An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 41: Conquest in the name of God (Joshua 11-15)

Joshua 11-15
Conquest in the name of God.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).
In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.
For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT
For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Joshua 11
“And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph,”

I was wrong before, Joshua hasn’t conquered the whole land yet, only the southern part it would seem. The remaining kings band together to fight, but this time there are no cunning tactics or strategems, just generally smashing and smiting with the edge of the sword. This continues until everywhere is conquered, unequivocally this time so that idiots like me get the point. Of note is that the Anakims, that mysterious race of giants, are also wiped out by Joshua and the Israelites, except for a few pockets in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod. Otherwise this chapter becomes something of a montage, for which I’m thankful as it stops things from getting repetitive.

Joshua 12
“Now these are the kings of the land, which the children of Israel smote, and possessed their land on the other side Jordan toward the rising of the sun, from the river Arnon unto mount Hermon, and all the plain on the east”

This chapter is basically a list of the various kings and nations conquered by the Israelites, 31 in total. And that’s it, really, it is just a list of names and places. The only thing I noted which I don’t think came up at the time was that King Og of Bashan was also of a race of giants. (Edit: Yes I did – he had a big iron bed as well).

Joshua 13
“Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.”

This chapter is really a division of the conquered lands between the remaining nine and a half tribes (recall that the Reubenites, Gadites and half of Manasseh have already been settled – actually, in case you didn’t there is a reminder in this chapter). It’s one of those Reverend Lovejoy chapters full of names and places of things long gone, also a kind of book-keeping chapter which I guess was used for a long time to demarcate the territories of the twelve tribes. Well, eleven tribes, as the Levites get no specific territory.

Joshua 14
“Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadeshbarnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart.”

A short chapter that first continues the themes of the last chapter but the main part is a little vignette where Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite makes his case to Joshua. Caleb was one of the original spies sent by Moses whose news caused the Israelites to lose heart. He pleads that he was always loyal to God and asks to be given Mount Hebron as a domain, where the Anakim still live (perhaps he wants to subdue the giants as atonement for his actions earlier), which Joshua grants him.

Joshua 15
“This then was the lot of the tribe of the children of Judah by their families; even to the border of Edom the wilderness of Zin southward was the uttermost part of the south coast.”

Some more book-keeping in this chapter, wherein the borders of the lands of the tribe of Judah are carefully described, and all the cities within are listed. This makes me think that we’ll be getting more of these for the rest of the book, one for each tribe. Although this is mostly geography there is a little section within where Caleb settles in the Hebron region within the territory of Judah, defeats the Anakim and then marries his daughter Achsah to his nephew Othniel because Othniel defeats the city of Kirjathsepher. He grants her some land with springs in it as a gift – these details may be important in future perhaps, I shall wait and see. Finally the chapter notes that the tribe of Judah are unable to completely expel the Jebusites from Jerusalem and end up co-habiting with them. This is explicitly against the covenant, so I wonder if bad things will happen to Judah because of this.

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