Joshua 11 Study Notes

11:11-13 Today’s ruins in Hazor do have a destruction layer from the thirteenth century BC. This may be the one associated with Joshua (if one accepts a late date for the exodus). The temples of this period were destroyed and the images broken. The destruction layer attests to the burning of the city. No other city in Palestine among those mentioned as destroyed in chaps. 1-11 has clear evidence of a burn layer like this during the time of Joshua. This attests to the fact that Israel did not burn any of the cities . . . except Hazor.

11:14 The treatment of these captured towns, in which Israel killed all the people but plundered all the spoils, resembles that of Ai (8:2,27). Unlike Jericho, at Ai God allowed his people to keep the plunder. Apparently this practice continued elsewhere in the land.

11:15 The battle accounts themselves dramatize the purpose of showing how Joshua and the Israel of his generation were obedient to God’s commands. Their faithfulness resulted in God’s gift of the land.

11:16 The summary of Israel’s battles and victories begins with the regions. Those in the south are followed by those in the north. The land of Goshen may refer to the region with the town of that name in 10:41, in Judah (15:51). Perhaps it is a variant for the kingdom of Geshur, north of the Sea of Galilee. However, see note at 13:13.

11:17 The summary turns to the boundaries of the newly acquired land. Mount Halak (modern Jebel Halaq) lay midway between Kadesh-barnea and the southern tip of the Dead Sea. It thus defined the southern border with Seir (Edom). The precise location of Baal-gad . . . at the foot of Mount Hermon is unknown. The Valley of Lebanon may refer to the Valley of Mizpeh (v. 8; see note at v. 3), or to both it and the Beqa‘a—the entire region between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountain ranges.

11:18 In contrast to the speed with which the previous campaigns were fought, the northern campaign took a long time. Appropriately, chap. 12 lists rulers conquered that are not mentioned in chap. 11. See note at 14:10.

11:19 On Gibeon, see notes at 9:3. Hivites first appear in 3:10 and are associated with Gibeon in 9:6-7.

11:20 Exodus 4-14 repeats how God would harden the heart of Pharaoh. Here God treated the kings and warriors of Canaan in a similar manner; thus, the reason for the destruction as given here did not lie in other sins of Canaan or in their origins, but in their refusal to recognize Israel’s God or to allow Israel access to the land.

11:21 The Anakim represent legendary warriors (Dt 2:10-11). By the time of Joshua they had lived for hundreds of years in Palestine, as attested in Egyptian sources. The three Anakim in Jos 14:15 may correspond to the three towns mentioned here, perhaps as rulers. Anab may refer to the site of ‘Unnab ets-Tseghur about fifteen miles southwest of Hebron. With Debir, these are all located in southern Palestine. When Joshua completely destroyed the three cities, he may have been represented by Caleb (15:14-15).

11:22 The remnants of the Anakim in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod anticipate the arrival of the Philistines and the presence of a giant such as Goliath (1Sm 17:4).

11:23 The inheritance that Joshua presented to Israel uses a word that occurs in Joshua for the first time, but it will occur dozens of times in the remainder of the book. It serves as a transition from the battles to the division of the inheritance.