Joshua 10:28-43

4. The Conquest of Southern Palestine

Joshua 10:28-43

28And that day Joshua took Makkedah, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof he utterly destroyed [devoted], them and all the souls that were therein; he let none remain [left none remaining, as in Joshua 10:33; Joshua 10:37; Joshua 10:39, Joshua 11:8, etc.]: and he did to the king of Makkedah as he did [had done] unto the king of Jericho.

29Then [And] Joshua passed from Makkedah, and all Israel with him, unto Libnah, and fought against Libnah: 30and the Lord [Jehovah] delivered it also, and the king thereof, into the hand of Israel; and he smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein; he let [left] none remain [remaining] in it; but [and, comp. Joshua 10:28] did unto the king thereof as he did [had done] unto the king of Jericho.

31And Joshua passed from Libnah, and all Israel with him, unto Lachish, and encamped against it, and fought against it: 32And the Lord [Jehovah] delivered Lachish into the hand of Israel, which [who] took it on the second day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein, according to all that he had done to Libnah.

33Then [At that time] Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lachish; and Joshua smote him and his people, until he had [omit: had] left him none, remaining.

34And from Lachish Joshua passed unto Eglon, and all Israel with him: and they encamped against it, and fought against it. 35And they took it on that day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein he utterly destroyed [devoted] that day, according to all that he had done to Lachish.

36And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron; and they fought against it: 37And they took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof, and all the cities, thereof, and all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining, according to all that he had done to Eglon, but [and] destroyed it utterly [devoted it], and all the souls that were therein.

38And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to Debir; and fought against it: 39And he took it and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof, and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed [devoted] all the souls that were therein: he left none remaining: as he had done to Hebron so he did to Debir, and to the king thereof, [and] as he had done also [omit: also] to Libnah, and to her king.

40So [And] Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs,13 and all their kings: he left none remaining, but [and] utterly destroyed [devoted] all that breathed, as the Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel commanded. 41And Joshua smote them from Kadesh-barnea even unto Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, even unto Gibeon. 42And all these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time; because the Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel fought for Israel. 43And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

After the brilliant victory at Gibeon, Joshua, without special difficulty, conquered the whole of southern Palestine west of the Jordan. Particularly named are the cities Makkedah (Joshua 10:28), Libnah (Joshua 10:29), Lachish (Joshua 10:31), Eglon (Joshua 10:34), Hebron (Joshua 10:36), and Debir (Joshua 10:38-39). With Joshua 10:40 the special enumeration of conquered cities ceases. We are then summarily informed that Joshua smote the whole land, the mountains, the south-land, the lowlands, and the foot-hills, from Kadesh-barnea to Gaza, and the whole land of Goshen unto Gibeon (Joshua 10:40-41). This success attended him because God fought for Israel Joshua 10:42). After completing the campaign Joshua returned to the camp at Gilgal on the Jordan (Joshua 10:43). At this point, perhaps, we may most conveniently remark that when Hitzig (ubi sup. p. 103) holds all Joshua’s professed activity, after Gibeon, to be mere romance and no history, we, for reasons developed in the Introd. § 3, must decidedly differ with him.

Joshua 10:28. Capture of Makkedah (Joshua 10:10; Joshua 10:16; Joshua 10:21; Joshua 15:41). Instead of אוֹתָם, according to many Codd. and various editions, as well as the analogy of Joshua 10:37, אוֹתָהּ should be read.

He smote them with the edge of the sword, as previously Ai (Joshua 8:24), as afterwards the other cities. This phrase occurs in the present section four times (Joshua 10:28; Joshua 10:30; Joshua 10:32; Joshua 10:35).

He left none remaining, likewise used four times (Joshua 10:28; Joshua 10:30; Joshua 10:33; Joshua 10:40). A complete destruction was effected, for Joshua devoted all that had breath (Joshua 10:40).

Joshua 10:29-32. Joshua turned from Makkedah, (which is possibly to be sought for in the region of the present Terkumia (Tricomias)), westward toward Libnah, and then from there southeastwardly toward Lachish, both which places are found, though with the mark of interrogation, on Kiepert’s map, but not on that of Van de Velde. [On Menke’s Map (III.) Lachish is placed slightly N. of W. from Libna.—Tr.]

Joshua 10:33. According to the previous agreement (Joshua 9:2) the king of Gezer, later Γαζαρα (2Ma 10:32, Joseph. Ant. viii. 6, 1,) and Γάδαρα (Joseph. Ant. v. 1, 22; xii. 7, 4) and Γαδαρίς (Strabo, 16, p. 759), now goes up to help Lachish. The city has not yet been discovered. Kiepert suspects that it lay northwest of Beth-horon, and so likewise Knobel on Joshua 16:3; Van de Velde has no statement. This king too is destroyed.

Joshua 10:34. Joshua now marches westward [eastward?] from Lachish to Eglon (’́Αγλα), now Adjlan, on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza; invests, takes, and destroys Eglon with all its inhabitants, like Lachish, Libnah, and Makkedah.

Joshua 10:36-39. Eglon [Lachish?] was the westernmost point of which the bold leader of Israel obtained possession. In a tolerably direct line he marched next upon Hebron, the seat of the patriarchs, familiar in the history of Abraham, and which still lies in a charming region. This, city also he captures like the rest. The fate of Hebron is the same as that of the other Canaanite cities.

Joshua 10:38. וישׁב Joshua now turned, as Exodus 5:22; Numbers 18:9. He turns towards Debir (Joshua 15:15; Joshua 15:49). This Debir, earlier called Kirjath-sepher (Joshua 15:15; Judges 1:11) or Kirjath-sanno (Joshua 15:49), is either, as Rosen supposes (Zeitschrift der D. M. G. xi. p. 50 ff.), followed by von Raumer (p. 184), the same as Idwirban, or Dewirban, three fourths of an hour west of Hebron, or, according to the view of Knobel (p. 435), Thaharijeh, or Dhoherijeh, as Kiepert and Van de Velde write it, an important place, inhabited down even to the present time, the first on the mountain of Judah as one goes toward Hebron from the south, and distant from the latter about five hours,—or, according to Van de Velde (Mem. p. 307), with whom Keil agrees = Dilbeh, on the top of a hill north of the Wady Dilbeh, about two hours south-west of Hebron. It is in favor of one of the two last conjectures that all the cities mentioned Joshua 15:48-49, among which Debir also stands, lie entirely in the south, while Idwirban or Dewirban is west of Hebron and quite too far north for that group of cities to which it belongs. If we follow Rosen’s opinion as Bunsen has done, ויָּשָׁב must be translated “returned,” as it is by Bunsen. On the position of Thaharijeh, particularly, cf. Rob. i. 311, 12 (edh Dhoherijeh), Ritter, Erdkunde, xvi. [Gage’s Trans, iii. 193, 288, 289, 202, and Joshua 15:15.] To this we shall recur in connection with the conquests which are referred to Caleb, Joshua 14:6 ff; Joshua 15:14 ff. According to Judges 1:10 ff. the city of Hebron and even Debir was captured not until a later period.

Joshua 10:40-43. No further statement of special conquests is made; there follows rather a comprehensive survey of Joshua’s successes at that time. Joshua smote the whole land. This is then more definitely specialized: (1) הָחָר, the mountain, i.e. the mountain of Judah, which extends southward from Jerusalem. It consists of calcareous limestone, and forms the watershed between the Mediterranean and Dead Seas, rising to the height of three thousand feet; in general an uneven and rocky district, especially in the southern portion, yet not without fruitful and inviting spots. (2.) הַנֶּגֶב, the land of the south, prop., from נגב, which in the Syr., Chald., and Sam. signifies to be dry, the dry, parched land, where the mountain brooks fail in the summer, so that in Psalms 126:4, God is invoked to let them return again (vide Hitzig on this passage). It is the steppe which forms the southern portion of Judæa, a land “intermediate between wilderness and cultivated land,” precisely as the steppes of southern Russia, or the heath-land of North Germany. Because this steppe, this parched and sun-burnt land, lay in the south of Palestine (cf. Joshua 15:2-4; Joshua 15:21), נֶגֶב comes to mean generally, south, and נֶגְבָּה southward, Numbers 35:5; Exodus 40:24; Joshua 17:9-10. (3.) The low-landsהַשְּׁפֵלָה (Joshua 11:16; Joshua 15:33) from שָׁפל to be low, the strip of land in southern Palestine accurately indicated on Kiepert’s map as stretching along the sea from Joppa to Gaza (Jeremiah 32:44; Jeremiah 33:13). Much more populous, fertile, and beautiful than the Negeb. (4.) The declivities הָאֲשֵׁדוֹת, out of which the LXX. and Vulg. make a proper name: ’Ασηδώθ, Asedoth. Luther translates, “on the brooks,” [Eng. vers. “the springs”], in accordance with Numbers 21:15, where he renders אֶשֵׁד־הַנְּחָלִים “source of the brooks.” The explanation is this: אֶשֵׁד like אֲשֵׁדָה is to be derived from אָשַׁד, according to the Syriac, to pour, to rush down, = (1.) outpouring; (2.) place upon which something pours out, e.g.אַשְׁדּוֹת הַפִּסגָּה (Deuteronomy 3:17; Deuteronomy 4:49), the place whither the brooks of Mount Pisgah issue, the declivities of Pisgah.14 In our passage the declivities or “foot-hills” are those of the mountain of Judah, which slopes off gradually to the low-land:—the land of Goshen (Joshua 10:41). This is to be carefully distinguished from Goshen in the land of Egypt (Genesis 45:10; Genesis 46:28 and often). Again Joshua 11:16; Joshua 15:51, a city of the same name is mentioned, perhaps the chief city of this region. Knobel derives the name from the Arabic, making it = pectus, lorica. Calmet maintains that the land of Goshen here mentioned is the same as the Egyptian. This needs no refutation.

Joshua 10:41. From Kadesh-barnea unto Gaza,i.e. from the wilderness in which Kadesh-barnea lay (Numbers 13:3; Numbers 13:26; Numbers 20:1; Numbers 27:14, and often) to Gaza in the Shephelah, which is only about one hour from the Mediterranean Sea,—and the whole land of Goshen unto Gibeon, i.e. all the country between Gaza and Gibeon which lay on a line directly northeast from Gaza. Thus Joshua had become master of all southern Palestine between the Jordan valley and the Mediterranean Sea in one direction, and between the heights of Gibeon and the wilderness in the other. Jericho, Ai, Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, Debir, had one after the other fallen and been destroyed, and whole districts, like Goshen, had submitted themselves. With the ruins of broken cities, and the bodies of their inhabitants, the land was covered on the mountains, as well as on the slopes, in the lowland, in the desert, on the border of the wilderness as well as on the banks of the Jordan. A divine judgment had fallen on the Canaanites. Jehovah, God of Israel, had Himself fought for his chosen people (Joshua 10:42; Joshua 10:14). And Joshua marches back, to find rest after such mighty exploits, in the camp at Gilgal (Joshua 10:43).

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

Of the extermination of the Canaanites, as well as of the idea of the devotement (חֶרֶם), we have already treated, and do not, therefore, here enter again on the subject. Cf. the Exegetical and Critical on Joshua 2:11; Joshua 6:17; also the Doctrinal and Ethical on Joshua 6:15-27 [Introd. § 5, p. 21].

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The section before us being no more than several of the following (chaps. 12, 13, 15, etc.), suited for texts of sermons, while for Bible-classes the exegetical notes will furnish the necessary explanations, we remark here once for all, that on this description of passages in our Book, the Homiletical and Practical comments will be omitted.

Footnotes:

[13][Joshua 10:40.—The geographical definiteness of this statement might be indicated thus: And Joshua smote all the land: the mountain, and the south-country (the Negeb), and the low-land (the Shephelah), and the foot-hills, etc. See Exegetical note.—Tr.]

[14][We have proposed in the amended translation of this verse to render אֲשֵׁדוֹת, by “foot-hills” which, although not suggested by the etymology of the Hebrew word, seems to convey nearly the intended signification.—Tr.]