Matthew Poole and continuators on Joshua 11

AND it came to pass when Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things , that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron , and to the king of Achshaph ,

The chief City of all those parts, v. 10.

This was a remarkable instance of the Wisdom and Goodness of divine Providence, which so governed the minds and hearts of the Canaanites, that they were not at all united under one King, but divided amongst many petty Kings; and next, that these did not all unanimously joyn their Counsels and Forces together to oppose the Israelites at their first entrance, which their own Wisdom and Interest obliged them to do, but quietly suffered the destruction of their Brethren, thereby preparing the way for their own.

Called Shimronmeron, Josh. 12. 10.

A place in the Tribe of Aser, the furthest part of the land toward the North and West.

2 And to the kings that were on the north of the mountains , and of the plains, south of Cinneroth , and in the vale, and in the borders of Dor , on the west,

Heb. on the North, (which may be the general designation of all the particular places following, that they were in the Northern parts of Canaan, as those mentioned Iosh. 10. were in the Southern parts) in the mountain, either in or near the famous mountain of Lebanon, called the Mountain by way of eminency; or in the mountainous Countrey.

Heb. in the plain lying Southward from Cinneroth, or the Lake of Genesareth; See Deut. 3. 17. Luke 5. 1.

A place upon the coast of the Midland-sea.

3 And to the Canaanite on the east, and on the west , and to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon , in the land of Mizpeh .

The Canaanites properly so called, lived part of them on the East near Iordan, and part on the West near the Sea, and both are here united.

That dwelt under Mount Hermon in the North of Canaan, whereby they are differenced from those Hivites who lived in Gibeon, of which before.

That Mizpeh which was in the Northern part of Gilead, of which Gen. 31. 49. Iudg. 11. 29. But there were other Cities called by that name, which signifying a Watchingplace, might be easily applied to several places of good prospect. Besides this, there is one Mizpeh of Iudah, Josh. 15. 38. another of Benjamin, Josh. 18. 26. a third in Moab, 1 Sam. 22. 3.

5 And when all these kings were † met together, they came and pitched together at the Waters of Merom , to fight against Israel.

A lake made by the River Iordan in the Northern part of it, which was in the Territory of the King of Schimron, or Schimron-Meron, and near Hazor, Iabins royal City, and almost in the middle of these confederate Kings.

Marginal references: ‡ Heb. [illegible: 1+ letters] bled by appointment.

6 ¶ And the LORD said unto Joshua, Be not afraid because of them: for to morrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel: thou shalt hough their horses , and burn their charets with fire.

i. e. Cut their Hamstrings that they may be unfit for War. For God forbad them to have, or keep many Horses, Deut. 17. 16. now especially, that they might not trust to their Horses, as men are apt to do, nor distrust God for want of so necessary an help in Battel; nor ascribe the Conquest of the land to their own strength, but wholly to God, by whose power alone a company of raw and unexperienced Footmen were able to subdue so potent a people, which besides their great Numbers, and Giants, and walled Cities, had the advantage of many thousands of Horses and Chariots.

7 So Joshua came, and all the people of war with him, against them by the waters of Merom suddenly , and they fell upon them.

When they least expected them, intending there to refresh, and prepare, and order themselves for the offensive War which they designed.

8 And the LORD delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them unto † great Zidon , and unto † Misrephoth-main , and unto the valley of Mispeh eastward, and they smote them, until they left them none remaining.

A great and famous City in the Northwest part of Canaan, and upon the Sea.

A place not far from Zidon, supposed to be so called from the Salt or Glass which they made there.

Under Mount Hermon, as appears by comparing this with v. 3. and 17. where it seems to be called the valley of Lebanon. This lay on the East, as Sidon did on the West; and so it seems they fled several ways, and the Israelites also divided themselves into two Bodies, one pursuing East, and the other West.

Marginal references: ‡ Or, [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word].; Heb. [illegible: 1+ letters] ings of [illegible: 1 word]; ‡ Or▪ [illegible: 1 word]

10 ¶ And Joshua at that time turned back, and took Hazor, and smote the king thereof with the sword: for Hazor before time was the head of all those kingdoms .

Either in the former Battel, though it be mentioned here: or rather, in his Royal City, to which he fled out of the Battel.

Not of all Canaan, but of all those who were confederate with him in this Expedition.

11 And they smote all the souls [illegible: 1+ letters]hat were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe, and he burnt Hazor with fire.

i. e. No Humane Person.

Marginal references: Heb. any breath.

13 But as for the cities that stood still † in their strength , Israel burned none of them, save Hazor onely , that did Joshua burn .

Heb. with (for so this Preposition is oft used, as Exod. 35. 12. Levit. 2. 2. Ezek. 16. 37. &c.) their Fence or Fences, Walls or Bulwarks, i. e. which were not utterly ruined together with their Walls in the taking of them.

Which though taken by the Israelites, was not so much destroyed as other places were.

Because this City began the War, and being the chief and Royal City, might renew the War if the Canaanites should ever seize upon it.

Marginal references: ‡ Heb. on their beap.

16 So Joshua took all that land , the hill , and all the south countrey , and all the land of Goshen , and the vale , and the plain , and the mountain of Israel , and the vale of the same :

Of Canaan, whose parts here follow.

Or, the Mountain, i. e. the Mountainous Country, to wit, of Iudea, as may seem, 1. Because in the following enumeration he begins in the South parts, where there was an eminent Mountain, Numb. 13. 17. 2. Because a considerable part of Iudea was called the Hilly or the Mountainous Country, Luke 1. 39, 65. which is not likely to be omitted in this particular description of the Land; the rather because Hebron, one of the places taken by Ioshua, chap. 10. 36, 37. was in the mountain of Judah, Jos. 20. 7. 3. Because this is here distinguished from the Mountain of Israel, and therefore most likely to be the Mountain of Judah, especially if you compare this with v. 21. where having mentioned the Mountain in general, from which Ioshua cut off the Anakims, he comes to particularize, and names only two, all the Mountain of Judah, and all the Mountain of Israel.

i. e. Not onely the Mountainous part, but all the Country of Iudea, which lay in the Southern part of Canaan, and oft comes under the name of the South, as Numb. 13. 22, 29. and 21. 1. Ios. 10. 40. and 18. 5. &c.

Of which see Ios. 10. 41.

The low Countries.

The Fields or Champion grounds.

Either 1. Some one particular and eminent Mountain, possibly the Hill of Samaria, mentioned 1 Kings 16. 24. or rather 2. The Mountains or Mountainous Country of Israel. See the second note on this verse.

i. e. Of Israel.

17 Even from the mount Halak, that goeth up to Seir , unto Baal-Gad , in the valley of Lebanon under mount Hermon: and all their kings he took, and smote them, and slew them.

i. e. To the country of Seir or Edom; to wit, that part of it which was South from Iudea, not that which was Eastward from it, as appears from hence, that here, as also Ios. 12. 7. is mention of the two extream bounds of the Land conquered by Ioshua; whereof the other which follows being in the North, this must needs be in the South of the Land.

A part of Mount Lebanon.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1+ letters] Or, the smooth Mountain.

18 Joshua made war along time with all those kings.

For divers years together, as is evident by the following History, and by comparing Deut. 2. 14. with Ios. 14. 7, &c. And this is here expressed, lest it should be thought that as all these Wars are here recorded in a short Narration, so they were dispatched in a short time. And God would have the Land to be Conquered gradually, for many weighty reasons; 1. Lest the sudden extirpation of those Nations should have made a great pa[illegible: 1+ letters]t of the Land Desert, and thereby have encreased the Numbers of Wild Beasts, Deut. 7. 22. 2. Lest being done suddenly and easily, it should soon be forgotten and despised, as the nature of man is apt to do in those cases. 3. That by long exercise the [illegible: 1 word] might grow skilful in the Art of War, which was very useful an[illegible: 1+ letters] needful for them in that Land. 4. For the trial and exercise of their Patience and Courage, and Trust in God. 5. [illegible: 1+ letters]o oblige them to the greater care to please and obey God, whom they yet needed for their help against their Enemies.

19 There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel: save the Hivites the inhabitants of Gibeon, all other they took in battel.

To wit, all that were taken by Ioshua, were taken by the Sword; and therefore it is no wonder that the War was long, when the Enemy was so obstinate.

Marginal references: Chap. 9. 3.

20 For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battel, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour: but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses.

It was the design of Gods Providence not to soften their hearts to a compliance with the Israelites, but to give them up to their own Animosity, Pride, Confidence and Stubbornness; that so both their abominable and incorrigible wickedness might be severely punished, and that the Israelites might not be mixed with them, but be inti[illegible: 1+ letters]e among themselves in the possession of the Land. Compare Deut. 2. 30. and for the Phrase Exod. 7. 13. and 9. 12. and 14. 17.

Marginal references: Deu. 2[illegible: 1+ letters]. 16, 17.

21 And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the Anakims from the mountain, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountain of Judah, and from all the mountain of Israel: Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities.

i. e. In that War, for it cannot be meant of any particular and short time, because the work here related was done in divers times and years.

A race of Giants, of which see Numb. 13. 33.

Or, Mountains, the Singular Number for the Plural; These Barbarous and Monstrous persons either chose to live in the Dens or Caves, which were frequent in the Mountains of those parts; or else they were driven thither by the Arms and Success of the Israelites.

Either, 1. From the Territories belonging to these Cities, as we have oft seen in this History, Cities mentioned for the Country subject to them, for the Cities were taken before by Ioshua, chap. 10. 36, 37, 38. or 2. From the Cities themselves; and so either the Cities were re-taken by the Giants, which it is not probable that God would permit in Ioshua's time; or he speaks here of that time when he took those places mentioned here, and chap. 10. which History he here in part repeats and enlargeth with this memorable circumstance, That, together with the rest, he destroyed also the Giants which were in those places.

A place in the Tribe of Iudah, Jos. 15. 50.

It doth not follow from hence, which some conclude, that this Book was written by some other person long after Ioshua's Death, even after the division of the Israelites into two Kingdoms, of Israel and Iudah; but only that this was one of those clauses which were added or altered, and suited to the stile of the present times by Ezra, or some other Prophet; though that be not necessary: for since it was evident to Ioshua, from Gen. 49. 10, &c. That the Tribe of Iudah was to be the chief of all the Tribes, and some dawnings of its Eminency appeared in that time, in their having the first Lot in the Land of Canaan, Ios. 15. 1. and the largest inheritan[illegible: 1+ letters]e, Ios. 19. 9. It is no wonder that it is mentioned apart, and distinguished from the rest of the Tribes of Israel, though that also be one of them; even as the Daughter of Phara[illegible: 1+ letters]h is distinguished from the Strange Women, 1 King. 11. 1. and Saul from all Davids Enemies, Psal. 18. title. and Peter from the Disciples, Mark 16. 7. though they were each of the same nature and quality with the rest.

Q[illegible: 1+ letters]. How could Ioshua utterly destroy these, when Ca[illegible: 1+ letters]eb and Othoniel destroyed some of them after Ioshua's Death? Ios. 14. 12. Iudg. 1. 10, 11, 12. Ans. This might be, either 1. [illegible: 1 word] these places being in part destroyed and neglected by the Israelites, might be re-possessed by the Giants, either in Ioshua's time, or after his Death, and by them kept till Caleb dispossessed and destroyed them. Or rather 2. Because this work, though done by the particular valour and industry of Caleb, is ascribed to Ioshua as the General of the Army, according to the manner of all Historians; and therefore it is here attributed to Ioshua, though afterwards, that Caleb might not lose his deserved Honour, the History is more particularly described, and Caleb owned as the great Instrument in the atchievement of it. Ios. 14. and Iudg. 1.

22 There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod there remained.

Three Cities of the Philistines, to which they retired, and where we find some of them afterwards, 1 Sam. 17. 4. and 2 Sam. 21. 16. Which may be one reason why the Israelites durst not make an attempt upon these places, though they were a part of their Possession.

23 So Joshua took the whole land , according to all that the LORD said unto Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel, according to their divisions by their tribes: and the land rested from war .

Synecdochically, i. e. the greatest and the best part of it, for some parts and places are expresly excepted in the following History.

From actual War, so far that they could now quietly survey, and distribute, and possess the Land.

Marginal references: Numb. 26. 53.