March 12

Joshua 11:1 — 13:33


11 And it came about that as soon as Jabin the king of Hazor heard of it, he went sending to Jobab the king of Madon and to the king of Shimron and the king of Achshaph, 2 and to the kings that were to the north in the mountainous region and in the desert plains south of Chinnereth and in the Shephelah and on the mountain ridges of Dor to the west, 3 the Canaanites to the east and the west, and the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Jebusites in the mountainous region and the Hivites at the base of Hermon in the land of Mizpah. 4 So they went out, they and all their camps with them, a people as numerous as the grains of sand that are on the seashore for multitude, and very many horses and war chariots. 5 Then all these kings met together by appointment and came and encamped together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel.

6 At this Jehovah said to Joshua: “Do not be afraid because of them, for tomorrow about this time I am abandoning all of them slain to Israel. Their horses you will hamstring, and their chariots you will burn in the fire.” 7 And Joshua and all the people of war with him proceeded to come against them along the waters of Merom by surprise and to fall upon them. 8 Then Jehovah gave them into Israel’s hand, and they went striking them and pursuing them as far as populous Sidon and Misrephoth-maim and the valley plain of Mizpeh to the east; and they kept striking them until they had not let a survivor of theirs remain. 9 After that Joshua did to them just as Jehovah had said to him: their horses he hamstrung, and their chariots he burned in the fire.

10 More than that, Joshua turned about at that time and captured Hazor; and its king he struck down with the sword, because Hazor was before that the head of all these kingdoms. 11 And they went striking every soul that was in it with the edge of the sword, devoting [them] to destruction. No breathing thing at all was left over, and he burned Hazor in the fire. 12 And all the cities of these kings and all their kings Joshua captured and went striking them with the edge of the sword. He devoted them to destruction, just as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded. 13 It was only all the cities standing on their own mounds that Israel did not burn, except that Joshua did burn Hazor by itself. 14 And all the spoil of these cities and the domestic animals the sons of Israel plundered for themselves. It was only all humankind that they struck with the edge of the sword until they had annihilated them. They did not let anyone that breathed remain. 15 Just as Jehovah had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did. He did not remove a word from all that Jehovah had commanded Moses.

16 And Joshua proceeded to take all this land, the mountainous region and all the Negeb and all the land of Goshen and the Shephelah and the Arabah and the mountainous region of Israel and its Shephelah, 17 from Mount Halak, which goes up to Seir, and as far as Baal-gad in the valley plain of Lebanon at the base of Mount Hermon, and he captured all their kings and went striking them and putting them to death. 18 Many days it was that Joshua waged war with all these kings. 19 There proved to be no city that made peace with the sons of Israel but the Hivites inhabiting Gibeon. All the others they took by war. 20 For it proved to be Jehovah’s course to let their hearts become stubborn so as to declare war against Israel, in order that he might devote them to destruction, that they might come to have no favorable consideration, but in order that he might annihilate them, just as Jehovah had commanded Moses.

21 Furthermore, at that particular time Joshua went and cut off the Anakim from the mountainous region, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab and from all the mountainous region of Judah and from all the mountainous region of Israel. Along with their cities Joshua devoted them to destruction. 22 No Anakim were left in the land of the sons of Israel. It was only in Gaza, in Gath and in Ashdod that they remained. 23 So Joshua took all the land, according to all that Jehovah had promised Moses, and Joshua then gave it as an inheritance to Israel by their shares, according to their tribes. And the land had no disturbance from war.

12 Now these are the kings of the land whom the sons of Israel defeated and whose land they then took possession of on the side of the Jordan toward the rising of the sun, from the torrent valley of Arnon up to Mount Hermon and all the Arabah toward the sunrise: 2 Sihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, ruling from Aroer, which was on the bank of the torrent valley of Arnon, and the middle of the torrent valley, and half of Gilead as far as Jabbok the torrent valley, the boundary of the sons of Ammon, 3 and the Arabah as far as the sea of Chinnereth toward the east and as far as the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, to the east in the direction of Beth-jeshimoth, and toward the south under the slopes of Pisgah.

4 And the territory of Og the king of Bashan, of what was left over of the Rephaim, who dwelt in Ashtaroth and Edrei, 5 and who ruled in Mount Hermon and in Salecah and in all Bashan, as far as the boundary of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and half of Gilead, to the territory of Sihon the king of Heshbon.

6 It was Moses the servant of Jehovah and the sons of Israel who defeated them, after which Moses the servant of Jehovah gave it as a holding to the Reubenites and the Gadites and half of the tribe of Manasseh.

7 And these are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the sons of Israel defeated on the side of the Jordan toward the west, from Baal-gad in the valley plain of Lebanon and as far as Mount Halak, which goes up to Seir, after which Joshua gave it to the tribes of Israel as a holding by their shares, 8 in the mountainous region and in the Shephelah and in the Arabah and on the slopes and in the wilderness and in the Negeb—the Hittites, the Amorites and the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites:

 9 The king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which was beside Bethel, one;

10 the king of Jerusalem, one; the king of Hebron, one;

11 the king of Jarmuth, one; the king of Lachish, one;

12 the king of Eglon, one; the king of Gezer, one;

13 the king of Debir, one; the king of Geder, one;

14 the king of Hormah, one; the king of Arad, one;

15 the king of Libnah, one; the king of Adullam, one;

16 the king of Makkedah, one; the king of Bethel, one;

17 the king of Tappuah, one; the king of Hepher, one;

18 the king of Aphek, one; the king of Lassharon, one;

19 the king of Madon, one; the king of Hazor, one;

20 the king of Shimron-meron, one; the king of Achshaph, one;

21 the king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one;

22 the king of Kedesh, one; the king of Jokneam in Carmel, one;

23 the king of Dor on the mountain ridge of Dor, one; the king of Goiim in Gilgal, one;

24 the king of Tirzah, one;
all the kings being thirty-one.


13 Now Joshua was old, being advanced in years. So Jehovah said to him: “You yourself have grown old and have advanced in years, and to a very great extent the land yet remains to be taken in possession. 2 This is the land yet remaining: all the regions of the Philistines and all the Geshurites 3 (from the branch of the Nile that is in front of Egypt and up to the border of Ekron to the north, it used to be reckoned as belonging to the Canaanites); five axis lords of the Philistines, the Gazites and the Ashdodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites and the Ekronites; and the Avvim. 4 To the south all the land of the Canaanites; and Mearah, which belongs to the Sidonians, as far as Aphek, as far as the border of the Amorites; 5 and the land of the Gebalites and all of Lebanon toward the rising of the sun, from Baal-gad at the base of Mount Hermon as far as to the entering in of Hamath; 6 all the inhabitants of the mountainous region, from Lebanon to Misrephoth-maim, all the Sidonians; I myself shall dispossess them from before the sons of Israel. Only make it fall to Israel as an inheritance, just as I have commanded you. 7 And now apportion this land as an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half tribe of Manasseh.”

8 With the other half tribe the Reubenites and the Gadites took their inheritance that Moses gave them on the side of the Jordan toward the east, just as Moses the servant of Jehovah had given them, 9 from Aroer, which is on the bank of the torrent valley of Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the torrent valley, and all the tableland of Medeba as far as Dibon; 10 and all the cities of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, up to the border of the sons of Ammon; 11 and Gilead and the territory of the Geshurites and the Maacathites and all of Mount Hermon and all Bashan as far as Salecah; 12 all the royal realm of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei—he it was who remained of what was left of the Rephaim—and Moses went striking them and dispossessing them. 13 And the sons of Israel did not dispossess the Geshurites and the Maacathites, but Geshur and Maacath keep dwelling in the midst of Israel down to this day.

14 It was only to the tribe of the Levites that he did not give an inheritance. The offerings made by fire of Jehovah the God of Israel are their inheritance, just as he has promised them.

15 Then Moses made a gift to the tribe of the sons of Reuben by their families, 16 and the territory came to be theirs from Aroer, which is on the bank of the torrent valley of Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the torrent valley, and all the tableland by Medeba; 17 Heshbon and all its towns that are on the tableland, Dibon and Bamoth-baal and Beth-baal-meon, 18 and Jahaz and Kedemoth and Mephaath, 19 and Kiriathaim and Sibmah and Zereth-shahar in the mountain of the low plain, 20 and Beth-peor and the slopes of Pisgah and Beth-jeshimoth, 21 and all the cities of the tableland and all the royal realm of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, and whom Moses struck, together with the chieftains of Midian, Evi and Rekem and Zur and Hur and Reba, the dukes of Sihon, who were dwelling in the land. 22 And Balaam the son of Beor, the diviner, was one whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword along with their slain ones. 23 And the boundary of the sons of Reuben came to be the Jordan; and this as a territory was the inheritance of the sons of Reuben by their families, with the cities and their settlements.

24 Furthermore, Moses made a gift to the tribe of Gad, the sons of Gad by their families, 25 and their territory came to be Jazer and all the cities of Gilead and half of the land of the sons of Ammon as far as Aroer, which is in front of Rabbah; 26 and from Heshbon to Ramath-mizpeh and Betonim and from Mahanaim to the border of Debir; 27 and in the low plain Beth-haram and Beth-nimrah and Succoth and Zaphon, the rest of the royal realm of Sihon the king of Heshbon, the Jordan being the border as far as the extremity of the sea of Chinnereth on the side of Jordan toward the east. 28 This was the inheritance of the sons of Gad by their families, with the cities and their settlements.

29 Further, Moses made a gift to the half tribe of Manasseh, and it came to be that of the half tribe of the sons of Manasseh by their families. 30 And their territory came to be from Mahanaim all of Bashan, all the royal realm of Og the king of Bashan, and all the tent villages of Jair that are in Bashan, sixty towns. 31 And half of Gilead, and Ashtaroth and Edrei, the cities of the royal realm of Og in Bashan, went to the sons of Machir the son of Manasseh, to half of the sons of Machir by their families.

32 These were what Moses caused [them] to inherit, on the desert plains of Moab on the side of the Jordan, at Jericho, toward the east. 33 And to the tribe of the Levites Moses did not give an inheritance. Jehovah the God of Israel is their inheritance, just as he has promised them.