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KHEREM AND THE BIBLICAL SUPERNATURAL WORLDVIEW

The idea of kherem is broader than warfare. Fundamental to the concept is a sanctioning of some person or thing because it is forbidden either due to an accursed status or due to Yahweh’s exclusive ownership and use. 4 Persons or objects could be consecrated to Yahweh using this verb (Lev 27:28; Num 18:14; Josh 6:18; Mic 4:13). No other object or person could be substituted for that which was sanctified in this sense. The death sentence for worshiping another god was described with the verb kharam (Exod 22:20). Any person guilty of this crime was accursed. The sentence could not be revoked. Yahweh was the exclusive owner of that life or thing.

Joshua’s kherem must be viewed against the backdrop Genesis 6:1–4 and what I’ve called the “Deuteronomy 32 worldview”: Yahweh had disinherited the nations, assigning them to the rule of lesser gods. Genesis 6:1–4 is evoked by Israel’s initial contact with the occupants of the land in Numbers 13:32–33, where the giant Anakim are described as descendants of the Nephilim. As we’ll see in the discussion that follows, this belief is behind the conquest passages that use the verb kharam (“devote to destruction”) to describe Israel’s warfare on certain occasions. Deuteronomy 32:8–9 is the basis for the general goal of the conquest. Israel is Yahweh’s elect portion of humanity, and the land of Canaan is the geography that Yahweh, as owner, specifically allotted to his people. 5

In the view of the biblical writers, Israel is at war with enemies spawned by rival divine beings. The Nephilim bloodlines were not like the peoples of the disinherited nations. Genesis 10 clearly casts the human inhabitants of those nations as owing their existence to Yahweh, as they descended from Noah’s sons and, therefore, Noah—all the way back to Adam, Yahweh’s first human son. The Nephilim bloodlines had a different pedigree. They were produced by other divine beings. They did not belong to Yahweh, and he therefore had no interest in claiming them. Coexistence was not possible with the spawn of other gods.

Viewed against this backdrop, Joshua’s kherem is a holy war begun under Moses in the Transjordan, specifically against the Amorite giant kings Sihon (Deut 2:34) and Og (Deut 3:6). 6 The lives of Israel’s enemies were to be “devoted to destruction” as an act of sacrifice to Yahweh. But just who was in Yahweh’s crosshairs to this extent?

THE RATIONALE OF JOSHUA’S KHEREM

How is Joshua’s kherem presented to readers? As in other instances, we must return to Numbers 13:32–33 to begin. One specific line is of importance (in boldface type):

32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height . 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them” ( ESV ).

The first encounter of Israel with the inhabitants of the land involves the Anakim. The report of the spies contains the sweeping comment that everyone they saw in the land was unusually tall. There are good textual reasons for not taking this statement as a literally true assessment in terms of its comprehensive nature. We’ve already noted that the biblical writers at times use sweeping generalizations that are not intended to be precise. For instance, Genesis 15:16 and Joshua 7:7 referred to the occupants of the land as “Amorites” when it is abundantly clear that there were other ethnic groups in the land. 7 The term “Canaanite” is also used in the same imprecise way (Gen 12:6; 28:1, 6).

Consequently, it is much more coherent to read the statement as indicating that the Israelite spies saw unusually tall people groups everywhere they went in the land. 8 Numbers 13:28–29 supports this reading. Those verses tell us where the spies ventured: the Negeb, the hill country, the seacoast, and along the Jordan. Verse 29 has the spies noting that they saw Anakim in those locations among Amalekites, Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, and Canaanites.

This point helps explain something that will become apparent as we proceed—that the lemma kharam in the conquest accounts is used only of assaults in cities or locales that overlap with giant clan population clusters. There is one exception, a lone indiscriminate use of kharam in Deuteronomy 7:1–2. 9 That passage calls for an indiscriminate kherem because of the indiscriminate generalization in Numbers 13:32–33. The words of Moses in Deuteronomy 7:1–2 reflect the report Moses had received forty years earlier. Its meaning is not that all inhabitants of the land are put under kherem because everyone is a giant. Its meaning is that, wherever they are found, the bloodlines of the giant clans—descendants of the Nephilim—are to be eradicated. Once the conquest of Canaan actually begins, that is indeed how the term is used in the reports of Israelite victories. We must allow the more precise passages to inform the generalizations.

THE WARS OF JOSHUA

Soon after the victories over Sihon and Og, Moses died without ever having stepped into the promised land. The leadership of the nation passed to Joshua (Num 27:18–23; Deut 34:9; Josh 1 ), who was directed by God to spy out the land (Josh 2 ), then cross the Jordan from the site of Shittim (Josh 3–4 ), and renew the covenant between God and Israel (Josh 5 ). The conquest began at Jericho, a central location in the land. A central military campaign would have the immediate effect of separating the cities of the north and south regions. It was a strategy of divide and conquer.

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As with Jericho (Josh 6:18, 21), the city of Ai was “devoted to destruction” after the spiritual failure of the Israelite Achan (Josh 8:26). 10 Joshua then moved south into the hill country, part of the land that the spies had surveyed and where they had seen Anakim. The southern campaign is described in Joshua 10 .

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28 As for Makkedah, Joshua captured it on that day and struck it, and its king, with the edge of the sword. He devoted to destruction every person in it; he left none remaining. And he did to the king of Makkedah just as he had done to the king of Jericho.

29 Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Makkedah to Libnah and fought against Libnah. 30 And the LORD gave it also and its king into the hand of Israel. And he struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it; he left none remaining in it. And he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho.

31 Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Libnah to Lachish and laid siege to it and fought against it. 32 And the LORD gave Lachish into the hand of Israel, and he captured it on the second day and struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it, as he had done to Libnah.

33 Then Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lachish. And Joshua struck him and his people, until he left none remaining.

34 Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Lachish to Eglon. And they laid siege to it and fought against it. 35 And they captured it on that day, and struck it with the edge of the sword. And he devoted every person in it to destruction that day, as he had done to Lachish.

36 Then Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to Hebron. And they fought against it 37 and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword, and its king and its towns, and every person in it. He left none remaining, as he had done to Eglon, and devoted it to destruction and every person in it.

38 Then Joshua and all Israel with him turned back to Debir and fought against it 39 and he captured it with its king and all its towns. And they struck them with the edge of the sword and devoted to destruction every person in it; he left none remaining. Just as he had done to Hebron and to Libnah and its king, so he did to Debir and to its king.

40 So Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as the LORD God of Israel commanded. 41 And Joshua struck them from Kadesh-barnea as far as Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, as far as Gibeon. 42 And Joshua captured all these kings and their land at one time, because the LORD God of Israel fought for Israel. 43 Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal (Josh 10:28–43 ESV ).

This passage tells us on five occasions that the inhabitants of these hill country cities were “devoted to destruction,” along with six editorial comments that Joshua “left none remaining.” The strategy of the Israelites is apparent at this point. Israel’s kherem focused on those regions where Anakim were known to live in the land (the Num 13:28–29 report) and, therefore, certain cities in those regions. Other people living in those regions and towns were naturally also under threat—they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Joshua and his army didn’t check identification, so to speak, or interview the occupants to weed out non-Anakim. When they arrived at a place under kherem , the intent was to leave no Anakim alive.

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After the invasion of the southern hill country, Joshua went north and carried out the same plan.

The northern campaign is described in Joshua 11 . Various people groups are named in the descriptions there who also appear in Num 13:28–29, where it is explained that the twelve Israelite spies had seen Anakim (Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites; v. 3). Interestingly, Joshua ran into warriors from nearby Mount Hermon in the region of Bashan as well (v. 4). Once again, we are told that Joshua’s armies “left none remaining” (v. 8) and devoted the cities of the region to destruction (v. 12).

The destruction seems wanton, but it isn’t. The logic of the kherem emerges in Joshua 11:21–23 ( ESV ).

21 And Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua devoted them to destruction with their cities. 22 There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain. 23 So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD had spoken to Moses. And Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. And the land had rest from war.

This passage makes it evident that the target of kherem was the Anakim. It is crucial to notice that this passage refers to the “hill country of Judah” and the “hill country of Israel.” That is language that would only make sense after the tribal allotments under Joshua—which had not yet taken place—and after the country of Israel split into two under Rehoboam, an event centuries yet future . The book of Joshua very obviously was written long after the events it describes. The anachronistic language is important. The “hill country of Judah” refers to the southern campaign (Judah was the southern kingdom in the divided monarchy after Rehoboam). The “hill country of Israel” speaks to the northern campaign (Israel was the northern kingdom in the divided monarchy). Joshua 11:21–23 tells us that in both campaigns the object was the Anakim . 11

As if this were not enough of an indication to draw the reader’s attention to the Nephilim bloodlines, the writer adds in verse 22, “Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod” did some of the Anakim remain. Why add that note? Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod were Philistine cities. One needs only to recall Goliath of Gath and his brothers to understand that the writer of Joshua is setting the stage for the fact that annihilation of these bloodlines would continue into David’s era. 12

SUPERNATURAL, NOT BIZARRE, ORIENTATION

The point of this brief reconstruction is not that Israelites took only the lives of the remnant of the giant clans. Others were certainly slain. The point is that the rationale for kherem annihilation was the specific elimination of the descendants of the Nephilim. Ridding the land of these bloodlines was the motivation. 13 If Numbers 13:28–29 is to be believed, the Anakim were scattered throughout the land of Canaan. Joshua 11:21–23 makes it clear that these were the peoples targeted for complete elimination, not every last Canaanite.

In point of fact, the conquest narratives utilize other verbs besides kharam that are not necessarily words for taking life. 14 This indicates that kherem was not the goal of every engagement. The picture that emerges when all the descriptions are woven together was that, when Israelite soldiers encountered a member of the giant clans or others known to be descended from those clans, they were under kherem . Others might be killed in warfare, but their lives were not required by the supernatural-theological orientation that is telegraphed in Num 13:26–33, Deut 2–3 , and Josh 11:21–23.

The unusual size of these people groups was attributed to divine origin, something a belief in the supernatural must allow. It is not, however, an excuse for a reading of the text that is cartoonish or bizarre. 15

How tall were the biblical giants? The only measurement for a giant that exists in the biblical text is that of Goliath. 16 The traditional (Masoretic) Hebrew text has him at “six cubits and a span” (1 Sam 17:4), roughly 9 feet, 9 inches. The Dead Sea Scroll reading of 1 Sam 17:4 disagrees and has Goliath at four cubits and a span, or 6 feet 6 inches. Virtually all scholars consider the Dead Sea Scrolls reading superior and authentic. 17

Archaeological work across the ancient Near East confirms that six and one-half feet tall was, by the standards of the day, a giant. 18 One scholar of Israelite culture notes that the average height of an ancient Israelite in the patriarchal period was around five feet. 19 Famed biblical archaeologist G. Ernest Wright notes, “At Gezer were found at least one hundred skeletons from about 3000 B.C . And from various graves and deposits there are many other remains of the third and second millennia , especially from Megiddo, Jericho, and Gezer.… There are no remains of any aborigines of abnormal size.” 20 This last comment is noteworthy since these are areas where one would expect giant clan settlements. To date, there is no human skeletal evidence from Syria-Palestine (Canaan) that shows extraordinary height. 21 The same is true of the Mediterranean world of the biblical time period. 22

This is no surprise. The ancient Israelites, like other peoples of Canaan at the time, did not embalm their dead. Consequently, human skeletal remains from the first two millennia BC are not common. Of the millions of people that lived in ancient Syria-Palestine during that two-thousand-year span, a few thousand skeletons have survived. The situation in ancient Egypt is proportionally better due to embalming. Moreover, people who were embalmed tended to be among the elite class, which meant their diets were better, which in turn meant better health and optimal growth. Based on examination of mummies, the average height of an Egyptian male was between 5 and 5.5 feet. 23

This is not to say that there is no evidence external to the Bible for unusually tall people in Canaan during the biblical period. One Egyptian text from the period of Ramesses II, described by Pritchard in a chapter entitled “Problems of Asiatic Geography,” specifically makes that point. The text reads at one point:

The narrow valley is dangerous with Bedouin, hidden under the bushes. Some of them are of four or five cubits [from ] their noses to the heel , and fierce of face. Their hearts are not mild, and they do not listen to wheedling. 24

The picture that emerges from the biblical text and archaeology is that vestiges of the Nephilim bloodline were scattered throughout Canaan among a number of other people groups. The aim of the conquest was to drive out all the inhabitants and eliminate these bloodlines in the process. The thinking is foreign to us, but it was part of the supernatural worldview of the biblical writers.

Israel failed, of course. It would be centuries before the sort of kingdom envisioned by Moses and Joshua would arise. And that was mostly a mess. We tend to process the Old Testament after Joshua as just a bunch of genealogies with some murder, sex, and scandal thrown in to keep our attention. There’s more to it than that—a lot more.