Joshua 11

CHAPTER 11

Northern Kings Defeated (11:1–23)

1–5 Under the leadership of the king of Hazor, Canaan’s largest city, the kings of Canaan’s northern city-states joined together to form a huge army (verse 4), much greater than Israel’s army.

6–9 But the Lord told Joshua not to be afraid of them; He would hand all of them over to Israel the very next day (verse 6). The Lord also told Joshua to hamstring⁴⁸ the enemy’s horses, so that they could not pull the chariots; the charioteers would be forced to flee on foot, and the chariots could then be burned.

As He had promised, the Lord gave Israel a total victory over the army of the northern kings (verse 8).

10–15 After the major battle was over, Joshua attacked the cities of the northern kings and put to death all the inhabitants—just as the Lord had commanded (see Joshua 10:29–43 and comment).

Except for Hazor, which he burned completely (verse 11), Joshua did not burn cities that were built on their mounds⁴⁹ (verse 13). These he preserved so that the Israelites could move into them, thus fulfilling the Lord’s prediction that the Israelites would live in cities they did not build (Deuteronomy 6:10–12).

In verse 15, the writer reminds us that Joshua left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded. Faith combined with obedience was the key to Joshua’s success, and so it is with us.

16–18 So Joshua took this entire land (verse 16); that is, he took overall control of it. But there were still many areas within the land that were not yet taken over (see Joshua 13:1–7). Indeed, the Canaanites would not be totally subjected to Israel’s authority until the reign of King David.

Joshua himself waged war for a long time (verse 18)—seven years. But this should not have been surprising: the Lord had said earlier that He wouldn’t drive the Canaanites out quickly but only “little by little” (Exodus 23:29–30).

19–20 Only the Hivites (Gibeonites) living in Gibeon made peace with the Israelites. All the other Canaanites fought against Israel. Why did none of the others try to make peace? Because God had hardened their hearts⁵⁰(verse 20). God didn’t harden their hearts to keep them from calling out to Him, or to keep them from repenting; God never does that. He spared Rahab when she believed in Him (Joshua 2:11); He even spared the deceptive Gibeonites who had sued for peace because of the fame of Israel’s God (Joshua 9:9). God will save everyone who calls on His name⁵¹ (Romans 10:13).

But the rest of the Canaanites, because of their great wickedness, had no intention of calling on God’s name; they had already hardened their hearts. What God didn’t want was for them to surrender to the Israelites in their hardened, unrepentant state; it was to prevent their surrender that God further hardened their already hard hearts. In this way, God would be assured of their complete destruction; He didn’t want any remnant of their evil and idolatry to defile His chosen people.

21–23 These verses describe Joshua’s campaign against the Anakites, the very large people who had frightened the Israelites forty years earlier (Numbers 13:2829,32–33). Caleb also was active in this campaign and later received Hebron, one of the Anakite cities, as his inheritance (see Joshua 14:12–14).

Then the land had rest from war (verse 23). With the major battles over, it was time for Joshua to give the Israelites their inheritance, the allotments of land that were to be distributed to each tribe. But as for rest, there would be no final “rest” for the land as long as evil and idolatry remained. Indeed, true rest will only come when evil has been vanquished and Christ reigns over all as King of kings (Philippians 2:9–11; Revelation 19:16).