Joshua 12 Summary and Study Guide

Why would God have thirty-one defeated kings counted one by one into a permanent record, with not a single name among them? Because a promise kept is worth writing down in full, entry by entry. Joshua 12 summary has to start there, because the list is the whole chapter.

Setting the Stage

God told Abram He would give his descendants a land, and He named the peoples living in it (Genesis 15:18-21). Centuries passed. Abram’s family went down to Egypt, came out as a nation under Moses, and stopped east of the Jordan River, where two kings attacked them and lost their kingdoms.

Moses died there. Joshua took the people across the river, and chapter after chapter of fighting followed, until Joshua 11 closes with one line: “And the land rested from war.” The fighting was over and the country was in Israel’s hands. Joshua 12 is the paperwork behind that sentence.

Comprehensive Joshua 12 Summary

Joshua 12 opens by looking backwards, past the Jordan River and past Joshua himself. Two kings on the eastern side had gone to war with Israel before it ever crossed into Canaan, and both had lost (Numbers 21:23-24, 33-35). Sihon ruled the Amorites from Heshbon, over a stretch of country running from the Arnon valley north to the Jabbok, and out over the plain from the sea of Chinneroth, which is the Sea of Galilee, down to the salt sea, which is the Dead Sea.

Og ruled Bashan from Ashtaroth and Edrei, one of the last of a people known for their size, holding Mount Hermon and Salcah and half of Gilead. Moses and Israel defeated both, and Moses handed their land to Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh.

Then the chapter turns west and starts a second list. Joshua’s conquests ran from Baalgad in the valley of Lebanon down to mount Halak on the edge of Edom, across hill country, valleys, plains, springs, wilderness and the dry south, land that had belonged to the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Joshua gave all of it to the tribes according to their divisions.

What follows is a roll call. Jericho and Ai lead it, the first two cities to fall inside Canaan. Then the southern kings, Jerusalem and Hebron and Lachish and the rest.

Then a short return to the central hills. Then the northern kings, Hazor among them.

Each entry has the same shape: the king of somewhere, one. The chapter closes by adding them up. Thirty and one.

One Word Summary

• Record: the chapter is a filed document rather than a story.
• Total: it ends by adding its kings up instead of describing them.
• Inheritance: each king stands for land handed to a tribe.

In One Sentence

Joshua 12 sets down in writing that Moses defeated Sihon and Og east of the Jordan and gave their country to Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh, and that Joshua defeated thirty-one kings west of it, so that Israel would hold a written record of the land God had given them.

Theme of Joshua 12

Joshua 12 is about the faithfulness of God put on the record. Its claim is that His goodness can be counted, item by item, in a form a nation could file and read back to itself whenever it doubted. Two further ideas run alongside that one.

The first is the oneness of the twelve tribes, held in a single roll that keeps what happened before the river crossing beside what happened after. The second is unfinished business, because this complete-looking record stands one verse away from a reminder that a great deal of ground had still to be taken.

Joshua 12 Outline

• Joshua 12:1: The heading of the eastern list, with its boundaries from the river Arnon to mount Hermon.
• Joshua 12:2-3: Sihon king of the Amorites at Heshbon, and how far his kingdom reached.
• Joshua 12:4-5: Og king of Bashan at Ashtaroth and Edrei, and how far his kingdom reached.
• Joshua 12:6: Moses and Israel defeat both kings, and Moses gives their land to Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh.
• Joshua 12:7-8: The heading of the western list, its boundaries from Baalgad to mount Halak, its six kinds of country and its six nations.
• Joshua 12:9: The kings of Jericho and Ai, the first two cities to fall inside Canaan.
• Joshua 12:10-15: Twelve kings of the southern campaign, from Jerusalem and Hebron to Libnah and Adullam.
• Joshua 12:16: Makkedah closes the southern list and Bethel begins the return to the central hills.
• Joshua 12:17-18: Tappuah, Hepher, Aphek and Lasharon in the middle of the country.
• Joshua 12:19-23: Ten northern kings, from Madon and Hazor through Megiddo to Dor and the nations of Gilgal.
• Joshua 12:24: The king of Tirzah, and the total: thirty and one.

The Roll of Thirty-One Kings

Conquest lists of this kind survive from other kingdoms of the ancient Near East, so the form would have been familiar to anyone who first read this one. In Israel’s hands that form is doing something else.

The Thirty-One Kings by Region

The document is a claim on territory and a receipt for a promise at the same time. Each kingdom on the roll was land some tribe would inherit (Joshua 12:6-7), so a reader working down the column is looking at a map of somebody’s inheritance.

Observations from Joshua 12

Thirty-One Kings Are Counted and Not One Is Named (12:9-24)

Sihon and Og get names, cities, borders and a backstory. The thirty-one get a place and a number. God had told Israel through Moses, “he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven” (Deuteronomy 7:24).

God would hand their kings over, and Israel would wipe their names off the earth. Thirty-one blank spaces where names should be may be that promise coming true, which fits a chapter whose whole point is that God did what He said.

The Chapter Says “One” After Every King (12:9-24)

“One” appears thirty-two times in the chapter, thirty-one tallies and the final sum. A writer in a hurry would have written “and thirty-one others.” This writer counts. Naming each mercy separately does something a general thank-you cannot, and Israel later set the same material to music, naming Sihon and Og and answering every line with “for his mercy endureth for ever” (Psalm 136:17-22).

Two Kings Get Four Verses and Thirty-One Get Sixteen (12:2-5 with 12:9-24)

The smaller conquest gets the longer treatment. Sihon and Og are given rivers, borders and royal cities; Jericho and Hazor are given a line each. The chapter gives no reason for that, and the effect is that the older victories are not lost under the newer ones.

Moses Is Called the Servant of the LORD Twice in One Verse (12:6)

“Them did Moses the servant of the LORD and the children of Israel smite: and Moses the servant of the LORD gave it for a possession.” Moses defeated those kings and Moses handed out their land, and both times he is given the same title. The record is set down in Joshua’s own book, and the first honour in it goes to Moses, the leader he succeeded.

Both Halves of the Roll Open the Same Way (12:1, 12:7)

“Now these are the kings” starts the eastern list, and “And these are the kings” starts the western one. The matching wording joins two campaigns, two leaders and two sides of a river into one document. The tribes settled east of the Jordan later worried that the rest of Israel would stop counting them as family (Joshua 22:21-29). This chapter counts them.

Difficult Verses Explained

What Does Joshua 12:4 Mean by Calling Og One “Of the Remnant of the Giants”?

The word behind “giants” here is Rephaim, and the Bible uses it for a people remembered as unusually large and strong. Moses says Og alone remained of that remnant, and gives one detail: “his bedstead was a bedstead of iron” (Deuteronomy 3:11).

Og slept in an iron bed, and the same verse measures it at nine cubits by four, which is roughly thirteen feet long. Scripture does not explain where the Rephaim came from, and the theories offered for their origin are guesses. What the text does say is enough here: the most physically intimidating king in the region is on the list like everyone else.

If the King of Jerusalem Was Defeated in Joshua 12:10, Why Were the Jebusites Still in the City Centuries Later?

Beating a king’s army in the field and taking his city for good are two different things, and Joshua 12 records the first. Judah “could not drive them out; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day” (Joshua 15:63), and David only took the fortress of Zion generations afterwards (2 Samuel 5:6-7).

The same gap shows up elsewhere in this very list: Taanach, Megiddo, Dor and Gezer all appear here as defeated, and Judges 1:27-29 says Israel did not drive out the people living in them. The chapter is a record of victories won, and it is followed immediately by God telling Joshua “there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed” (Joshua 13:1). Much of the country was still in other hands.

Common Misunderstandings

• The twelve memorial stones are not in Joshua 12. They are in Joshua 4, where Israel carried twelve stones out of the Jordan riverbed and set them up at Gilgal. The chapter number and the number of stones are a coincidence, and this chapter has no stones in it at all.
• Joshua 12 does not list every battle Israel fought. Fourteen of its cities, Geder, Hormah, Arad, Adullam, Tappuah, Hepher, Aphek, Lasharon, Shimronmeron, Taanach, Megiddo, Kedesh, Jokneam and Tirzah, appear here and nowhere earlier in the book, and Jarmuth’s capture is never described. Well-known places such as Shechem and Dothan are missing from the roll altogether. Joshua 6 to 11 tells some of the story of the conquest, and this chapter shows there was more of it.
• Thirty-one kings defeated does not mean Israel occupied Canaan. The roll records who fell, and it never claims that a single one of these cities was occupied. The tribal allotment that fills the next nine chapters is partly a division of ground that had still to be taken.

Christ Connection

The New Testament reads this chapter directly, and it does so through Joshua’s name. Writing about the rest Israel entered when the fighting stopped, the author of Hebrews says, “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).

The “Jesus” in that verse is Joshua, the same name in Greek. The argument is exactly the tension this chapter carries. Joshua really did give Israel rest from war, and Joshua 12 is the evidence, thirty-one entries of it.

The book says so plainly later: “There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass” (Joshua 21:45). Every good thing God had spoken about Israel came to pass. Then God speaks about land still unpossessed, and centuries later God is still offering a rest, which means the rest Joshua gave was a real one and a smaller one.

Hebrews sets a warning beside that promise: “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” (Hebrews 4:11). The failure Hebrews names there is unbelief, and it urges its readers to take the offer seriously rather than drift past it. What Joshua secured with a sword over a strip of country, Christ secured with a cross for anyone who will come to Him.

Three further links follow from that one:

• Colossians 2:15. Paul describes the cross as a public display of defeated rulers: “having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” Christ stripped the powers of their weapons and put them on show as beaten. Joshua 12 reads like that kind of document, written in ink instead of blood.
• 1 Corinthians 15:24-25. Joshua’s roll closes at thirty-one. Christ’s does not close yet: “he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.” He goes on ruling until every enemy is under Him.
• Revelation 19:16. A chapter that counts thirty-one kings and names none of them stands inside a Bible that ends with one King named, riding out with “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” written on Him.

When, Where, and Why

• When: After the northern campaign of Joshua 11 and before the land is divided in Joshua 13, at the point where the book says the fighting had stopped. The eastern victories it records happened earlier, under Moses, before Israel crossed the Jordan. Joshua 11:18 says he “made war a long time with all those kings,” so the fighting ran over years rather than weeks, and the exact dates are debated.
• Where: Both sides of the Jordan. East of the river, the country runs from the Arnon valley in the south to mount Hermon in the north, taking in Heshbon, Gilead and Bashan. West of the river, it runs from Baalgad under Lebanon down to mount Halak toward Seir, covering hill country, lowland valleys, the Jordan plain, watered slopes, wilderness and the dry south.
• Why: The writer includes it for three reasons the chapter itself supplies. It closes the account of the conquest with the evidence behind Joshua 11:23. It makes the coming allotment possible, which verse 7 states outright when it says Joshua handed the western territory over to be shared out tribe by tribe. And it leaves Israel something they can read later, so that a generation that never saw Jericho fall can still count what God did.

Key Verses

“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.”

Joshua 12:1

To “smite” a king here is to strike him down in battle. Israel struck these kings down and then took their land east of the Jordan, in the country stretching from the Arnon river up to Mount Hermon. The chapter’s first move is backwards, which says at once that this record covers more than Joshua’s own war.

“Them did Moses the servant of the LORD and the children of Israel smite: and Moses the servant of the LORD gave it for a possession unto the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh.”

Joshua 12:6

Moses and Israel struck those two kings down, and Moses then gave their territory as a permanent holding to three of the tribes. Winning ground and handing it out are held inside one sentence here, which is what the whole chapter is for.

“In the mountains, and in the valleys, and in the plains, and in the springs, and in the wilderness, and in the south country; the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.”

Joshua 12:8

Six kinds of country, from hill land to watered slopes to the dry south, and six peoples who had lived in them. God had named those same peoples to Abram when He first promised the land (Genesis 15:18-21), so this verse reads as an answer to a sentence spoken centuries earlier. Deuteronomy 7:1 counts seven nations in the land and this verse names six, leaving out the Girgashites, and the chapter does not say why.

“The king of Tirzah, one: all the kings thirty and one.”

Joshua 12:24

The last name, and then the sum. A chapter that could have ended with a speech ends by counting instead, and that count is the last word of the whole conquest account.

Key Lessons from Joshua 12

• God’s faithfulness can be counted and written down, and Joshua 12:24 counts it.
• Thanksgiving that names things one at a time carries a weight that thanksgiving in bulk does not, which is what the thirty-one separate entries of Joshua 12:9-24 are for.
• Joshua’s own record opens with victories he had nothing to do with (Joshua 12:1-6), which is what honouring the work done before you looks like in practice.
• A battle won is not the same as ground held, and the roll of thirty-one kings stands one verse away from God saying much land was still unpossessed (Joshua 12:24 with Joshua 13:1).

For a fuller study of what this chapter teaches, read our companion article: Lessons from Joshua 12.

Bible Study Questions

1. Joshua 12 has no scenes and no dialogue in it. Why do you think God had this list written down and kept?
2. Verses 1 to 6 record victories won under Moses, years before Joshua led anyone. Why does Joshua’s record begin with someone else’s work?
3. Read Joshua 12:8 alongside Genesis 15:18-21. What has happened between those two lists of nations?
4. The chapter names Sihon and Og and leaves all thirty-one other kings unnamed. Read Deuteronomy 7:24. What might that silence be saying?
5. Read Joshua 12:24 and then Joshua 13:1. How do you hold “all the kings thirty and one” together with “there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed”?
6. If you wrote out your own list of what God has done for you, one entry at a time, what would be on it, and when did you last say any of it out loud?

Frequently Asked Questions

Joshua 12, The Full Text (KJV)

Read the full chapter below for reference.

1 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:

2 Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and ruled from Aroer, which is upon the bank of the river Arnon, and from the middle of the river, and from half Gilead, even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon;

3 And from the plain to the sea of Chinneroth on the east, and unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea on the east, the way to Bethjeshimoth; and from the south, under Ashdothpisgah:

4 And the coast of Og king of Bashan, which was of the remnant of the giants, that dwelt at Ashtaroth and at Edrei,

5 And reigned in mount Hermon, and in Salcah, and in all Bashan, unto the border of the Geshurites and the Maachathites, and half Gilead, the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.

6 Them did Moses the servant of the LORD and the children of Israel smite: and Moses the servant of the LORD gave it for a possession unto the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh.

7 And these are the kings of the country which Joshua and the children of Israel smote on this side Jordan on the west, from Baalgad in the valley of Lebanon even unto the mount Halak, that goeth up to Seir; which Joshua gave unto the tribes of Israel for a possession according to their divisions;

8 In the mountains, and in the valleys, and in the plains, and in the springs, and in the wilderness, and in the south country; the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites:

9 The king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is beside Bethel, one;

10 The king of Jerusalem, one; the king of Hebron, one;

11 The king of Jarmuth, one; the king of Lachish, one;

12 The king of Eglon, one; the king of Gezer, one;

13 The king of Debir, one; the king of Geder, one;

14 The king of Hormah, one; the king of Arad, one;

15 The king of Libnah, one; the king of Adullam, one;

16 The king of Makkedah, one; the king of Bethel, one;

17 The king of Tappuah, one; the king of Hepher, one;

18 The king of Aphek, one; the king of Lasharon, one;

19 The king of Madon, one; the king of Hazor, one;

20 The king of Shimronmeron, one; the king of Achshaph, one;

21 The king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one;

22 The king of Kedesh, one; the king of Jokneam of Carmel, one;

23 The king of Dor in the coast of Dor, one; the king of the nations of Gilgal, one;

24 The king of Tirzah, one: all the kings thirty and one.