1. As signifying those cities which had made peace with the Israelites, when conditions of peace were offered according to the command of the law; and consequently were not destroyed. Such as the cities of the Hivites; see [Jos 11:19].
2. The cities which were situated upon hills and mountains, which, when taken, might be retained with little difficulty. In this sense the place is understood by the Vulgate, as pointing out the cities quae erant in collibus et tumulis sitae, "which were situated on hills and eminences." As the cities of the plain might be easily attacked and carried, Joshua destroyed them; but as those on mountains, hills, or other eminences, might be retained with little trouble, prudence would dictate their preservation, as places of refuge in any insurrection of the people, or invasion of their adversaries. The passage in Jeremiah, [Jer 30:18], Jerusalem shall be builded on her own heap, תלה tillah, if understood as above, conveys an easy and clear sense: Jerusalem shall be re-established on her Own Hill.
Verse 14
All the spoil of these cities - Israel took - With the exception of those things which had been employed for idolatrous purposes; see [Deu 7:25].
Verse 16
The mountain of Israel, and the valley of the same - This place has given considerable trouble to commentators; and it is not easy to assign such a meaning to the place as may appear in all respects satisfactory.
1. If we consider this verse and the 21st to have been added after the times in which the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were divided, the difficulty is at once removed.
2. The difficulty will be removed if we consider that mountain and valley are put here for mountains and valleys, and that these include all mountains and valleys which were not in the lot that fell to the tribe of Judah. Or,
3. If by mountain of Israel we understand Beth-el, where God appeared to Jacob, afterwards called Israel, and promised him the land of Canaan, a part of the difficulty will be removed. But the first opinion seems best founded; for there is incontestable evidence that several notes have been added to this book since the days of Joshua. See the preface.
Verse 17
From the mount Halak - All the mountainous country that extends from the south of the land of Canaan towards Seir unto Baal-gad, which lies at the foot of Mount Libanus or Hermon, called by some the mountains of Separation, which serve as a limit between the land of Canaan and that of Seir; see [Jos 12:7].
The valley of Lebanon - The whole extent of the plain which is on the south, and probably north, of Mount Libanus. Calmet conjectures that Coelesyria is here meant.
Verse 18
Joshua made war a long time - The whole of these conquests were not effected in one campaign: they probably required six or seven years. There are some chronological notices in this book, and in Deuteronomy, by which the exact time may be nearly ascertained. Caleb was forty years old when he was sent from Kadesh-barnea by Moses to search out the land, about A.M. 2514; and at the end of this war he was eighty-five years old; (compare [Jos 14:10] with Numbers 13, and Deuteronomy 1); consequently the war ended in 2559, which had begun, by the passage of Jordan, on the tenth day of the first month of the year 2554. From this date to the end of 2559 we find exactly six years; the first of which Joshua seems to have employed in the conquest of the south part of the land of Canaan, and the other five in the conquest of all the territories situated on the north of that country. See Dodd. Calmet computes this differently, and allows the term of seven years for the conquest of the whole land. "Caleb was forty years old when sent from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land. At the conclusion of the war he was eighty-five years old, as himself says, [Jos 14:10]. From this sum of eighty-five subtract forty, his age when he went from Kadesh-barnea, and the thirty-eight years which he spent in the wilderness after his return, and there will remain the sum of seven years, which was the time spent in the conquest of the land."
1. By protracting the war the Canaanites had time to repent, having sufficient opportunity to discern the hand of Jehovah.
2. Agriculture was carried on, and thus provision was made even for the support of the conquerors, for had the land been subdued and wasted at once, tillage must have stopped, and famine would have ensued.
3. Wild beasts would have multiplied upon them, and the land have been desolated by their means.
4. Had these conquests been more rapid the people of Israel would have been less affected, and less instructed by miracles that had passed in such quick succession before their eyes; and, as in this case they would have obtained the dominion with comparatively little exertion, they might have felt themselves less interested in the preservation of an inheritance, to obtain which they had been but at little trouble and little expense.
What we labor under the Divine blessing to acquire we are careful to retain; but what comes lightly generally goes lightly. God obliged them to put forth their own strength in this work, and only blessed and prospered them while they were workers together with him. See the note on [Jos 13:6].
Verse 20
It was of the Lord to harden their hearts - They had sinned against all the light they had received, and God left them justly to the hardness, obstinacy, and pride of their own hearts; for as they chose to retain their idolatry, God was determined that they should be cut off. For as no city made peace with the Israelites but Gibeon and some others of the Hivites, [Jos 11:19], it became therefore necessary to destroy them; for their refusal to make peace was the proof that they wilfully persisted in their idolatry.
Verse 21
Cut off the Anakims - from Hebron, from Debir - This is evidently a recapitulation of the military operations detailed [Jos 10:36-41].
Destroyed - their cities - That is, those of the Anakims; for from [Jos 11:13] we learn that Joshua preserved certain other cities.
Verse 22
In Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod - The whole race of the Anakims was extirpated in this war, except those who had taken refuge in the above cities, which belonged to the Philistines; and in which some of the descendants of Anak were found even in the days of David.
Verse 23
So Joshua took the whole land - All the country described here and in the preceding chapter. Besides the multitudes that perished in this war, many of the Canaanites took refuge in the confines of the land, and in the neighboring nations. Some suppose that a party of these fugitive Canaanites made themselves masters of Lower Egypt, and founded a dynasty there known by the name of the shepherd kings; but it is more probable that the shepherds occupied Egypt long before the time that Jacob went thither to sojourn. It is said they founded Tingris or Tangier, where, according to Procopius, they erected two white pillars with an inscription in the Phoenician language, of which this is the translation: We Are the Persons Who Have Fled from the Face of Joshua the Plunderer, the Son of Nave or Nun. See Bochart, Phaleg and Canaan, lib. i., c. xxiv., col. 476. Many, no doubt, settled in different parts of Africa, in Asia Minor, in Greece, and in the different islands of the Aegean and Mediterranean Sea: it is supposed also that colonies of this people were spread over different parts of Germany and Sclavonia, etc., but their descendants are now so confounded with the nations of the earth, as no longer to retain their original names, or to be discernible.
And Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel - He claimed no peculiar jurisdiction over it; his own family had no peculiar share of it, and himself only the ruined city of Timnath-serah, in the tribe of Ephraim, which he was obliged to rebuild. See [Jos 19:49], [Jos 19:50], and see his character at the end of the book, [Jos 24:33] (note).
And the land rested from war - The whole territory being now conquered, which God designed the Israelites should possess at this time. According to the apostle, [Heb 4:8], etc., Joshua himself was a type of Christ; the promised land, of the kingdom of heaven, the victories which he gained, of the victory and triumph of Christ; and the rest he procured for Israel, of the state of blessedness, at the right hand of God. In this light we should view the whole history, in order to derive those advantages from it which, as a portion of the revelation of God, it was intended to convey. Those who finally reign with Christ are they who, through his grace, conquer the world, the devil, and the flesh; for it is only of those who thus overcome that he says, "They shall sit with me on my throne, as I have overcome, and am set down with the Father on the Father's throne;" [Rev 3:21]. Reader, art thou a conqueror?
Introduction
A list of the kings on the east of Jordan, which were conquered by Moses, with their territories, [Jos 12:1-6]. A list of those on the west side of Jordan, conquered by Joshua, in number thirty-one, vv. 7-24.
Verse 1
From the river Arnon unto Mount Hermon - Arnon was the boundary of all the southern coast of the land occupied by the Israelites beyond Jordan; and the mountains of Hermon were the boundaries on the north. Arnon takes its rise in the mountains of Gilead, and having run a long way from north to south falls into the Dead Sea, near the same place into which Jordan discharges itself.
And all the plain on the east - All the land from the plains of Moab to Mount Hermon.
Verse 2
From Aroer - Aroer was situated on the western side of the river Arnon, in the middle of the valley through which this river takes its course. The kingdom of Sihon extended from the river Arnon and the city of Aroer on the south to the river Jabbok on the north.
And from half Gilead - The mountains of Gilead extended from north to south from Mount Hermon towards the source of the river Arnon, which was about the midst of the extent of the kingdom of Sihon: thus Sihon is said to have possessed the half of Gilead, that is, the half of the mountains and of the country which bore the name of Gilead on the east of his territories.
River Jabbok - This river has its source in the mountains of Gilead; and, running from east to west, falls into Jordan. It bounds the territories of Sihon on the north, and those of the Ammonites on the south.
Verse 3
The sea of Chinneroth - Or Gennesareth, the same as the lake or sea of Tiberias.
The Salt Sea on the east - ים המלח yam hammelach, which is here translated the Salt Sea, is understood by others to mean the sea of the city Melach. Where can we find any thing that can be called a salt sea on the east of the lake of Gennesareth? Some think that the lake Asphaltites, called also the Dead Sea, Sea of the Desert, Sea of Sodom, and Salt Sea, is here intended.
Beth-jeshimoth - A city near the Dead Sea in the plains of Moab.
Ashdoth-pisgah - Supposed to be a city at the foot of Mount Pisgah.