Joshua 11

¹ When Jabin king of Hazor heard about this, he sent word to Jobab king of Merom, to the king ofShimron, to the king of Achshaph

² and to the kings in the northern highlands, in the plain south of Chinneroth, and those in the lowlandsand on the slopes of Dor to the west.

³ To eastward and to westward lived the Canaanites: in the highlands, the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzitesand Jebusites; the Hivites, at the foot of Hermon in the area of Mizpah.

⁴ They set out with al their troops, a people as numerous as the sands of the sea, with a huge numberof horses and chariots.

⁵ These kings, having al agreed on a meeting place, came and set up camp together at the Waters ofMerom, to fight Israel.

⁶ Yahweh then said to Joshua, 'Do not be afraid of them, for by this time tomorrow I shal hand them alover, cut to pieces, to Israel; you will hamstring their horses and burn their chariots.'

⁷ With al his warriors Joshua caught them unawares near the Waters of Merom and fel on them.

⁸ Yahweh put them at Israel's mercy and they defeated them and pursued them as far as Sidon theGreat, and as far as Misrephoth to the west, and as far as the Vale of Mizpah to the east; they harried them untilnot one of them was left alive.

⁹ Joshua treated them as Yahweh had told him; he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots.

¹⁰ Joshua then turned back and captured Hazor, putting its king to the sword. Hazor in olden days wasthe capital of all these kingdoms.

¹¹ In compliance with the curse of destruction, they put every living creature there to the sword. Not aliving soul was left, and Hazor was burnt to the ground.

¹² Al these royal cities and al their kings Joshua put to the sword in compliance with the curse ofdestruction, as Moses, servant of Yahweh, had ordered.

¹³ Yet of al these towns standing on their mounds, Israel burned none, apart from Hazor, burnt byJoshua.

¹⁴ Al the spoils of these towns, including the livestock, the Israelites took as booty for themselves. Butthey put al the human beings to the sword til they had destroyed them completely; they did not leave a livingsoul.

¹⁵ What Yahweh had ordered his servant Moses, Moses in turn had ordered Joshua, and Joshuacarried it out, leaving nothing undone of what Yahweh had ordered Moses.

¹⁶ In consequence, Joshua captured this entire country: the highlands, the whole Negeb and the wholeof Goshen, the lowlands, the Arabah, the highlands and lowlands of Israel.

¹⁷ From Mount Halak, which rises towards Seir, to Baal-Gad in the Vale of Lebanon at the foot of MountHermon, he captured al their kings, struck them down and put them to death.

¹⁸ For many a day Joshua made war on al these kings;

¹⁹ no city had made peace with the Israelites except the Hivites who lived at Gibeon; al the rest hadbeen captured in battle.

²⁰ For Yahweh had decided to harden the hearts of these men, so that they would engage Israel inbattle and thus come under the curse of destruction and so receive no quarter but be exterminated, as Yahwehhad ordered Moses.

²¹ Joshua then went and wiped out the Anakim of the highlands, of Hebron, of Debir, of Anab, of all thehighlands of Judah and of all the highlands of Israel; he delivered them and their towns over to the curse ofdestruction.

²² No Anakim were left in the territory of the Israelites, except at Gaza, Gath and Ashdod.

²³ Joshua captured the entire country, just as Yahweh had told Moses, and he gave it as heritage toIsrael, to be shared out between their tribes. And the country had rest from warfare.