Joshua 11-13

Amplified Bible

Northern Canaan Taken

11 Then when Jabin king of Hazor heard [of Israel’s other victories] he sent word 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 north, in the hill country, and in the Arabah [the plain] south of Chinnereth (the Sea of Galilee) and in the lowland and on the hills of Dor on the west; ³ to the Canaanite in the east and in the west, and to the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the hill country, and the Hivite at the foot of [Mount] Hermon in the land of Mizpeh. ⁴ They went out, they and all their armies with them, as many people as the sand on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots. ⁵ So all these kings met and they came and encamped together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel.

⁶ Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid because of them, for tomorrow by this time I am going to hand over all of them slain [by the sword] to Israel; you shall hamstring (disable) their horses and set fire to their chariots.” ⁷ So Joshua and all the people of war with him came against them suddenly by the waters of Merom, and attacked them. ⁸ The Lord handed them over to Israel, who struck them and pursued them as far as Great Sidon and Misrephoth-maim and eastward as far as the Valley of Mizpeh; they struck them down until no survivor was left. ⁹ Joshua did to them as the Lord had told him; he hamstrung (disabled) their horses and set fire to their chariots.

¹⁰ At that time Joshua turned back and captured Hazor and struck its king dead with the sword; for Hazor previously was the head of all these kingdoms. ¹¹ They struck all the people who were in it with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them; there was no one left who breathed. And he set fire to Hazor. ¹² Joshua captured all the cities of these kings, and all their kings, and he struck them with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded.^{(A) 13} But Israel did not burn any of the cities that stood [walled and fortified] on their mounds, except Hazor alone, which Joshua burned. ¹⁴ The sons of Israel took as their plunder all the spoil of these cities and the cattle; but they struck every man with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them. They left no one ^[a]alive. ¹⁵ Just as the Lord had commanded Moses His servant, so Moses had commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses.

¹⁶ So Joshua took all this land: the hill country, all the Negev (South country), all the land of Goshen, the lowland, the Arabah [plain], the hill country of Israel and its lowland ¹⁷ from Mount Halak, that rises toward Seir [in the south], even as far as Baal-gad in the Valley of Lebanon at the foot of Mount Hermon [in the north]. He captured all their kings and struck them and put them to death. ¹⁸ Joshua waged war with all these kings ^[b]a long time [at least five years]. ¹⁹ There was no city that made peace with the Israelites except the Hivites living in Gibeon; they took all the others in battle. ²⁰ For it was [the purpose] of the Lord to harden their hearts, to meet Israel in battle so that Israel would utterly destroy them, that they would receive no mercy, but that Israel would destroy them, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

²¹ Then Joshua came at that time and cut off the ^[c]Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab and from all the hill country of Judah and all the hill country of Israel. Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities. ²² There were no Anakim left in the land of the children of Israel; only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod [of Philistia] some remained. ²³ So Joshua took the whole land [of Canaan], according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses, and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. So the land had rest from war.

Kings Defeated by Israel

12 Now these are the kings of the land whom the sons of Israel defeated, and whose land they possessed beyond the Jordan toward the east, from the valley of the [river] Arnon to Mount Hermon, and all the Arabah [plain] to the east: ² Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and ruled from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the [river] Arnon, both the middle of the valley and half of Gilead, and as far as the brook Jabbok, [which is] the border of the sons of Ammon; ³ and the Arabah [plain] as far as the Sea of Chinnereth (Galilee) eastward, and as far as the sea of the Arabah, the Salt (Dead) Sea, eastward toward Beth-jeshimoth, and southward to the foot of the slopes of [Mount] Pisgah; ⁴ and the territory of Og king of Bashan, one of the remnant of the Rephaim, who lived at Ashtaroth and at Edrei, ⁵ and ruled over Mount Hermon and Salecah and all of Bashan to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and over half of Gilead, as far as the border of Sihon king of Heshbon. ⁶ Moses the servant of the Lord and the sons of Israel defeated them; and Moses the servant of the Lord gave their land as a possession to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh.^(B)

⁷ These are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the sons of Israel defeated on the west side of the Jordan, from Baal-gad in the Valley of Lebanon to Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir. Joshua gave their land to the tribes of Israel as a possession according to their divisions, ⁸ in the hill country, in the lowland (foothills), in the Arabah [plain], on the slopes [descending to the Dead Sea], and in the wilderness, and in the Negev (South country)—the [lands of the] Hittite, the Amorite and the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite: ^9 [d]the king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is beside Bethel, one; ¹⁰ the king of Jerusalem, one; the king of Hebron, one; ¹¹ the king of Jarmuth, one; the king of Lachish, one; ¹² the king of Eglon, one; the king of Gezer, one; ¹³ the king of Debir, one; the king of Geder, one; ¹⁴ the king of Hormah, one; the king of Arad, one; ¹⁵ the king of Libnah, one; the king of Adullam, one; ¹⁶ the king of Makkedah, one; the king of Bethel, one; ¹⁷ the king of Tappuah, one; the king of Hepher, one; ¹⁸ the king of Aphek, one; the king of Lasharon, one; ¹⁹ the king of Madon, one; the king of Hazor, one; ²⁰ the king of Shimron-meron, one; the king of Achshaph, one; ²¹ the king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one; ²² the king of Kedesh, one; the king of Jokneam in Carmel, one; ²³ the king of Dor in the heights of Dor, one; the king of Goiim in Gilgal, one; ²⁴ the king of Tirzah, one: in all, thirty-one kings.

Canaan Divided among the Tribes

13 Now Joshua was ^[e]old and advanced in years, and the Lord said to him, “You have grown old and advanced in years, and very ^[f]substantial portions of the land remain to be possessed. ² This is the land that remains: all the regions of the Philistines and all those of the Geshurites; ³ from the Shihor [waterway] which is east of Egypt [at the southern end of Canaan], northward to the border of Ekron (all of it regarded as Canaanite); the five rulers of the Philistines: the Gazite, Ashdodite, the Ashkelonite, the Gittite, the Ekronite; and the ^[g]Avvite ⁴ in the south, all the land of the Canaanite, and Mearah that belongs to the Sidonians, as far as Aphek, to the border of the Amorite; ⁵ and the land of the Gebalite, and all Lebanon, toward ^[h]the east, from Baal-gad below Mount Hermon to the entrance of Hamath. ⁶ As for all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth-maim, even all the Sidonians, I will drive them out before Israel; only allot the land to Israel as an inheritance just as I have commanded you. ⁷ So now, divide this land [west of the Jordan] as an inheritance for the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh.”

⁸ With the other half-tribe [of Manasseh], the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance which Moses gave them beyond the Jordan eastward, just as Moses the servant of the Lord gave to them; ⁹ from Aroer on the edge of the valley of the [river] Arnon, and the city in the middle of the valley, and all the plain of Medeba, as far as Dibon; ¹⁰ and all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, as far as the border of the Ammonites; ¹¹ and Gilead, and the territory of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan as far as Salecah; ¹² the entire kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and Edrei—he alone was left of the remnant of the Rephaim [giants]—for Moses had struck them and dispossessed them. ¹³ But the sons of Israel did not dispossess the Geshurites or the Maacathites; for Geshur and Maacath live among Israel to this day. ¹⁴ It was only to the tribe of Levi that Moses gave no [territory as an] inheritance; the offerings by fire to the Lord, the God of Israel, are their inheritance, as He told him.

¹⁵ So Moses gave an inheritance to the tribe of the sons of Reuben according to their families. ¹⁶ Their territory was from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the [river] Arnon, and the city which is in the middle of the valley and all the plain by Medeba; ¹⁷ with Heshbon, and all its cities which are on the plain: Dibon and Bamoth-baal and Beth-baal-meon, ¹⁸ and Jahaz and Kedemoth and Mephaath, ¹⁹ and Kiriathaim and Sibmah and Zereth-shahar on the hill of the valley, ²⁰ and Beth-peor and the slopes of Pisgah and Beth-jeshimoth, ²¹ even all the cities of the plain and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses struck down along with the leaders of Midian, Evi and Rekem and Zur and Hur and Reba, the princes of Sihon, who lived in the land. ²² The sons of Israel also killed Balaam the son of Beor, the diviner (soothsayer), with the sword among [the rest of] their slain.^{(C) 23} The border of the sons of Reuben was the Jordan. This was the inheritance of the sons of Reuben according to their families, with their cities and villages.

²⁴ Moses also gave an inheritance to the tribe of Gad, to the sons of Gad, according to their families. ²⁵ Their territory was Jazer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the sons of Ammon, as far as Aroer east of Rabbah; ²⁶ and from Heshbon as far as Ramath-mizpeh and Betonim, and from Mahanaim as far as the border of Debir; ²⁷ and in the valley, Beth-haram and Beth-nimrah and Succoth and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon, with the Jordan as a border, as far as the lower end of the Sea of Chinnereth (Galilee) east of the Jordan. ²⁸ This is the inheritance of the sons of Gad according to their families, with their cities and their villages.

²⁹ Moses also gave an inheritance to the half-tribe of Manasseh; and it was for the half-tribe of the sons of Manasseh according to their families. ³⁰ Their region extended from Mahanaim, all Bashan, the entire kingdom of Og king of Bashan, and all the towns of Jair, which are in Bashan, sixty cities; ³¹ also half of Gilead, with Ashtaroth and Edrei, the cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan; these were for the sons of Machir the son of Manasseh, for half of the sons of Machir according to their families (clans).

³² These are the territories which Moses distributed as an inheritance in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan at Jericho to the east. ³³ But to the tribe of Levi, Moses did not give an inheritance; the Lord, the God of Israel, is their inheritance, as He told them.