Joshua 11:4

4 All these kings came out to fight. Their combined armies formed a vast horde. And with all their horses and chariots, they covered the landscape like the sand on the seashore.

Joshua 11:4 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 11:4

And they went out
The several kings and people sent to; these went out from the places they inhabited:

they and all their hosts with them;
the kings of those several places, with their armies:

much people, even as the sand that [is] upon the seashore in multitude;
a proverbial expression, to denote an exceeding great number:

with horses and chariots very many;
being supplied with horses from Egypt, and their chariots were chariots of iron; see ( Judges 4:3 ) ; Josephus ^F26 gives us the number of this great army, and says it consisted of three hundred thousand footmen, ten thousand horse, and thirty thousand chariots; some copies read only twenty thousand; and these chariots were armed with iron hooks or scythes, to cut down men as they drove along, and so were very terrible.

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 18.

Joshua 11:4 In-Context

2 all the kings of the northern hill country; the kings in the Jordan Valley south of Galilee ; the kings in the Galilean foothills ; the kings of Naphoth-dor on the west;

3 the kings of Canaan, both east and west; the kings of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites in the hill country, and the Hivites in the towns on the slopes of Mount Hermon in the land of Mizpah.

4 All these kings came out to fight. Their combined armies formed a vast horde. And with all their horses and chariots, they covered the landscape like the sand on the seashore.

5 The kings joined forces and established their camp around the water near Merom to fight against Israel.

6 Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them. By this time tomorrow I will hand all of them over to Israel as dead men. Then you must cripple their horses and burn their chariots.”