Joshua 11:4

_AND THEY WENT OUT, THEY AND ALL THEIR HOSTS WITH THEM, MUCH PEOPLE, EVEN AS THE SAND THAT IS UPON THE SEA SHORE IN MULTITUDE, WITH HORSES AND CHARIOTS VERY MANY._ They went out ... as the sand ... upon the seashore in multitude. The chiefs of these several tribes were summoned by Jabin, being all probably tributary to the kingdom of Hazor, or at least all who had not fallen before the victorious arms of Joshua; and their combined forces, according to Josephus, amounted to 300,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, and 20,000 war-chariots. WITH HORSES AND CHARIOTS VERY MANY. The war-chariots were probably, like those of Egypt and Assyria (Nehemiah 11:13), made of wood (see the note at Exodus 14:6: cf....

1-9 The wonders God wrought for the Israelites were to encourage them to act vigorously themselves. Thus the war against Satan's kingdom, carried on by preaching the gospel, was at first forwarded by miracles; but being fully proved to be of God, we are now left to the Divine grace in the usual course, in the use of the sword of the Spirit. God encouraged Joshua. Fresh dangers and difficulties make it necessary to seek fresh supports from the word of God, which we have nigh unto us for use in every time of need. God proportions our trials to our strength, and our strength to our trials. Joshua's obedience in destroying the horses and chariots, shows his self-denial in compliance with God's command. The possession of things on which the carnal heart is prone to depend, is hurtful to the life of faith, and the walk with God; therefore it is better to be without worldly advantages, than to...

Verse Joshua 11:4. _MUCH PEOPLE, EVEN AS THE SAND_] This form of speech, by some called a _hyperbole_, conveys simply the idea of a vast or unusual number - a number of which no regular estimate could be easily formed. Josephus, who seldom finds difficulties in such cases, and makes no scruple of often speaking _without book_, tells us that the allied armies amounted to 300,000 _foot_ 10,000 _horse_, and 20,000 _chariots_ of war. Antiq. lib. v., c. 1. That _chariots_ were frequently used in war, all the records of antiquity prove; but it is generally supposed that among the Canaanites they were armed with iron scythes fastened to their _poles_ and to the _naves_ of their wheels. Terrible things are spoken of these, and the havoc made by them when furiously driven among the ranks of infantry. Of what sort the cavalry was, we know not;

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

AND THEY WENT OUT,.... The several kings and people sent to; these went out from the places they inhabited: THEY AND ALL THEIR HOSTS WITH THEM; the kings of those several places, with their armies: MUCH PEOPLE, EVEN AS THE SAND THAT [IS] UPON THE SEASHORE IN MULTITUDE; a proverbial expression, to denote an exceeding great number: WITH HORSES AND CHARIOTS VERY MANY; being supplied with horses from Egypt, and their chariots were chariots of iron; see Judges 4:3; Josephus z gives us the number of this great army, and says it consisted of three hundred thousand footmen, ten thousand horse, and thirty thousand chariots; some copies read only twenty thousand; and these chariots were armed with iron hooks or scythes, to cut down men as they drove along, and so were very terrible. z Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 18....

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...

THEY WENT OUT, &c. Compare Joshua 11:4 with Revelation 20:8; Revelation 20:9. as, &c. Figure of speech _Paroemia._ App-6....

_And they went out_ "As the British chiefs were driven to the Land's End before the advance of the Saxon, so at this Land's End of Palestine were gathered for this last struggle, not only the kings of the north in the immediate neighbourhood, but from the desert valley of the Jordan south of the Sea of Galilee, from the maritime plain of Philistia, from the heights above Sharon, and from the still unconquered Jebus." Stanley, _Lectures_, 1:259. _as the sand_ "as the grauel that is in the brenk of the see," Wyclif. Comp. the description (_a_) of the hosts of the Midianites and Amalekites in the time of Gideon (Judges 7:12); and (_b_) of the Philistines in the time of Saul (1 Samuel 13:5). _with horses and chariots very many_ These now for the first time appear in Canaanite warf

_VER._ 4. _AND THEY WENT OUT,—AND ALL THEIR HOSTS,_ &C.— Entering the field with so numerous an army, that the sacred writer does not scruple to express it by an hyperbole very familiar in Scripture, _even as the sand upon the sea shore in multitude._ The allied army was so much the more formidable, in that, as the host of the Israelites was wholly composed of foot-soldiers, in this there were not only cavalry, but armed chariots, in great numbers. Josephus makes it amount to 300,000 infantry, 10,000 horse, and 20,000 chariots. Hist. Jud. l. v. c. 1. Bochart, in his Hieroz. l. ii. c. 9. informs us, that Egypt supplied the Canaanites with all these horses. God forbad his people the use of them in their armies. See on Deuteronomy 17:16; Deuteronomy 20:1. With respect to the c