Joshua 12: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter is a list of the kings Israel defeated and the land Israel took from them. It begins east of the Jordan, where Moses and Israel defeated Sihon king of the Amorites and Og king of Bashan, and gave their land to Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh. It then names the kings west of the Jordan whom Joshua and Israel defeated, city by city, ending with a total of thirty-one. The list closes the account of the fighting before the land is divided among the tribes.

Claim by Claim

1. 12:1
   • These are the kings of the land whom the children of Israel struck down.
   • The children of Israel took possession of the land of these kings.
   • That land lay across the Jordan toward the sunrise.
   • That territory extended from the Arnon ravine to Mount Hermon.
   • That territory included all the Arabah on the east.
2. 12:2
   • Sihon was king of the Amorites.
   • Sihon dwelt in Heshbon.
   • Sihon ruled from Aroer.
   • Aroer is on the edge of the Arnon ravine.
   • Sihon's rule included the middle of the ravine.
   • Sihon's rule included half of Gilead.
   • Sihon's rule extended to the Jabbok ravine.
   • The Jabbok was the border of the children of Ammon.
3. 12:3
   • Sihon's rule included the Arabah as far as the Sea of Chinneroth on the east.
   • Sihon's rule extended to the Sea of the Arabah on the east.
   • The Sea of the Arabah is the Salt Sea.
   • That boundary ran by the way to Beth-jeshimoth.
   • On the south it ran below the slopes of Pisgah.
4. 12:4
   • Og was king of Bashan.
   • Og was one of the remnant of the Rephaim.
   • Og dwelt at Ashtaroth and at Edrei.
   • The territory of Og is also listed.
5. 12:5
   • Og ruled in Mount Hermon.
   • Og ruled in Salcah.
   • Og ruled in all Bashan.
   • Og's rule extended to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites.
   • Og ruled half of Gilead.
   • Og's territory reached the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.
6. 12:6
   • Moses was the servant of the LORD.
   • Moses and the children of Israel struck down these kings.
   • Moses gave that land as a possession to the Reubenites.
   • Moses gave that land as a possession to the Gadites.
   • Moses gave that land as a possession to the half tribe of Manasseh.
7. 12:7
   • These are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the children of Israel struck down.
   • They were struck down on the west side of the Jordan.
   • That territory extended from Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon to Mount Halak.
   • Mount Halak rises toward Seir.
   • Joshua gave that land to the tribes of Israel as a possession.
   • Joshua gave it according to their divisions.
8. 12:8
   • The land included the hill country.
   • The land included the lowland.
   • The land included the Arabah.
   • The land included the slopes.
   • The land included the wilderness.
   • The land included the Negev.
   • The land was that of the Hittites.
   • The land was that of the Amorites.
   • The land was that of the Canaanites.
   • The land was that of the Perizzites.
   • The land was that of the Hivites.
   • The land was that of the Jebusites.
9. 12:9
   • The king of Jericho, one.
   • The king of Ai, one.
   • Ai is beside Bethel.
10. 12:10
    • The king of Jerusalem, one.
    • The king of Hebron, one.
11. 12:11
    • The king of Jarmuth, one.
    • The king of Lachish, one.
12. 12:12
    • The king of Eglon, one.
    • The king of Gezer, one.
13. 12:13
    • The king of Debir, one.
    • The king of Geder, one.
14. 12:14
    • The king of Hormah, one.
    • The king of Arad, one.
15. 12:15
    • The king of Libnah, one.
    • The king of Adullam, one.
16. 12:16
    • The king of Makkedah, one.
    • The king of Bethel, one.
17. 12:17
    • The king of Tappuah, one.
    • The king of Hepher, one.
18. 12:18
    • The king of Aphek, one.
    • The king of Lasharon, one.
19. 12:19
    • The king of Madon, one.
    • The king of Hazor, one.
20. 12:20
    • The king of Shimron-meron, one.
    • The king of Achshaph, one.
21. 12:21
    • The king of Taanach, one.
    • The king of Megiddo, one.
22. 12:22
    • The king of Kedesh, one.
    • The king of Jokneam in Carmel, one.
23. 12:23
    • The king of Dor in the region of Dor, one.
    • The king of Goiim in Gilgal, one.
24. 12:24
    • The king of Tirzah, one.
    • The kings were thirty-one in all.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

12:1

"The other side of the Jordan toward the rising of the sun" simply means east of the Jordan River; the writer is standing in the land west of the river. The Arnon is a deep gorge running into the Dead Sea from the east, long treated as a boundary line. Mount Hermon is the snow-capped peak at the far northern end of the region. The Arabah is the long rift valley that runs from the Sea of Galilee down past the Dead Sea; the word means something like "dry, sunken plain," and it is a place-name, not a description of any valley.

12:2

The Amorites were one of the older populations of the region, generally associated with the inland hill country on both sides of the Jordan. Heshbon and Aroer are towns east of the Jordan. The Jabbok is a river flowing west into the Jordan about halfway between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The Ammonites were a neighboring people whose territory lay further east. Gilead is the highland country east of the Jordan, here split between two kings.

12:3

The Sea of Chinneroth is the lake later called the Sea of Galilee. The "Sea of the Arabah, that is, the Salt Sea" is the Dead Sea, so salty that nothing lives in it. Pisgah is a ridge in the highlands east of the Dead Sea overlooking the Jordan valley.

12:4

Bashan is the high, fertile plateau east of the Sea of Galilee, known in the Bible for its cattle and oak trees. The Rephaim were a people remembered in Israelite tradition as unusually tall; older English Bibles translate the name as "giants." Ashtaroth and Edrei were the two chief cities of Og's kingdom, a king could hold court in more than one.

12:5

Salcah lies at the eastern edge of Bashan. The Geshurites and Maacathites were small neighboring kingdoms on the northern border, which Israel did not drive out.

12:6

"Servant of the LORD" is a formal title of honor, used of Moses much as one might say "Moses, God's own officer." Manasseh is called a "half tribe" here because that tribe's families were divided: some settled east of the Jordan with Reuben and Gad, the rest west of it. The land is given "to keep" as a permanent family inheritance passed down to descendants, not as a temporary grant.

12:7

In the older wording this is "on this side Jordan", the writer's own side, meaning west of the river. Baal-gad marks the northern limit of the conquest and Mount Halak the southern; Seir is the rugged hill country south-east of the Dead Sea, the homeland of Edom.

12:8

This is a list of the land's natural zones, running roughly west to east and north to south: the central hill country, the low foothills between hills and coast, the rift valley, the mountain slopes, the dry grazing land, and the Negev, the arid south, whose name simply means "the dry country" and is used as a place-name. The six peoples named are the standard biblical list of the earlier inhabitants of Canaan, given as a set phrase rather than a precise census.

12:9

From here the chapter is a tally, and the repeated "one" is how such lists were kept, a running count, like notches on a tally sheet. Each of these was a walled city with its own king ruling the surrounding villages; Canaan at this period was made up of dozens of such small city-states rather than a few large kingdoms.

12:10

The king of Jerusalem was Adoni-zedek, who led the southern coalition in Joshua 10. Defeating a king did not always mean occupying his city: Jerusalem itself stayed in other hands for generations, until David took it.

12:14

Hormah and Arad lie in the far south, in the dry Negev country; the fighting there is recorded in Numbers 21, before Israel crossed the Jordan.

12:19

Hazor was the largest city of the north, described earlier in Joshua as the head of a group of allied kingdoms.

12:21

Taanach and Megiddo guarded the pass where the main trade road between Egypt and Mesopotamia squeezed through the hills into the Jezreel Valley. Whoever held them controlled the traffic, which is why they are named in ancient records far beyond Israel's.

12:22

Carmel is the ridge running to the coast in the north; Jokneam lay at its foot, and the phrase distinguishes this Jokneam from other towns of the same name.

12:23

"Goiim" is simply the Hebrew word for "nations" or "foreign peoples," here left untranslated because it is functioning as a place or group name; older English Bibles rendered it "the nations of Gilgal." This Gilgal is probably not the camp near Jericho mentioned earlier, since several places carried the name.

12:24

Tirzah was later, for a time, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. The closing total of thirty-one is the point of the whole list: a formal record of defeated kings, of the kind ancient kingdoms kept to document a campaign.