Joshua 11:16-20 meaning

Joshua 11:16-20 describes the judgment of the peoples of Canaan.

During Israel's conquest of Canaan, the people entered the city in the middle of the land, at Jericho, in the lower Jordan Valley, west of the Jordan River, and captured it (Joshua 6). Next, after an initial failed attempt, they attacked a small city near Beth-Aven, east of Bethel, named Ai, and defeated it (Joshua 8). The Israelites turned southward and fought against a coalition of five Canaanite kings (Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon), who sent their armies to attack the Hivites in Gibeon for their alliance with Israel. They also destroyed six southern Canaanite towns: Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, and Debir (Joshua 10:1-43).

The Israelite victory in the south alarmed King Jabin of Hazor, a large fortified town in north Galilee, to the point that he formed a massive coalition of other kings to combat Israel. Nevertheless, the LORD urged Joshua not to fear them because He would defeat the northern troops by the next day. He instructed the Israelite leader to hamstring the enemy horses and burn their chariots. Joshua and his army obeyed the divine instructions and won the battle. Next, the Israelites captured Hazor and destroyed it with fire. They also captured the other northern Canaanite cities and took their valuables as plunder, per the LORD's command (Joshua 11:1-15).

The passage now summarizes Israel's conquest of Canaan. It names the geographical areas covered, beginning with the central and southern portions of the land: Joshua took all that land: the hill country and all the Negev, all that land of Goshen, the lowland, the Arabah (v 16). The hill country was the central highlands. It encompassed Ai and Gibeon in the north and Hebron and Debir in the south (Joshua 10:40).

The Negev was the wilderness area in the southern region. Goshen was a pastoral land in the same hill country as Debir (Joshua 15:48-51). The lowland (the Shephelah) was the region of the western foothills. The Arabah refers to the entire rift valley from above the Sea of Galilee to the Gulf of Eilat. (see map)

The text then names the northern portions captured during Israel's conquest: the hill country of Israel and its lowland (v 16). The hill country of Israel refers to Ephraim and Manasseh (later, Samaria) as well as lower and upper Galilee. The lowland ("Shephelah") is the western foothills of Ephraim and Manasseh south of Mount Carmel.

The territory covered during Israel's campaign extends from Mount Halak that rises toward Seir, even as far as Baal-gad (v 17). Mount Halak is near the Edomite border on the south. It is the modern Jebel Halaq on the northwestern side of the Wâdı̄ Marra. It marks the southern limit of the Israelite conquest. Baal-gad was in the region of Laish, a beautiful and lush area in the valley of Lebanon. Lebanon was a mountainous region north of Israel, noted for its beauty and cedar forests (Psalm 29:5, Hosea 14:5). The town of Baal-gad was at the foot of Mount Hermon (v 17). It marks the northern boundary of the campaign.

In sum, Mount Halak in the south and Baal-gad in the north serve as landmarks to designate the conquered territory. Joshua defeated all these cities and regions. He captured all their kings, struck them down, and put them to death (v 17). In a nutshell, these three verbs describe the Israelite victory over the Canaanite leaders. They seized them, hit them forcibly (with the sword), and killed them.

Through this campaign, Joshua used patience and perseverance as he waged war for a long time with all these kings (v 18). The phrase a long time refers to several years. According to the Book of Joshua, Caleb was 78 when the battle began and was 85 when it ended (Joshua 14:7, 10). Thus, it took about seven years for Israel to conquer the Promised Land. Joshua and his army achieved great success because the LORD their God was with them and they obeyed His commands.

Although the battle lasted several years, there was not a city which made peace with the sons of Israel (v 19), save for one. None of the people groups repented or submitted, except the Hivites living in Gibeon (v 19), who used disguises to deceive the Israelites to agreeing to a peace treaty (Joshua 9:3-15). The Gibeonites dressed as though they were foreigners who had come on a long journey from a far land to submit to the Israelites. While their ruse was a lie, their desire to be at peace with Israel was sincere. Unlike the Gibeonites, who allied with the covenant people, the other Canaanite nations and kings resisted. Therefore, the Israelites took them all in battle (v 19) and conquered them.

The Canaanites did not seek any peace treaty because it was of the LORD to harden their hearts to meet Israel in battle (v 20). He did so because of their wicked behavior and actions. In Leviticus, God warns Israel against the sinful practices of the Canaanites: incest, child sacrifice, and sexual immorality including bestiality (Leviticus 18:24-27). The Canaanite culture was exploitative and demonic. It was as far from God's will as a culture can get.

For this reason, Yahweh told His people to defeat the Canaanites and destroy them. Israel was to "make no covenant with them and show no favor to them" (Deuteronomy 7:2). Their iniquity was complete, so they fell under God's judgment (Genesis 15:16).

God had been patient with these nations for centuries. He told Abraham that his descendants would wait four generations to receive the land of Canaan because "the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete" (Genesis 15:16). There was a lengthy time period where God was apparently trying to guide the Canaanite peoples to give up their sinful culture and follow His good design, but they chose rebellion over repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

In the days of Abraham, there were Canaanites who also served the LORD God. We see glimpses of this in the person of King Melchizedek, predecessor to Adoni-zedek (the king of Jerusalem who rallied allies to attack the Gibeonites, and was ultimately slain by Joshua--Joshua 10).

King Melchizedek met Abraham to bless him and give bread and wine after a battle (Genesis 14:18-20). Melchizedek worshiped the true God and, in addition to being king of a pre-Israel Jerusalem, was also a high priest of some kind to the LORD. Yet, centuries later, his successor Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, fought against the descendants of Abraham to protect his pagan city and its sinful practices.

Other examples of God-fearers in the days of and after Abraham include King Abimelech, who feared God and obeyed Him, leading to the forgiveness of his people (Genesis 20). Job, whom God highly favored and loved, lived in the land of Uz, which was somewhere in the vincinty of the Sabeans and Chaldeans, and his friends seem to have been descendants of Abraham (Job 1:1, 8, Job 2:11). Job's tribal affiliation is never given. But he worshiped God and lived in a land near Canaan. Likewise, Abraham's cousin Lot, who was a Chaldean like Abraham who immigrated to Canaan, also feared God (2 Peter 2:6-9).

But by the time of the conquest, there is no worship of the true God in the land of Canaan.

This highlights how the influence of the disturbingly wicked cultic Canaanite culture (Leviticus 18) had despoiled and removed all worship of the true God in the Land of Canaan (Deuteronomy 7:1-6, 20:16-17). Once, there were men in Canaan and the surrounding region who worshipped God; now all defied Him and exploited his neighbor.

God explained to Israel concerning Canaan that "all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. For the land has become defiled, therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants" (Leviticus 18:24-27). The corrupt Canaanites were compared to something like a poison which needed to be spat out of the land.

The conquest came after roughly four hundred years of divine patience and possible repentance. God, being beyond time, still knew the ultimate outcome, that the Amorites would not repent, and at the end of this window, would be judged by the Author of Life and Death and all Creation for their evil actions.

God hardened their hearts because the verdict was given. The time for repentance and mercy for these kings was over, nor would the Canaanites seek it anyway. The pattern matches Pharaoh, who hardened his own heart during the early plagues and did not repent (Exodus 8:15, 32) before God hardened it (Exodus 9:12, Romans 9:17-18). When God hardens a heart He pushes back against the stubborn rebellion already there, which creates more restistence and defiance.

We see a similar progression of rebellion in Romans 1 by inverse means, which describes how even without hardening the heart, and by stepping out of the way, God gives some over to their sins and lets them sink deeper into lust, then to addiction, then to loss of mental health, experiencing judgment (Romans 1:24-27). Whether God directly interacts with the heart or releases it to its own desires, the individuals in these instances are committed to pursuing their own ways and defying His.

And yet, mercy was given to those few who turned to the LORD. In this narrative, Rahab believed, helped the Israelites, and was spared (Joshua 2:11, 6:25). The Gibeonites sought peace and were spared (Joshua 9). The rest of the Canaanites, devoted to their own way and not God's, fought instead, and God used their attack to carry out a judgment their own practices had earned (Leviticus 18:24-27).

Thus, when Joshua confronted them, God hardened their hearts so that he might utterly destroy them (v 20).

In the Hebrew text, the verb utterly destroy (Hebrew, "ḥerem") carries the idea of devoting something to the ban. It speaks of an act of obedience, which dedicates the enemy and/or their objects to God (Joshua 6:17, 21).

God wanted to spit out the Canaanites from the land for their immoral practices, and there was no hope of them repenting or allying with Israel; God bore down on these men and they sinfully pushed back, resulting in the predetermined verdict that they might receive no mercy (v 20). God's patience with them was over. He strengthened and equipped Joshua so that he might destroy them (v 20). The Israelite leader was faithful to his assignment. He defeated the enemy just as the LORD had commanded Moses (v 20).

In Deuteronomy, the LORD told Moses and the Israelites to execute the Canaanites and take control of their land once they arrived there (Deuteronomy 20:17-18). Joshua did that. He and the Israelite troops killed all the Canaanites, except Rahab who turned to the true God in fear and faith, and the Gibeonites, who likewise feared the God of Israel and sought peace with Him (Joshua 2, 9).