I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 10-11.

The kings of the land had learned what the Israelites did to Jericho and Ai.  They wanted to keep the Israelites from doing the same thing to them, but the Israelites were still a nomadic people with no location they could be forced to defend.  However, once they had allied with the Gibeonites, the southern kings saw their chance.  Joshua demonstrated both his tactical leadership and the fighting prowess of the Israelites by marching overnight to relieve the siege of Gibeon.  Joshua caught the southern kings by surprise because they thought the Israelites were too far away to relieve the siege in a timely fashion.  Perhaps the most noteworthy thing about this account is that even though the king of Jerusalem organized the attack on Gibeon, Jerusalem is not one of the cities listed among those which Joshua conquered after this battle.

Some time after this, the northern kings joined forces to fight the Israelites.  There are a couple of interesting things about this account of the second group of kings.  First, the area controlled by the northern and southern kings corresponds loosely to the later division of Israel into two kingdoms.  Second, the way in which the northern kings gathered for war suggests that once the Israelites conquered the southern cities they began to settle down, giving the northern kings targets to strike if they were not met in battle. Finally, after Joshua had conquered and taken control of the towns which had entered into the northern alliance the Israelites, for the most part, ended their conquest of the area.  We know from later accounts that they had not completely taken control of the area, that some areas were still controlled by those who were here when they arrived, but nonetheless the Israelites had taken control of all of the land which they could settle at this time.