The Living Bible (73 page)

Joshua
11

When King Jabin of Hazor heard what had happened, he sent urgent messages to the following kings:

    
King Jobab of Madon;

    
The king of Shimron;

    
The king of Achshaph;

    
All the kings of the northern hill country;

    
The kings in the Arabah, south of Chinneroth;

    
Those in the lowland;

    
The kings in the mountain areas of Dor, on the west;

    
The kings of Canaan, both east and west;

    
The kings of the Amorites;

    
The kings of the Hittites;

    
The kings of the Perizzites;

    
The kings in the Jebusite hill country;

    
The Hivite kings in the cities on the slopes of Mount Hermon, in the land of Mizpah.

    
⁴
 All these kings responded by mobilizing their armies and uniting to crush Israel. Their combined troops, along with a vast array of horses and chariots, covered the landscape around the springs of Merom as far as one could see;
⁵
 for they established their camp at the springs of Merom.

    
⁶
 But the Lord said to Joshua, “Don’t be afraid of them, for by this time tomorrow they will all be dead! Hamstring their horses and burn their chariots.”
⁷
 Joshua and his troops arrived suddenly at the springs of Merom and attacked.
⁸
 And the Lord gave all that vast army to the Israelis, who chased them as far as Great Sidon and a place called the Salt Pits, and eastward into the valley of Mizpah; so not one enemy troop survived the battle.
⁹
 Then Joshua and his men did as the Lord had instructed, for they hamstrung the horses and burned all the chariots.

    
¹⁰
 On the way back, Joshua captured Hazor and killed its king. (Hazor had at one time been the capital of the federation of all those kingdoms.)
¹¹
 Every person there was killed and the city was burned.

    
¹²
 Then he attacked and destroyed all the other cities of those kings. All the people were slaughtered, just as Moses had commanded long before.
¹³
 (However, Joshua did not burn any of the cities built on mounds except for Hazor.)
¹⁴
 All the loot and cattle of the ravaged cities were taken by the Israelis for themselves, but they killed all the people.
¹⁵
 For so the Lord had commanded his disciple Moses; and Moses had passed the commandment on to Joshua, who did as he had been told: he carefully obeyed all of the Lord’s instructions to Moses.

    
¹⁶
 So Joshua conquered the entire land—the hill country, the Negeb, the land of Goshen, the lowlands, the Arabah, and the hills and lowlands of Israel.
¹⁷
 The Israeli territory now extended all the way from Mount Halak, near Seir, to Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon, at the foot of Mount Hermon. And Joshua killed all the kings of those territories.
¹⁸
 It took seven years
*
of war to accomplish all of this.
¹⁹
 None of the cities was given a peace treaty except the Hivites of Gibeon; all of the others were destroyed.
²⁰
 For the Lord made the enemy kings want to fight the Israelis instead of asking for peace; so they were mercilessly killed, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

    
²¹
 During this period Joshua routed all of the giants—the descendants of Anak who lived in the hill country in Hebron, Debir, Anab, Judah, and Israel; he killed them all and completely destroyed their cities.
²²
 None was left in all the land of Israel, though some still remained in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod.

    
²³
 So Joshua took the entire land just as the Lord had instructed Moses; and he gave it to the people of Israel as their inheritance, dividing the land among the tribes. So the land finally rested from its war.

Joshua
12

Here is the list of the kings on the east side of the Jordan River whose cities were destroyed by the Israelis: (The area involved stretched all the way from the valley of the Arnon River to Mount Hermon, including the cities of the eastern desert.)

    
²
 King Sihon of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon. His kingdom extended from Aroer, on the edge of the Arnon Valley, and from the middle of the valley of the Arnon River to the Jabbok River, which is the boundary of the Ammonites. This includes half of the present area of Gilead, which lies north of the Jabbok River.
³
 Sihon also controlled the Jordan River Valley as far north as the western shores of the Lake of Galilee; and as far south as the Dead Sea and the slopes of Mount Pisgah.

    
⁴
 King Og of Bashan, the last of the Rephaim, who lived at Ashtaroth and Edrei:
⁵
 He ruled a territory stretching from Mount Hermon in the north to Salecah on Mount Bashan in the east, and on the west, extending to the boundary of the kingdoms of Geshur and Maacah. His kingdom also stretched south to include the northern half of Gilead where the boundary touched the border of the kingdom of Sihon, king of Heshbon.
⁶
 Moses and the people of Israel had destroyed these people, and Moses gave the land to the tribes of Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

    
⁷
 Here is a list of the kings destroyed by Joshua and the armies of Israel on the west side of the Jordan. (This land which lay between Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon and Mount Halak, west of Mount Seir, was allotted by Joshua to the other tribes of Israel.
^8-24
 The area included the hill country, the lowlands, the Arabah, the mountain slopes, the Judean Desert, and the Negeb.

    
The people who lived there were the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites): the king of Jericho; the king of Ai, near Bethel; the king of Jerusalem; the king of Hebron; the king of Jarmuth; the king of Lachish; the king of Eglon; the king of Gezer; the king of Debir; the king of Geder; the king of Hormah; the king of Arad; the king of Libnah; the king of Adullam; the king of Makkedah; the king of Bethel; the king of Tappuah; the king of Hepher; the king of Aphek; the king of Lasharon; the king of Madon; the king of Hazor; the king of Shimron-meron; the king of Achshaph; the king of Taanach; the king of Megiddo; the king of Kedesh; the king of Jokneam, in Carmel; the king of Dor in the city of Naphathdor; the king of Goiim in Gilgal; the king of Tirzah. So in all, thirty-one kings and their cities were destroyed.

Joshua
13

Joshua was now an old man. “You are growing old,” the Lord said to him, “and there are still many nations to be conquered.
^2-7
 Here is a list of the areas still to be occupied:

    
All the land of the Philistines;

    
The land of the Geshurites;

    
The territory now belonging to the Canaanites from the brook of Egypt to the southern boundary of Ekron;

    
Five cities of the Philistines: Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, Ekron;

    
The land of the Avvim in the south;

    
In the north,
*
all the land of the Canaanites, including Mearah (which belongs to the Sidonians), stretching northward
*
to Aphek at the boundary of the Amorites;

    
The land of the Gebalites on the coast
*
and all of the Lebanon mountain area from Baal-gad beneath Mount Hermon in the south to the entrance of Hamath in the north;

    
All the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth-maim, including all the land of the Sidonians.

    
“I am ready to drive these people out from before the nation of Israel, so include all this territory when you divide the land among the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh as I have commanded you.”

    
⁸
 The other half of the tribe of Manasseh and the tribes of Reuben and Gad had already received their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan, for Moses had previously assigned this land to them.
⁹
 Their territory ran from Aroer, on the edge of the valley of the Arnon River, included the city in the valley, and crossed the tableland of Medeba to Dibon;
¹⁰
 it also included all the cities of King Sihon of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, and extended as far as the borders of Ammon.
¹¹
 It included Gilead; the territory of the Geshurites and the Maacathites; all of Mount Hermon; Mount Bashan with its city of Salecah;
¹²
 and all the territory of King Og of Bashan, who had reigned in Ashtaroth and Edrei. (He was the last of the Rephaim, for Moses had attacked them and driven them out.
¹³
 However, the people of Israel had not driven out the Geshurites or the Maacathites, who still live there among the Israelites to this day.)

    
¹⁴
 The Territorial Assignments

    
The Land Given to the Tribe of Levi:
Moses hadn’t assigned any land to the tribe of Levi: instead, they were given the offerings brought to the Lord.

    
¹⁵
 
The Land Given to the Tribe of Reuben:
Fitting the size of its territory to the size of its population,
*
Moses had assigned the following area to the tribe of Reuben:
¹⁶
 Their land extended from Aroer on the edge of the valley of the Arnon River, past the city of Arnon in the middle of the valley, to beyond the tableland near Medeba.
¹⁷
 It included Heshbon and the other cities on the plain—Dibon, Bamoth-baal, Beth-baal-meon,
¹⁸
 Jahaz, Kedemoth, Mephaath,
¹⁹
 Kiriathaim, Sibmah, Zereth-shahar on the mountain above the valley,
²⁰
 Beth-peor, Beth-jeshimoth, and the slopes of Mount Pisgah.

    
²¹
 The land of Reuben also included the cities of the tableland and the kingdom of Sihon. Sihon was the king who had lived in Heshbon and was killed by Moses along with the other chiefs of Midian—Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba.
²²
 The people of Israel also killed Balaam the magician, the son of Beor.
²³
 The Jordan River was the western boundary of the tribe of Reuben.

    
²⁴
 
The Land Given to the Tribe of Gad:
Moses also assigned land to the tribe of Gad in proportion to its population.
*
²⁵
 This territory included Jazer, all the cities of Gilead, and half of the land of Ammon as far as Aroer near Rabbah.
²⁶
 It also extended from Heshbon to Ramath-mizpeh and Betonim, and from Mahanaim to Lodebar.
^27-28
 In the valley were Beth-haram, and Beth-nimrah, Succoth, Zaphon, and the rest of the kingdom of King Sihon of Heshbon. The Jordan River was the western border, extending as far as the Lake of Galilee; then the border turned east from the Jordan River.

    
²⁹
 
The Land Given to the Half-Tribe of Manasseh:
Moses had assigned the following territory to the half-tribe of Manasseh in proportion to its needs:
*
³⁰
 Their territory extended north from Mahanaim, included all of Bashan, the former kingdom of King Og, and the sixty cities of Jair in Bashan.
³¹
 Half of Gilead and King Og’s royal cities of Ashtaroth and Edrei were given to half of the clan Machir, who was Manasseh’s son.

    
³²
 That was how Moses divided the land east of the Jordan River where the people were camped at that time across from Jericho.
³³
 But Moses had given no land to the tribe of Levi for, as he had explained to them, the Lord God was their inheritance. He was all they needed. He would take care of them in other ways.