1 While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, 2 who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods. 3 So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the Lord’s anger burned against them.
God sent a plague which killed 24,000 men
Well who was most blatant in this corruption?
Numbers 25:14
The name of the Israelite who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the leader of a Simeonite family.
Then in Numbers 26:1-2
After the plague the Lord said to Moses and Eleazar son of Aaron, the priest, 2 ‘Take a census of the whole Israelite community by families – all those twenty years old or more who are able to serve in the army of Israel.’
And in Numbers 26:14
These were the clans of Simeon; those numbered were 22,200.
It’s pretty obvious which tribe was mostly involved and was therefore punished.
But secondly there was a much older reason why.
Do you remember in Genesis 34 when Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah, was raped by Shechem, a Canaanite?
Her two brothers Simeon and Levi took it upon themselves to avenge her, and after much deceit, destroyed Shechem’s town and the menfolk, and carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses. (Genesis 34:29).
Jacob didn’t forget that and at the end of his life, when he called his sons round him for a final blessing we read in Genesis 49:5-7:
5 Simeon and Levi are brothers – their swords are weapons of violence.
6 Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly,
for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased.
7 Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel!
I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel.
The tribes of Simeon and Levi had no land specifically allocated to them. Simeon was given land within Judah's allocation, and later the whole area was simply referred to as ‘Judah’
The Levites were allocated towns scattered throughout the whole land.
Joshua chapter 19 continues the allocation of land, and Joshua 20:3-4 explains why the ‘Cities of Refuge’ are then listed.
‘so that anyone who kills a person accidentally and unintentionally may flee there and find protection from the avenger of blood. 4 When they flee to one of these cities, they are to stand in the entrance of the city gate and state their case before the elders of that city. Then the elders are to admit the fugitive into their city and provide a place to live among them.’
Joshua 21 finally lists the towns and attached pasture-lands given to the Levites, taken from each tribe’s allocation.
