Joshua 11 Summary and Study Guide

Joshua 11 is where Israel’s war ends. Every chapter before it has been a campaign, and this one closes the fighting and hands the land over as an inheritance. This Joshua 11 summary and study guide covers that turn, and why the chapter finishes where it does.

Setting the Stage

God promised the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants (Genesis 12:7), and hundreds of years later that family came out of slavery in Egypt and stood at its border. Twelve men went ahead to look at it. Ten came back describing a race of unusually large people called the Anakim, and Israel refused to go in (Numbers 13:28, 13:33). God told that generation they would die in the desert, and they did (Numbers 14:29).

Their children crossed the Jordan under Joshua, took Jericho, and worked their way south. By the end of Joshua 10 the southern kings were dead. The north had not moved yet, and the Anakim were still there.

Comprehensive Joshua 11 Summary

News of Israel’s victories in the south reaches Jabin, king of Hazor. He sends messengers across the whole north and pulls together the largest force Israel has faced: kings from the hill country, the Jordan valley, the coast and the slopes of Mount Hermon, six different peoples, an army the chapter compares to sand on a seashore, and something Israel has never fought before, horses and chariots. They camp together at the waters of Merom.

God speaks to Joshua before the battle. Do not be afraid of them, He says, because by this time tomorrow they will be dead. Then He adds an instruction about the plunder: cripple the horses and burn the chariots.

Joshua marches north and hits the camp without warning. The alliance breaks, and Israel chases the survivors west toward Sidon and east into the valley of Mizpeh. Then comes the costly half of the order. He cripples the horses and burns the chariots he could have kept for his own army.

He turns back on Hazor itself, kills its king, destroys the city and burns it. Hazor is the only city he burns. The rest are captured and left standing, and Israel takes the livestock and the goods.

Verse 15 sums it up. Everything Moses had been given to pass on, Joshua had done, and he had left none of it out.

The last third of the chapter widens out. Joshua takes the land from Mount Halak in the far south to Baal-gad under Mount Hermon in the far north. The war runs a long time.

Gibeon alone makes peace, because God hardens the rest so that they fight and fall under the judgment already announced. Joshua then cuts off the Anakim from the hill country, leaving only a few in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod. He gives the land to the tribes, and the land rests from war.

One Word Summary

• Completion: the last campaign of the conquest, and the chapter that closes it.
• Obedience: orders from a dead man, kept in full.
• Rest: the chapter’s final three words, and the end of the fighting.

In One Sentence

Jabin of Hazor gathers the northern half of Canaan against Israel, God promises Joshua the victory by the next day and orders the captured horses and chariots destroyed, and Joshua wins at the waters of Merom, burns Hazor, cuts off the Anakim, and divides the land among the tribes.

Theme of Joshua 11

Joshua 11 is about God finishing what He said He would do, through a man who carried out every part of it, including the part an earlier generation had refused. What Israel had going for it in the north was neither the larger army nor the better weapons, because it had neither.

Two ideas run alongside that one. Judgment God had long held back finally lands here (Genesis 15:16). And the rest Joshua hands to the land is real without being the last one, which is where the chapter leaves the reader looking ahead.

Joshua 11 Outline

• Joshua 11:1-3: Jabin king of Hazor sends word across the north and gathers the kings and peoples of the region against Israel.
• Joshua 11:4-5: The allied armies come out with horses and chariots and camp together at the waters of Merom.
• Joshua 11:6: God tells Joshua not to fear, promises the victory by the next day, and orders the horses crippled and the chariots burned.
• Joshua 11:7-9: Joshua attacks at Merom without warning, chases the survivors west and east, and then destroys the captured horses and chariots.
• Joshua 11:10-11: Joshua takes Hazor, kills its king, destroys everyone in the city and burns it.
• Joshua 11:12-14: He captures the other royal cities and their kings but leaves those cities standing, and Israel keeps the livestock and the goods.
• Joshua 11:15: Joshua left nothing undone of all that God had commanded Moses.
• Joshua 11:16-17: A summary of the territory taken, from Mount Halak in the south to Baal-gad under Mount Hermon in the north.
• Joshua 11:18-20: The war lasts a long time, Gibeon alone makes peace, and God hardens the other cities so that they come out to fight.
• Joshua 11:21-22: Joshua cuts off the Anakim from the hill country, leaving some only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod.
• Joshua 11:23: Joshua takes the whole land, gives it to the tribes as an inheritance, and the land rests from war.

Observations from Joshua 11

The Same News Reached Rahab, Gibeon and Jabin (11:1; 2:9; 9:24)

Joshua 11 opens with a king who had heard something. So did Rahab, who told the spies “I know that the LORD hath given you the land” and hid them (Joshua 2:9). So did the people of Gibeon, who said they had been told what God commanded Moses and came asking for terms (Joshua 9:24).

Rahab surrendered to that news and lived; Gibeon negotiated with it and lived; Jabin raised an army against it and died. The same news travelled the whole land. What separated these three was what each did with it.

The Biggest Army in the Book Fell Without a Miracle (11:7-9)

Every earlier victory in this book carries a sign. The Jordan stopped, Jericho’s wall fell flat, and at Beth-horon hailstones killed more men than Israel did while the sun stood still (Joshua 10:11-13). Here Israel meets more soldiers and better weapons than it has ever met, and the account gives a night march, a surprise attack, and one line: the LORD delivered them into the hand of Israel. God had already proved who He was, and here Israel moves on His word rather than on a sign.

God’s Command to Moses Is Named Again in Five Verses (11:9, 12, 15, 20, 23)

Joshua gets credit in this chapter for doing what had already been said, rather than for thinking of anything new. Verse 9 has him acting as the LORD told him, verse 12 as Moses commanded, verse 15 following the order from God to Moses to Joshua, verse 20 as the LORD commanded Moses, and verse 23 according to all the LORD said to Moses. Joshua is judged here for obedience rather than for strategy, and verse 15 is where that judgment is handed down.

Three Exceptions Hold the Chapter Together (11:13, 11:19, 11:22)

Joshua 11 speaks in totals. All the kings, all the cities, all the land, no one left breathing. Then it makes exactly three exceptions, and each one matters later. Only Hazor was burned, which left the other cities standing for Israel to live in (Joshua 24:13).

Only Gibeon made peace, and Gibeon is still standing generations later, with Solomon sacrificing there (1 Kings 3:4). Only Gaza, Gath and Ashdod kept any Anakim, and centuries later a man from Gath walked out to challenge Israel’s army (1 Samuel 17:4). The totals close the conquest; the exceptions open everything after it.

Difficult Verses Explained

Why Did God Harden Their Hearts So They Would Be Destroyed?

Joshua 11:20 says it plainly, and it is the hardest sentence in the chapter: God hardened these cities so that they would fight Israel and fall. Scripture does not present this as God turning innocent people into enemies. He had already waited generations on nations whose wrongdoing was still filling up (Genesis 15:16), and Moses had already told Israel the land was not being given for Israel’s goodness but for these nations’ wickedness (Deuteronomy 9:5).

Translators often read the verb as strengthening a heart into obstinacy, and Paul describes the same action as God giving people over to what they already wanted (Romans 1:24). Gibeon shows what the alternative looked like: a city that asked for peace got peace.

Did Israel Take Sidon in Joshua 11:8?

No. Verse 8 says Israel chased the fleeing army as far as great Zidon, and chasing an enemy through a place is not the same as taking it. Judges later records that the tribe of Asher never drove out the people of Sidon (Judges 1:31), and lists the Sidonians among the nations still living in the land afterwards (Judges 3:3). The verse marks how far the rout ran, not how far Israel settled.

Why Cripple Good Horses and Burn Good Chariots?

Because God said so, and Scripture gives the reason elsewhere. Israel fought on foot, and the captured horses and chariots could have changed that in a day. The law given through Moses had already forbidden Israel’s future king to build up horses (Deuteronomy 17:16), and the Psalms put the principle in one line: “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God” (Psalm 20:7).

Some trust their war machines; Israel was to remember God instead. Other reasons have been suggested for the order, but this is the one the Bible itself supplies.

If No Anakim Were Left, Why Is Caleb Still Fighting Them Later?

Joshua 11:22 says none of the Anakim were left in Israel’s territory, and yet Caleb later asks Joshua for the hill country because “the Anakims were there” (Joshua 14:12), and then drives out three of them (Joshua 15:14). Two readings hold this together.

The chapter may be summarising in advance a work that was carried out in stages, with Caleb’s action being one of those stages, which fits a chapter that also says the war took a long time. Or some may have come back and reoccupied the towns after the main campaign moved on. Scripture does not settle which, and it does not need to. Verse 22 claims the Anakim no longer held the land, and Caleb’s account agrees.

Common Misunderstandings

• The alliance in verse 5 belongs to the enemy, not to Israel. Joshua 11:5 describes the Canaanite kings joining forces against Israel, and it is sometimes quoted the other way round, as a picture of Israel pulling together.
• Joshua burned the city of Hazor, and killed its king with the sword. Joshua 11:10-11 keeps those two acts separate, though retellings often have Joshua burning Jabin himself.
• The Gibeonites and the Hivites in verse 19 are the same people. Joshua 11:19 names one exception rather than two, and names it twice over: the Hivites who lived in Gibeon.
• “The land rested from war” means the organised fighting had stopped. It does not mean every enemy was gone, since the same chapter says Anakim remained in three cities (Joshua 11:22) and two chapters later God tells Joshua there is still much land to be possessed (Joshua 13:1).
• The northern kings were reacting to the southern campaign of Joshua 10. Joshua 9 is the Gibeonite treaty, which is why Gibeon is the one city already at peace when chapter 11 begins.

Christ Connection

The chapter closes on rest, and the New Testament picks that word up and says a further rest was still ahead. Hebrews argues it from the fact that God kept speaking about rest long after Joshua’s day: “For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God” (Hebrews 4:8-9).

In that passage the King James spells Joshua’s name the Greek way, as Jesus, because Joshua and Jesus are the same name. If the man in this chapter had given Israel the final rest, God would not have gone on promising another one, and He did. The name itself means the LORD saves, and it is the name the angel told Mary to give her son, because He would save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

So the rest Joshua handed the land is a real gift that points past itself. Joshua’s rest was from enemies outside; the rest Christ offers is for the person inside, and He offers it to anyone: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Anyone worn out and weighed down can come to Him and be given rest.

Two other lines in the chapter run the same direction:

• An inheritance handed over, not earned. Joshua “gave it for an inheritance unto Israel” (Joshua 11:23), and God later reminded them they were living in cities they had not built (Joshua 24:13). That is how the New Testament describes what believers receive, handed over on the strength of someone else’s work rather than paid for by their own.
• An alliance broken. Thirty-one kings gathered against God’s people across this book (Joshua 12:24), and every one of them fell. Paul uses the language of a defeated army for what happened at the cross: Christ, “having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15). Christ stripped the ruling powers of their weapons and led them in public defeat.

When, Where, and Why

• When: During Israel’s conquest of Canaan, after the southern campaign of Joshua 10. Verse 18 says only that Joshua made war a long time. The figure most often given is around seven years, worked out from Caleb being forty when he was sent to scout the land and eighty-five when the fighting ended (Joshua 14:7, 14:10), and the date of the conquest itself is debated, so the chapter is better placed by its events than by a year. God had told Israel in advance that He would drive the nations out little by little (Deuteronomy 7:22).
• Where: The north of Canaan. Hazor stood on a large mound in the Huleh basin, roughly nine or ten miles north of the Sea of Galilee, and archaeologists generally regard it as by far the largest city in the land at the time. The waters of Merom are traditionally identified with the lake north of the Sea of Galilee, though the identification is not certain. Flat ground of that kind is what a chariot army would want, which may be why the kings chose it. Excavations at Hazor have uncovered a large city destroyed by an intense fire, and scholars differ over when, with proposals running from around 1400 BC to the thirteenth century BC.
• Why: This chapter is where the writer closes the war and starts handing out the land. The northern campaign was at least as large as the southern one and gets half the space, which may be because he is finishing the account rather than dwelling on it. Moses is named again and again in these verses, because the destruction here is the carrying out of an order Israel had been given before it ever crossed the Jordan (Deuteronomy 20:16-17).

Key Verses

And the LORD said unto Joshua, Be not afraid because of them: for to morrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel: thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire.

Joshua 11:6

God tells Joshua not to be afraid of this army, promises that by the same hour the next day they will all be dead, and orders him to cripple their horses and burn their chariots. Three things arrive in one sentence, and the order matters: God deals with the fear, puts a time on the promise, and settles what Israel may keep out of a victory it has not yet won.

As the LORD commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses.

Joshua 11:15

What God told Moses, Moses passed to Joshua, and Joshua did all of it without leaving anything out. This is the writer’s verdict on Joshua’s whole time in charge, and it is about obedience rather than about victories. Moses was dead by now, and the instruction still held.

So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war.

Joshua 11:23

Joshua captured the whole land as God had told Moses he would, handed it to the tribes as their inheritance, and the fighting stopped. This verse turns the book. Everything before it is a war and everything after it is a division of property, and inheritance, the word God used when He first put Joshua in charge (Joshua 1:6), is at last something Joshua does rather than something he is promised.

Key Lessons from Joshua 11

• The army with the horses and chariots lost this battle (Joshua 11:4, 11:8).
• God’s judgment on these nations came after generations of waiting rather than on impulse (Joshua 11:20; Genesis 15:16).
• Hazor led the whole northern alliance and fell exactly as the rest of it did (Joshua 11:10-11).
• The generation that refused the land because of the Anakim never saw them fall, and their children did (Joshua 11:21; Numbers 13:33).

To go deeper into the lessons from this chapter, read our full study: 22 Critical Lessons from Joshua 11.

Bible Study Questions

1. Joshua 11:1 begins with a king who had heard about Israel, and so do Joshua 2:9 and Joshua 9:24. What separates the three responses to the same news?
2. God speaks to Joshua in verse 6 before the army is described again. What does the order of that verse suggest about what God dealt with first?
3. Verse 9 says Joshua crippled the horses and burned the chariots after the battle was already won. What did obeying that order cost him?
4. Verses 1 to 3 spend three verses listing kings, regions and peoples before the fighting starts. Why might the writer want the reader to feel the size of that army first?
5. Joshua 11:15 measures Joshua by what he left undone. If someone summed up your obedience that way, what would the sentence say?
6. Verse 23 says Joshua gave the land as an inheritance rather than as wages. What difference does that word make to how Israel was meant to hold it?

Frequently Asked Questions

Joshua 11, The Full Text (KJV)

Read the full chapter below for reference.

1 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,

2 And to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, and of the plains south of Chinneroth, and in the valley, and in the borders of Dor on the west,

3 And to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpeh.

4 And they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the sea shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many.

5 And when all these kings were met together, they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel.

6 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Be not afraid because of them: for to morrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel: thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire.

7 So Joshua came, and all the people of war with him, against them by the waters of Merom suddenly; and they fell upon them.

8 And the LORD delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them unto great Zidon, and unto Misrephoth-maim, and unto the valley of Mizpeh eastward; and they smote them, until they left them none remaining.

9 And Joshua did unto them as the LORD bade him: he houghed their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire.

10 And Joshua at that time turned back, and took Hazor, and smote the king thereof with the sword: for Hazor beforetime was the head of all those kingdoms.

11 And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe: and he burnt Hazor with fire.

12 And all the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did Joshua take, and smote them with the edge of the sword, and he utterly destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the LORD commanded.

13 But as for the cities that stood still in their strength, Israel burned none of them, save Hazor only; that did Joshua burn.

14 And all the spoil of these cities, and the cattle, the children of Israel took for a prey unto themselves; but every man they smote with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe.

15 As the LORD commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses.

16 So Joshua took all that land, the hills, and all the south country, and all the land of Goshen, and the valley, and the plain, and the mountain of Israel, and the valley of the same;

17 Even from the mount Halak, that goeth up to Seir, even unto Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon under mount Hermon: and all their kings he took, and smote them, and slew them.

18 Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.

19 There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites the inhabitants of Gibeon: all other they took in battle.

20 For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses.

21 And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel: Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities.

22 There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, there remained.

23 So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war.