Northern Canaan Taken

11 Then it came about, when Jabin king of ^(A)Hazor heard about it, that he sent word to Jobab king of Madon, to the king of Shimron, to the king of Achshaph, ² and to the kings who were of the north in the hill country, and in the ^(B)Arabah—south of ^[a]Chinneroth and in the lowland, and on the ^[b]heights of Dor on the west— ³ to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the hill country, and ^(C)the Hivite ^[c]at the foot of ^(D)Hermon in the land of ^(E)Mizpeh. ⁴ Then they came out, they and all their armies with them, ^(F)as many people as the sand that is on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots. ⁵ So all of these kings gathered together, and came and encamped together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel.

⁶ Yet the Lord said to Joshua, “^(G)Do not be afraid because of them, for tomorrow at this time I am going to turn all of them over to Israel as good as dead; you shall ^(H)hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire.” ⁷ So Joshua and all the people of war with him came upon them suddenly at the waters of Merom, and attacked them. ⁸ And the Lord handed them over to Israel, so that they ^[d]defeated them, and pursued them as far as Great Sidon, and ^(I)Misrephoth-maim, and the Valley of ^(J)Mizpeh to the east; and they struck them until no survivor was left to them. ⁹ And Joshua did to them just as the Lord had told him; he ^(K)hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.

¹⁰ Then Joshua turned back at that time and captured ^(L)Hazor, and struck its king with the sword; for Hazor previously was the head of all these kingdoms. ^11 (M)They struck every person who was in it with the edge of the sword, ^[e]utterly destroying them; there was no one left who breathed. And he burned Hazor with fire. ¹² Joshua captured all the cities of these kings, and all their kings; and he struck them with the edge of the sword and utterly destroyed them, just ^(N)as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded. ¹³ However, Israel did not burn any cities that stood on their mounds, except Hazor alone, which Joshua burned. ¹⁴ And ^(O)all the spoils of these cities and the cattle, the sons of Israel took as their plunder; but they struck every person with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them. They left no one breathing. ¹⁵ Just as the Lord had commanded His servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses.