Joshua 11
EasyEnglish Bible
Joshua fights against kings in the north
11 Jabin, king of Hazor, heard what had happened. So he sent a message to Jobab, king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron and the king of Acshaph. 2 He also sent a message to the kings of the hill country in the north, in the Jordan Valley, south of Galilee.[a] He also sent a message to people in the low hills and Naphoth Dor in the west. 3 So Canaanite people came from the east and from the west. They were Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites and Jebusites who lived in the hills. They were also Hivites who lived near Hermon mountain, in the region of Mizpah. 4 All these kings came with their big armies. They had many horses and chariots. The soldiers were too many to count. 5 These kings all joined together to fight against the Israelites. They put up their tents near the water at Merom.
6 The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Do not be afraid of them. This time tomorrow they will all be dead! I will give all of them to you Israelites. You must cut the legs of their horses so that they cannot run well. You must also burn their chariots.’
7 So Joshua and his whole army went to attack them at the Waters of Merom. They quickly attacked them by surprise. 8 The Lord caused the Israelites to win against them. The Israelite soldiers chased them as far as Sidon, Misrephoth Maim and the valley of Mizpah in the east. They killed their enemies as they chased them, until they were all dead. 9 Joshua did what the Lord had commanded him to do. He cut their horses' legs and he burned their chariots.
10 At that time, Hazor was the most important city among all those kingdoms that fought against the Israelites. So Joshua turned back and attacked Hazor. He killed its king. 11 The Israelites killed everyone who lived there. Nothing in the city was left alive. They burned the city and destroyed it.
12 Joshua took all these cities and he killed all their kings. He destroyed them all, as the Lord's servant Moses had told him to do. 13 But the Israelites did not burn the cities that were built on small hills. Hazor was the only city like that which Joshua did burn. 14 The Israelites took for themselves all the animals and the valuable things from those cities. But they killed all the people. They did not let any of them live. 15 Moses had told all the Lord's commands to Joshua. Joshua obeyed all the Lord's commands. He did everything that the Lord had told Moses.
The land that Joshua took for the Israelites
16 Joshua's army won against all the people who were living in the land. He took the hill country, the Negev in the south, and the land of Goshen. He took the low hills in the west and the Jordan Valley. He took the mountains and the hills of Israel. 17 The land went from Halak mountain near Edom country, to Baal Gad in the Lebanon valley, below Hermon mountain. He caught all the kings of those regions and he killed them all. 18 Joshua was fighting against those kings for a long time. 19 None of those kingdoms agreed not to fight against the Israelites, except the Hivites who lived in Gibeon. The Israelites fought battles against all the other kingdoms and they won. 20 The Lord had caused the minds of those people to become hard. So they all decided to fight against the Israelites. The Lord wanted the Israelites to destroy those people completely, as he had commanded Moses.
21 During that time, Joshua went to fight against the Anakites, who lived in the hill country. They lived in Hebron, Debir and Anab, and among the hills of Judah and Israel. Joshua destroyed them all, and all their towns. 22 So no Anakites remained in Israel, except for a few who lived in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod.
23 In that way, Joshua took the whole land. The Lord had promised Moses that he would give the land to his people. Joshua gave a part of the land to each tribe, for them to live in.
After all that, the people did not have to fight any more.
Footnotes
- 11:2 Kinnereth was an old name for Galilee.
Joshua 11
New English Translation
Israel Defeats a Northern Coalition
11 When King Jabin of Hazor heard the news about Israel’s victories,[a] he organized a coalition, including[b] King Jobab of Madon, the king of Shimron, the king of Acshaph, 2 and the northern kings who ruled in[c] the hill country, in the rift valley south of Kinnereth,[d] in the foothills, and on the heights of Dor to the west. 3 Canaanites came[e] from the east and west; Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, and Jebusites from the hill country; and Hivites from below Hermon in the area[f] of Mizpah. 4 These kings came out with their armies; they were as numerous as the sand on the seashore and had a large number of horses and chariots.[g] 5 All these kings gathered and joined forces[h] at the Waters of Merom to fight Israel.
6 The Lord told Joshua, “Don’t be afraid of them, for about this time tomorrow I will cause all of them to lie dead before Israel. You must hamstring their horses and burn[i] their chariots.” 7 Joshua and his whole army caught them by surprise at the Waters of Merom and attacked them.[j] 8 The Lord handed them over to Israel, and they struck them down and chased them all the way to Greater Sidon, Misrephoth Maim,[k] and the Mizpah Valley to the east. They struck them down until no survivors remained. 9 Joshua did to them as the Lord had commanded him; he hamstrung their horses and burned[l] their chariots.
10 At that time Joshua turned, captured Hazor, and struck down its king with the sword, for Hazor was at that time[m] the leader of all these kingdoms. 11 They annihilated everyone who lived there with the sword[n]—no one who breathed remained—and burned[o] Hazor.
12 Joshua captured all these royal cities and all their kings and annihilated them with the sword,[p] as Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded. 13 But Israel did not burn any of the cities located on mounds[q] except for Hazor; it was the only one Joshua burned. 14 The Israelites plundered all the goods of these cities and the cattle, but they totally destroyed all the people[r] and allowed no one who breathed to live. 15 Moses the Lord’s servant passed on the Lord’s commands to Joshua, and Joshua did as he was told. He did not ignore any of the commands the Lord had given Moses.[s]
A Summary of Israel’s Victories
16 Joshua conquered the whole land,[t] including the hill country, all the Negev,[u] all the land of Goshen, the foothills,[v] the rift valley,[w] the hill country of Israel and its foothills, 17 from Mount Halak up to Seir, as far as Baal Gad in the Lebanon Valley below Mount Hermon. He captured all their kings and executed them.[x] 18 Joshua campaigned against[y] these kings for quite some time.[z] 19 No city made peace with the Israelites (except the Hivites living in Gibeon);[aa] they had to conquer all of them,[ab] 20 for the Lord determined to make them obstinate so they would attack Israel. He wanted Israel to annihilate them without mercy, as he had instructed Moses.[ac]
21 At that time Joshua attacked and eliminated the Anakites from the hill country[ad]—from Hebron, Debir, Anab, and all the hill country of Judah and Israel.[ae] Joshua annihilated them and their cities. 22 No Anakites were left in Israelite territory, though some remained in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod. 23 Joshua conquered[af] the whole land, just as the Lord had promised Moses,[ag] and he assigned Israel their tribal portions.[ah] Then the land was free of war.
Footnotes
- Joshua 11:1 tn The words “about Israel’s victories” are not in the Hebrew text but have been supplied for clarity.
- Joshua 11:1 tn Heb “he sent to.”
- Joshua 11:2 tn Heb “and to the kings who [are] from the north in.”
- Joshua 11:2 tn Heb “Chinneroth,” a city and plain located in the territory of Naphtali in Galilee (BDB 490 s.v. כִּנֶּרֶת, כִּנֲרוֹת).sn Kinnereth was a city in Galilee located near the Sea of Galilee (Deut 3:17). The surrounding region also became known by this name (1 Kgs 15:20; cf. Matt 14:34), and eventually even the lake itself (Josh 12:3; cf. Luke 5:1). The “rift valley south of” Galilee probably refers to the northern part of the Jordan Valley from the lake to where the Jezreel Valley joins the rift valley. Dor is nearly due west from that point.
- Joshua 11:3 tn The verb “came” is supplied in the translation (see v. 4).
- Joshua 11:3 tn Or “land.”
- Joshua 11:4 tn Heb “They and all their camps with them came out, a people as numerous as the sand which is on the edge of the sea in multitude, and [with] horses and chariots very numerous.”
- Joshua 11:5 tn Heb “and came and camped together.”
- Joshua 11:6 tn Heb “burn with fire”; the words “with fire” are redundant in English and have not been included in the translation.
- Joshua 11:7 tn Heb “Joshua and all the people of war with him came upon them at the Waters of Merom suddenly and fell upon them.”
- Joshua 11:8 tn The meaning of the Hebrew name “Misrephoth Maim” is perhaps “lime-kilns by the water” (see HALOT 641 s.v. מִשְׂרָפוֹת).
- Joshua 11:9 tn Heb “burned with fire”; the words “with fire” are redundant in English and have not been included in the translation.
- Joshua 11:10 tn Or “formerly.”
- Joshua 11:11 tn Heb “and they struck down all life which was in it with the edge of the sword, annihilating.”
- Joshua 11:11 tn Heb “burned with fire”; the words “with fire” are redundant in English and have not been included in the translation.
- Joshua 11:12 tn Heb “and he struck them down with the edge of the sword, he annihilated them.”
- Joshua 11:13 tn Heb “standing on their mounds.”
- Joshua 11:14 tn Heb “but all the people they struck down with the edge of the sword until they destroyed them.”
- Joshua 11:15 tn Heb “As the Lord commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua acted accordingly; he did not turn aside a thing from all which the Lord commanded Moses.”
- Joshua 11:16 tn Heb “Joshua took all this land.”
- Joshua 11:16 sn The Negev is an area south of the Judean hill country and west of the rift valley. As a geographic feature it is an arid depression extending south to the Gulf of Aqabah, but the biblical reference is probably to the northern part of this region.
- Joshua 11:16 sn The foothills (שְׁפֵלָה, “shephelah”) refer to the transition region between the Judean hill country and the Mediterranean coastal plain.
- Joshua 11:16 sn As a geographic feature, the rift valley (עֲרָבָה, ʿaravah) extends from Galilee to the Gulf of Aqaba. The reference here is probably to the Jordan Valley and the wider part of the rift valley below the Dead Sea.
- Joshua 11:17 tn Heb “and struck them down and killed them.”
- Joshua 11:18 tn Heb “made war with.”
- Joshua 11:18 tn Heb “for many days.”
- Joshua 11:19 tn The LXX omits this parenthetical note, which may represent a later scribal addition.
- Joshua 11:19 tn Heb “the whole they took in battle.”
- Joshua 11:20 tn Heb “for from the Lord it was to harden their heart[s] to meet for the battle with Israel, in order to annihilate them, so that they would receive no mercy, in order annihilate them, as the Lord commanded Moses.”
- Joshua 11:21 tn Heb “went and cut off the Anakites from the hill country.”
- Joshua 11:21 tn Heb “and from all the hill country of Israel.”
- Joshua 11:23 tn Heb “took.”
- Joshua 11:23 tn Heb “according to all which the Lord said to Moses.” The translation assumes this refers to the promise of the land (see 1:3). Another possibility is that it refers to the Lord’s instructions, in which case the phrase could be translated, “just as the Lord had instructed Moses” (so NLT; cf. also NIV “had directed Moses”).
- Joshua 11:23 tn Heb “and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their allotted portions by their tribes.”
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