Joshua 11:6

"And Jehovah said unto Joshua, Be not afraid because of them; for tomorrow at this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel. Thou shalt hock their horses, and burn their chariots with fire. So Joshua came, and all the people of war with him, against them by the waters of Merom suddenly, and fell upon them. And Jehovah delivered them into the hand of Israel, and they smote them, and chased them unto Great Sidon; and unto Misrephothmaim, and unto the valley of Mizpah eastward; and they smote them, until they left them none remaining. And Joshua did unto them as Jehovah bade him: he hocked their horses, and burned their chariots with fire."

The only providential assistance that Joshua received in this crucial encounter was the signal when to attack, and the strategy of hocking the horse and burning the chariots. The critics invariably deplore what they call the "brutal mutilation of the captured horses!"[14] These horses were the military equivalent of tanks in modern warfare, and the purpose of the many thousands of horses at this place was to use them in the destruction of God's people. Now, what could possibly have been wrong, inappropriate, or distasteful about killing all those horses? Furthermore, hocking was the merciful and decent way to kill horses. "The Hebrew word here indicates that the act of hocking the horses was not only an act by which the horses were rendered useless, but an act that destroyed them."[15] "Hocking the horses was done by cutting the sinews and arteries of their hind legs, so that they were not only hopelessly lamed but promptly bled to death."[16] Freedman, as quoted by Woudstra, stated that, "The purpose of hocking was to make the horse unsuitable for war, and employable only for domestic purposes."[17] That, of course, would refer to a very partial kind of "hocking," which it is certain the soldiers of Joshua would not have done. The same blow with a sword that severed the key tendon would also have severed the artery. The other kind of hocking would have required much more time and patience.

It was this hocking of the horses that deprived the enemy of their chance to escape. They fled on foot and were no match whatever for the hardened soldiers of Joshua.

There certainly appears to be more than one reason why God commanded Joshua to destroy the horses and chariots. The necessity of doing so from the military viewpoint is quite evident, but there was also the further reason that God did NOT wish Israel to own any horses and chariots. Deuteronomy 17:16 plainly warned Israel and their rulers NOT to go into the horse business, despite the fact of horses being in that period a prime element of military strength. When Solomon multiplied horses (having forty thousand of them), it was displeasing to God.

"Chased them unto Great Sidon ..." This was the city some 20 miles north of Tyre on the coast of the Mediterranean, but there is nothing unreasonable about a chase that extended that far. Holmes missed it completely when he asserted that, "The statement that Israel pursued the enemy that far is the result of the writer's ignorance of the distance between the battlefield and that city."[18] The writer who was ignorant, however, in such a comment was not the writer of Joshua. By consulting the map provided by Boling, it is clear that the distance between Sidon and the battlefield was only about thirty miles, which is well within the distance that a well-conditioned soldier could have traversed in much less than a whole day.[19] (It was DOWNHILL all the way!). We also appreciate Boling's comment here that, "Only Divine encouragement could account for Joshua's move against such odds."[20]

"`Misrephothmain,' although not as far as Sidon, was itself on the seacoast not far from Tyre."[21]

Woudstra pointed out that Joshua 12:21 lists Taanach and Megiddo as being among the cities captured by Joshua, showing that, "A number of military operations carried on by Joshua must have been passed over here in silence."[22]

The great victory which God gave Joshua in this chapter should not be attributed merely to the skill and efficiency of Joshua.

"The natural man attributes victory to human skill. The spiritual man acknowledges the truth that, "There is no restraint to the Lord, to save by many or by few" (1 Samuel 14:6). The issue of every battle is in God's hands."[23]

Therefore the success of Joshua was due to his prompt and faithful obedience to the things that God commanded. "And Joshus did unto them as Jehovah bade him ... (Joshua 11:9)."