Judges 4 – King Jabin, Canaanite of Hazor, is the next tyrant Israel must fight.  His military commander is Sisera.  They dominate Israel because of their chariots of iron.

Deborah (around 1125—her song is one of the most ancient pieces of writing in the Old Testament)is a prophetess at this time and also a judge.  As judge, she sat under a palm tree situated in the hill country of Ephraim, between the towns of Ramah and…

Judges 3 – The nations the Lord leaves to test his people are the following: the five lords of the Philistines, the Canaanites, Sidonians,  the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon and the Jebusites in Jerusalem. Also the Hittites, Amorites and Perizzites.  They intermarried and worshiped the gods they worshipped—the Baals and the Asherahs.

According to the Eerdman’s guide, Canaan was Ham, son of Noah. They were the sedentary…

Judges 2 – The angel of the Lord reminds the people to make covenants with the inhabitants of the land, but to “tear down their altars” (2:2).  But they do not obey.  For this reason it says, they will be forced to share the land.

At age 110, Joshua dies and is buried in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mt. Gaash.  Another generation comes along “who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did what was evil in the…

Introduction to Judges: We learn in Judges that the ban upon the enemies of the Israelites during their wars of conquest were not so thorough as Joshua may have led us to believe.  It is the theme of Judges to show how a remnant of the native peoples remained and how this remnant persisted as a temptation for the Jews.  The point of these conquest stories seems to be to show that God’s people are a people set apart.  Their ways and the ways of the world around them are not to…

Joshua 22 – Joshua releases the Gadites, Reubenites and half-tribe of Manasseh to go to their lands east of the Jordan, instructing them “to observe the commandment and instruction that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, and to hold fast to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul” (22:5).

When they get there, though, there is a serious misunderstanding. …

Joshua 19 – Then the lots of Simeon (within the inheritance of Judah—13 towns there including Beersheba, Hormah and Ziglag, near the Negev); Zebulun (the plain of Jezreel, west of Mt. Tabor); Issachar (the town of Jezreel up to Mt. Tabor and including the towns of Shunem and Endor); Asher (22 towns from Megiddo up the coast of the Mediterranean to north of Tyre); Naphtali (Arabah north of Mt. Tabor up to just north of the river that flows north of…

Joshua 16 – The other Josephite tribe, Ephraim, receives land around Bethel, Beth-horon and out to Gezer.  “They did not drive the Canaanites out of Gezer, however, so the people of Gezer live as slaves among the people of Ephraim to this day” (16:10).

Joshua 17 – Another allotment is made to a son of Joseph, Manasseh—other than the one to his son Machir, on the east side of the Jordan.

One of the sons of Manasseh had no…

Joshua 13 – Joshua is now old.  And contradicting the chapters that we just finished, the Lord says to Joshua that “much of the land still remains to be possessed” (12:1) – the lands of the Philistines (the Jerusalem Bible note says they originated in Crete or Asia Minor.  They established a settlement in Palestine around 1200, on the maritime plain—a district they always kept control of), the Geshurites (east of Egypt), the Canaanites, the Sidonians, the Gebalites and…

Joshua 11 – The kings of the northern hill country combine with the kings along the rift valley called the Arabah (from the sea of Galilee to the Gulf of Aqaba) to fight the Israelites, but they are defeated. 

The King of Hazor is killed and his large city destroyed (11:11).  None of the other towns are, and all the spoil is taken. 

The following disturbing passage concludes the conquest passages: “. . .all were taken in battle.  For it was the…