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.