12:1ffChapter 12 is a summary of the first half of the book of Joshua. It lists the kings and nations conquered by Joshua to both the east and the west of the Jordan River. As long as the people trusted and obeyed God, one evil nation after another fell in defeat. 13-19 These chapters describe how the Promised Land was to be divided among the 12 tribes. First, the tribe of Levi was not to have any land because they were to spend all their energies serving the people, not their own interests (13:14; 21). Second, the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh had already received land east of the Jordan River, which had been given to them by Moses (Numbers 32). Third, the tribes of Judah and Joseph (Ephraim and the other half-tribe of Manasseh) had received land that their ancestor Jacob had promised them 450 years earlier (Genesis 48:22; Joshua 15-17). The rest of the tribes divided up the remaining land by casting sacred lots (chapter 18). Through Jacob's original blessing of his sons (Genesis 49) and Moses’ blessing of the 12 tribes (Deuteronomy 33), the type of land each tribe would receive was already known. The two blessings were prophetic, for although Joshua cast lots to determine the land to be given to each of the remaining tribes, the allotments came out just as Jacob and Moses had predicted.
Life Application Study BibleJoshuaChapter 12
Joshua 12
New Living Translation · Life Application Study Bible · Original pages: 331, 332, 333
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Kings Defeated East of the Jordan
1These are the kings east of the Jordan River who had been killed by the Israelites and whose land was taken. Their territory extended from the Arnon Gorge to Mount Hermon and included all the land east of the Jordan Valley.* 2King Sihon of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, was defeated. His kingdom included Aroer, on the edge of the Arnon Gorge, and extended from the middle of the Arnon Gorge to the Jabbok River, which serves as a border for the Ammonites. This territory included the southern half of the territory of Gilead. 3Sihon also controlled the Jordan Valley and regions to the east—from as far north as the Sea of Galilee to as far south as the Dead Sea,* including the road to Beth-jeshimoth and southward to the slopes of Pisgah. 4King Og of Bashan, the last of the Rephaites, lived at Ashtaroth and Edrei. 5He ruled a territory stretching from Mount Hermon to Salecah in the north and to all of Bashan in the east, and westward to the borders of the kingdoms of Geshur and Maacah. This territory included the northern half of Gilead, as far as the boundary of King Sihon of Heshbon. 6Moses, the servant of the LORD, and the Israelites had destroyed the people of King Sihon and King Og. And Moses gave their land as a possession to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
Kings Defeated West of the Jordan
77 The following is a list of the kings that Joshua and the Israelite armies defeated on the west side of the Jordan, from Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon to Mount Halak, which leads up to Seir. (Joshua gave this land to the tribes of Israel as their possession, 8including the hill country, the western foothills,* the Jordan Valley, the mountain slopes, the Judean wilderness, and the Negev. The people who lived in this region were the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.) These are the kings Israel defeated:
9The king of JerichoThe king of Ai, near Bethel
10The king of JerusalemThe king of Hebron
11The king of JarmuthThe king of Lachish
12The king of EgionThe king of Gezer
13The king of DebirThe king of Geder
14The king of HormahThe king of Arad
15The king of LibnahThe king of Adullam
16The king of MakkedahThe king of Bethel
17The king of TappuahThe king of Hepher
18The king of AphekThe king of Lasharon
19The King of MadonThe king of Hazor
20The king of Shimron-meronThe king of Acshaph
21The king of TaanachThe king of Megiddo
22The king of KedeshThe king of Jokneam in Carmel
23The king of Dor in the town of Naphoth-The king of Goyim in Gilgal*
24The king of Tirzah.In all, thirty-one kings were defeated.
C. DIVIDING THE PROMISED LAND (13:1—24:33)
earthly inheritance. But Israel also had a spiritual inheritance in which we can share when we live a life of faithfulness to God.
Textual footnotes
- 12:1 Hebrew the Arabah; also in 12:3, 8. of Kinnereth to the Sea of the Arabah, which is the Salt Sea.
- 12:3 Hebrew from the Sea
- 12:8 Hebrew the Shephelah.
- 12:23a Hebrew Naphath-dor, a variant spelling of Naphoth-dor.
- 12:23b Greek version reads Goyim in Galilee.
Life Application Notes 1 note
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Study feature · page 332
THE CONQUERED LAND Joshua displayed brilliant military strategy in the way he went about conquering the land of Canaan. He first captured the well-fortified Jericho to gain a foothold in Canaan and to demonstrate the awesome might of the God of Israel. Then he gained the hill country around Bethel and Gibeon. From there he subdued towns in the lowlands. Then his army conquered important cities in the north, such as Hazor. in all, Israel conquered land both east (12:1-6) and west (12:7-24) of the Jordan River, from Mount Hermon in the north to beyond the Negev to Mount Halak in the south. Thirty-one kings and their cities had been defeated. The Israelites had overpowered the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, Other peoples living in Canaan were yet to be conquered.
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Study feature · page 333
-dor*