Joshua defeats the towns in the north of the land
1They told King Jabin of Hazor what had happened. He then sent messages to King Jobab of the town of Madon, and to the kings of the towns of Shimron and Akshaph, 2the kings in the northern hill_country, the kings in the Jordan Valley south of Lake Kinnereth, the kings in the lowlands and in the western hills of the land of Dor, 3the kings of the Canaanites in the east and the west, the kings of the Amorites: the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites in the hills, and the Hivites at the foot of Mount Hermon in the land of Mizpah.
4The kings brought their armies. There were many many men, as many as the sand of the sea. They also had many horses and war-chariots. 5All those kings came together and they camped near the Merom River. They were ready to go to war_against the Israelites. 6The Lord said to Joshua: ‘Do not be afraid of them, because this time tomorrow I will help the Israelites defeat them. They will all die in this war. You must hamstring their horses and burn their war-chariots.’
7Joshua and his army saw the enemies at the Merom River and they attacked them when the enemies did not expect it. 8The Lord helped the Israelites defeat their enemies. The Israelites defeated them and they followed_and_chased their enemies as far as the town of Great-Sidon and as far as the town of Misrephoth-Maim and the Mizpah Valley in the east. The Israelites killed all their enemies, and no one stayed alive. 9Joshua did with the enemies what the Lord had told him to do. He hamstrung their horses and he burnt all their war-chariots.
10Joshua then went to the town of Hazor. He defeated the town and killed the king. Hazor was the most important of all the towns that had kings. 11The Israelites killed all the people in the town. Joshua said that all those people were consecrated to the Lord, and no one stayed alive. Then he burnt the town.
12Joshua defeated all the towns of those kings and he killed all the kings and the people. He did as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had said. 13The Israelites did not burn the towns that were built on hills. Joshua burnt only the town of Hazor. 14The Israelites took all the animals and the plunder that they wanted from these towns, but they killed all the people who lived in these towns, and they let no one stay alive. 15The Lord had told his servant Moses what to do and Moses told Joshua to do it. Joshua did everything that the Lord had said to Moses.
Joshua defeats the land
16Joshua took the whole land: the hill_country, the whole Negev, the whole land of Goshen, the lowlands, the Jordan Valley and the hill_country of Israel with its lowlands. 17It was all the land from Mount Halak, near the land of Seir, to the town of Baal-Gad in the Lebanon Valley, south of Mount Hermon. Joshua defeated all the kings and killed them 18but it took a long time before Joshua could defeat all those kings.
19The people in the cities did not make peace with Joshua. The Israelites defeated all those cities in war. Only the Hivite people of the town of Gibeon made peace with the Israelites. 20The Lord made those kings stubborn so that they wanted to go to war_against Israel. The Lord did not want the Israelites to feel sorry for them. He wanted the Israelites to kill all of them as He had said to Moses. 21In that time Joshua also killed all the Anakite people who lived in the hill_country in Hebron, in the town of Debir and the town of Anab, and in the hill_country of Judah and Israel. Joshua said these people and their towns were consecrated to the Lord and he killed them and destroyed their towns. 22No Anakite people were left in the land of Israel. There were Anakites left only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod.
23Joshua won and took the whole land. He did everything that the Lord had told Moses. Joshua gave the land to the Israelites, and each tribe received a part of the land. Then there was peace in the land.
