King James Version · Entering the land
Joshua 11
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And it came to pass, when king of had heard those things, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of , and to the king of , And to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, and of the plains south of , and in the valley, and in the borders of on the west, And to the on the east and on the west, and to the , and the , and the , and the in the mountains, and to the under Hermon in the land of . And they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the sea shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many. And when all these kings were met together, they came and pitched together at the waters of , to fight against Israel. And said unto , Be not afraid because of them: for to morrow about this time will I them up all slain before Israel: thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with . So came, and all the people of war with him, against them by the waters of suddenly; and they fell upon them. And them into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them unto great Zidon, and unto Misrephoth–maim, and unto the valley of eastward; and they smote them, until they left them none remaining. And did unto them as bade him: he houghed their horses, and burnt their chariots with . And at that time turned back, and took , and smote the king thereof with : for beforetime was the head of all those kingdoms. And they smote all the that were therein with the edge of , utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe: and he burnt with . And all the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did take, and smote them with the edge of , and he them, as the commanded. But as for the cities that stood still in their strength, Israel burned none of them, only; that did burn. And all the spoil of these cities, and the cattle, the took for a prey unto themselves; but every man they smote with the edge of , until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe. As commanded his servant, so did command , and so did ; he left nothing undone of all that commanded . So took all that land, the hills, and all the south country, and all the land of , and the valley, and the plain, and the mountain of Israel, and the valley of the same; Even from the mount Halak, that goeth up to , even unto –gad in the valley of under : and all their kings he took, and smote them, and slew them. made war a long time with all those kings. There was not a city that made peace with the , the the inhabitants of : all other they took in battle. For it was of to harden their , that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no , but that he might destroy them, as commanded . And at that time came , and the Anakims from the mountains, from , from , from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel: destroyed them utterly with their cities. There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the : only in , in , and in , there remained. So took the whole land, according to all that said unto ; and gave it for an unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Entering the land, 1250 BC to 1200 BC ›
Israel crossing into Canaan and contending with fortified city-states, each with its own king, in a land Egypt had recently dominated and was now losing its grip on.
- The collapse
- The whole eastern Mediterranean is coming apart. Within about fifty years the Hittite empire falls, its capital burns, the Mycenaean palaces are destroyed, Ugarit is wiped out mid-correspondence, and Egypt is fighting for its life against seaborne invaders. Nobody fully knows why. Drought, earthquake, migration, and the failure of interlocking trade are all in the explanation.
- Egypt
- Still strong enough to record a victory over a people called Israel on a stone monument around 1207 BC, the earliest mention of the name outside the Bible. But Egyptian control of Canaan is slipping, and within a generation it is gone.
- Canaan
- Not a country but dozens of walled towns, each with its own king, its own god, and its own quarrel with the next valley. This is why the book of Joshua reads as a list of kings rather than a war with a nation.
- Further afield
- Iron is beginning to replace bronze across the region, partly because the tin trade that made bronze possible has broken down. The Olmec are building San Lorenzo. The Zhou are about to overthrow the Shang in China.