Joshua 10 is the tenth

chapter Chapter or Chapters may refer to: Books * Chapter (books), a main division of a piece of writing or document * Chapter book, a story book intended for intermediate readers, generally age 7–10 * Chapters (bookstore), Canadian big box bookstore ...

of the

Book of Joshua The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Israel from the conquest of Canaan to the Babylonian captivity, Babylonian exile. It tells of the ...

in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

of the

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to

Joshua Joshua ( ), also known as Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' Literal translation, lit. 'Yahweh is salvation'), Jehoshua, or Josue, functioned as Moses' assistant in the books of Book of Exodus, Exodus and ...

, with additions by the high priests

Eleazar Eleazar (; ) or Elazar was a priest in the Hebrew Bible, the second High Priest, succeeding his father Aaron after he died. He was a nephew of Moses. Biblical narrative Eleazar played a number of roles during the course of the Exodus, from ...

and

Phinehas According to the Hebrew Bible, Phinehas (also spelled Phineas, ; , ''Phinees'', ) was a priest during the Exodus. The grandson of Aaron and son of Eleazar, the High Priests (), he distinguished himself as a youth at Shittim with his zeal again ...

,Gilad, Elon
Who Really Wrote the Biblical Books of Kings and the Prophets?
''Haaretz'', June 25, 2015. Summary: The paean to King Josiah and exalted descriptions of the ancient Israelite empires beg the thought that he and his scribes lie behind the Deuteronomistic History. but modern scholars view it as part of the

Deuteronomistic History The Deuteronomist, abbreviated as either Dtr or simply D, may refer either to the source document underlying the core chapters (12–26) of the Book of Deuteronomy, or to the broader "school" that produced all of Deuteronomy as well as the Deutero ...

, which spans the books of Deuteronomy to

2 Kings The Book of Kings (, '' Sēfer Məlāḵīm'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Kings) in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It concludes the Deuteronomistic history, a history of ancient Israel also including ...

, attributed to nationalistic and devotedly Yahwistic writers during the time of the reformer Judean king

Josiah Josiah () or Yoshiyahu was the 16th king of Judah (–609 BCE). According to the Hebrew Bible, he instituted major religious reforms by removing official worship of gods other than Yahweh. Until the 1990s, the biblical description of Josiah’s ...

in 7th century BCE. This chapter focuses on the conquest of southern part of Canaan by the

Israelites Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

under the leadership of

, a part of a section comprising Joshua 5:13–12:24 about the conquest of Canaan.

Text

This chapter was originally written in the

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language unti ...

. It is divided into 43 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

are of the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; ) is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (''Tanakh'') in Rabbinic Judaism. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocaliz ...

tradition, which includes the

Codex Cairensis The Codex Cairensis (also: ''Codex Prophetarum Cairensis'', ''Cairo Codex of the Prophets'') is a Hebrew manuscript containing the complete text of the Hebrew Bible's Nevi'im (Prophets). It has traditionally been described as "the oldest dated He ...

(895),

Aleppo Codex The Aleppo Codex () is a medieval bound manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. The codex was written in the city of Tiberias in the tenth century CE (circa 920) under the rule of the Abbasid Caliphate, and was endorsed for its accuracy by Maimonides. ...

(10th century), and Codex Leningradensis (1008). Fragments containing parts of this chapter in Hebrew were found among the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts, ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE). They were discovered over a period of ten years, between ...

including 4Q47 (4QJosh; 200–100 BCE) with extant verses 2–5, 8–11.Dead sea scrolls - Joshua
/ref> Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into

Koine Greek Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the koiné language, common supra-regional form of Greek language, Greek spoken and ...

known as the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

(originally was made in the last few centuries BCE) include

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), is a manuscript of the Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Old Testament and the majority of the New Testament. It is designated by siglum B or 03 in the Gregory-Aland numb ...

(B;

\mathfrak

^B; 4th century) and

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII) is a manuscript of the Greek Bible,The Greek Bible in this context refers to the Bible used by Greek-speaking Christians who lived in Egypt and elsewhere during the early ...

(A;

\mathfrak

^A; 5th century). Fragments of the

Greek text containing this chapter are found in manuscripts such as Washington Manuscript I (5th century CE), and a reduced version of the Septuagint text is found in the illustrated

Joshua Roll The Joshua Roll is a Byzantine art, Byzantine illuminated manuscript of highly unusual format, probably of the 10th century Macedonian Renaissance, believed to have been created by artists of the imperial workshops in Constantinople, and now in ...

.Facsimiles of Illuminated Manuscripts of the Medieval Period
. Only contains Joshua chapter II to the end of chapter X

Analysis

The narrative of the Israelites conquering the land of Canaan comprises verses 5:13 to 12:24 of the Book of Joshua and has the following outline: :A. Jericho (5:13–6:27) :B. Achan and Ai (7:1–8:29) :C. Renewal at Mount Ebal (8:30–35) :D. The Gibeonite Deception (9:1–27) :E. The Campaign in the South (10:1–43) ::1. Victory over the Southern Alliance (10:1-15) :::a. The Southern Alliance (10:1-5) :::b. The Gibeonite Request (10:6-7) :::c. Divine Reassurance (10:8) :::d. Victory at Gibeon (10:9-11) :::e. Affirmation of God's Unique Involvement (10:12-15) ::2. Execution of the Five Kings of the Southern Alliance (10:16-27) :::a. The Kings Held in the Cave (10:16-21) :::b. The Kings Brought Out from the Cave (10:22-25) :::c. The Kings Executed (10:26-27) ::3. Victory over Southern Cities (10:28-39) :::a. Makkedah (10:28) :::b. Libnah (10:29-30) :::c. Lachish (10:31-33) :::d. Eglon (10:34-35) :::e. Hebron (10:36-37) :::f. Debir (10:38-39) ::4. Summary of the Campaign in the South (10:40-43) :F. The Campaign in the North and Summary List of Kings (11:1–12:24) ::1. Victory over the Northern Alliance (11:1-15) :::a. The Northern Alliance (11:1-5) :::b. Divine Reassurance (11:6) :::c. Victory at Merom (11:7-9) :::d. Destruction of Hazor (11:10–11) :::e. Summation of Obedience and Victory (11:12–15) ::2. Summaries of Taking the Land (11:16-12:24) :::a. Taking the Land (11:16-20) :::b. Extermination of the Anakim (11:21-22) :::c. Narrative Pivot: Taking and Allotting (11:23) :::d. Capture of Land and Kings (12:1-24) ::::i. East of the Jordan (12:1-6) ::::ii. West of the Jordan (12:7-24) Chapters 10 and 11 closely parallel each other and have similar structure:

Victory over the Southern Alliance (10:1–27)

Gibeon was apparently a relatively powerful city-state, 'like one of the royal cities' (verse 2), although it did not have a king (none is mentioned in

Joshua 9 Joshua 9 is the ninth chapter of the Book of Joshua in the Hebrew Bible or in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to Joshua, with additions by the high priests Eleazar and Phinehas,Gilad ...

), so its submission to the Israelites without war shocked the region (verses 1–15) and the neighboring states declared war to Gibeon for the perceived betrayal. Having an alliance with Israel, the Gibeonites can requested help from the Israelites (verse 6). This opportunity enabled Joshua at the same time to fight for control of the whole southern region of Canaan. Jerusalem occupies an important location on the central ridge, between south and north mountains, and its king, Adoni-zedek, established an alliance with four other kings from across the southern highlands (cf 12:10–13; later would become the territory of Judah). The battle report against the southern alliance emphasizes the hand of God in the victory, as the

hail Hail is a form of solid Precipitation (meteorology), precipitation. It is distinct from ice pellets (American English "sleet"), though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailsto ...

stones from heaven were more devastating than the action of Israelite forces, and the staying of the

sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

and

moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

(meaning that 'the day was lengthened') demonstrated that

YHWH The TetragrammatonPronounced ; ; also known as the Tetragram. is the four-letter Hebrew-language theonym (transliterated as YHWH or YHVH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four Hebrew letters, written and read from right to left, a ...

, not Joshua, had the full control of even the heavenly bodies in the defeat of the southern kings. In the battle Israel pursued the fleeing enemies into their territory, 'as far as

Azekah Azekah (, ''ʿazēqā'') was an ancient town in the Shephela ("lowlands of Judea") guarding the upper reaches of the Valley of Elah, about 26 km (16 mi) northwest of Hebron. The current '' tell'' (ruin) by that name, also known as Tel ...

and

Makkedah This is a list of places mentioned in the Bible, which do not have their own Wikipedia articles. See also the list of biblical places for locations which do have their own article. A Abana Abana, according to 2 Kings 5:12, was one of the " rive ...

' (verse 10), then they cornered the five kings into a cave and held them there until their armies were thoroughly decimated with only a few survivors going back to their cities (verses 16–27). The five kings were executed by hanging (verse 24), similar to the treatment of the king of Ai (Joshua 8:29). Memorial stones were again established to mark the victory accompanied by Joshua's words of encouragement to the army (verse 25) recalling God's words to Joshua at the start of the conquest (Joshua 1:6).

Verse 5

:''Therefore the five kings of the

Amorites The Amorites () were an ancient Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic-speaking Bronze Age people from the Levant. Initially appearing in Sumerian records c. 2500 BC, they expanded and ruled most of the Levant, Mesopotamia and parts of Eg ...

, the king of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, the king of

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together, and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it.'' *"

Lachish Lachish (; ; ) was an ancient Canaanite and later Israelite city in the Shephelah ("lowlands of Judea") region of Canaan on the south bank of the Lakhish River mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible. The current '' tell'' by that name, kn ...

": was already a major city-state in Joshua's time (made famous by the reliefs of Sennacherib's siege, now in the British Museum).

lies on the route from Jerusalem to Lachish. *"

": south-east of Lachish, was known to the patriarchs as Kiriath-arba.

Victory over Southern Cities (10:28–43)

The next phase in the campaign is the conquest of the cities from which the alliance had come, now defended only by few survivals from the battlefield, but the conquered cities do not correspond exactly to those forming the alliance. Younger shows that the conquest of southern cities (verses 28-39) has a specific chiasm structure: A Makkedah (verse 28) B Libnah (verses 29–30) C Lachish (verses 31–32) X Gezer (verse 33) C' Eglon (verses 34–35) B' Hebron (verses 36–37) A' Debir (verses 38–39) The center of a chiasm (the member with no parallel) is the report of Israel's attack of King Horam of Gezer who had marched his army in defense of Lachish (verse 33), but Israel never conquered Gezer (16:10), so the chiasm emphasizes the event as memorable in relation to the city's ancient importance. The conquest report of those cities follows a repeating formula (but not in lock-step order): :1. The city's capture (verses. 28, 32, 35, 37, 39) :2. The siege and attack (verses 29, 31, 34, 36, 38) :3. The city, everyone put to the sword (verses 28, 30, 32, 35, 37, 39) :4. No survivors remain (verses 28, 30, 33, 35, 37, 39) :5. Israel implements the "ban" (verses. 28, 35, 37, 39) :6. The king suffers the same fate as the king of city-X (verses 28, 30, 32, 35, 37, 39) The statement 6 for both Makkedah (city 1) and Libnah (city 2) is compared to that of Jericho, whereas that of the next three is compared only to the one destroyed just before it. The fate of the final city, Debir (verses 38-39) is compared to both Libnah (city 2) and Hebron (city 5). Jerusalem, as also stated in the

Book of Judges The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. In the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, it covers the time between the conquest described in the Book of Joshua and the establishment of a kingdom in the ...

, was not subjugated by Joshua (Joshua 15:63), whereas the conquest on Jarmuth is not recorded. Gezer was mentioned but not conquered (it is finally taken at the time of Solomon; 1 Kings 9:16; cf. Joshua 16:10). Libnah and Debir, not parts of the alliance, were taken due to geographical proximities to other conquered cities (to fulfill the ''herem'', or ban; verses 28, 35, 37, 40). The narrative ends with a summary statement that Joshua controlled the entire southern part of the land. Based on the estimate of logistics involved, the conquests in this chapter could take several weeks (or even months) to complete.

Verse 41

:''And Joshua struck them from Kadesh-barnea as far as Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, as far as Gibeon.''

ESV The English Standard Version (ESV) is a translation of the Bible in contemporary English. Published in 2001 by Crossway, the ESV was "created by a team of more than 100 leading evangelical scholars and pastors." The ESV relies on recently pu ...

*"Kadesh-barnea" was the starting point of the first attempt of conquest (Deuteronomy 1:2; 2:14). *"

Gaza Gaza may refer to: Places Palestine * Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea ** Gaza City, a city in the Gaza Strip ** Gaza Governorate, a governorate in the Gaza Strip Mandatory Palestine * Gaza Sub ...

" is located in the coastal area; no specific report of victories there. *"Goshen": is probably an area in the southern reaches of the Negeb (not the Goshen of Joseph's

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

; Genesis 45:10).

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

translations: *
Yehoshua - Joshua - Chapter 10 (Judaica Press)
Hebrew text and English translation ith Rashi's commentary">Rashi.html" ;"title="ith Rashi">ith Rashi's commentaryat Chabad.org *

translations: *
''Online Bible'' at GospelHall.org
(ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English) *
Joshua chapter 10. Bible Gateway
{{DEFAULTSORT:Joshua 10 10 Tel Lachish">Book of Joshua chapters">10 Tel Lachish