Continued: Chapter VI-The Wars Of Conquest


The first verse of Judges informs us that "it came to pass after the death of Joshua, that the children of Israel asked of Jehovah saying, Who shall go up for us first against the Canaanites, to fight against them?" This quotation informs us that the conquest here described occurred after the death of Joshua. Let us take this statement at its face value and believe that the historian is speaking of things which took place after the death of this great man of God. But to this position some would say that the narration which follows gives the conquest of the land originally. There is nothing in the context to indicate such an idea. But one may urge, that if we accept the account in Joshua the land was already conquered; there was, therefore, no necessity of a second conquest. Let us not be too dogmatic. The book of Judges depicts especially the lawless character of the age. When all the facts are taken into consideration, there is no necessity for our assuming a contradiction between the two books. On the contrary, the facts as they are revealed show that there were very many changes that took place. It is an easy matter for us, without any great flight of the imagination, to assume that after the death of Joshua the morale of the tribes of Israel declined and that there was a retreat from their original position. From this backward move they rallied later and began the re-conquest of the land described in Judges 1. This is a reasonable, sane hypothesis which meets all the conditions set forth and does no violence to any of the facts. We are led, therefore, to believe that at the conquest of the land by Joshua much of the territory, especially in the maritime plain and in the valleys, was unconquered. Then they lost some of their gains. After Joshua's death they attempted to recover their losses, possibly with interest.


III. THE DIVISION OF THE LAND

In the latter part of the fortieth year of the wilderness wanderings Israel conquered the territory east of the Jordan, which Moses allotted to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh (Num. 32). At the end of the conquest of Palestine proper, Joshua partitioned the land to the other nine and one-half tribes. In Joshua 15-19 we have a record of said allotment. In chapters 21 and 22 appears a list of the cities of refuge and those assigned the Levites.

From a chronological standpoint chapter 14 is the most important, because in it appear certain statements which enable us to determine the date of the close of the wars of conquest. When the fighting was over, Caleb reminded Joshua of the promise made by Moses at the time they were at Kadesh-barnea:

"Then the children of Judah drew nigh unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that Jehovah spake unto Moses the man of God concerning me and concerning thee in Kadesh-barnea. 7 Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of Jehovah sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. 8 Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt; but I wholly followed Jehovah my God. 9 And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy foot hath trodden shall be an inheritance to thee and to thy children for ever, because thou hast wholly followed Jehovah my God. 10 And now, behold, Jehovah hath kept me alive, as he spake, these forty and five years, from the time that Jehovah spake this word unto Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old" (Josh. 14:6-10).

Caleb was forty years old when Israel arrived at Kadesh-barnea, and the spies took an inventory of the land, which was in the year 2514 A.H. Caleb also stated that he was at present eighty-five years of age. This date, therefore, was forty-five years after the spying out of the land. We must add forty-five years to 2514 in order to determine when Caleb made the speech. Obviously it was in 2559 A.H. It is apparent to anyone who reads the book of Joshua that the division of the land occurred at the conclusion of the wars of conquest. Since that was in 2559 A.H., and since Israel entered the land at the beginning of 2553 A.H., we are to conclude that the conquest of the land occupied six years. Thus the last definite date in the book of Joshua is 2559 A.H.

IV. THE DEATH OF JOSHUA

In the last few chapters of Joshua we have speeches which he made to the tribes probably just before his death. In 24:29 we are told that he was 110 years old at his death. Since we do not know anything about his birth nor have any reference to a specific year or incident in his life by which to link his age to the general scheme of chronology, we cannot acquire any further information on this subject from this book. The last date which we have is the year 2559 A.H., the year of the end of the wars of conquest. Figuratively speaking, we come to a chasm in chronology at the end of Joshua. We must acquire data from other sources to bridge this gulf.



End Of Chapter VI.