Joshua 11:6-9 meaning

Joshua 11:6-9 outlines God's encouraging message to Joshua and the Israelite reaction, resulting in the enemy's defeat.

The previous passage recorded the plan of the northern Canaanite kings to fight against Israel after hearing about her success in the south. The opposition leader, King Jabin of Hazor, sent a message to several kings and ethnic groups to ask them to join him in this effort. They agreed and formed a massive coalition, mustering their horses and chariots to combat the Israelites (Joshua 11:1-5).

God now speaks to His appointed leader of His chosen people. The LORD said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid because of them" (v 6). The Hebrew term for LORD is "Yahweh," the God who revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14). It emphasizes His covenant/treaty relationship with the Israelites in which He accepted them as His treasured possession and vowed to bless and protect them if they obeyed His stipulations wholeheartedly (Exodus 19:4-6).

Under Joshua's leadership, the Israelites followed the LORD's guidance. They walked in His path and were eager to continue the battle to possess the Promised Land. They had already conquered Jericho, Ai, and the southern Canaanite cities. As they got ready to fight with the northern armies, Yahweh urged Joshua not to fear them and spelled out the rationale: "for tomorrow at this time, I will deliver all of them slain before Israel" (v 6).

In the Hebrew text, the first-person pronoun "I" is emphatic. As such, it demonstrates that the LORD was the one who would hand the enemy over to Israel. Joshua was to remain bold and confident to march toward his adversaries. Despite their size and impressive martial devices, they would lose the battle and die because the LORD would provide the victory. He would kill the enemy by the next day.

While the LORD would kill the northern troops, He told Joshua to hamstring their horses (v 6). To hamstring a horse means to sever its pasterns (its ankles). This process involves cutting through the rear tarsal tendon in the hock joint to prevent the animal from being able to walk. Moreover, the Israelites were to burn the enemy chariots with fire (v 6). They could not take these military resources as spoils because that would potentially prevent them from fully trusting the LORD their God.

Although the Israelites did not have horses and chariots, they were to confront the northern armies boldly because the LORD would fight their battle. Yet, He wanted His covenant people to actively participate in the war and put their trust in His power to secure victory. This is how God treats humans who trust in Him; the outcome is God's, but He wants us to be partners with Him through obedience (John 15:4-5, 1 Corinthians 3:6-9). In obedience to God's command, Joshua and all the people of war with him confronted the adversaries (v 7). They came upon them suddenly by the waters of Merom and attacked them (v 7).

The waters of Merom was a spring running southward from the mountains of Galilee into the upper northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee. It was the place where the enemy army stationed themselves to wage war against God's people. In minds of the Canaanites, they thought they were superior to Israel's army because they had the ultimate weapons of the time period. A huge cavalry including chariots was highly effective in Bronze Age warfare. However, once the Israelites came upon them suddenly and ambushed them, the LORD delivered them into the hand of Israel (v 8). The enemy had no time to use their weapons because the Israelite warriors attacked them by surprise. More importantly, Yahweh gave the Canaanites over to His covenant people, so that they defeated them (v 8). All glory belongs to Him. If He did not fight for Israel, they would not have conquered the Promised Land.

When the enemy soldiers noticed their weaknesses and inability to win the battle, they fled from the Israelite army. However, Israel's warriors pursued them as far as Great Sidon, Misrephoth-maim, and the valley of Mizpeh to the east (v 8). Sidon was a Phoenician city on the fertile plain between the mountains of Lebanon and the Mediterranean. Misrephoth-maim was a place on the south border of Sidon, while the valley of Mizpeh ran south through the Huleh basin flanked on the east by Mount Hermon. (see map)

The Israelite pursuit produced positive results. They caught their foes and struck them until no survivor was left to them (v 8). That means that the people of God hit the enemy forcibly with their weapons and killed all whom they overtook. Thus, Joshua did to them as the LORD had told him (v 9). He believed God's word and acted faithfully. As a result, he overcame the northern armies. He hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire (v 9).

Israel's campaign in the north could have been a disaster because the coalition was numerous and impressive. The enemy army had more soldiers than Israel and better weapons. As a unified force with superior military equipment, the Canaanites had no reason to believe they could not win the battle. For this reason, they gathered as many soldiers as possible and attacked God's people. Nevertheless, the LORD was with Joshua and the Israelites. He worked things out for their good.

The command to cripple the enemy horses and destroy the chariots emphasizes God's role as the one who gives victory to Israel. If they were to begin to use cavalry and chariots, the temptation would be strong to think that it was by their own power they could conquer enemies. Adopting pagan religious culture was something God forbade the Israelites, but He also told His people not to imitate their military technology. The emphasis was always on putting faith in Him to win their battles, as He was their Suzerain (superior Ruler) with whom they had made a covenant/treaty.

This command against large cavalries was already stipulated in the covenant/treaty between God and the people. Moses, speaking for God, warned that a future king of Israel "shall not multiply horses for himself," following with the reason, "nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the LORD has said to you, 'You shall never again return that way'" (Deuteronomy 17:16).

There was an obvious connection between the ambition to generate an impressive cavalry which could be relied upon in warfare, and a backslide into "returning to Egypt," returning to bondage to other nations, religions, and to ways apart from God’s ways. God did not want the Israelites to co-mingle or depend upon the Egyptians for anything, even horse-breeding and trading.

Egypt was the superpower of that time period and region, and it represents literal slavery to a worldly power, as well as spiritual slavery and straying from God, who was to be their Suzerain and protector. God was protecting His people from winning the battle and losing their dependence on Him. Hundreds of years later, when Judah sought Egypt's power to protect them from Assyria, the prophet Isaiah would warn of the same doomed choice of putting trust in the power of the world (Egypt, horses, chariots) rather than of God:

"Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help
And rely on horses,
And trust in chariots because they are many
And in horsemen because they are very strong,
But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!"
(Isaiah 31:1)

Isaiah distinguishes the obvious truth that "…the Egyptians are men and not God, And their horses are flesh and not spirit…" (Isaiah 31:3). Flesh fails, but whatever the LORD wills is accomplished (Isaiah 14:27).

Before Isaiah, but generations after the conquest of the Promised Land, David faced the same test after a battle. Of 1,700 captured horses, he hamstrung all but 100 chariot horses, which he kept (2 Samuel 8:4). He obeyed most of the command, though chose also to keep some horses back for chariots, perhaps for ceremonial purposes.

David clearly was not choosing to build a chariot cavalry, or else he would not have crippled the other 1,600 horses. In a later battle with greater numbers, he killed "700 charioteers of the Arameans and 40,000 horsemen" and kept none as spoils, as far as the scripture reports (2 Samuel 10:18). In David's own writings, he describes his faith in the strength of God, not horses:

"Some boast in chariots and some in horses,
But we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God."
(Psalm 20:7)

Another psalmist repeats this commitment to God rather than trust in self: "A horse is a false hope for victory" (Psalm 33:17).

From this battle alone here in Joshua 11, it is clear that chariots and horses could not bring victory. The losing side had the superior military hardware, but the winning side had the LORD God fighting for them. Why then would the Israelites seek to adopt the military tactics of their dead, defeated enemy?

We today also have the choice of trusting in God or the world. The New Testament speaks to the same idea of choosing God or choosing Egypt, trusting God or trusting chariots and horseflesh. The elder James writes that we should not follow the wisdom of the world, which is based on selfish ambition and Satan's values,

"This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic."
(James 3:15)

Putting our trust in the world and its ways to get ahead is to ally ourselves with the world and break our own covenant of grace and love with God,

"You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."
(James 4:4)

We, like the Israelites, are called to rely on God as our strength, our protector, and our king. The world cannot offer us lasting life, peace, or purpose. We must seek to imitate Jesus, who has overcome the world (John 16:33).