Joshua 10:36

. And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron,.... Which lay in the hill country, and therefore they are said to go up to it from Eglon, which lay lower; and, according to Bunting {g}, it was sixteen miles from it: and they fought against it; it making some resistance at first, and did not surrender at once, as demanded. {g} Ibid. (Travels of the Patriarchs, &c. p. 96.) Joshua 10:37 Ver. 37. And they took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof,.... For though the king of Hebron was one of the kings that were taken in the cave of Makkedah, and hanged; yet before Joshua came up to it, they had set up another king over them: and all the cities thereof; for Hebron was a metropolitan city, and had other cities dependent on it, and subject to it: and all the souls that [were] therein; both in Hebron, and in the cities subject to it: he left none remaining; in any of them: according to all that he had done to Eglon; the last place he came from: but destroyed it utterly, and all the souls that [were] therein; but it seems that afterwards some that made their escape before the taking of the city, and other Canaanites driven out of their habitations, repeopled it; so that after Joshua's death it was recovered again by the tribe of Judah, Jude 1:10; unless there is given in that place a more particular account of the taking of this city, with others at this time; but the former seems most likely. Joshua 10:38 Ver. 38.

After all these kings and their cities had been taken by him, and not before; though the same is said, Joshua 10:15, before the history of those facts; See Gill on "Joshua 10:15": and all Israel with him to the camp in Gilgal; where the body of the people were left, and where was the tabernacle of the Lord; and no doubt he and Israel with him gave public praise and thanksgiving there for the signal victories they had obtained over the Canaanites. John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible. Joshua 11:1 INTRODUCTION TO JOSHUA 11 This chapter relates how that the kings of the northern parts of Canaan combine together against Joshua, Joshua 11:1; and that the Lord encouraged him to fight with them, and did deliver them into his hands, who, with all their people, were smitten by him, Joshua 11:6; and how that he took their cities, and destroyed the inhabitants of them, and took the spoil of them for a prey, Joshua 11:12; and so became master of the whole country, both southern and northern, which is described Joshua 11:16; and the chapter is concluded with an account of his cutting off the Anakim from various parts, which finished the conquest of the whole land, Joshua 10:21. Ver. 1. And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard [these things],....

10:28-43 Joshua made speed in taking these cities. See what a great deal of work may be done in a little time, if we will be diligent, and improve our opportunities. God here showed his hatred of the idolatries and other abominations of which the Canaanites had been guilty, and shows us how great the provocation was, by the greatness of the destruction brought upon them. Here also was typified the destruction of all the enemies of the Lord Jesus, who, having slighted the riches of his grace, must for ever feel the weight of his wrath. The Lord fought for Israel. They could not have gotten the victory, if God had not undertaken the battle. We conquer when God fights for us; if he be for us, who can be against us?

And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron,.... Which lay in the hill country, and therefore they are said to go up to it from Eglon, which lay lower; and, according to Bunting (g), it was sixteen miles from it: and they fought against it; it making some resistance at first, and did not surrender at once, as demanded. (g) Ibid. (Travels of the Patriarchs, &c. p. 96.)

Which though they took and killed all its inhabitants, yet they did not keep it; and therefore when Joshua and his army had forsaken it, and were returned to Gilgal, it seems the giants and other Canaanites being burnt out, or driven away from their former seats, planted and fortified themselves there; which made it necessary for Caleb to take it a second time, as is recorded Joshua 15:14 Judges 1:10 . Or this is the same story, and the same conquest of Hebron, which is here generally related, and afterwards repeated, and more particularly described, Joshua 15:13,14 .

Jos 10:28-42. Seven More Kings Conquered. 28-42. that day Joshua took Makkedah—In this and the following verses is described the rapid succession of victory and extermination which swept the whole of southern Palestine into the hands of Israel. "All these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time, because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel. And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal."

Gezer lies on the southern border of the tribe of Ephraim Joshua 16:3 . It was considerably to the northward of Joshua's present line of operations, and does not appear to have been captured at this time. He contented himself for the present with repulsing the attack made upon him, killed Horam (compare Joshua 12:12 ), inflicting a severe defeat upon his people, and then continued to pursue his conquests over the confederated kings and their allies in south Canaan.

Verse 36. - Went up. The accuracy of the geographical details must here be noticed. Joshua "passes" from one city to another in the plain. He "goes up" to Hebron, which is situated among the hills. See note on ver. 3; cf. also Joshua 11:21 ; Joshua 14:12 . Hebron . Commentators of the school of Maurer and De Wette regard the taking of Hebron and Debir as irreconcilable with Joshua 11:21 ; Joshua 14:12 ; Joshua 15:13-17 . But this is by no means certain. The operations of Joshua were sudden, and, so far as they went, decisive, But it is never pretended that his conquest of southern Palestine was complete. It is impossible to assert this in the face of such passages as Joshua 16:10 , 17:12, 13, and especially in the face of such a fact as the continued existence of the Philistine power. Joshua extirpated the inhabitants of the cities he took, but there were many others - some of at least equal importance - which he did not take. We may instance Gaza, Garb, and Ashdod. See Joshua 11:22 . Their inhabitants came and occupied again the cities which Joshua had destroyed, first when he was engaged in operations in the north and west, and again when the Israelites had begun to repose upon their laurels, and to neglect the task God had set them, namely, the complete extermination of the Canaanite race from Palestine. Thus Joshua returned from the north and found a large part of the country he had subdued reoccupied by the giant tribes of the south.

He "cut them off from Hebron and Debir," i.e. , he compelled them to evacuate those cities, but there was no necessity for a second of either. Yet at a later period they still lurked in the neighborhood ( Joshua 14:12 ), perhaps in the mountain fastnessess (a very common thing in the history of nations, as the history of our own country, of the Basques in the Pyrenees, and of Swiss freedom shows), and were strong enough to regain Debir ( Joshua 15:17 ). Jerusalem itself (see note on ver. 1) had a similar fate. After the capture of Jerusalem the Israelites were unable to hold it permanently ( Joshua 15:63 ; cf. Judges 1:8, 21 ). And such expressions as "all the cities thereof" show that the south of Palestine was thickly populated. Each city was, like Gibeon, the head of a small confederacy. And as the chief cities smitten by Joshua would have been but a tithe of the confederations existing in the south, the task of reoccupying must have been an easy one. It seems to be implied in Judges 1 . that Caleb took Hebron and Debir after Joshua's death. Joshua 10:36

From Eglon he went up from the lowland to the mountains, attacked Hebron and took it, and did to this town and its king, and the towns belonging to it, as he had already done to the others. The king of Hebron cannot of course be the one who was taken in the cave of Makkedah and put to death there, but his successor, who had entered upon the government while Joshua was occupied with the conquest of the towns mentioned in Joshua 10:28-35 , which may possibly have taken more than a year. "All the cities thereof" are the towns dependent upon Hebron as the capital of the kingdom.