Joshua 10


Joshua 10 is the tenth 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, but modern scholars view it as part of the Deuteronomistic History, which spans the books of Deuteronomy to 2 Kings, attributed to nationalistic and devotedly Yahwistic writers during the time of the reformer Judean king Josiah in 7th century BCE. This chapter focuses on the conquest of southern part of Canaan by the Israelites under the leadership of Joshua, 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. It is divided into 43 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, Aleppo Codex, and Codex Leningradensis. Fragments containing parts of this chapter in Hebrew were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls including 4Q47 with extant verses 2–5, 8–11.
Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint include Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus. Fragments of the Septuagint Greek text containing this chapter are found in manuscripts such as Washington Manuscript I, and a reduced version of the Septuagint text is found in the illustrated Joshua Roll.

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:
Chapters 10 and 11 closely parallel each other and have similar structure:
Joshua 10Joshua 11
southern alliance northern alliance
divine reassurance divine reassurance
victory employing surprise victory employing surprise
execution of kings/destruction of cities execution of kings/destruction of cities
conquest summary conquest summary

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

was apparently a relatively powerful city-state, 'like one of the royal cities', although it did not have a king, so its submission to the Israelites without war shocked the region 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. 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. The battle report against the southern alliance emphasizes the hand of God in the victory, as the hailstones from heaven were more devastating than the action of Israelite forces, and the staying of the sun and moon demonstrated that YHWH, 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 and Makkedah', 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. The five kings were executed by hanging, similar to the treatment of the king of Ai. Memorial stones were again established to mark the victory accompanied by Joshua's words of encouragement to the army recalling God's words to Joshua at the start of the conquest.

Verse 5

  • "Lachish": was already a major city-state in Joshua's time. Azekah lies on the route from Jerusalem to Lachish.
  • "Hebron": 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 has a specific chiasm structure:
A Makkedah
B Libnah
C Lachish
X Gezer
C' Eglon
B' Hebron
A' Debir
The center of a chiasm is the report of Israel's attack of King Horam of Gezer who had marched his army in defense of Lachish, but Israel never conquered Gezer, 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 :
The statement 6 for both Makkedah and Libnah 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 is compared to both Libnah and Hebron
.
Jerusalem, as also stated in the Book of Judges, was not subjugated by Joshua, whereas the conquest on Jarmuth is not recorded. Gezer was mentioned but not conquered. Libnah and Debir, not parts of the alliance, were taken due to geographical proximities to other conquered cities.
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 to complete.

Verse 41

  • "Kadesh-barnea" was the starting point of the first attempt of conquest.
  • "Gaza" is located in the coastal area; no specific report of victories there.
  • "Goshen": is probably an area in the southern reaches of the Negeb.