Chapter IV: The Battles of Conquest

=1. The capture of Jericho= was not the result of battle, but was due to the divine interference in behalf of the Israelites. Jericho was a strong city and well defended by strong walls, and the destruction of these walls under the simple process described in the text was not only a lesson of great significance to the Israelites, but it indicated to the Canaanitish tribes the mystery of that power with which they were now called to deal.

Under Joshua three great battles completed the general conquest of Canaan and transferred to the Israelites the cities of thirty kings, Josh. 12:9‒24, and if we include the king of Jericho the number will be thirty-one.

Nearly all of the book of Joshua is composed of the history of these battles and of the division of the land among the tribes after the conquest.

=2. The first= of these battles took place on the high land west of Jericho, at a town called Ai (pronounced A´-i). The site of this ancient town is known, and it was not far off from the site of Bethel, which is 13 miles west by north from the position of Jericho at that time. Ai, now called Haiyan, was two miles, or a little more, east of Bethel.

Just north of Ai is a high elevation, 2,570 feet above the Mediterranean, whereas the site of Jericho at the fountain of Elisha[72] is 700 feet below, so that the troops of Joshua had a march of about 1,500 feet ascent up a rocky ravine. Bethel is still higher (2,890 feet).

=3. The first great battle of Ai= was preceded by defeat in what may be called a mere skirmish, as only 3,000 were engaged. This defeat seems to have been divinely allowed, to place a terrible emphasis upon the truth that disobedience to the commands of God, even of a small part of the people, would certainly be followed by punishment.

The result was terrible, not only in the national mortification consequent upon the defeat, but in the lesson that no transgressor could escape either by hiding himself or his stolen spoils, which in this case had been buried in the ground and covered by the tent, Josh. 7:11‒26.

=4. The valley of Achor=, where the fearful punishment was inflicted, is, without question, the present Wady Kelt, near the opening of which, upon the plain of Jordan, was the city of Jericho.

The battle was renewed, all the people of war were engaged, and the victory was complete.

=5. The next event= of great importance was the gathering of all the people in a central part of the land at two mountains called Ebal and Gerizim. This gathering was in execution of the command of Moses, Deut. 27, and was intended to cause them to renew their covenant with God and to set before them the blessings which should be granted upon obedience and the curses which should follow disobedience.

EBAL AND GERIZIM.

=6. The location for this great gathering= was admirably chosen. Ebal is a mountain whose highest point is 3,077 feet above the Mediterranean. Gerizim, right opposite, and southward, is 2,849 feet, and between them is the valley, whose surface is about 1,600 feet above the sea. In this valley, which runs east and west, is Shechem, on the southern side and partly built upon the ascent of Mt. Gerizim. The gathering may have taken place on the west of the city, where the valley is bounded on the north by that part of the western extent of the Ebal range which slightly recedes from the line of the valley and takes the form of an amphitheatre. But there is ample room on the east, where the elevations of both sides are far greater. The valley opens eastward upon the great level plain of Moreh, several square miles in extent. Where the valley opens upon this plain is the well of Jacob (John 4:6), and not far north of this well is the traditional tomb of Joseph, Josh. 24:32, whose embalmed body they buried there after they had conquered the country.

=7. The vicinity of this well= and the former history made this ground sacred to the Israelites, for here was Jacob’s first settlement and property, purchased of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, 280 years before. Even before that purchase by Jacob it was sacred, because that 189 years before Jacob’s time Abraham built here an altar to the Lord after that He had appeared to him and promised to give this land unto his seed, Gen. 12:6, 7.

The altar built here by Joshua, Josh. 8:30, was therefore the third altar erected in this vicinity, the first by Abraham and the second by Jacob, Gen. 33:20.

It is very probable that the great battle at Ai was fought with the view of clearing the way for the uninterrupted passage of the entire hosts of Israel to the plain just spoken of, called the plain of Moreh, which stretches out eastward from the bases of Ebal and Gerizim, and was 20 miles north of Ai.

=8. Shechem= never was a large town before the conquest. After it was despoiled by the sons of Jacob and all the inhabitants destroyed or taken captive, Gen. 34, it does not appear as re-settled until after the arrival of the Israelites at their first great national convention at Ebal, as described in the eighth chapter of the book of Joshua.

=9. The second great battle= or campaign began at Gibeon. This place has been identified with an elevated ruin five and a half miles northwest of Jerusalem. It should be remembered that the Israelites returned to the camp at Gilgal near the ford of the Jordan, this being their first great camping-place, and remaining such during their first seven[73] years, until they removed to Shiloh and set up the Tabernacle in that place, Josh. 18:1.

During the second campaign Joshua conquered nearly all the southern half of Palestine.

=10. The third great campaign= began with the greatest battle of the conquest, at the waters of Merom, Josh. 11:5. Here a great plain exists eight or nine miles in extent north and south, having the waters of the lake with a part of the upper stream of the Jordan on the east border. In this battle the Israelites came off victors, and then followed a series of reprisals, which with previous wars consumed about five years.

During all these years the women and children, with the herds and flocks, remained at Gilgal on the plains of the Jordan near Jericho.

=11. The next great move= was to SHILOH. This place was upon the highland 2,230 feet above the sea, nineteen miles north of Jerusalem and about the same distance from the camping-ground at Gilgal. We suppose that the Gilgal of this time was about three miles southeast of ancient Jericho and at the pool now called that of Jiljulieh.

Some remains of Shiloh, now called Seilun, yet appear, partly on a low hill surrounded by higher hills. Jerome says that in his time, A. D. 340‒420, it was in ruins. The top of the hill has been levelled for several hundred feet, where are found some ancient foundations and hewn stones, and here, as is supposed, was the site of the Tabernacle. A little over a half-mile to the northeast is a spring called the spring of Seilun, and a pool where the seizure of the young women described in Judg. 21:19‒23 might very easily have taken place.

=12. Shiloh remained= the religious capital and the city where the Ark and the Tabernacle rested for about 300 years, until the Ark was removed to the battlefield, 1 Sam. 4:3, and captured by the Philistines, after which it was never returned to Shiloh. The Tabernacle and the brazen altar were also removed and set up at Gibeon before the Temple at Jerusalem was built, 1 Chron. 16:39; 21:29, 30. Gibeon was five and a half miles northwest of Jerusalem and 2,535 feet above the sea.

For the history of the capture of the Ark, its restoration to Israel, and its remaining at Kirjath-jearim many years before its placement in the Temple at Jerusalem, read 1 Sam. 4 and 6 with 7:1, and 2 Sam. 6, also 1 Kin. 8:1‒8.

The tradition that the Ark was hidden by the prophet Jeremiah in a cavern in Mt. Pisgah has arisen from a statement in the second book of Maccabees, 2 Mac. 2:4, written about B. C. 144. But before this time there was a tradition among the Jews, which was recorded in the Babylonian Talmud,[74] that the Ark was hidden in a chamber of the Temple buildings, and out of this seems to have grown the other and later tradition. The Ark was probably burned at the destruction of the Temple under Nebuchadnezzar, B. C. 588, 2 Chron. 36:19.

=13. Kirjath-jearim=, where the Ark remained so long, 1 Sam. 7:2, was seven miles west by north of Jerusalem. In this connection it is necessary to say that, while the statement in 1 Sam. 7:2 leaves the impression in the English translation that 20 years was the whole time during which the Ark remained at that place, yet “the sense clearly expressed in the original” is that from the first placing of the Ark at Kirjath-jearim 20 years transpired of anxious expectation that Jehovah would interpose for the deliverance of his people before that Samuel gave them any hope.[75]

The Ark remained at Kirjath-jearim from about the time of Eli’s death through the reign of Saul and until David took it from thence to Jerusalem, with the exception of the three months during which it was at the house of Obed-edom, 2 Sam. 6. That was from about B. C. 1140 to B. C. 1042, or nearly one hundred years.

=14. The next great work= performed at Shiloh was the division of the land among the tribes of Israel. At this time, about 1444 B. C., we have the first recorded survey, and this was described by the cities then existing and “in a book,” which was probably attended with the first map of the land.

Of the twelve tribes, the Levites received no district in the division, they having been devoted to the service of the Tabernacle. Of the remaining eleven tribes, Manasseh had a section of land east of the Jordan as well as one west.

=15. After this division= the appointment of =six cities of refuge= was made both east and west of the Jordan, and very nearly equally distributed north and south. Of these six cities only the three west of the Jordan have been identified with present towns. One was KEDESH, now called Kades, four miles west by north of the “waters of Merom.” It was on a hill overlooking the plain on the west of the “waters,” which are now known by the name of the Lake of el-Huleh. The second city of refuge west of the Jordan was SHECHEM, sixty-three miles towards the south; and the third HEBRON, eighteen miles south of Jerusalem and about fifty south of Shechem. Those east of Jordan were probably very nearly on the same latitude, namely, GOLAN, east of Kedesh; RAMOTH in Gilead, east of Shechem, probably identified with the town now called es Salt, twelve miles east of Jordan on an elevation 2,500 feet above the Mediterranean and twenty miles north of the Dead Sea; and BEZER, not yet identified, but east of the Dead Sea, on the plains of Reuben.

=16. The object of this appointment= of cities of refuge was to protect the unintentional manslayer from the vengeance of his pursuer. Any one who had “unwittingly” Josh. 20:3, slain a man might fly to the nearest city of refuge and “declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city,” and dwell there until his case was decided by “the congregation for judgment” and until the death of the high-priest. The guilty party, if an intentional manslayer, was delivered up to the avenger. See Deut. 19:11.

The cities of refuge, as we have seen, were as equally distributed throughout the land as the positions of important and accessible cities would admit.

=17. The blood feud= had existed for centuries under the traditionary demand of “a life for a life,” and this demand, without the slightest regard to the intention of the manslayer, was customary and even obligatory, so that the nearest relative of the slain man was charged with the duty of destroying the manslayer whenever a favorable opportunity presented itself. This custom was modified by the appointment of the cities of refuge and by the institution of laws associated with their appointment, so that thereafter the innocent slayer should not suffer equally with the guilty, although the fact that he had shed blood even unintentionally would subject him to the inconvenience of separation from his family for a time.

=18. The rehearsal of the Law= at the great convention at Shechem, the division of the land among the tribes, and the appointment of cities of refuge[76] were equally in accordance with the directions of Moses, and they followed upon the entrance and conquest as soon as it was possible to carry them into execution. The three events are therefore in accordance with the spirit of the times and the provisions of the law, and are properly connected with the age of Joshua, although some writers have thought that the appointment of the cities of refuge took place some centuries later.