Jos 11 | EE | STEP | Jabin, king of Hazor, heard what had happened. So, he sent messengers (people with a message) to Jobab, king of Madon, and to the kings of Shimron and of Acshaph.

Joshua 11

Joshua fights with Jabin and other kings

1 Jabin, king of Hazor, heard what had happened. So, he sent messengers (people with a message) to Jobab, king of Madon, and to the kings of Shimron and of Acshaph. 2 And he sent to the kings of the mountains in the north, in the Arabah, south of Kinnereth. And he sent messengers to the little hills in the west, and Naphoth Dor on the west. 3 Messengers went to the Canaanites in the east and in the west. They went to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites and Jebusites in the hills. And he sent them to the Hivites who lived by Hermon near Mizpah. 4 All these kings came with their soldiers and many horses and chariots. It was a great big army. The soldiers were as many as there are bits of sand by the sea. 5 The kings all joined together and made a camp by the Waters of Merom. They wanted to fight against Israel.

6 ‘Do not be afraid of them’, the LORD said to Joshua. ‘I will give you all of them. You will kill them all by this time tomorrow. You must cut the backs of the horses’ legs, and burn the chariots.’

7 So Joshua and all his army went to fight them at the Waters of Merom. They quickly attacked them 8 and the LORD helped the Israelites to win the fight. Israel ran after them as far as Sidon, Misrephoth Maim and the valley of Mizpah. They went east until they had killed all their enemies. 9 Joshua did to them as the LORD had said. He cut the backs of the legs of the horses and burnt their chariots.

10 Then Joshua went back and took Hazor. He killed its king. (Hazor had been most important kingdom over all the kingdoms who were against Israel.) 11 The Israelites killed everyone who lived there. They killed everything in the city that was alive. They burned the city and destroyed it.

12 Joshua took all these cities and killed all their kings. He destroyed them all, as the LORD‘s servant Moses had told him to do. 13 But Israel did not burn all the cities built on small hills, except Hazor. Joshua did burn this one. 14 The Israelites took all the animals and good things from the cities, but killed all the people. They did not let one of them live, but destroyed them all. 15 The LORD told Moses what to do. Then Moses told Joshua what the LORD had said. Joshua did what Moses told him to do. Joshua did not forget anything. He did everything that the LORD had told Moses.

16 So Joshua took all these places. He took the hills, the dry country in the south, all of Goshen and the little hills in the west. He took the Arabah and the mountains and hills of Israel. 17 These were from Mount Halak near Seir to Baal Gad in the valley of Lebanon, below Mount Hermon. He took all their kings and killed them all. 18 Joshua was fighting these kings for a very long time. 19 He only left alive the Hivites living in Gibeon, because he had made them a promise. 20 The LORD had made all the peoples want to fight Israel. This was so that the LORD could destroy them all. He did not let them live. This was what the LORD had told Moses. 21 Joshua went at that time to fight the Anakites from the hills. They came from Hebron, Debir and Anab and all the hills of Judah and Israel. Joshua destroyed them all, and all their towns. 22 He killed all the Anakites in Israel, except for a few in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod. 23 So Joshua took the whole country, as the LORD had told Moses. The LORD gave the country to Israel to live in. Joshua gave each tribe its own part.

Then the people did not have to fight any more. ^{▼▼11:23 Verses 16-23 are a list of all that God had done for Joshua.}