TEXT [Commentary]

E.   Joshua’s Victory over the Northern Coalition (11:1-23)

1.   Joshua’s defeat of Jabin of Hazor (11:1-15)

1 When King Jabin of Hazor heard what had happened, he sent messages to the following kings: King Jobab of Madon; the king of Shimron; the king of Acshaph; 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.”

7 So Joshua and all his fighting men traveled to the water near Merom and attacked suddenly. 8 And the LORD gave them victory over their enemies. The Israelites chased them as far as Greater Sidon and Misrephoth-maim, and eastward into the valley of Mizpah, until not one enemy warrior was left alive. 9 Then Joshua crippled the horses and burned all the chariots, as the LORD had instructed.

10 Joshua then turned back and captured Hazor and killed its king. (Hazor had at one time been the capital of all these kingdoms.) 11 The Israelites completely destroyed[*] every living thing in the city, leaving no survivors. Not a single person was spared. And then Joshua burned the city.

12 Joshua slaughtered all the other kings and their people, completely destroying them, just as Moses, the servant of the LORD, had commanded. 13 But the Israelites did not burn any of the towns built on mounds except Hazor, which Joshua burned. 14 And the Israelites took all the plunder and livestock of the ravaged towns for themselves. But they killed all the people, leaving no survivors. 15 As the LORD had commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua. And Joshua did as he was told, carefully obeying all the commands that the LORD had given to Moses.

NOTES

11:1 Hazor. This was the largest and most important city of inland Canaan at that time, because it was on the international trade route between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Hazor lay 10 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, and overlooked the Huleh Valley to the north.

Madon. LXX reads Marrōn. Rainey (2006:129) follows LXX and identifies this site with the Merom of 11:5, locating it “at a well-known water source near Marun er-Ras, a centrally located mountain in Upper Galilee.” Woudstra (1981:188) follows MT and locates Madon at the Horns of Hattin, in lower Galilee west of Tiberias. Because the Hebrew letters Daleth and Resh are easily confused and Madon is unattested except here and 12:19, Rainey’s seems the better conclusion.

Shimron. LXX reads Sumoōn, reflecting Heb. shim‘on [TH8095, ZH9058], today’s Tel Shimron on the northern edge of the Jezreel Valley and southern edge of lower Galilee (Rainey and Notley 2006:129).

Acshaph. This is at the foot of the Carmel range, on the southern edge of the plain of Acco.

11:2 the northern hill country. I.e., upper and lower Galilee. This reflects the usual biblical identification of the hill country as stretching from the Negev of Judah in the south through all of upper Galilee in the north (including today’s southernmost part of Lebanon).

the Jordan Valley south of Galilee. Heb. ‘arabah [TH6160A, ZH6858] (see NLT mg) is a geographical descriptor, applied to several regions in the Jordan Valley and south of the Dead Sea. Kinnereth (see NLT mg) is the OT name for the Sea of Galilee, though it is used only a handful of times. The Hebrew noun here actually is kinaroth [TH3672A, ZH4054], possibly denoting a location near the Sea of Galilee, named for this proximity.

the Galilean foothills. Heb., shepelah [TH8219, ZH9169] (see NLT mg); these northern “foothills” between the Mediterranean Sea and the Lebanon Mountains proper resemble in their appearance and their geology the southern Shephelah of Judah. Woudstra (1981:189) suggests the Judean Shephelah, but that is impossible here, both geographically and literarily.

Naphoth-dor. I.e., the “districts of Dor,” on the coast, south of the cape of Mount Carmel.

11:3 Canaan . . . the Hivites. See notes on 3:10.

the Jebusites. This is the only reference we have to Jebusites outside the region of Jerusalem.

Mount Hermon. The southern anchor of the Anti-Lebanon Range, about 9,200 feet above sea level at its summit. Hermon was the northern limit of Israelite conquest and settlement.

Mizpah. This means “Point Lookout”; several locations named Mizpah are recorded in Scripture.

11:5 Merom. See note on Madon in 11:1.

11:8 The Israelites chased them. Lit., “and [Israel] smote them and they chased them.”

Greater Sidon. Or, “Great Sidon.” At this time, this was the most important southern Phoenician city and port, as evidenced by the nonmention of Tyre in early biblical texts—though Sidon is nearly 40 miles north of Tyre, and much farther from this battle site and from Dan (Judg 18). (See B. Mazar 1986:63ff.)

Misrephoth-maim. This is Khirbet Musheirefeh, at the northern end of the plain of Acco—i.e., as far west as the defeated Canaanite warriors could flee, to the coast of the Mediterranean.

the valley of Mizpah. This is the same Mizpah mentioned in 11:3.

11:10 at one time. I.e., at the time Joshua captured and burned it. This clause explains why Joshua burned Hazor and no other cities in the north. Whether written by the author/editor or a later scribe, it is an explanatory note by a hand later than the source document from Joshua’s time that “at one time” (sometimes translated “formerly”; cf. NASB), Hazor headed those kingdoms.

capital. Lit., “head”; Jabin was suzerain, the kings of the surrounding cities his vassals. Even if some (e.g., Jobab, 11:1) were allies rather than vassals, Jabin was primus inter pares (“first among equals”).

11:11 completely destroyed. See NLT mg and also the discussion in the Introduction, under “Theological Concerns.” So also 11:12, 20, 21.

11:13 any of the towns built on mounds. Lit., “all the cities which stood upon their tells.” All the elements making a city site advantageous (e.g., proximity to water and roadways) still were present even after its destruction (by fire, earthquake, or warfare). Most cities were rebuilt numerous times, rising to become the flat-topped mounds, or tells, now seen commonly throughout the Middle East.

COMMENTARY [Text]

For the fourth time in three chapters, the narrator begins a section with “when X heard.” This time X was Jabin of Hazor, who marshaled his forces at the waters of Merom in the hills of upper Galilee, a few miles west of Hazor itself. From the Mediterranean in the west to the desert in the east, from the borders of Phoenicia in the north to Beth-shan and northern Mount Ephraim, virtually all the kings and their armies in the north of Canaan responded to Jabin’s summons, as they were bound to do, whether they were his vassals or his allies.

Jabin’s horses (11:4) were chariot horses; cavalry and mounted bowmen did not appear in western Asia until centuries later. Chariots are most effective on relatively level terrain, so the Amorites of the southern hill country almost certainly did not use chariots against Israel; if they had, the author of Joshua would have mentioned it. Israel’s warriors now faced horses and chariots for the first time; they knew only of their reputation as a terrifying force on an open battlefield. God’s words to Joshua (11:6) were intended to calm Israel’s anxiety over this new face of the enemy, as well as over the greater numbers of Canaanites. As in the south, so now in the north against an enemy even more heavily armed, God would give Israel the victory.

Chariots were the heavy mechanized weapons of the battlefield, functioning against infantry much as tanks have done in modern warfare. Most ancient Near Eastern kings thought no weapon better, but Israel was different. Putting down the horses and burning the chariots would be a sign of God’s trustworthiness and of Israel’s trust in God (11:6, 9).

The accounts of the battles of Joshua’s southern campaign are usually filled with interesting and marvelous details of how God gave Israel victory and of how Israel cooperated with (or delayed) God’s conduct of the campaign. By contrast, no details are given for this campaign, except the bare notice that Joshua “attacked suddenly” near Merom (11:7). The vicinity of Merom is relatively level, so it was a suitable staging area for the Canaanite chariots. It may be that Jabin intended to move out of upper Galilee and meet Israel on a more advantageous battlefield when his forces were assembled. If so, Joshua beat him to the punch, attacking Jabin in his camp at Merom. Whether capitalizing only on surprise, or also on the more limited mobility afforded Jabin’s chariots, Joshua’s bold decision here, as at Gibeon against the southern coalition, was a decisive factor in Israel’s smashing victory over a larger force.

The panic of the beaten and demoralized Canaanite army is evident in the short notice of their flight (11:8). They scattered in opposite directions, fleeing to the west all the way to the Mediterranean coast (“Greater Sidon”), and to the east as far as the lower slopes of Mount Hermon (“the valley of Mizpah”). Panicked, without direction or purpose, they became easy targets for the Israelites.

The paragraph of 11:12-15 is a summary statement of Israel’s military ascendancy over the north of Canaan following this decisive battle. Because this was the second campaign, and the first had been described already in much greater detail, this second account is abbreviated.

Archaeological excavation has affirmed and illuminated the size and importance of Hazor. Joshua’s destruction of the city appears to be confirmed by the pottery and architectural evidence from this period. But Joshua burned only Hazor in this northern campaign because its king had initiated and led the move against Israel, because it was the leading city of the north, and because it was the first city taken after the battle.