Commentary - Joshua 11:16-20

Bird's-eye view

This passage serves as a grand summary statement, a concluding report on the conquest of the promised land. After the detailed accounts of the southern and northern campaigns, the narrator here pulls the camera back to give us the wide-angle shot. Joshua, in faithful obedience to the commands given to Moses, has taken the whole land. The text systematically lists the various geographical regions to emphasize the totality of the victory. This was not a partial or piecemeal success; it was a comprehensive, divinely-orchestrated conquest. The section highlights three crucial realities: the faithfulness of Joshua to God's command, the long and arduous nature of the warfare, and the absolute sovereignty of God in bringing about the destruction of the Canaanites. The climax of the passage in verse 20 provides the theological key to the entire conquest: God Himself hardened the hearts of the Canaanites so that they would fight, receive no mercy, and be utterly destroyed according to His command. This is not a footnote; it is the central explanation for why things unfolded as they did.

In short, this is a record of God keeping His promises to Abraham through the faithful obedience of His servant Joshua. It is a story of holy war, a concept that makes modern sensibilities twitch, but which is presented here as the just and righteous judgment of God against a culture that had filled up the measure of its iniquity. The land was being cleansed, not for ethnic reasons, but for ethical and moral ones. And over the whole affair, from the macro-strategy down to the hardening of individual pagan hearts, Yahweh was in complete and utter control.

Outline

Context In Joshua

This passage comes at the end of the second major section of the book of Joshua, the conquest of the land (chapters 6-12). It follows immediately after the account of the defeat of the northern coalition of kings led by Jabin of Hazor (Josh 11:1-15). Having detailed the central campaign (Jericho, Ai), the southern campaign (the Gibeonite treaty and the defeat of the five kings), and the northern campaign, the author now pauses to summarize the results before moving on to the next major section: the division of the land among the tribes (chapters 13-21). This summary serves as a hinge, closing the door on the period of active, unified warfare under Joshua's command and opening the door to the settlement period. It reinforces the central theme of the book: God's faithfulness in giving Israel the land He promised, and the necessity of Israel's obedient faith in taking it.

Key Issues

The Hardness of God's Goodness

One of the great stumbling blocks for modern readers of the Old Testament is the violence of the conquest. And this passage, particularly verse 20, seems to make it worse. Not only did God command the destruction of the Canaanites, but He actively worked in their hearts to ensure they would resist and thus be destroyed. He "strengthened their hearts" to meet Israel in battle. This is a hard saying, and it is meant to be. It confronts our sentimental notions of a God who is simply a celestial guidance counselor, wringing His hands over the bad choices people make.

The God of the Bible is sovereign. He is not the author of sin, but He is the author of the plan in which sin plays a part. When God hardens a heart, as He did with Pharaoh and as He does here with the Canaanites, He is not infusing a righteous man with a wickedness he did not previously possess. Rather, He is handing a wicked man over to his own chosen course. He is judicially confirming them in their rebellion. To harden their hearts means to strengthen their resolve, to remove any fear or vacillation that might have led them to sue for peace. God wanted them to fight. Why? So that His justice against their sin would be displayed publicly and unequivocally. The iniquity of the Amorites was now full (Gen 15:16), and the time for judgment had come. This was not genocide; it was a divinely-ordered execution. It was a moral judgment, not an ethnic one. And God's hardening of their hearts was the instrument by which He ensured His just sentence was carried out.

Verse by Verse Commentary

16 Thus Joshua took all that land: the hill country and all the Negev, all that land of Goshen, the Shephelah, the Arabah, the hill country of Israel and its Shephelah

This is the thesis statement for the entire section. Joshua's obedience resulted in total victory. The author then piles up the geographical terms to drive the point home. This was not a raid; it was a comprehensive seizure of the entire territory promised to them. From the southern desert (the Negev) to the northern mountains, from the western foothills (the Shephelah) to the eastern rift valley (the Arabah), it was all taken. The repetition emphasizes the completeness of the work. God promised it all, and Joshua, by faith, took it all. This serves as a powerful picture for the Christian life. Christ has conquered all our enemies, and we are called to walk in that victory, taking possession of every area of our lives for His kingdom.

17 from Mount Halak, that rises toward Seir, even as far as Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon at the foot of Mount Hermon. And he captured all their kings and struck them down and put them to death.

Here the boundaries are defined more precisely, from the extreme south (Mount Halak, near Edomite territory) to the extreme north (Baal-gad, in the shadow of Mount Hermon). This defines the length of the land. The point is the same: total conquest. And notice the personal, decisive action. Joshua "captured all their kings and struck them down and put them to death." This was not an abstract victory. The heads of the serpent kingdoms were cut off. Leadership matters, and by executing the kings, Joshua was decisively breaking the power structures of the Canaanite resistance. This is what Christ did on the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers, making a public spectacle of them (Col 2:15).

18 Joshua waged war a long time with all these kings.

This verse provides a crucial dose of reality. The victory was total, but it was not instantaneous. It was not easy. It was a long time of warfare. The Christian life is like this. Our ultimate victory in Christ is secure, but the process of sanctification, of possessing the land of our own hearts and lives, is a long and arduous battle. We are not called to a life of ease, but to a long obedience in the same direction. Faith does not mean the absence of struggle; it means persevering in the struggle because we know the outcome is guaranteed by God.

19 There was not a city which made peace with the sons of Israel except the Hivites living in Gibeon; they took them all in battle.

This verse sets up the theological explanation that follows. Out of all the city-states in Canaan, only one sought a peaceful arrangement, and they did so through deception. The Gibeonites stand as the great exception that proves the rule. And what was the rule? Total, unyielding opposition to Israel and Israel's God. The default posture of the Canaanites was war. This was not Israel's fault; they were not the aggressors in a worldly sense. They were the instruments of God's judgment, and the Canaanites met them with battle, not with repentance. The contrast with Rahab, who repented, and the Gibeonites, who feared and finagled a treaty, is stark. The opportunity for mercy was there for those who feared Yahweh, but the vast majority chose defiance.

20 For it was of Yahweh to strengthen their hearts, to meet Israel in battle in order that he might devote them to destruction, that they might receive no mercy, but that he might destroy them, just as Yahweh had commanded Moses.

Here is the heart of the matter, the divine commentary on the entire conquest. Why did only one city make peace? Why did all the others fight to the death against impossible odds? The answer is that it was of Yahweh. God Himself was at work. He "strengthened their hearts," or as other translations put it, He hardened their hearts. This is the same language used of Pharaoh. God did not create evil in them; He gave them over to the evil they had already chosen. He solidified their rebellious resolve. He removed their fear and gave them a fatal courage. And He did this for a stated, threefold purpose. First, so that they would be devoted to destruction (herem), utterly given over to God as a sacrifice of judgment. Second, so that they might receive no mercy, because the time for mercy had passed and the time for judgment had come. Third, so that the command He had given to Moses would be fulfilled to the letter. This is God's sovereignty on full display. He orchestrates events, even the sinful rebellion of men, to bring about His holy and righteous purposes. This should not cause us to question God's goodness, but rather to stand in awe of His power and justice.

Application

This passage is a rock-ribbed declaration of the sovereignty of God in salvation and in judgment. It is not comfortable, but it is profoundly true. The first application for us is to get our theology of God straight. The God we worship is not a frustrated deity, hoping people make the right choice. He is the king of the universe who works all things according to the counsel of His will. He hardened the hearts of the Canaanites for His glory, and He softens the hearts of His elect for His glory. Both actions reveal who He is.

Second, we must see the conquest of Canaan as a type, a foreshadowing, of a greater reality. The warfare they waged with sword and spear is a picture of the spiritual warfare we are called to. Our enemies are not people of flesh and blood, but the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12). And just as Joshua was commanded to show no mercy to the Canaanite practices, we are to show no mercy to the sin in our own lives. We are to be ruthless with our pride, our lust, our bitterness. We are to put it to death. This is a long war, not a short skirmish, but the outcome is just as certain as Israel's was.

Finally, we must see that Joshua is a type of Jesus. The name is the same in Hebrew (Yehoshua) and Greek (Iesous). But where the first Joshua gave the people a temporary rest in a physical land, the true Joshua, Jesus, gives us eternal rest in the promised land of God's presence. He is the one who has truly conquered all our enemies. He faced the full, hardened opposition of the world and of hell itself, and He won the decisive victory at the cross and the empty tomb. Our part is not to win the war, but to walk as victors, to take possession of the inheritance that our Captain has already secured for us.