Joshua 11:13

_BUT AS FOR THE CITIES THAT STOOD STILL IN THEIR STRENGTH, ISRAEL BURNED NONE OF THEM, SAVE HAZOR ONLY; THAT DID JOSHUA BURN._ As for the cities that stood still in their strength х_ `AL_ (H5921) _ TILAAM_ (H8510)] - 'on their mounds.' It was a Phoenician custom to build cities on heights, natural or artificial (Hengstenberg)....

10-14 The Canaanites filled up the measure of their iniquity, and were, as a judgment, left to the pride, obstinacy, and enmity of their hearts, and to the power of Satan; all restraints being withdrawn, while the dispensations of Providence tended to drive them to despair. They brought on themselves the vengeance they justly merited, of which the Israelites were to be executioners, by the command the Lord gave to Moses....

Verse Joshua 11:13. _THE CITIES THAT STOOD STILL IN THEIR STRENGTH_] The word תלם _tillam_, which we translate _their strength_, and the margin, _their heap_, has been understood two ways. 1. As signifying those cities which had made peace with the Israelites, when conditions of peace were offered according to the command of the law; and consequently were not destroyed. Such as the cities of the _Hivites_; see Joshua 11:19. 2. The cities which were situated upon _hills_ and _mountains_, which, when taken, might be retained with little difficulty. In this sense the place is understood by the Vulgate, as pointing out the cities _quae erant in collibus et_ _tumulis sitae_, "which were situated on hills and eminences." As the cities of the _plain_

Render: “But the cities standing each on its own hill” (compare Jeremiah 30:18). The meaning is simply that, with the exception of Hazor, Joshua did not burn the cities, but left them standing, each on its former site. This site is spoken of as a hill, because such was the ordinary site chosen for cities in Canaan (compare Matthew 5:14)....

EXPOSITION THE PROSECUTION OF THE WAR.— JOSHUA 11:1 AND IT CAME TO PASS. The political constitution of Palestine was, humanly speaking, the cause of its overthrow. The division of the country into a host of petty states, and the consequent want of cohesion and concert, made its conquest a comparatively easy task. Had the kings of the north rallied round the standard set up in Central Palestine by Adoni-zedek, a far more formidable opposition would have been offered to Joshua at Gibeon. Calvin takes us, however, at once to the fountain head, and remarks how God fitted the burden to those who had to bear it. In spite of the great things God had done to them, they might have been driven to despair (and every one knows how weak their faith was) by the ove

BUT AS FOR THE CITIES THAT STOOD STILL IN THEIR STRENGTH,.... Whose walls were not demolished when taken, as Kimchi and Jarchi interpret it, or that "stood upon their heaps" y; upon an eminence, being built on hills and mountains: ISRAEL BURNED NONE OF THEM; but reserved them for their own habitations, being well fortified, and having no need of new walls being built to them, or being in a very agreeable situation: SAVE HAZOR ONLY, [THAT] DID JOSHUA BURN; because it was the chief city where the scheme was formed, and the combination against Israel was made, and was the rendezvous of the confederate forces against them: the Jews have a tradition z, that God said to Moses, and Moses said to Joshua, that he should burn it, and that only. y על תלם "super tumulum eorum", Montanus; "quae erant in collibus et in tamulis sitae", V. L. z Bereshit Rabba, sect. 81. fol. 71. 1....

FURTHER CONQUESTS CHAPTER 11 _ 1. Jabin and his confederacy (Joshua 11:1)_ 2. The divine encouragement (Joshua 11:6) 3. The victory (Joshua 11:7) 4. The obedience of Joshua (Joshua 11:15) 5. The continued conflict with the kings (Joshua 11:16) The Kings of the north formed the second confederacy, headed by Jabin, King of Hazor. Jabin means “understanding” and Hazor, “an enclosure.” He with other kings, and with them “much people even as the sand that is upon the seashore in multitude, with horses and chariots

JOSHUA 11. DEFEAT OF JABIN AND HIS COALITION. Jabin, king of Hazor, gathers a vast army of Canaanites at the Waters of Merom (locality uncertain, p. 32). The coalition was utterly defeated, the king was slain, and his city burnt. In Judges 4, a king of the same name and the same city appears, who for twenty years mightily oppressed the children of Israel. Joshua's victory here seems to be inconsistent with the account given of Jabin in Judges 4. The original story of Barak's campaign (Judges 5) has no reference to Jabin, but only to Sisera. The prose narrative (Judges 4) combines the war against Sisera with that against Jabin, and makes the former the general of the latter. It is noticeable that the terms of the short narrative in which the battle is here described are very vague and general, and 8, with its statement that the Israelites pursued their enemies as far as Zidon in the N. an...

_the cities that stood still in their strength_ Rather, THE CITIES WHICH STOOD EACH ON ITS OWN HILL, or MOUND, "the citees that weren in the hillis, and in the hillockis set," Wyclif. Comp. Jeremiah 30:18, "and the city shall be builded upon her own heap" (" _little hill_" margin). With the exception of Hazor, Joshua did not burn the cities, but left them standing, each on its own hill, the ordinary site for cities in Canaan. Comp. Matthew 5:14....

_VER._ 13. _BUT AS FOR THE CITIES THAT STOOD STILL IN THEIR STRENGTH,_ &C.— The Hebrew is תלם על _al tillam,_ which may signify _a foot,_ or _standing;_ and then the sense would be, that Joshua preserved all those cities which had yielded, without having obliged him to besiege them, to make breaches in their walls, or to demolish their fortifications. This sense is preserved by the LXX, Onkelos, ours, and the French version, and by several interpreters; but nothing hinders us from translating, with the Vulgate, _and Joshua burned none of the cities, which were situated on high places;_ or, as our margin renders it, _on their heap._ Bochart, who prefers this exposition, thinks that _Thelassar,_ Exodus 19:12 and _Thelabib,_ Ezekiel 3:15 two cities well known, t