TEXT [Commentary]

4.   End of the southern campaign (10:28-43)

28 That same day Joshua captured and destroyed the town of Makkedah. He killed everyone in it, including the king, leaving no survivors. He destroyed them all, and he killed the king of Makkedah as he had killed the king of Jericho. 29 Then Joshua and the Israelites went to Libnah and attacked it. 30 There, too, the LORD gave them the town and its king. He killed everyone in it, leaving no survivors. Then Joshua killed the king of Libnah as he had killed the king of Jericho.

31 From Libnah, Joshua and the Israelites went to Lachish and attacked it. 32 Here again, the LORD gave them Lachish. Joshua took it on the second day and killed everyone in it, just as he had done at Libnah. 33 During the attack on Lachish, King Horam of Gezer arrived with his army to help defend the town. But Joshua’s men killed him and his army, leaving no survivors.

34 Then Joshua and the Israelite army went on to Eglon and attacked it. 35 They captured it that day and killed everyone in it. He completely destroyed everyone, just as he had done at Lachish. 36 From Eglon, Joshua and the Israelite army went up to Hebron and attacked it. 37 They captured the town and killed everyone in it, including its king, leaving no survivors. They did the same thing to all of its surrounding villages. And just as he had done at Eglon, he completely destroyed the entire population.

38 Then Joshua and the Israelites turned back and attacked Debir. 39 He captured the town, its king, and all of its surrounding villages. He completely destroyed everyone in it, leaving no survivors. He did to Debir and its king just what he had done to Hebron and to Libnah and its king.

40 So Joshua conquered the whole region—the kings and people of the hill country, the Negev, the western foothills,[*] and the mountain slopes. He completely destroyed everyone in the land, leaving no survivors, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded. 41 Joshua slaughtered them from Kadesh-barnea to Gaza and from the region around the town of Goshen up to Gibeon. 42 Joshua conquered all these kings and their land in a single campaign, for the LORD, the God of Israel, was fighting for his people.

43 Then Joshua and the Israelite army returned to their camp at Gilgal.

NOTES

10:28 That same day. This is one of the phrases that mark this as a battle report of the type common throughout the Near East of this time. This and the Hebrew phrasing do not require us to understand that this was the same day noted in 10:27, as often inferred from translation; the Hebrew phrases are different in the two verses.

Makkedah. See note on 10:16.

no survivors. Cf. 10:30, 32, 33, 35, 37, 39, 40. These phrasings are intended to convey the completeness of Israel’s victories; see “Theological Concerns” in the Introduction.

10:29 Libnah. Rainey identifies Libnah with Tell Bornat, about nine miles northwest of Makkedah, and about six miles north of Lachish (Rainey and Notley 2006:127).

10:31 Lachish. See note on 10:3.

10:33 Gezer. This was a very important city near the northwest corner of the Shephelah, about 20 miles north of Lachish.

10:34 Eglon. See note on 10:3.

10:36 Hebron. See note on 10:3.

10:38 Debir. This has been identified as Khirbet Rabud, located in the hill country about six miles south of Hebron (see also commentary on 15:13-19).

10:40 the hill country . . . the mountain slopes. This encompasses the entire south of Canaan (see Introduction, “The Physical Geography of Canaan”). The success of Joshua’s southern campaign made it impossible for the Canaanites to prevent Judah and the other southern tribes from settling in the land.

10:41 Kadesh-barnea. Located in the wilderness of Zin, this was at the southwestern boundary of the area of influence of this southern campaign. From there, the western boundary of this campaign’s effectiveness ran due north to Gaza, on the southern ­Mediterranean coast.

Goshen. This is not the region of the same name in Egypt’s eastern Nile Delta. This Goshen was in the same hill country district as Debir (15:51), south of Hebron.

COMMENTARY [Text]

With the rout of the five kings and their coalition, southern Canaan lay open before Joshua and Israel’s army. None of the city-states mentioned could mount serious opposition, as their best warriors lay dead along the road from Gibeon to Aijalon to Azekah to Makkedah, and five of their principal kings were buried in Makkedah’s cave. The account from here on is clearly a series of summary statements, with no detail provided. None was needed; after the execution of the five kings, the rest of the southern campaign was only finishing touches. But this took time. Joshua 11:18 refers to Joshua “waging war for a long time,” first in the south and then the north. Armies usually move quite slowly, and fighting so as to minimize Israelite casualties would have added to Joshua’s planning time on each occasion. The note in 10:42 that Joshua did this “in a single campaign” is true, but says nothing about the duration of that campaign.

The geographical progression of Joshua and his army makes sense, both from place to place, and from region to region: west into the Shephelah, then back east into the hill country. Six cities were taken; between the first three and the second three, the only real army Joshua faced came from Gezer to Lachish, but too late to rescue Lachish, whose king already lay dead. The phrase “as [Joshua] had done to X” is repeated a perfect seven times in this summary report (10:28, 30, 32, 35, 37, 39 [2x]). In the end, Israel could not be kept out of southern Canaan.

Having buried the five kings in a cave, Joshua took Makkedah (10:28). Next came Libnah (10:29), about nine miles northwest, then Lachish, about six miles south of Libnah. The notice that Joshua took Lachish “on the second day” (10:32) may be connected with the arrival of Horam of Gezer from the north (10:33). From Lachish, Joshua and Israel moved to Eglon (10:34), about seven miles southeast of Lachish; Eglon’s king also lay buried at Makkedah. After capturing Eglon, Israel ascended east into the hill country about 12 miles and took Hebron. The final city subdued in this campaign was Debir, about six miles south of Hebron, and still in the hill country. Only for Hebron and Debir are dependent towns mentioned. This may be because settlement in the hill country was sparse, so the kingdoms of the few dominant cities spread more widely. Smaller towns could not maintain their independence. The Hebrew word used of these outlying cities in 10:37 and 39 refers to walled towns (‘ir [TH5892, ZH6551]), not to unwalled settlements.

Israel's Conquest of Canaan

Joshua’s successes from Jericho until this point are summarized in 10:40-42. The four regions named include the whole of the south of Canaan. “Kadesh-barnea to Gaza” denotes, in general, the western section, and “Goshen up to Gibeon,” in general, the eastern section. This span shows the effectiveness of this southern campaign. Gibeon, northwest of Jerusalem, was the city whose actions had triggered this whole campaign. In another example of the narrator’s skill, the relating of this episode now has come full circle, from Gibeon back to Gibeon.

In view of the notices concerning the land that remained to be taken, we must remember this was a military campaign and not yet the settlement of the tribes. Some of these cities apparently had to be retaken later. But this campaign did make it impossible for the surviving Canaanites to prevent Judah and the other southern tribes from settling, when the time came. Joshua’s southern campaign had cleared the way.